Gunsby v. State

574 So. 2d 1085, 1991 WL 6554
CourtSupreme Court of Florida
DecidedJanuary 15, 1991
Docket73616
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 574 So. 2d 1085 (Gunsby 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
Gunsby v. State, 574 So. 2d 1085, 1991 WL 6554 (Fla. 1991).

Opinion

574 So.2d 1085 (1991)

Donald GUNSBY, Appellant,
v.
STATE of Florida, Appellee.

No. 73616.

Supreme Court of Florida.

January 15, 1991.
Rehearing Denied March 4, 1991.

*1086 James B. Gibson, Public Defender and Christopher S. Quarles, Asst. Public Defender, Chief, Capital Appeals, Seventh Judicial Circuit, Daytona Beach, for appellant.

Robert A. Butterworth, Atty. Gen., and Belle B. Turner, Asst. Atty. Gen., Daytona Beach, for appellee.

PER CURIAM.

Donald Gunsby appeals his first-degree murder conviction and his death sentence, imposed by the trial judge in accordance with the jury's recommendation. We have jurisdiction.[1] For the reasons expressed, we affirm Gunsby's conviction for first-degree murder and his sentence of death.

The relevant facts established at trial are as follows. On April 20, 1988, Donald Gunsby was attending a party in Ocala where he was told that a friend had been in an altercation with one of the proprietors of a nearby grocery store. Gunsby and *1087 others went to the store, and they learned that the man who had supposedly fought with their friend was no longer at the store. Gunsby threatened to hurt the man if he returned to the store. After a visit to the hospital to see their friend, Gunsby and the others returned to the party. While there, according to one witness, Gunsby stated that he was "tired of those damn Iranians[2] messing with the black." Gunsby then left the party again, and when he returned he was wearing a camouflage suit. According to one witness, Gunsby had a gun.

The evidence at trial established that at 9:30 p.m. Donald Gunsby entered the grocery store wearing camouflage clothing. Without saying anything, he fired one shot from a shotgun at the victim, who was the brother of the man who had supposedly fought with Gunsby's friend earlier that day. Gunsby immediately ran from the store, followed unsuccessfully by the victim's brother, who fired three shots from a pistol at Gunsby as he fled. Gunsby returned to the party briefly and, according to one witness, said that he had taken care of the problem. He was later identified from a photo lineup and at trial by the cashier of the convenience store and by the victim's brother, both of whom were eyewitnesses to the shooting.

The medical examiner testified that the victim died of a shotgun wound to the right side of the chest. The wound was one and three-quarter inches in diameter and caused massive hemorrhaging and injury to the right lung, liver, and heart. The victim's body contained dozens of shotgun pellets, and the doctor rendered an opinion that the victim had been conscious for up to a minute and had died within two to three minutes after being shot.

Gunsby presented several alibi witnesses who testified that he was away from the scene on the evening of the offense. He also presented a police officer who testified that he had overheard the victim's father identify another man as the murderer, and Gunsby presented a man who had been in jail with him who testified that Gunsby had told him that one of the state's witnesses was lying to protect her boyfriend, whom Gunsby believed was the killer. The jury found Gunsby guilty of first-degree murder, as charged in the indictment.

In the penalty phase, the state presented documentary evidence concerning Gunsby's prior offenses involving violence, specifically, an aggravated assault committed in 1967, for which he was sentenced to three and one-half years in the state prison system, and an armed robbery committed in 1971, for which he was sentenced to ten years in the state prison system. In addition, the state presented evidence that Gunsby had been convicted in March, 1988, of possession of a firearm by a felon, carrying a concealed firearm, and having an improper license tag. For the two felony offenses, Gunsby was to have served eighteen months in prison, followed by two years of community control. However, he failed to report to jail on March 9, 1988, as ordered, so a warrant for his arrest was issued. That warrant was outstanding at the time of the murder.

The state also presented a witness who was an acquaintance of Gunsby and who testified that he saw Gunsby at the party on the day of the murder and that Gunsby was behaving normally. In addition, the state presented a court-appointed psychiatrist who testified that Gunsby did not suffer from mental illness, was competent to stand trial, and was able to distinguish right from wrong on the day of the murder.

Gunsby presented two witnesses in the penalty phase who testified that he was a good neighbor who liked children. He also presented two mental health experts. The first testified that Gunsby was mildly retarded, with spelling skills at a third-grade level, reading skills at a fourth-grade level, and an IQ of less than fifty-nine. However, he also testified that Gunsby was not schizophrenic or otherwise mentally ill. The other mental health expert testified that Gunsby was, indeed, schizophrenic, incompetent to stand trial, insane at the time *1088 of the offense, and a candidate for involuntary hospitalization. This psychologist also testified that Gunsby's reading comprehension was at a third-grade level and his verbal skills were at an eighth-grade level. The state extensively cross-examined this witness, in light of the obvious conflict with the other mental health experts.

The jury recommended the death penalty by a nine-to-three vote. The trial judge, in agreeing with the jury, found three aggravating circumstances: (1) that the murder was committed in a cold, calculated, and premeditated manner; (2) that Gunsby had been previously convicted of felonies involving the use or threat of violence; and (3) that Gunsby was under sentence of imprisonment when he committed the murder. The judge found one nonstatutory mitigating factor, that Gunsby is mildly retarded and intellectually functions on a third or fourth grade level. The judge concluded that "[v]iewed in the light of the defendant's past history of violence and the circumstances of this case, defendant's mental condition carries little weight." Consequently, the judge found that the aggravating factors outweighed the mitigating factors, and he imposed the death sentence.

Guilt Phase

Gunsby claims that during the guilt phase of his trial, the trial court erred by: (1) dismissing prospective jurors who stated that they could not discharge their duties as jurors because of their strong feelings concerning the death penalty; (2) allowing one witness to testify that others at the party saw the outline of a gun under Gunsby's clothing; (3) excluding evidence of drugs in the victim's system; (4) instructing the jury concerning felony murder; and (5) committing numerous errors which had the cumulative effect of denying Gunsby a fair trial.

With regard to the first claim, the trial judge preliminarily questioned the venire concerning, among other things, whether their strong feelings for or against the death penalty would render them unable to fairly decide the case. He excused members of the venire who affirmatively stated that they would be unable to discharge their duty as jurors. Gunsby did not object to the procedure used by the trial judge, nor did he ask to make inquiries of the proposed jurors. We find that under these circumstances he has waived the right to challenge the excusal of these potential jurors. See Hoffman v. State, 474 So.2d 1178 (Fla. 1985); Bundy v. State, 471 So.2d 9 (Fla. 1985), cert. denied,

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635 So. 2d 114 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1994)
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614 So. 2d 473 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1993)
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Bluebook (online)
574 So. 2d 1085, 1991 WL 6554, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gunsby-v-state-fla-1991.