The appellant appeals the denial of the motion to correct illegal sentence pursuant to Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.800(a). For the reasons discussed below, we reverse and remand for the trial court to grant relief.
The appellant was convicted of first-degree felony murder (count one), kidnapping (count two), robbery with a firearm (count three), and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony (count four). The appellant was sentenced to life imprisonment with a twenty-five year minimum mandatory sentence for the murder conviction, seventeen years’ imprisonment for the kidnapping, fifteen years’ imprisonment for the robbery with a three-year minimum mandatory, and fifteen years’ imprisonment for the possession charge. Counts two through four were imposed concurrently with each other, but consecutively to the life sentence imposed for count one. Thus, the twenty-five year minimum mandatory sentence for murder and the three-year minimum mandatory sentence for the robbery were imposed consecutively to each other.
The appellant asserts that the consecutive minimum sentences imposed in counts one and three (25 for murder, 3 for possession of a firearm during robbery) are illegal because the robbery was the underlying felony supporting his felony murder conviction. When a defendant is convicted of felony murder and the underlying felony involving the same victim, the crimes necessarily occur during the same criminal episode. See § 784.04(I)(a)2., (stating that in order to be convicted of felony murder, the murder must be committed by a person “engaged in the perpetration of, or in the attempt to perpetrate, any [enumerated crime]”). Thus, a trial court cannot impose the minimum mandatory portions of those sentences consecutively to each other. See Boler v. State, 678 So.2d 319 (Fla.1996); Hall v. State, 14 So.3d 1081 (Fla. 1st DCA 2009).
The State asserts that the felony murder and the robbery were in fact two separate criminal episodes. Specifically, the record indicated that the appellant and his co-defendant robbed a convenience store and kidnapped the clerk. After kidnapping the clerk the defendants drove to an isolated area where the clerk was shot and killed. Thus, the trial court held that the murder was a separate criminal episode from the earlier armed robbery. If the robbery conviction was not the underlying felony to support the felony murder conviction, we might agree that the robbery and murder occurred during separate criminal episodes. See Parker v. State,
REVERSED and REMANDED with directions.