Alvaro Martin Perez v. State of Florida
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
Date FiledNovember 6, 2026
Docket6D2025-0339
StatusPublished
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Full Opinion
SIXTH DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL
STATE OF FLORIDA
_____________________________
Case No. 6D2025-0339
Lower Tribunal No. 2005-CF-015869
_____________________________
ALVARO MARTIN PEREZ,
Appellant,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA,
Appellee.
_____________________________
Appeal from the Circuit Court for Lee County.
Bruce Kyle, Judge.
November 6, 2026
MIZE, J.
In 2005, Appellant Alvaro Martin Perez (“Perez”) pled guilty to and was
adjudicated guilty of one count of lewd or lascivious molestation. The trial court
sentenced him to sixteen years in prison followed by ten years of sex offender
probation, and the trial court imposed a $250 fine along with court costs and fees.
Perez began the probation portion of his sentence on November 23, 2018. He
violated his probation twice by using marijuana, admitted to the violation each
time, and each time was sentenced to jail time and modifications to his probation.
This appeal arises from Perez’s third violation of probation – this time for
testing positive for methamphetamines, THC, and amphetamines. After Perez
admitted to violating his probation, the trial court conducted a sentencing hearing
and sentenced Perez to thirty years in the Department of Corrections, with credit
for time served. The trial court also orally pronounced the imposition of a $50
Public Defender application fee, $100 for the cost of prosecution, and a $100
defense counsel fee. The trial court subsequently entered a written judgment and
sentence that reflected Perez’s 30-year prison sentence but imposed costs and fees
that were inconsistent with its oral pronouncement.
Perez timely filed this appeal of his judgment and sentence. On appeal,
Perez argues that the trial court erred by considering an impermissible sentencing
factor and by imposing costs and fees that did not comport with the trial court’s
oral pronouncement.
We find no error in the imposition of Perez’s 30-year prison sentence and
affirm the sentence without further discussion. As to the imposition of costs and
fees, however, the trial court erred by imposing a Public Defender application fee
under section 27.52, Florida Statutes (2025), of $190.00 when it orally pronounced
$50.00 for the fee, $328.00 for the cost of prosecution under section 938.27(1),
Florida Statutes (2025), instead of $100.00 as was orally pronounced, and $300.00
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under section 938.29(1)(a), Florida Statutes (2025), for a defense counsel fee at
conviction instead of the $100.00 fee that it orally pronounced.
When there is a discrepancy between the trial court’s oral pronouncement of
a sentence and its written order, the written order “must be corrected to conform to
the oral pronouncement.” Rowan v. State, 396 So. 3d 634, 635-36 (Fla. 6th DCA
2024) (citing Guerra v. State, 927 So. 2d 248, 249 (Fla. 2d DCA 2006); Williams
v. State, 957 So. 2d 600, 603 (Fla. 2007) (“This Court has held that a court’s oral
pronouncement of a sentence controls over the written sentencing document.”));
State v. Akins, 69 So. 3d 261, 269 (Fla. 2011) (“Generally, courts have held that a
written order must conform to the oral pronouncement . . . because the written
sentence is usually just a record of the actual sentence required to be pronounced in
open court.” (quoting Justice v. State, 674 So. 2d 123, 125 (Fla. 1996) (citing
Vasquez v. State, 663 So. 2d 1343, 1349 (Fla. 4th DCA 1995))). This principle
applies to the oral pronouncement of court costs and fees. Vavra v. State, 390 So.
3d 1276, 1277-78 (Fla. 5th DCA 2024) (reversing for correction where the trial
court’s oral pronouncement of costs and fees totaled $1,020 but the written
sentencing order imposed $3,788 in fees, costs, and restitution); Tumblin v. State,
302 So. 3d 914, 915-16 (Fla. 4th DCA 2020) (remanding written judgment
imposing a $500 public defender fee to conform with the oral pronouncement of a
$100 public defender fee); Croissy v. State, 404 So. 3d 419, 420-21 (Fla. 4th DCA
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2025) (reversing final judgment for correction when trial court orally pronounced
“$100 attorney fee, $50 application fee, $100 cost of prosecution, all fees and costs
are reduced to judgment liens as there is no supervision to follow,” but “the written
sentencing order doubled the prosecution costs and contained a new $50
investigation fee”).
Accordingly, because the above-described costs and fees in the written
judgment do not conform to the trial court’s oral pronouncement of those costs and
fees, the portion of the judgment pertaining to these costs and fees is reversed and
this case is remanded for the costs and fees imposed for the Public Defender’s
application fee, the cost of prosecution, and the defense counsel fee to be corrected
to comport with the trial court’s oral pronouncement. 1
AFFIRMED in part; REVERSED in part; and REMANDED with
instructions.
NARDELLA and SMITH, JJ., concur.
1
Perez’s initial brief mentions additional costs and fees that appear in the
judgment and sentence but that the trial court did not orally pronounce. However,
Perez makes no attempt to argue that those costs and fees are not statutorily
authorized costs and fees that are not required to be orally pronounced, and so he
has waived any argument to that effect. Kim v. State, 421 So. 3d 862, 864 n.1 (Fla.
6th DCA 2025); Coolen v. State, 696 So. 2d 738, 742 n.2 (Fla. 1997) (rejecting
additional arguments because “failure to fully brief and argue these points
constitutes a waiver of these claims”); Lynn v. City of Fort Lauderdale, 81 So. 2d
511, 513 (Fla. 1955) (“It is elementary that when a decree of the trial court is
brought here on appeal the duty rests upon the appealing party to make error
clearly appear.” (emphasis added)).
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Blair Allen, Public Defender, and Karen M. Kinney, Assistant Public Defender,
Bartow, for Appellant.
James Uthmeier, Attorney General, Tallahassee, and Nicole Rochelle Smith,
Assistant Attorney General, Tampa, for Appellee.
NOT FINAL UNTIL TIME EXPIRES TO FILE MOTION FOR REHEARING
AND DISPOSITION THEREOF IF TIMELY FILED
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