County Criminal Court: CRIMINAL PROCEDURE – Postconviction Relief – Rule 3.850- Trial court did not err in summarily denying motion without conducting evidentiary hearing-issues raised are could have been raised on appeal; issues procedurally barred.  Mount v. State No. 02-87 (Fla. 6th Cir. App. Ct. Dec. 5, 2002).

 

 

IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE SIXTH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT

OF THE STATE OF FLORIDA IN AND FOR PINELLAS COUNTY

APPELLATE DIVISION

 

JOHNTA A. MOUNT,

            Appellant,

 

vs.                                                                   Appeal No. CRC 02-06999 CFANO

 

STATE OF FLORIDA,

            Appellee.

_________________________________/

 

Opinion filed ______________.

 

Appeal from Order Denying Motion for Post-Conviction Relief

Pinellas County Court

County Judge Sonny Im

 

Johnta A. Mount

Pro se

 

Bernie McCabe

State Attorney

 

ORDER AND OPINION

 

            THIS MATTER is before the court on the defendant’s appeal from an Order Denying Defendant’s Motion for Post-Conviction Relief.  The defendant’s motion was filed pursuant to Fla. R. Crim. P. 3.850 and was denied without an evidentiary hearing.  No briefs are required and none have been submitted.  See, Fla. R. App. P. 9.141(b)(1) and (2).  After reviewing the record, this court affirms the trial court’s decision.

            The defendant filed a postconviction motion seeking to withdraw his pleas alleging that he was not informed by the trial court that his plea may have sentencing enhancing consequences on a sentence imposed in the future, that the trial court failed to follow the requirements of Fla.R.Crim.Pro. 3.172 and that he was under the influence of drugs at the time he entered his pleas.  The trial court denied the defendant’s motion without an evidentiary hearing. 

            This Court affirms the trial court’s denial of the defendant’s motion for post conviction relief.  The defendant’s claims are without merit.  Neither the trial court nor counsel has a duty to advise a defendant that the defendant’s plea in a pending case may have sentence enhancing consequences on a sentence imposed for a crime committed in the future.  Major v. State, 814 So.2d 424 (Fla. 2002).  “A judge is required to inform a defendant only of the direct consequences of his [or her] plea and is under no duty to apprise him [or her] of any collateral consequences.  A direct consequence is one that has a “definite, immediate, and largely automatic effect on the range of the defendant’s punishment.”  Major 790 So.2d at 551 (quoting Fox, 659 So.2d 1324, 1327 (Fla. 3rd DCA 1995)).  The defendant alleges that the pleas were not voluntary because he was advised by his counsel that the “pleas would cause the case to forever be over with” and the trial court “clearly failed to advise the defendant that down the road he could be deported and/or enhanced because of the pleas he was so coerced into entering pleas in.”  As it is not the duty of the court or counsel to advise a defendant of sentencing enhancing consequences, the defendant’s motion is facially insufficient.  An evidentiary hearing was not required for the trial court to deny the defendant’s motion.

The defendant alleges he was under the influence of drugs at the time he entered his pleas.  The defendant entered his pleas and was sentenced April 27, 1994.  The Motion for Postconviction relief was filed March 25, 2002.  Fla.R.CrimPro. 3.850 provides a two year time frame in which a defendant may file a motion to vacate or set aside a sentence.  The defendant has not raised this ground prior, therefore the motion is not timely filed and is time barred.  Fla.R.Crim.Pro. 3.850 (d) provides that if the motion, files and records in the case conclusively show that the movant is entitled to no relief, the motion shall be denied without a hearing.  The trial court properly denied the defendant’s Motion for Postconviction Relief.  It is therefore,

ORDERED that the decision of the trial court is affirmed.

            DONE AND ORDERED in chambers at Clearwater, Pinellas County, Florida this ______ day of December, 2002.

 

 

_______________________________

NANCY MOATE LEY

Circuit Judge

Primary Appellate Judge

 

 

 

_______________________________

W. DOUGLAS BAIRD

Circuit Judge

 

 

 

______________________________

TIMOTHY R. PETERS

Circuit Judge

 

 

Copies furnished to:

 

Johnta A. Mount, Reg. #39520-018

Federal Correctional Complex-Medium

P.O. Box 1032

Coleman, Florida 33521-1032

 

Melissa Underwood

Assistant State Attorney

Attorney for Appellee