Watson v. State
Watson v. State
Opinion of the Court
Anthony Watson appeals several sentences imposed upon resentencing after he
These sentences violated Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.701(d)(12), which states that although a sentence must be imposed for each offense before the court for sentencing, “the total sentence cannot exceed the total guidelines sentence unless a written reason is given.” The trial court did not provide a written reason for departure. Accordingly, Watson must be resen-tenced pursuant to the guidelines for the four offenses at issue in this case to a term not exceeding twenty-seven years.
We reject Watson’s argument that the trial court may not impose the guidelines sentence for the four offenses consecutively to the concurrent habitual offender sentences for the armed robbery counts of the two cases. See Ricardo v. State, 608 So.2d 93, 95 (Fla. 2d DCA 1992) (holding that “a proper guidelines sentence can be ordered consecutive to a proper habitual offender sentence even if that means that the total time served exceeds the guidelines maximum.”).
Accordingly, we remand for resentenc-ing consistent with this opinion.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.