Tommie Lee GORDON, Appellant,
v.
STATE of Florida, Appellee.
District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fourth District.
*893 Carey Haughwout, Public Defender, and Allen J. DeWeese, Assistant Public Defender, West Palm Beach, for appellant.
Robert A. Butterworth, Attorney General, Tallahassee, and David M. Schultz, Assistant Attorney General, West Palm Beach, for appellee.
STEVENSON, J.
Appellant, Tommie Lee Gordon, was tried by jury and convicted of delivery of cocaine, and sentenced to four years in prison as a habitual felony offender. We have considered, but reject without further comment, Gordon's claims that he was entrapped as a matter of law and that improper comments of the prosecutor entitle him to a new trial. We reverse the habitual felony offender sentence because there was no proof that the requisite prior offenses were committed during the applicable statutory window.
Gordon first argues that the Supreme Court's decision in Apprendi v. New Jersey,
Gordon's Apprendi claim must fail for two reasons. First, since Gordon's four-year sentence was well below the statutory maximum, Apprendi has no application. See United States v. Shepard,
We find merit in Gordon's contention that the State failed to present sufficient evidence to establish that the crime for which he was being sentenced was committed either:
a. While the defendant was serving a prison sentence or other commitment imposed as a result of a prior conviction for a felony or other qualified offense; or
b. Within 5 years of the date of the conviction of the defendant's last prior felony or other qualified offense, or within 5 years of the defendant's release from a prison sentence or other commitment imposed as a result of a prior conviction for a felony or other qualified offense, whichever is later.
§ 775.084(1)(a)(2), Fla. Stat. (Supp.1998). Here, the prosecutor recited a series of case numbers, charges and terms of imprisonment, and defense counsel stipulated that "those, in fact, are his priors ." The stipulation did not establish that the convictions or Gordon's release from prison or "other commitment" took place within the required five-year window. Moreover, the PSI in the instant case suffered from these same infirmities.
Accordingly, we reverse Gordon's HFO sentence and remand for resentencing. See Boyd v. State,
AFFIRMED in part, REVERSED in part, and REMANDED.
POLEN and TAYLOR, JJ., concur.
