Floyd v. State

497 So. 2d 1211, 11 Fla. L. Weekly 594
CourtSupreme Court of Florida
DecidedNovember 20, 1986
Docket66088
StatusPublished
Cited by27 cases

This text of 497 So. 2d 1211 (Floyd 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
Floyd v. State, 497 So. 2d 1211, 11 Fla. L. Weekly 594 (Fla. 1986).

Opinion

497 So.2d 1211 (1986)

James FLOYD, Appellant,
v.
STATE of Florida, Appellee.

No. 66088.

Supreme Court of Florida.

November 20, 1986.

*1212 James Marion Moorman, Public Defender, Tenth Judicial Circuit, and W.C. McLain, Asst. Public Defender, Chief, Capital Appeals, Bartow, for appellant.

Jim Smith, Atty. Gen., and Davis G. Anderson, Jr., Asst. Atty. Gen., Tampa, for appellee.

BARKETT, Justice.

James Floyd appeals his conviction of first-degree murder and sentence of death. We have jurisdiction. Art. V, § 3(b)(1), Fla. Const. We affirm the conviction but vacate the death sentence.

James Floyd was indicted for the murder of Annie Bar Anderson. He was also charged with two counts of forgery, two counts of uttering a forged check, and two counts of grand theft.

The victim was found dead in one of the bedrooms of her home on the evening of Tuesday, January 17, 1984. She was last seen alive on the afternoon of January 16, 1984, when she cashed a check at her bank. According to the testimony of the medical examiner, she had been killed sometime that afternoon or evening by a stab wound to her chest. When the police arrived at the victim's home on January 17, 1984, the back door was unlocked, and there were no signs of a forced entry. In the room in which they found the victim, there were fresh "pry marks" beneath the window, indicating that someone had attempted to exit from that window.

*1213 On the afternoon of the victim's death (Monday, January 16), Floyd had cashed a check for $500 from the victim's account. He was arrested after attempting to flee from the police when he tried to cash a second check for $700 on the same account two days later (Wednesday, January 18). When questioned by the police, Floyd admitted forging the $700 check, explaining that he had found the checkbook on Tuesday near a dumpster. He subsequently revised his story when confronted with the police knowledge that he had cashed the $500 check on Monday. In addition, he admitted owning a brown jacket that was found outside the bank where he was arrested. A sock soaked with blood of the victim's blood type (which was not the defendant's blood type) was found in one of the jacket pockets.

Over objection at trial, the court permitted an officer to testify to Floyd's statement at the police station that: "I know the police are mad at me for running, but I've been in jail before and I don't want to go back."

At trial the state also presented the testimony of Greg Anderson, a cellmate of Floyd's who testified that Floyd told him that he had stabbed the victim when she surprised him in the course of the burglary.

During the penalty phase, the trial court instructed the jury on five aggravating circumstances but failed to give any instructions on mitigating circumstances. The jury recommended the death penalty by a seven to five vote. The trial court sentenced Floyd to death finding the following aggravating circumstances: (1) that the murder was committed during a burglary; (2) that it was committed to avoid or prevent a lawful arrest; (3) that it was committed for pecuniary gain; (4) that it was heinous, atrocious, and cruel; and (5) that it was committed in a cold, calculating, and premeditated manner without any pretense of moral or legal justification.

Floyd first challenges his conviction on the basis of the officer's testimony relating appellant's statement regarding his prior incarceration. Floyd concedes that the state could present evidence of his flight at arrest. He argues, however, that the trial court erred in letting the jury hear that he had been incarcerated at a prior time. We disagree. This testimony was relevant to the issue of flight and was, therefore, admissible.

The second issue raised by Floyd concerns death qualified juries and has been resolved by this Court in Kennedy v. Wainwright, 483 So.2d 424 (Fla. 1986), and by the Supreme Court in Lockhart v. McCree, ___ U.S. ___, 106 S.Ct. 1758, 90 L.Ed.2d 137 (1986).

After reviewing the record, we find no reversible error in the guilt phase of Floyd's trial. Accordingly, we affirm Floyd's conviction for first-degree murder.

Floyd raises a number of points concerning the penalty phase of his trial. First, he argues that the trial judge erred in not finding any mitigating circumstances in the testimony of the victim's daughter, Anne Anderson. The victim's daughter had been permitted to tell the jury that both she and her mother opposed capital punishment. In addition, correspondence between appellant and the victim's daughter had been admitted into evidence. It appears the trial judge considered Anderson's testimony, but simply did not accord it the weight Floyd believes it deserved. This Court has considered this issue in Porter v. State, 429 So.2d 293, 296 (Fla.), cert. denied, 464 U.S. 865, 104 S.Ct. 202, 78 L.Ed.2d 176 (1983), noting:

There is no requirement that a court must find anything in mitigation. The only requirement is that the consideration of mitigating circumstances must not be limited to those listed in section 921.141(6), Florida Statutes (1981). What Porter really complains about here is the weight the trial court accorded the evidence Porter presented in mitigation. However, "mere disagreement with the force to be given [mitigating evidence] is an insufficient basis for challenging a sentence." Quince v. State, 414 So.2d 185, *1214 187 (Fla. 1982). We do not find that the trial court failed to consider the evidence presented in mitigation of the sentence.

In light of Porter, this argument is without merit.

Nor do we find merit in Floyd's contention that the proof in the record before us is insufficient to sustain a finding of the aggravating factor of heinous, atrocious, and cruel under section 921.141(5)(h). In State v. Dixon, 283 So.2d 1 (Fla. 1973), cert. denied, 416 U.S. 943, 94 S.Ct. 1950, 40 L.Ed.2d 295 (1974), this Court defined what was meant by heinous, atrocious, or cruel. We said:

It is our interpretation that heinous means extremely wicked or shockingly evil; that atrocious means outrageously wicked and vile; and, that cruel means designed to inflict a high degree of pain with utter indifference to, or even enjoyment of, the suffering of others. What is intended to be included are those capital crimes where the actual commission of the capital felony was accompanied by such additional acts as to set the crime apart from the norm of capital felonies — the conscienceless or pitiless crime which is unnecessarily torturous to the victim.

Id. at 9. In this case, the trial court found that

This capital felony was especially heinous, atrocious and cruel. The medical examiner testified that the victim died from the deep stab wound to the chest within a short period of time, perhaps two to four minutes, after sustaining that wound. However, from the evidence, it may reasonably be inferred that the defendant continued stabbing the victim while she was still alive for a total of twelve stab wounds to her torso and what was characterized by the medical examiner as one defensive stab wound to the hand.

Under these circumstances, we cannot say that the trial judge erred in finding this aggravating factor.

We agree, however, with Floyd's contention that the aggravating factor of cold, calculated, and premeditated under section 921.141(5)(i) was not proved beyond a reasonable doubt.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Rodney Tyrone Lowe v. State of Florida
259 So. 3d 23 (Supreme Court of Florida, 2018)
Rimmer v. State
59 So. 3d 763 (Supreme Court of Florida, 2010)
Barnhill v. State
834 So. 2d 836 (Supreme Court of Florida, 2002)
Greene v. State
37 S.W.3d 579 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 2001)
State v. Clark
1999 NMSC 035 (New Mexico Supreme Court, 1999)
Urbin v. State
714 So. 2d 411 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1998)
Moore v. State
701 So. 2d 545 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1997)
Henyard v. State
689 So. 2d 239 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1996)
Robert Dewey Glock v. Harry K. Singletary
65 F.3d 878 (Eleventh Circuit, 1995)
Barbour v. State
673 So. 2d 461 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, 1995)
Geralds v. State
601 So. 2d 1157 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1992)
Bowden v. State
588 So. 2d 225 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1991)
Bruno v. State
574 So. 2d 76 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1991)
Floyd v. State
569 So. 2d 1225 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1990)
Way v. Dugger
568 So. 2d 1263 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1990)
Stewart v. State
558 So. 2d 416 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1990)
Harvey v. State
529 So. 2d 1083 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1988)
Holsworth v. State
522 So. 2d 348 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1988)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
497 So. 2d 1211, 11 Fla. L. Weekly 594, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/floyd-v-state-fla-1986.