STATE V. BRYANT

Annotate this Case

Download PDF

NOT FINAL UNTIL TIME EXPIRES TO FILE REHEARING MOTION AND, IF FILED, DISPOSED OF. IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL OF FLORIDA THIRD DISTRICT JANUARY TERM, 2004 THE STATE OF FLORIDA, ** ** Appellant, ** vs. ** O'NEAL BRYANT, ** CASE NO. 3D04-72 Appellee. LOWER TRIBUNAL NO. 03-14928 ** Opinion filed July 7, 2004. An Appeal from the Circuit Court for Miami-Dade County, Henry Leyte-Vidal, Judge. Charles J. Crist, Jr., Attorney General, and Consuelo Maingot, Assistant Attorney General, and Adrienne Sampson, Certified Legal Intern, for appellant. Bennett H. Brummer, Public Defender, and Robert Godfrey, Assistant Public Defender, for appellee. Before SCHWARTZ, C.J., and GODERICH, JJ., and DELL, John W., Senior Judge., JJ. PER CURIAM. The State of Florida appeals the imposition of the downward departure sentence of the defendant, O Neal Bryant. We reverse and remand. The defendant was charged with burglary of an unoccupied conveyance and grand theft. charges. The defendant pled guilty to both Over the State s objection, the trial court sentenced the defendant to a downward departure sentence without providing either oral or written reasons. As the State correctly argues, the trial court reversibly erred by failing to provide either oral or written reasons for State v. White, 842 So. 2d 257 (Fla. 1st the downward departure. DCA 2003); State v. Johnson, 796 So. 2d 1213 (Fla. 3d DCA 2001). As such, we reverse the downward departure sentence and remand with instructions to allow the defendant to either withdraw his plea and proceed to trial or be re-sentenced pursuant to the guidelines. to revisit Our ruling is without prejudice to the trial court the issue developed record. of downward departure on a more fully State v. Paulk, 813 So. 2d 152 (Fla. 3d DCA 2002)(citations omitted). Reversed and remanded with instructions. 2

Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.