Grimes v. State

Jasper D. Grimes admitted guilt and was convicted of felony petit theft of the third degree, pursuant to subsection 812.014(3)(e), Florida Statutes (1997). He contends that his counsel was ineffective in allowing him to enter a plea of guilty because one of the prior convictions used to classify his petit theft conviction as a felony was not a petit theft.

Grimes is correct that one of his prior convictions was not for petit theft; rather, it was for robbery. He is incorrect that the robbery conviction cannot be used as a predicate for a felony petit theft conviction. A former subsection of…