Cocking v. State , 2015 Fla. App. LEXIS 401 ( 2015 )


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  •                NOT FINAL UNTIL TIME EXPIRES TO FILE REHEARING
    MOTION AND, IF FILED, DETERMINED
    IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL
    OF FLORIDA
    SECOND DISTRICT
    CARL M. COCKING,                   )
    )
    Appellant,              )
    )
    v.                                 )                          Case No. 2D14-2419
    )
    STATE OF FLORIDA,                  )
    )
    Appellee.               )
    ___________________________________)
    Opinion filed January 14, 2015.
    Appeal pursuant to Fla. R. App. P.
    9.141(b)(2) from the Circuit Court for
    Hillsborough County; Susan Sexton,
    Judge.
    Carl M. Cocking, pro se.
    PER CURIAM.
    Carl M. Cocking appeals the order summarily denying his motion to vacate
    his sentence filed under Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850. We affirm the denial
    of Cocking's claim concerning case number 08-11130 without further comment, but we
    reverse the denial of his claim concerning case number 09-13152.
    Over a period of two months, Cocking communicated over the internet
    with an undercover detective from the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office who posed
    as a father offering his twelve-year-old daughter for sex. A meeting between Cocking
    and the daughter was arranged, and Cocking was arrested en route to the location.
    During a forensic examination of Cocking's computer, law enforcement found forty-five
    images showing children under the age of five being sexually battered. Cocking
    entered an open plea in case number 09-13152 to forty-five counts of possession of
    photographs depicting sexual conduct by a child with intent to promote, in violation of
    section 827.071(4), Florida Statutes (2008). Section 827.071(4) makes it "unlawful for
    any person to possess with the intent to promote any photograph, motion picture,
    exhibition, show, representation, or other presentation which, in whole or in part,
    includes any sexual conduct by a child." The possession of three or more copies of said
    images is prima facie evidence of an intent to promote. Id. The trial court sentenced
    Cocking to concurrent terms of thirty years' imprisonment on counts one through twenty
    to be followed by concurrent terms of twenty-five years' imprisonment on counts twenty-
    one through forty-five, for a total of fifty-five years' imprisonment. Cocking did not
    appeal.
    In his rule 3.850 motion, Cocking argued that trial counsel was ineffective
    for failing to move to dismiss all but one of the forty-five counts alleging a violation of
    section 827.071(4), thereby inducing him to enter a plea to all forty-five counts when the
    statute only allows for one conviction under the facts of this case. He contended that he
    was prejudiced by receiving a much harsher sentence than he would have absent the
    extra forty-four counts. In support of his claim, Cocking cited Wade v. State, 
    751 So. 2d 669
     (Fla. 2d DCA 2000), and State v. Parrella, 
    736 So. 2d 94
     (Fla. 4th DCA 1999). In
    Parrella, the State appealed the trial court's dismissal of three of the four counts of
    section 827.071(4) violations with which Parrella was charged. The Fourth District
    -2-
    analyzed the statute to determine the legislature's intent regarding the allowable unit of
    prosecution. It explained that courts have found that when the legislature uses the word
    "any" in describing contraband, it intends only a single unit of prosecution for
    possession of multiple articles of the same type of contraband. 
    736 So. 2d at 95
    .
    Because Parrella showed undercover detectives portions of four different videos of
    sexual acts involving children during one meeting, the Fourth District affirmed the trial
    court's dismissal of three of the four counts against him. 
    Id. at 95-96
    .
    This court followed Parrella in Wade. Law enforcement arrested Wade
    after he accepted delivery of videotapes containing child pornography. Wade
    consented to a search of his residence, and law enforcement found numerous
    reproductions of images of children involved in sexual acts. The State charged Wade
    with three counts of possession of child pornography with intent to promote, and a jury
    found him guilty as charged on all three counts. On appeal, this court reversed Wade's
    convictions for two of the three counts because the offending images had been found
    during one search. 
    751 So. 2d at 671
    .
    Both Wade and Parella were decided on direct appeals of
    convictions. Recently, however, this court applied their holdings in the context of a rule
    3.850 postconviction proceeding. In Chesser v. State, 39 Fla. L. Weekly D2061 (Fla. 2d
    DCA Oct. 1, 2014), Chesser entered an open plea and was convicted of nine counts of
    possession of child pornography with intent to promote. The postconviction court
    granted Chesser an evidentiary hearing, after which it found that counsel was not
    ineffective for failing to move to dismiss eight of the nine counts. This court reversed on
    the authority of Wade, Parrella, and Hudson v. State, 
    761 So. 2d 1161
    , 1161 (Fla. 2d
    -3-
    DCA 2000) (reversing and remanding with directions to strike forty-seven out of forty-
    eight counts of possession of child pornography with intent to promote), and held that
    because all of the images were found during one search, there was only one episode of
    promotion.
    Cocking has shown that trial counsel's failure to move to dismiss all but
    one of the forty-five counts of violation of section 827.071(4) and his advice to enter a
    plea to all forty-five counts constituted deficient performance that prejudiced him. See
    Strickland v. Washington, 
    466 U.S. 668
     (1984). The State appropriately concedes that
    Cocking is entitled to vacation of all but one of his convictions. Accordingly, we reverse
    the postconviction court's order denying Cocking's claim with regard to case number 09-
    13152. We vacate Cocking's convictions on counts two through forty-five, and we
    remand with directions for the postconviction court to dismiss those counts, to strike the
    sentences for those counts, and to correct Cocking's written sentence to reflect one
    conviction for possession with intent to promote.
    Affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded.
    KELLY, KHOUZAM, and BLACK, JJ., Concur.
    -4-
    

Document Info

Docket Number: 2D14-2419

Citation Numbers: 154 So. 3d 1198, 2015 Fla. App. LEXIS 401, 2015 WL 159270

Judges: Kelly, Khouzam, Black

Filed Date: 1/14/2015

Precedential Status: Precedential

Modified Date: 10/19/2024