Opinion
Case No. 4D01-2316
Opinion filed January 30, 2002. Rehearing Denied March 22, 2002.
Appeal of order denying rule 3.800(a) motion from the Circuit Court for the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit, Broward County; James I. Cohn, Judge; L.T. Case Nos. 96-9486 CF10A, 96-8541 CF10A, 96-7533 CF10A, 96-5414 CF10A 96-1442 CF10A.
James Thornton, Okeechobee, pro se.
Robert A. Butterworth, Attorney General, Tallahassee, and James J. Carney, Assistant Attorney General, West Palm Beach, for appellee.
James Thornton challenges his life sentences as illegal. He argues that they are based on the 1995 sentencing guidelines found unconstitutional in Heggs v. State, 759 So.2d 620 (Fla. 2000). The record reflects that four of Thornton's five offenses fall within the window period for this challenge. See Trapp v. State, 760 So.2d 924, 928 (Fla. 2000) (window period began on October 1, 1995, and closed on May 24, 1997). The record does not support the state's position that life sentences would have been imposed regardless of the sentencing guidelines.
Consequently, the case is reversed and remanded for further proceedings. If the trial court grants relief on remand, then, since Thornton's sentence was the result of a plea, the State has the option of agreeing to a guidelines sentence under the 1994 guidelines, or withdrawing from the plea bargain and taking Thornton to trial. See Warren v. State, 785 So.2d 1268 (Fla. 4th DCA 2001).
GUNTHER, STONE and HAZOURI, JJ., concur.