Curry Lamont Hawkins v. State of Florida
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
Date FiledAugust 26, 2026
Docket3D2023-0292
StatusPublished
📰 News Coverage: Read the LAWS.com news report on this case
Full Opinion
Third District Court of Appeal
State of Florida
Opinion filed August 26, 2026.
Not final until disposition of timely filed motion for rehearing.
________________
No. 3D23-0292
Lower Tribunal No. F97-11753
________________
Curry Lamont Hawkins,
Appellant,
vs.
State of Florida,
Appellee.
An Appeal under Florida Rule of Appellate Procedure 9.141(b)(2) from
the Circuit Court for Miami-Dade County, William Altfield, Judge.
Daniel J. Tibbitt, P.A., and Daniel J. Tibbitt, for appellant.
James Uthmeier, Attorney General, and Linda Katz, Assistant Attorney
General, for appellee.
Before SCALES, C.J., and MILLER and REBULL, JJ.
PER CURIAM.
Curry Lamont Hawkins appeals the trial court’s March 4, 2025 order
(“Order”) granting in part, and denying in part, Hawkins’s motion to correct
sentencing errors, filed below under Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure
3.800(b).1 Hawkins challenges only that aspect of the Order denying his rule
3.800(b) motion’s claims that he is entitled to be resentenced on his
conviction for armed robbery. According to Hawkins, he is entitled to relief
because the life sentence imposed for armed robbery purportedly resulted
from the trial court, rather than a jury, finding that Hawkins qualified as a
habitual felony offender, in violation of Erlinger v. United States, 602 U.S.
821 (2024) and/or because his armed robbery sentence was part of a multi-
count sentencing package with other crimes that were properly resentenced
in the Order.2 We disagree with Hawkins on both grounds and affirm.3
1
Hawkins directed his rule 3.800(b) motion at a January 9, 2023
postconviction order that vacated Hawkins’s life sentences for attempted
first-degree murder and burglary with assault or battery because the
sentences were improperly enhanced to life felonies under the then-
applicable habitual felony offender statute, but still resentenced Hawkins to
life sentences for the crimes. See Perry v. State, 849 So. 2d 324, 325 (Fla.
2d DCA 2003) (recognizing that “rule 3.800(b) could apply to a new sentence
imposed as the result of an order granting postconviction relief”).
2
In the Order, the trial court reduced Hawkins’s life sentences for attempted
first-degree murder and burglary with assault or battery while armed to
guidelines sentences of twenty-two years in prison for each crime.
3
To the extent that Hawkins now argues he is entitled to relief on another
basis, we decline to address such basis because Hawkins failed to raise it in
2
We affirm the denial of Hawkins’s Erlinger claim because Erlinger is
not retroactive to a sentence that was already final at the time Erlinger
issued. See Wainwright v. State, 411 So. 3d 392, 399 (Fla. 2025). We affirm
the denial of Hawkins’s multi-count sentencing package argument because,
as Hawkins properly and commendably concedes, we are bound by this
Court’s decision in Reynolds v. State, 116 So. 3d 558 (Fla. 3d DCA 2013),
that squarely rejected a similar sentencing package argument. See also
Phillips v. State, 416 So. 3d 336, 339-40, 345 (Fla. 2d DCA 2022), rev.
granted, SC2023-0073 (Fla. July 25, 2024) (citing Reynolds with approval
and rejecting a similar multi-count sentencing package argument, and
certifying a question of great public importance to the Florida Supreme Court
with respect to the sentencing argument that is currently pending review).
Affirmed.
his rule 3.800(b) motion. See Fla. R. Crim. P. 3.800(b) (“The motion must
identify the error with specificity and provide a proposed correction.”).
3