State v. Stevenson

Full title: STATE OF FLORIDA, Appellant, v. WILLIAM STEVENSON, Appellee AND WILLIAM…

Court: District Court of Appeal of Florida, Second District

Date published: Jan 19, 2001

779 So. 2d 549 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 2001)

Opinion

Nos. 2D00-650, 2D00-685.

Opinion filed January 19, 2001.

Appeals from the Circuit Court for Polk County; Dennis P. Maloney, Judge.

Convictions Affirmed; Remanded for resentencing.

Robert A. Butterworth, Attorney General, Tallahassee, Erica M. Raffel, Assistant Attorney General, Tampa, for Appellant in Case No. 2D00-650 and for Appellee in Case No. 2D00-685.

James Marion Moorman, Public Defender, and Brad Permar, Assistant Public Defender, Bartow, for Appellee in Case No. 2D00-650 and for Appellant in Case No. 2D00-685.

Green, Judge.

The state appeals the trial court's finding that the defendant, William Stevenson, did not qualify to be sentenced as a prison releasee reoffender for resisting arrest with violence. In this consolidated appeal, William Stevenson challenges the trial court's judgment and sentence adjudicating him guilty of resisting arrest with violence and depriving an officer of his means of protection. Stevenson was adjudicated guilty and sentenced to three years in state prison on each count to run concurrently. We affirm the convictions without discussion but reverse the sentence for resisting arrest with violence.

Stevenson concedes on appeal that the constitutionality of the prison releasee reoffender act has been upheld by the Supreme Court of Florida.See State v. Cotton, 769 So.2d 345 (Fla. 2000). He also concedes that this court has ruled, subsequent to imposition of his sentence, that resisting arrest with violence is a felony that involves the use of threat or physical force or violence against an individual and is thus a qualifying offense under the prison releasee reoffender act. See Clark v. State, 25 Fla. L. Weekly D331 (Fla. 2d DCA Feb. 4, 2000); Watson v. State, 749 So.2d 556 (Fla. 2d DCA 2000) (holding specifically that resisting arrest with violence is a qualifying offense under the prison releasee reoffender act), receded from on other grounds, Matthews v. State, 25 Fla. L. Weekly D1208 (Fla. 2d DCA May 17, 2000); § 775.082(8)(a)(1)(o), Fla. Stat. (1997). We therefore affirm the convictions but reverse the sentence for resisting arrest with violence and remand with directions to the trial court to sentence Stevenson as a prison releasee reoffender on that charge.

PARKER, A.C.J., and STRINGER, J., Concur.