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507 So. 2d 587

Docket No. 68489.

State v. Mestas

STATE of Florida, Petitioner, v. Kimberly MESTAS, Respondent.

Supreme Court of Florida

Decided March 12, 1987.

Supreme Court of Florida · decided 1987-03-12

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“a harsh and more severe alternative to ordinary probation”

quoted by 5 later decisions, including Braxton v. State, 602 So. 2d 1299 - Fraser v. State

“is not an alternative sanction from the recommended range of any nonstate prison sanction unless”

quoted by 1 later decision, including 630 So. 2d 1059 - State v. Davis

Relies on 482 So. 2d 311 - Florida Bar Re: Rules of Criminal Procedure · 461 So. 2d 1003 - Davis v. State · Mestas v. State

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1987-03-12

How this case has been cited

Cited by 35 later decisions — most recently December 2018 · most notably Trotter v. State (1990), 552 So. 2d 1107 - State v. Betancourt (1989)

2 federal appellate · 32 state decisions

2101987199020002010decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

¶1Robert A. Butterworth, Jr., Atty. Gen. and James A. Young, Asst. Atty. Gen., Tampa, for petitioner.

¶2J. Marion Moorman, Public Defender, Tenth Judicial Circuit, and Deborah K. Brueckheimer, Asst. Public Defender, Tampa, for respondent.

¶3BARKETT, Justice.

¶4We have for review Mestas v. State,484 So.2d 612 (Fla. 2d DCA 1986), because of certified conflict with Davis v. State,461 So.2d 1003 (Fla. 1st DCA 1984), and Louzon v. State,460 So.2d 551 (Fla. 5th DCA 1984). We have jurisdiction. Art. V, § 3(b)(4), Fla. Const.

¶5The issue presented is whether a sentence of community control as a condition of probation constitutes a "departure sentence" under the sentencing guidelines requiring written reasons for its imposition when the defendant's recommended sentence is any "nonstate prison sanction."

¶6Kimberly Mestas pled guilty to grand theft in the second degree. Her recommended sentence under the guidelines was any "nonstate prison sanction." The trial court sentenced her to a five-year term of probation with the condition that the first two years be served under community control. The district court found that community control was not a "nonstate prison sanction," and therefore viewed Mestas' sentence as a departure. Because there were no written reasons justifying a departure, the district court remanded to the trial court to strike the community control condition of Mestas' probation.

¶7The state contends that community control should be considered a "nonstate prison sanction" and that therefore the sentence in this case is not a departure sentence. Both parties concede that this Court has recently clarified this issue in the latest amendment to the committee note dealing with the imposition of community control:

Community control is not an alternative sanction from the recommended range of any nonstate prison sanction unless the provisions of Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.701(d)(11) [articulated reasons for departure] are applied.

¶8*588The Florida Bar Re: Rules of Criminal Procedure (Sentencing Guidelines, 3.701, 3.988), 482 So.2d 311, 317 (Fla. 1985) (Committee Note (d)(13)).

¶9This revision was intended to clarify the intent of the Sentencing Guidelines Commission that community control is not to be considered as a nonstate prison sanction under the guidelines. We decline the state's invitation to reconsider this issue. Community control, which is a harsh and more severe alternative to ordinary probation, is a departure sentence when the guidelines call for any "nonstate prison sanction." Accordingly, we approve the decision below and disapprove Davis and Louzon.

¶10It is so ordered.

¶11McDONALD, C.J., and OVERTON, EHRLICH and SHAW, JJ., and ADKINS, J. (Ret.), concur.

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