Johnson v. State

Defendant, Ricardo Lopez Johnson, appeals the summary denial of his Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.800(a) motion. Because the trial court erroneously found that Defendant's motion was based on an identical issue previously raised on direct appeal and thus barred by the law of the case, we reverse. Defendant initially entered an open no contest plea. Although the State argued that Defendant should be sentenced as a habitual felony offender, the trial judge imposed a straight ten-year sentence. Defendant later successfully moved to withdraw his plea and was tried and convicted before a different judge. This judge sentenced Defendant to thirty years as a habitual violent felony offender, with a ten-year minimum mandatory term. Defendant appealed, arguing that the sentence imposed was retaliatory and vindictive in light of his earlier ten-year sentence. His argument was rejected and his conviction and sentence were affirmed by this court. See Johnson v. State, 703 So. 2d 486 (Fla. 5th DCA 1997). Defendant then launched the instant collateral attack. He alleged in his rule 3.800(a) motion that after he was allowed to withdraw his plea, the new judge, who had participated in plea negotiations resulting in the rejected ten-year plea offer, then sentenced him to the much harsher habitual violent felony offender sentence. Accordingly, Defendant claimed that his new sentence was vindictive.