OCTAVIUS D. WARE, Appellant, v. STATE OF FLORIDA, Appellee

IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL

FIRST DISTRICT, STATE OF FLORIDA

NOT FINAL UNTIL TIME EXPIRES TO

FILE MOTION FOR REHEARING AND

DISPOSITION THEREOF IF FILED

OCTAVIUS D. WARE,

Appellant,

v.                                                                    CASE NO. 1D09-3015

STATE OF FLORIDA,

Appellee.

_____________________________/

Opinion filed February 28, 2011.

An appeal from the Circuit Court for Leon County.

Terry P. Lewis, Judge.

Michael Ufferman, of Michael Ufferman Law Firm, P.A., Tallahassee, for Appellant.

Pamela Jo Bondi, Attorney General, and Bryan Jordan, Assistant Attorney General, Tallahassee, for Appellee.

PER CURIAM.

In this probation revocation case, the state properly concedes that the trial

court’s  written  order  does  not  conform  to  the  court’s  oral  pronouncement

concerning the conditions of probation Appellant violated. Additionally, we agree with Appellant that the trial court abused its discretion in determining that

Appellant  violated  his  probation  by  committing  the  offense  of  possession  of  a

firearm by a convicted felon because the record does not contain sufficient non-

hearsay  evidence  to  support  this  finding.    However,  we  need  not  remand  for

reconsideration based on this error because it is clear from the record that the trial

court would have revoked Appellant’s probation and imposed the same sentence

based solely on the domestic battery offense, which was supported by sufficient

evidence. * Cf.  Thomas  v.  State,  453  So.  2d  156,  157  (Fla.  1st  DCA  1984)

(explaining  that  when  a  portion  of  a  probation  order  is  reversed,  the  court  will

remand for reconsideration if it cannot be determined from the record that the trial

court  would  have  revoked  probation  and  imposed  the  same  sentence  on  the

remaining grounds).  Accordingly, we remand to the trial court only to correct the

* At the end of the revocation hearing, the trial court stated that it “f[ou]nd the evidence extremely convincing in this case that there was a violation of probation”; that the violation was willful and substantial; and that the evidence “certainly convinces [the court] that there was domestic battery ….” At the sentencing hearing, the trial court rejected Appellant’s request for leniency, noting that Appellant had already been given several “second chances” by having been placed on and returned to probation. The court stated that the circumstances of the case were “particularly aggravating” and that “the circumstances suggest a long period of incarceration is appropriate.” The trial court’s comments at the sentencing hearing focused on the domestic battery, as did the new conditions of probation imposed by the court, i.e., batterer’s intervention program and no-contact order with the victim. The possession of firearm offense was not even mentioned at the sentencing hearing.

2

revocation order to reflect that Appellant violated his probation by committing the offense of domestic battery. We affirm the other issues raised by Appellant without further comment.

AFFIRMED in part; REMANDED for correction of revocation order. ROBERTS, CLARK and WETHERELL, JJ., CONCUR.

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.