Thomas W. Rogers v. State of Florida
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
Date FiledDecember 22, 2021
Docket2D19-2714
StatusPublished
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Full Opinion
DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL OF FLORIDA
SECOND DISTRICT
THOMAS W. ROGERS,
Appellant,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA,
Appellee.
No. 2D19-2714
December 22, 2021
Appeal from the Circuit Court for Manatee County; Edward
Nicholas, Judge.
Howard L. Dimmig, II, Public Defender, and Daniel Muller,
Assistant Public Defender, Bartow, for Appellant.
Ashley Moody, Attorney General, Tallahassee, and Johnny T.
Salgado, Assistant Attorney General, Tampa, for Appellee.
VILLANTI, Judge.
Thomas W. Rogers appeals from his judgment and sentences
following his conviction in a jury trial of the offenses of
misdemeanor assault and felony battery. The sole issue raised in
this appeal is whether the trial court erred by denying Rogers'
fourth motion to correct sentencing error, which he filed pursuant
to Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.800(b)(2) while this appeal
was pending. We affirm.
When Rogers was originally sentenced in 2018, the trial court
granted credit for the time Rogers was in jail before he was
sentenced; however, Rogers was in jail for forty additional days from
the date he was sentenced until he was transported to prison.
Rogers does not dispute that the Department of Corrections (DOC)
is responsible for granting jail time credit when there is a delay
between sentencing and transport from jail to prison, see
Valdespino v. State, 209 So. 3d 64, 66 (Fla. 3d DCA 2016); however,
he asserts that pursuant to section 921.161(1), Florida Statutes
(2020),1 the trial court was required to grant him forty additional
1 Section 921.161(1) provides, "A sentence of imprisonment
shall not begin to run before the date it is imposed, but the court
imposing a sentence shall allow a defendant credit for all of the time
she or he spent in the county jail before sentence. The credit must
be for a specified period of time and shall be provided for in the
sentence."
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days of credit in addition to the time he spent in jail awaiting
resentencing because the original forty days he spent in jail
awaiting transport are now, in effect, presentence jail time as a
result of his de novo resentencing.
We disagree. In doing so, we adopt the trial court's rationale:
"The nature of the credit for time spent in jail awaiting transport to
the DOC after initial sentencing does not change its character upon
subsequent resentencing." Cf. Barnishin v. State, 927 So. 2d 68, 71
(Fla. 1st DCA 2006) ("Time spent in jail before sentencing initially
occurs differs from time served as part of (or already credited
against) a sentence."). Accordingly, we affirm.
Our affirmance is without prejudice to any right Rogers might
have to pursue any administrative remedies he may have with the
DOC if the DOC has not properly calculated his time served. See
Valdespino, 209 So. 3d at 66 ("If the defendant has not received
post-sentencing credit, he may submit his request for this
additional time to the DOC. If he is unsuccessful in obtaining the
requested relief from the DOC, and he exhausts his administrative
remedies, he may then seek mandamus relief." (citing Leiffer v.
State, 867 So. 2d 538, 538 n.1 (Fla. 5th DCA 2004))).
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Affirmed.
KELLY and SLEET, JJ., Concur.
Opinion subject to revision prior to official publication.
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