Third District Court of Appeal
State of Florida
Opinion filed July 9, 2014.
Not final until disposition of timely filed motion for rehearing.
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No. 3D12-1841
Lower Tribunal No. 09-9846
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Shalone Lewis,
Appellant,
vs.
The State of Florida,
Appellee.
An Appeal from the Circuit Court for Miami-Dade County, David L. Tobin,
Judge.
Carlos J. Martinez, Public Defender, and Susan S. Lerner, for appellant.
Pamela Jo Bondi, Attorney General, and Joanne Diez, Assistant Attorney
General, for appellee.
Before SALTER, LOGUE and SCALES, JJ.
PER CURIAM.
Shalone Lewis appeals his convictions and sentences on revocation of
probation. We affirm the convictions as none of the issues raised on appeal have
merit. However, we remand the case to the trial court to correct the defendant’s
sentences to impose concurrent, not consecutive, habitual violent felony offender
sentences.
The Florida Supreme Court’s recent opinion in Cotto v. State, 39 Fla. L.
Weekly S327 (Fla. May 15, 2014), reiterated its holding in Hale v. State, 630 So.
2d 521, 525 (Fla. 1993), that it is error to impose consecutive sentences under the
habitual violent felony offender statute for convictions that arose from a single
criminal episode. These sentences are illegal and can be remedied on plenary
appeal, regardless of the defendant’s failure to preserve the issue. Lipford v. State,
736 So. 2d 62 (Fla. 1st DCA 1999); Jordan v. State, 754 So. 2d 876 (Fla. 1st DCA
2000). Because this error is evident on the face of this record, we remand the case
for the trial court to impose concurrent sentences. The defendant need not be
present.
Affirmed and remanded.
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