Russell v. State

WEBSTER, Judge.

In this direct criminal appeal, appellant challenges his sentence as an habitual felony offender, contending that habitualization was eiTor because none of the federal felony convictions relied on by the trial court as predicate offenses was “substantially similar in elements and penalties to an offense in [Florida].” We conclude that appellant’s prior federal conviction for mail fraud is a conviction of an offense substantively indistinguishable from the Florida offenses of organized fraud and communications fraud. Accordingly, we affirm.

Appellant was charged in three counts…