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708 So. 2d 326

Docket No. 96-05034.

State v. Hillhouse

STATE of Florida, Appellant, v. Jeffrey HILLHOUSE, Appellee.

District Court of Appeal of Florida · decided 1998-04-01

Relies on Herrin v. State · 639 So. 2d 611 - Geohagen v. State · State v. Cohen

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1998-04-01

How this case has been cited

Cited by 6 later decisions — most recently April 2019

6 state decisions

30199820002010decided

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.

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¶1Robert A. Butterworth, Attorney General, Tallahassee, and Patricia E. Davenport, Assistant Attorney General, Tampa, for Appellant.

¶2James F. Manderscheid, St. Petersburg, for Appellee.

¶3WHATLEY, Acting Chief Judge.

¶4The State appeals the downward departure sentence imposed on Jeffrey Hillhouse. We reverse and remand for further proceedings.

¶5The trial court found that Hillhouse qualified as a violent career criminal. However, the court sentenced Hillhouse pursuant to the guidelines and then found that a downward departure sentence was appropriate. Because the trial court sentenced Hillhouse to a downward departure sentence, it was required to give appropriate reasons for the departure. See Geohagen v. State,639 So.2d 611 (Fla.1994) (finding that trial court could sentence habitual offender to guidelines downward departure sentence after providing sufficient written reasons).

¶6The trial court found that a downward departure sentence was appropriate because Hillhouse required specialized treatment *327 and he was amenable to treatment. A finding that the defendant is amenable to treatment must be based on competent substantial evidence. Herrin v. State,568 So.2d 920 (Fla.1990); State v. Benjamin,685 So.2d 1335 (Fla. 2d DCA 1996); State v. Cohen,667 So.2d 438 (Fla. 2d DCA 1996). There must be evidence that there is a reasonable possibility that such treatment will be successful. Herrin,568 So.2d at 922. Here, there was no evidence that Hillhouse was amenable to treatment. Therefore, we reverse Hillhouse's sentence and remand for resentencing. Because Hillhouse's sentence was not the result of a plea agreement, Hillhouse should not be given the opportunity to withdraw his plea on remand.

¶7Reversed and remanded.

¶8NORTHCUTT and GREEN, JJ., concur.

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