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IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL
FIRST DISTRICT, STATE OF FLORIDA
STATE OF FLORIDA,
NOT FINAL UNTIL TIME EXPIRES TO
FILE MOTION FOR REHEARING AND
Appellant,
DISPOSITION THEREOF, IF FILED.
v.
CASE NO. 1D03-369
MEYAWN WILLIAMS,
Appellee.
____________________________/
Opinion filed March 18, 2004.
An appeal from an order from the circuit court for Alachua County.
Maurice V. Giunta, Judge.
Charles J. Crist, Jr., Attorney General, and Bryan Jordan, Assistant Attorney General,
Tallahassee, Attorneys for Appellant.
Nancy A. Daniels, Public Defender, and Phil Patterson, Assistant Public Defender,
Tallahassee, Attorneys for Appellant.
PER CURIAM.
In the case before us the State is appealing the imposition of a downward
departure sentence that was imposed after Appellee pled no contest to charges in
several cases. We reverse.

Appellee's Criminal Punishment Code scoresheet recommended a lowest
permissible sentence of 74.7 months' imprisonment, but the trial court sentenced
Appellee to concurrent terms of 60 months' imprisonment. "Pursuant to Florida Rule
of Criminal Procedure 3.703(d)(30)(A), the court must orally announce the reasons
for departure and accompany the oral pronouncement with a written statement,
outlining those reasons." White v. State, 842 So. 2d 258 (Fla. 1st DCA 2003).
At the sentencing hearing, the trial court failed to announce the reasons for the
departure sentence. In response to Appellee's motion to correct a sentencing error,
the trial court did file written reasons to support the sentence. However, written
reasons alone cannot support a departure sentence. It is a longstanding principle that
a court's oral pronouncement controls over any written sentencing document. Ashley
v. State, 850 So. 2d 1265, 1268 (Fla. 2003). Additionally, trial courts are not
permitted to go behind the oral pronouncement to correct sentencing mistakes. Cf. id.
(reversing the defendant's habitual violent felony offender sentence because the trial
court failed to pronounce such a sentence even though it was reflected in the written
judgment and sentence); State v. Williams, 712 So. 2d 762 (Fla. 1998) (holding that
special conditions of probation must be orally pronounced at sentencing in order to
be included in the written probation order).

Because the trial court failed to provide oral reasons for the departure, it was
error for the trial court to impose a downward departure sentence. Accordingly, we
reverse and remand for resentencing.
REVERSED and REMANDED for resentencing.
ERVIN and BOOTH, JJ., and SMITH, LARRY G., Senior Judge, CONCUR.

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