Nelson v. State

Defendant appeals from the trial court’s upward departure from the sentencing guidelines. We reverse.

The court’s reasons for departure were as follows: “The facts of the instant case and the defendant’s criminal behavior indicate that the defendant is clearly a menace to society....” The order then appears to outline those facts and behavior which essentially were that prior to entering the house where defendant and his codefend-ant girlfriend were arrested for drug offenses, defendant, while in the presence of an 11-year-old child, gave the codefendant a gun. The order then states that the…