Third District Court of Appeal
State of Florida
Opinion filed August 31, 2022.
Not final until disposition of timely filed motion for rehearing.
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No. 3D22-1014
Lower Tribunal No. F17-23037B
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Jose D. Ramirez,
Appellant,
vs.
The State of Florida,
Appellee.
An Appeal under Florida Rule of Appellate Procedure 9.141(b)(2) from
the Circuit Court for Miami-Dade County, Teresa Pooler, Judge.
Jose D. Ramirez, in proper person.
Ashley Moody, Attorney General, for appellee.
Before EMAS, SCALES and HENDON, JJ.
PER CURIAM.
Jose D. Ramirez appeals the trial court’s order denying his motion
purporting to challenge the legality of his sentence. Although captioned as
a motion to correct an illegal sentence pursuant to Florida Rule of Criminal
Procedure 3.800(a), Ramirez’s motion is in reality a challenge to the validity
of the underlying conviction, rather than a challenge to the legality of the
sentence. Ramirez contends that his arrest and prosecution was the result
of an unlawful reverse-sting operation conducted by law enforcement, and
that his conviction (and the resulting sentence) are therefore illegal. A motion
to correct illegal sentence under rule 3.800(a) is not cognizable where, as
here, the defendant seeks to challenge the validity of the conviction and, only
by extension, the “legality” of the resulting sentence. Planas v. State,
271
So. 3d 76 (Fla. 3d DCA 2019); Lopez v. State,
2 So. 3d 1057, 1059 (Fla. 3d
DCA 2009); Morgan v. State,
888 So. 2d 128, 129 (Fla. 3d DCA 2004)
(acknowledging “a motion to correct illegal sentence is an appropriate
procedure for challenging a sentence, but not a conviction”); Coughlin v.
State,
932 So. 2d 1224, 1225 (Fla. 2d DCA 2006) (holding “a traditional
double jeopardy challenge attacks both the conviction and, by default, the
sentence, while rule 3.800(a) is limited to claims that the sentence itself is
illegal, without regard to the underlying conviction”). Ramirez could have
and should have raised the instant claim on direct appeal from his conviction
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and sentence or, if appropriate, by a timely motion filed pursuant to Florida
Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850.
Affirmed.
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