Calhoun v. State

138 So. 3d 349
CourtSupreme Court of Florida
DecidedOctober 31, 2013
DocketNo. SC12-1086
StatusPublished

This text of 138 So. 3d 349 (Calhoun v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Calhoun v. State, 138 So. 3d 349 (Fla. 2013).

Opinions

PER CURIAM.

This case is before the Court on appeal from a judgment of conviction of first-degree murder and a sentence of death. We have jurisdiction. See art. V, § 3(b)(1), Fla. Const.

BACKGROUND

Johnny Mack Sketo Calhoun and Mia Chay Brown were both reported missing on December 17, 2010. On December 20, Brown’s remains were found bound and burnt in her car, which had been lit on fire in the woods of Alabama. Calhoun, thought to be the last person to see Brown alive, was found hiding in the frame of his bed inside his trailer on December 20.

Guilt Phase

Brown worked at Charlie’s deli and grocery store in Esto, Florida. Harvey Glenn Bush saw Brown working at Charlie’s deli around 1 to 1:30 p.m. on December 16, 2010, and knew Brown drove a white car. Bush heard Calhoun ask Brown for a ride that evening and Brown responded that [355]*355she would pick him up after work at approximately 8 to 9 p.m.

Brown drove to Jerry Gammons’ trailer in a light colored, four-door car and knocked on his door at about 8:40 p.m. on December 16. Brown asked for Calhoun, and Gammons told her that Calhoun did not live there. America’s Precious Metals junkyard, where Calhoun’s trailer was located, is approximately one road down from Gammons’ trailer.

Brandon Brown, Brown’s husband, talked with Brown at lunch time on December 16 while she was working at Charlie’s deli. Brown usually got off of work at approximately 9 p.m. Brandon called Brown at 10 p.m. because she was not home. Brandon fell asleep on the couch at about 10:80 p.m., and when he woke up at 2 a.m., his wife was still not home. It was unusual for Brown not to come home; Brandon started calling family members to find her.

Sherry Bradley, the manager at Gladstone’s convenience store located between Enterprise and Hartford, Alabama, testified that Calhoun came into her store between 5:80 and 6:00 a.m. on December 17, 2010, and bought cigarettes. Bradley noticed scratches and dried blood on his hands and sores on his face. Calhoun was wearing a white shirt that had spots of blood on it and there was something black underneath his fingernails. She asked Calhoun about his appearance, and he responded that he had been deer hunting. Calhoun was driving a white, four-door car with a Florida license plate. Darren Bratchelor, a former schoolmate of Calhoun’s, also saw Calhoun at the convenience store at about 6 a.m. After that day, Bradley left town for a few days, but when she returned, another employee had posted a missing persons flyer in the store, on which she recognized Calhoun’s photograph.

Chuck White, a patrol officer for Holmes County, Florida, arrived at America’s Precious Metals at 8 a.m. on December 17. White looked in Calhoun’s trailer and found clothes and trash scattered everywhere. Calhoun was not there. On cross-examination, White testified that Sketo Calhoun (“Sketo”) and Terry Ellenburg, co-owners of America’s Precious Metals, told him that there had been a break-in at the junkyard, that there were pry marks on Calhoun’s trailer door, and that the skid steer loader, or Bobcat, had been hot-wired and moved. White noticed many tire tracks around the yard. White acknowledged that he did not secure Calhoun’s trailer before he left the yard.

Brett Bennett, a cattle broker in Geneva, Alabama, noticed smoke from the highway on December 17 at approximately 11 a.m. Keith Brinley, a school maintenance employee in Geneva, Alabama, also saw a big fire behind the Bennett residence at about that same time.

Tiffany Brooks, a resident of Hartford, Alabama, found Calhoun in her family’s shed on the morning of December 18, 2010. Calhoun was on the ground wrapped in sleeping bags that the family kept around the freezer. Calhoun was wearing overalls and a white t-shirt and was wet and dirty. Brooks brought Calhoun into the house and the family washed his clothes, gave him new clothes, let him shower and nap, and gave him some food. Steven Bledshoe, Tiffany’s boyfriend, called the Brooks’ residence and told them about the missing persons flyer he saw with Calhoun and Brown’s pictures on it. Calhoun told the Brooks he did not know Brown but she was probably the person who was supposed to pick him up at his trailer the night before. Calhoun had the Brooks drop him off at a dirt road. Glenda Brooks, Tiffany’s mother, also testified to these events.

[356]*356Brittany Mixon, Calhoun’s ex-girlfriend, testified that she went to school with Brown and that Brown knew Calhoun through her and from working at the convenience store. On December 16, Mixon stayed at her father’s house and expected Calhoun to come over that night but he never came. Mixon drove to America’s Precious Metals on the morning of December 17 to find Calhoun because he did not have a phone to call. Mixon used to live in Calhoun’s trailer with him but moved out in October of that year. She testified that they had lost the key to the trailer so they had had to pry the door open to get inside the trailer. Mixon asked Sketo if he had seen Calhoun, but he had not. Mixon looked inside Calhoun’s trailer; no one was inside, but the trailer was ransacked. Lieutenant Michael Raley of the Holmes County Sheriffs Office investigated Brown’s missing persons report. He called Mixon, who told Raley about a campsite in Hartford, Alabama, approximately ten miles from America’s Precious Metals, where Mixon and Calhoun would camp. The campground was on the property of Charlie Skinnard, Calhoun’s brother-in-law. Mixon met the Brooks family once while camping with Calhoun. She took Raley to the campsite. Raley noted that the burnt car was off of Coleman Road, approximately 1,488 feet away from Calhoun’s campsite. The Brooks’ residence was approximately 1.5 miles from the burnt car.

Angie Curry, Priscilla Strickland, and Mixon went to Calhoun’s trailer around 4 p.m. on December 17. Mixon went into the trailer and found wine, a purse, and menthol cigarettes. They took the items and called the police. Brandon identified the purse as belonging to Brown. When Mixon gave Brown’s purse to Raley, Raley sent a police officer to Calhoun’s trailer to secure it until they got a search warrant. On cross-examination, Mixon acknowledged that Sketo and Ellenburg told her that the trailer had been broken into and not to go in it, but she did anyway. She stated that Calhoun did not smoke cigarettes and did not have cable television service in his trailer.

Dick Mowbry, former game warden for Geneva County, Alabama, participated in a search for Brown and Brown’s vehicle on December 20, 2010. He found a burnt, white Toyota with no license plate. The entire inside of the car was burnt and while he was looking through the front of the car, he saw a rib cage in the trunk, so he called the police.

Mike Gillis, with the Alabama Bureau of Investigation, responded on December 20 to the call regarding the burnt vehicle. Remains of a body were in the trunk of the car. There was what looked like coaxial cable wrapped around the wrists of the body; duct tape was also found in the car.

On December 21, 2010, Dr. Stephen Boudreau, a medical examiner for Alabama, received the human remains found inside the burnt car. The remains were badly burnt; the hands and lower limbs had been burnt off. Dr. Boudreau was able to identify the remains as female because the uterus and vagina were not destroyed, but the sex organs were denatured, or heated, to such an extent that there was no way to analyze them. He found coaxial cable wrapped around what was left of the remains’ upper arms and tape on the neck. Dr.

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