Osceola jail escapee wins appeal of ‘illegal’ sentence
The popular television series “America’s Most Wanted” portrayed Michael Rigby as a violent gangbanger when it featured his bold escape from the Osceola County Jail’s maximum security section in 2010.
But at the Santa Rosa Correctional institution in the Panhandle, where Rigby is doing time for the months-long jailbreak, he has used his resources behind bars differently.
Instead of hoarding metal scraps to dig out of his cell, Rigby learned how to appeal his 22-year sentence, scrawling letter after hand-written letter — about half a dozen in two years — urging a judge to review his case.
His vindication came in October when a Central Florida appeals court agreed his sentence was illegal. Judges at the Fifth District Court of Appeal vacated Rigby’s sentence and ordered a hearing to determine a new one, saying he should not have been designated as a habitual felony offender because he had only one prior conviction.
The impact of Rigby’s victory is unclear. The error, judges agreed, is that he should have been sentenced as a habitual violent felony offender and not a habitual felony offender. Both designations can double the prison time a defendant faces.
Prosecutors intend to ask for the enhanced sentence again, according to a spokeswoman.
Despite that possibility, Rigby’s win is significant, said his attorney Jaime Halscott, because Rigby can appear before a judge and make a case about why his sentence should be reduced. Halscott said he will be asking for Rigby’s release on time served.
Back in 2010, after U.S. Marshals found Rigby in New Jersey, his escape triggered an overhaul of the troubled jail, prompting county officials to pump $4 million into facility repairs. Widespread firings and resignations of jail staff also followed.
“I totally comprehend the negative impact an escape can have on a community that thrives off of tourism and strives to maintain a family friendly image,” Rigby wrote in a letter to the judge after learning of the appeal ruling.
“Osceola County is also home to an abundance of elderly individuals who definitely would be better off not having to worry about some fugitive on the loose …The proper way to deal with a case is by telling it to the judge, not by escaping.”
“Our job is to protect the public and if Mr. Rigby is resentenced with his true status as a Habitual Violent Felony Offender, he likely will be looking at a number of years behind bars.” Angela Starke, spokeswoman for the Orange-Osceola State Attorney’s Office
A second chance
Rigby’s first arrest came shortly after his 10th birthday, according to records from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
They piled on from there: he was arrested on charges of battery on a law enforcement officer in 2005, attempted armed robbery in 2006 and disorderly conduct in 2007.
At the time of his escape in 2010, Rigby was 21 years old and a high-ranking leader in the Poinciana street gang the Bloods, according to Osceola County court records.
He had landed himself in jail before the escape on attempted first-degree murder charges in connection with a shooting of a young woman at a birthday party. Prosecutors never brought the case against him, records show.
Now 27, Rigby imagines his life if he’s released earlier because of the appeal. He said he wants to help other inmates and travel to exotic destinations he’s read about in magazines, insisting he’s a changed man.
“I had a state of mind that was really based on fear,” he said in a recent phone call. “I was more anxious and making decisions based on fear. I have more of an understanding and love for others and myself.”
His family is behind him. Especially his brother Brian, who resides in Texas and has set up a Facebook page, among other efforts, seeking his release.
Prosecutors will contest that.
Angela Starke, a spokeswoman for the Orange-Osceola State Attorney’s Office, said the state will ask to resentence Rigby under the violent-felony offender status.
“Our job is to protect the public and if Mr. Rigby is resentenced with his true status as a Habitual Violent Felony Offender, he likely will be looking at a number of years behind bars,” she said in an email.
‘Months of silence’
A date for Rigby’s new sentencing hearing has not been set yet, according to Osceola County court records.
The event has been two years in the making for Rigby.
Rigby said he learned about the law from paralegal textbooks mailed to him by his brother and filed pro se motions to the court, representing himself.
He submitted his first letter asking for a corrected sentence in June 2013, records show.
Weeks went by. And weeks turned into years with no response.
In November 2014, Rigby urged the judge to respond.
“After14 months of silence, I filed a notice of inquiry which went unresponded to …,” he wrote in a letter. “It has now been over five hundred days and I haven’t heard a word from the courts.”
In February 2015, Circuit Judge Leticia Marques ordered prosecutors to respond to Rigby’s claims. It came nearly two years after Rigby’s first written allegations.
So much time had passed, in part, because not every motion warrants a response from prosecutors, Starke said.
“It is common for the State to wait for direction from the court to respond because the court can make a decision on the face of a motion alone,” she said in an email.
In his response, Assistant State Attorney Kenneth Nunnelley called Rigby’s ar- guments frivolous, false and lacking merit.
Marques agreed and denied Rigby’s motion, so he appealed.
When the Florida Attorney General’s Office and the Fifth District Court of Appeal took up the case, they disagreed with prior decisions.
The Attorney General’s Office wrote in its response, referring to Nunnelley, “the prosecutor apparently misconstrued the statute by failing to read all of the requirements together.”
The Assistant Attorney General then pointed out that Rigby could be sentenced as a habitual violent felony offender but not a habitual felony offender.
The habitual felony offender designation requires a defendant to have committed at least two prior felonies. The habitual violent felony offender status requires one prior felony conviction on a number of listed offenses, including attempted robbery, which Rigby pleaded to in 2009.
Starke said the state did not raise the issue before because it could only respond to the specific points made by Rigby.
The error may seem like a technicality, but Rigby will use his chance to show Marques that he has been rehabilitated.
A local criminal defense attorney who reviewed the situation said Rigby’s case highlights the long plight of many convicts working to correct court errors.
“Sometimes when we look at the criminal justice system as a whole, it can be like a conveyor belt,” said attorney Lyle Mazin, who is not involved with Rigby’s case.
“It’s important that we slow down the conveyor belt …Even at the sentencing, which is at the end of the case, you need to take your time and do your due diligence to make sure that everything is done correctly.”