IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF FLORIDA
FIFTH DISTRICT
NOT FINAL UNTIL TIME EXPIRES TO
FILE MOTION FOR REHEARING AND
DISPOSITION THEREOF IF FILED
MICAH C. DAVIDSON,
Appellant,
v. Case No. 5D15-3594
STATE OF FLORIDA,
Appellee.
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Opinion filed June 3, 2016
Appeal from the Circuit Court
for Volusia County,
Randell H. Rowe, III, Judge.
James S. Purdy, Public Defender, and
Ailene S. Rogers, Assistant Public
Defender, Daytona Beach, for Appellant.
Pamela Jo Bondi, Attorney General,
Tallahassee, and Deborah A. Cheesman,
Assistant Attorney General, Daytona
Beach, for Appellee.
COHEN, J.
Micah Davidson appeals the denial of his pro se motion to withdraw his plea. This
was Davidson’s second motion to withdraw the plea; the first was filed by counsel and
denied by the trial court. The court denied the second motion as well, on the belief that
the motion had been filed after the filing of a notice of appeal, leaving the court without
jurisdiction to rule.
Davidson had delivered the second motion to jail officials on October 6, 2015, and
the motion was stamped into the clerk’s office on October 8th. The notice of appeal was
not filed until October 12, 2015. 1 The order denying the motion was not entered until the
following day. When a timely motion to withdraw plea is pending at the time a notice of
appeal is filed, the trial court maintains jurisdiction to decide the motion. See Bolden v.
State, 10 So. 3d 710, 710 (Fla. 5th DCA 2009). Additionally, Florida Rule of Appellate
Procedure 9.020(i) provides in pertinent part;
(i) Rendition (of an Order). An order is rendered when a
signed, written order is filed with the clerk of the lower tribunal.
However, unless another applicable rule of procedure
specifically provides to the contrary, if a final order has been
entered and there has been filed in the lower tribunal an
authorized and timely motion . . . to withdraw a plea after
sentencing pursuant to Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure
3.170(l) . . . the following exceptions apply:
....
(3) If such a motion or motions have been filed and a notice
of appeal is filed before the filing of a signed, written order
disposing of all such motions, the appeal shall be held in
abeyance until the filing of a signed, written order disposing of
the last motion.
The trial court erred in determining that it lacked jurisdiction to rule on Davidson’s
motion to withdraw his plea. We express no opinion on the merits of the motion.
REVERSED and REMANDED.
1 The trial court erroneously believed the notice of appeal had been filed on
October 8th. While signed by counsel on the 8th, the notice of appeal was not filed with
the office of the clerk of the court until October 12th. In either event, the motion was
deemed filed prior to the notice of appeal.
2
WALLIS and LAMBERT, JJ., concur.
3