Consalvo v. State

937 So. 2d 555, 2006 WL 1375091
CourtSupreme Court of Florida
DecidedMay 18, 2006
DocketSC04-520
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 937 So. 2d 555 (Consalvo 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
Consalvo v. State, 937 So. 2d 555, 2006 WL 1375091 (Fla. 2006).

Opinion

937 So.2d 555 (2006)

Robert CONSALVO, Appellant,
v.
STATE of Florida, Appellee.

No. SC04-520.

Supreme Court of Florida.

May 18, 2006.

Ira W. Still, III, Coral Springs, Florida for Appellant.

Charles J. Crist, Jr., Attorney General, Tallahassee, Florida and Leslie T. Campbell, Assistant Attorney General, West Palm Beach, Florida, for Appellee.

PER CURIAM.

Robert Consalvo appeals an order of the circuit court denying a motion for postconviction relief under Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850. We have jurisdiction. See art. V, § 3(b)(1), Fla. Const. For the reasons set forth below, we affirm the trial court's denial of Consalvo's postconviction motion.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Consalvo was convicted and sentenced to death for the first-degree murder of Lorraine Pezza. The underlying facts appear in this Court's opinion in Consalvo's direct appeal:

On October 3, 1991, at approximately 12:40 a.m., Nancy Murray observed a man wearing a brown towel over his head cut a screen door and enter the residence of Myrna Walker, who lived downstairs from the victim. Murray called the police and Consalvo was apprehended while burglarizing the apartment. Fresh pry marks were found on a sliding glass door along with a cut porch screen. Assorted jewelry was found lying on the bedroom floor with a screwdriver and towel. When police searched Consalvo, they found checkbooks belonging to Pezza, as well as to Walker, and a small pocketknife. Consalvo was arrested and subsequent to his arrest, Consalvo repeatedly asked the police what his bond would be for this burglary offense and how quickly he could be released.
That same day, Detective Doethlaff went to [the victim, Lorraine] Pezza's apartment to investigate why Consalvo was in possession of her checkbook. Doethlaff observed fresh pry marks on *556 Pezza's front door between the deadbolt and the doorknob. When no one answered the door, which was locked, Doethlaff left a business card at the door requesting Pezza to contact the police. That evening, after Pezza's family had tried unsuccessfully for several days to reach her, Eva Bell, a social worker for the Broward Mental Health Division, went to the victim's apartment to check on her. While at the apartment, Bell encountered Pezza's next-door neighbor, Consalvo's mother, Jeanne Corropolli. Corropolli, who lived with Consalvo, related to Ms. Bell that her son had been arrested earlier that day (for the burglary of Mrs. Walker's apartment). After receiving no response at Pezza's apartment, Bell contacted the police. At 7:16 p.m. Officer Westberry responded to Bell's request to check on Pezza. He knocked on Pezza's apartment door without getting a response and noticed Doethlaff's business card was still in the door jamb. The officer went back to his patrol car to complete his report. Bell, who was still in Corropolli's apartment, testified that shortly after the officer left the apartment, Corropolli was on the phone. Corropolli hung up the phone and became hysterical. Corropolli told Bell that her son, Robert Consalvo, said that he was "involved in a murder." Corropolli testified that when she told her son the police were next door, he replied, "Oh, shit." Bell immediately related this information to Officer Westberry, who then forced open Pezza's apartment door and discovered her decomposing body in the apartment. The porch screens of Pezza's apartment were cut.
At 10:10 p.m., Detective Gill of the Broward Sheriff's Office contacted Consalvo at the Pompano Jail Annex. After advising Consalvo of his rights, Gill notified Consalvo that they wanted to speak to him about Pezza's checks being found on his person at the time of his arrest. Consalvo responded by stating: "[Y]ou are not going to pin the stabbing on me." At this time, Gill did not know that Pezza had been stabbed.
At 2:30 a.m. the next day, Detective Gill effectively arrested Consalvo by filing an add charge against him for the murder of Lorraine Pezza. Consalvo had not yet been released on bond for the burglary charge. When a search warrant was executed on Corropolli's apartment, the police found a bloody towel in a dresser in Consalvo's bedroom. Subsequent DNA testing matched the blood on the towel with the victim's blood. In a statement to the police, Consalvo's mother confirmed that her son had in fact called her from the county jail and had advised her that he might be implicated in a homicide. She further informed police that she had found a towel in her son's room with blood on it.
While incarcerated in the Broward County Jail, Consalvo made inculpatory statements to a fellow inmate named William Palmer. Consalvo told Palmer that he killed Pezza after she caught him burglarizing her apartment and said she would call the police. When she started to yell for help, Consalvo stabbed her. Lorraine Pezza was stabbed three times with five additional superficial puncture wounds. The fatal wound was to the left side of the chest. . . .
On February 11, 1993, appellant was convicted of armed burglary and the first-degree murder of Lorraine Pezza. The jury recommended the death sentence by a vote of eleven to one. The trial court found two aggravating factors: (1) the capital felony was committed while the defendant was engaged in the commission of a burglary, see *557 921.141(5)(d), Fla. Stat. (1995); and (2) the capital felony was committed for the purpose of avoiding or preventing a lawful arrest, see id. 921.141(5)(e). The court found no statutory mitigating circumstances. As for nonstatutory mitigating circumstances it accorded the following "very little weight": (1) appellant's employment history; and (2) appellant's abusive childhood. Because the "mitigating factors have been given very little weight and they in no way offset the aggravating factors," the trial court found the death sentence "fully supported by the record."

Consalvo v. State, 697 So.2d 805, 809-11 (Fla.1996) (footnotes omitted). This Court affirmed Consalvo's conviction and sentence on October 3, 1996, and denied rehearing on July 17, 1997, as revised on denial of rehearing, October 16, 1997.[1]See *558 id. at 805, 809. The United States Supreme Court denied certiorari on May 4, 1998. See Consalvo v. Florida, 523 U.S. 1109, 118 S.Ct. 1681, 140 L.Ed.2d 819 (1998). On March 7, 2001, Consalvo filed his amended 3.850 motion.[2] On March 7, 2002, after a Huff[3] hearing, the trial court granted an evidentiary hearing on claims I, II, III, and IV, and summarily denied claims V-XV. On February 19, 2004, the trial court entered a final order denying Consalvo's amended motion for postconviction relief. Consalvo appeals the trial court's summary denial of claims V-XV[4] and also appeals the trial court's rejection of claims I-IV after the evidentiary hearing.

NEWLY DISCOVERED EVIDENCE

The claims in Consalvo's amended 3.850 motion upon which the trial court conducted an evidentiary hearing included: (I) a claim of newly discovered evidence based upon the recanted testimony of Mark DaCosta; (II) a claim of newly discovered evidence based upon the recanted testimony of William Palmer; (III) a claim that the State failed to disclose exculpatory evidence *559

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Bluebook (online)
937 So. 2d 555, 2006 WL 1375091, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/consalvo-v-state-fla-2006.