Henley v. State
Henley v. State
Opinion of the Court
Titus Henley appeals from an order revoking his probation. While we affirm the revocation, finding that there is competent, substantial evidence to support it, we reverse portions of the order on review because (1) the State has properly agreed that the order as written, in part, does not conform to the record below or to the lower court’s oral pronouncements and (2) the order is predicated in part on claims abandoned by the State below.
On June 24, 2008, Henley entered a plea of nolo contendere to charges of organized fraud, grand theft in the second degree, fraudulent use of identification, exploitation of the elderly, and forgery by use of a credit card in exchange for a sentence of five years of probation. In November of 2009, the State filed an amended affidavit of violation of probation stemming from new charges in three separate case numbers: F09-0042769
During the revocation hearing held on June 1, 2010, the State announced that it would not proceed on the attempted burglary and trespass charges in case numbers F09-0042769 and M09-28211. As to the remaining case, F09-16471A, the State announced that it would not proceed on Counts I-VIII, leaving only Counts X-XX as the basis for revocation of Henley’s probation. At the conclusion of the hearing, the trial court orally found that Henley had violated his probation on these remaining counts.
On June 4, 2010, the trial court held a sentencing hearing on the probation violation. At that time, the State asked the court to rescind its oral determination that Henley had violated Count X for grand theft in the second degree. Henley agreed to this request and the trial court orally sentenced Henley on Counts XI-XX in case number F09-16741A to forty-eight months in prison, to be followed by five years of probation. Despite the State’s abandonment of many of its claims against Henley and its request that Henley not be found to have violated Count X of F09-16741A, the written order entered below found that Henley had violated his probation, as specified in the amended affidavit of violation of probation, by having committed all of the offenses described in case numbers F09-0042769, M09-28211 and F09-16471A. This appeal ensued.
We do, however, find that competent, substantial evidence was adduced to establish that Henley willfully violated substantial conditions of his probation predicated on counts XI-XX in case number F09-16471A. See Harris v. State, 898 So.2d 1126, 1127 (Fla. 3d DCA 2005) (“[T]here must be evidence in the record to support a finding that any violation was willful and substantial.” (quoting Rubio v. State, 824 So.2d 1020, 1021 (Fla. 5th DCA 2002))); see also Thompson v. State, 994 So.2d 468, 471 (Fla. 3d DCA 2008) (“Hearsay evidence is admissible at probation revocation hearings as long as it is not the only evidence relied upon to revoke probation.”).
We therefore affirm in part and reverse in part and remand this matter with instructions.
. The State notes in its Initial Brief that case number F09-0042769 is "most likely a scrivener’s error and should actually [have] been a different case number 'F09-13394.' ”
. The State did not allege a violation of probation for the charge of obtaining a mortgage or promissory note by false representation (Count IX).
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.