In Florida, the unlawful use of a two-way communication device is a stand-alone third-degree felony that carries up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine for anyone who uses a phone, text, radio, app, or any similar device to help carry out a felony.1Florida Senate. Florida Code 934.215 – Unlawful Use of a Two-Way Communications Device2Florida Senate. Florida Code 775.082 – Penalties; Applicability of Sentencing Structures The charge rarely stands by itself. Prosecutors stack it on top of the underlying felony, so a single call to arrange a drug deal can add a separate felony count to whatever trafficking or possession charge is already filed.
What Triggers the Charge
The statute applies to anyone who uses a two-way communications device to “facilitate or further” the commission of any felony.1Florida Senate. Florida Code 934.215 – Unlawful Use of a Two-Way Communications Device It mentions portable wireless devices by name but uses “including, but not limited to,” so cell phones, landlines, radios, pagers, internet messaging apps, and email all qualify. If it sends and receives, it counts.
Two things have to be true for a conviction. You must have actually used a qualifying device, and you must have used it with the intent to help carry out a felony. The prosecution does not have to prove the underlying felony was completed. “Facilitate” covers planning, coordinating, and providing logistical support for a crime that may never happen. Texting a co-conspirator the time and location for a robbery is enough even if the robbery falls apart.
The charge shows up most often with drug offenses, fraud schemes, and organized crime. Arranging a controlled-substance purchase by phone, sending messages to coordinate a burglary, or relaying police movements during a crime all fit squarely within the statute. And prosecutors can file a separate count for each distinct communication tied to felony activity. A flurry of texts during a single drug operation can produce several charges instead of one.
Penalties and Sentencing Impact
The maximum is five years in prison and a $5,000 fine.2Florida Senate. Florida Code 775.082 – Penalties; Applicability of Sentencing Structures3Florida Senate. Florida Code 775.083 – Fines A judge may also impose up to five years of probation. Because this charge almost always rides alongside a more serious felony, the real sentencing impact comes from the combined weight of all counts.
The offense sits at severity Level 4 on Florida’s offense ranking chart.4Online Sunshine. Florida Code 921.0022 – Criminal Punishment Code; Offense Severity Ranking Chart That ranking feeds a points-based formula that judges use to calculate the minimum sentence. Add a Level 4 count on top of a drug trafficking charge, and the combined score can shift the outcome from probation-eligible to mandatory prison. That is where this charge does its real damage, even though it looks minor on its own.
Each additional count under the statute adds more points. Someone facing three or four counts alongside the underlying felony is in a very different sentencing position than someone facing one.
Habitual Offender Enhancement
If the defendant qualifies as a habitual felony offender based on prior convictions, the maximum prison term for this third-degree felony doubles from five years to ten.5Online Sunshine. Florida Code 775.084 – Violent Career Criminals; Habitual Felony Offenders; Three-Time Violent Felony Offenders For someone with a record, the two-way device count is also another felony on the pile that can trigger habitual-offender status in future cases.
Life After a Conviction
Prison ends. The felony record does not. Florida law strips convicted felons of the right to vote, serve on a jury, and hold public office. Firearm possession is permanently barred under federal law, and Florida independently makes firearm possession by a convicted felon a second-degree felony. Background checks become a wall. Employers, licensing boards, and landlords screen for felony convictions, and some professional licenses, including real estate and insurance, face restrictions or outright denial. Commercial bonding companies generally will not issue fidelity bonds for convicted felons, which can block work in any position that handles money or sensitive assets.6United States District Court, Middle District of Florida. Information for Felony Offenders
Why Adjudication vs. Withhold Matters
This is where people get hurt in plea negotiations. If the judge adjudicates you guilty, you are permanently ineligible for expungement in Florida. The expungement statute requires that the person has never been adjudicated guilty of any criminal offense in the state.7Online Sunshine. Florida Code 943.0585 – Court-Ordered Expunction of Criminal History Records If the judge instead withholds adjudication, the record may later be eligible for sealing, which hides it from most background checks. If adjudication is entered, that door closes for good. Anyone negotiating a plea on this charge needs to understand that distinction before accepting any offer.
Defenses Worth Raising
The state has to prove you knowingly used a communication device to help carry out a felony. The intent requirement is the biggest opening.
Lack of Intent
The most direct defense is that the communication had nothing to do with criminal activity. Phones get used for countless innocent reasons every day, and a call placed near the time of a crime does not prove it was tied to the crime. The defense is strongest when the state’s evidence of intent is thin, such as a single ambiguous text instead of a detailed conversation about planning something.
Suppressing the Digital Evidence
Digital evidence has to be obtained legally. If police searched your phone without a warrant, pulled communications records in violation of the Fourth Amendment, or failed to meet Florida’s wiretap requirements, a motion to suppress can take out the core of the state’s case. The U.S. Supreme Court held in Carpenter v. United States that acquiring historical cell-site location data is a Fourth Amendment search, meaning law enforcement generally needs a warrant supported by probable cause before compelling a carrier to produce those records.8Supreme Court of the United States. Carpenter v. United States, 585 U.S. 377 (2018) Wiretap evidence is similarly vulnerable when the state cannot show it tried conventional investigative methods first.9Florida Senate. Florida Code 934.09 – Procedure for Interception of Wire, Oral, or Electronic Communications
Entrapment
When undercover officers or confidential informants are involved, entrapment is in play. Florida recognizes both subjective entrapment, which asks whether the defendant was predisposed to commit the crime or was induced by police to do something they otherwise would not have done, and objective entrapment, which asks whether law enforcement conduct was so egregious that it violated due process regardless of predisposition. Entrapment comes up often in these cases because undercover operations frequently initiate or steer the very communications that form the basis of the charge.
No Qualifying Felony
The statute requires that the communication was used to facilitate a felony specifically. If the underlying crime turns out to be a misdemeanor, or if the state cannot prove a felony was being planned or committed, the two-way device count collapses with it. This sometimes succeeds when the underlying felony is reduced or dismissed through negotiation, leaving the communication charge without its statutory anchor.
Pretrial Intervention
Some Florida circuits offer pretrial intervention programs for people charged with nonviolent third-degree felonies. These programs focus on rehabilitation, usually require little or no prior record, and typically end with the charges being dropped on successful completion.10Office of the State Attorney, Ninth Judicial Circuit of Florida. Pretrial Intervention Programs Eligibility rules vary by judicial circuit, but common conditions include no prior convictions for the same type of offense and no prior completion of a diversion program for a similar charge.
Outside formal diversion, judges still have discretion to impose probation, community service, or other conditions instead of incarceration. The realistic odds of a non-prison outcome depend heavily on the seriousness of the underlying felony. Using a phone to facilitate a marijuana sale is treated very differently from using one to coordinate an armed robbery. The two-way device count may look like just one more line on the charging document, but because it adds sentence points and brings its own felony consequences, getting it dismissed or resolved favorably can change the overall outcome of the case.