Hartley v. State

686 So. 2d 1316, 1996 WL 528456
CourtSupreme Court of Florida
DecidedSeptember 19, 1996
Docket83021
StatusPublished
Cited by55 cases

This text of 686 So. 2d 1316 (Hartley 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
Hartley v. State, 686 So. 2d 1316, 1996 WL 528456 (Fla. 1996).

Opinion

686 So.2d 1316 (1996)

Kenneth HARTLEY, Appellant,
v.
STATE of Florida, Appellee.

No. 83021.

Supreme Court of Florida.

September 19, 1996.
Rehearing Denied January 31, 1997.

*1318 Nancy A. Daniels, Public Defender and David A. Davis, Assistant Public Defender, Second Judicial Circuit, Tallahassee, for Appellant.

Robert A. Butterworth, Attorney General and Curtis M. French, Assistant Attorney General, Tallahassee, for Appellee.

PER CURIAM.

Kenneth Hartley appeals his convictions and sentences for armed robbery, armed kidnapping, and first-degree murder, including a sentence of death for the first-degree murder conviction. We have jurisdiction. Art. V, § 3(b)(1), Fla. Const. For the reasons expressed, we affirm Hartley's convictions and sentences.

The record reflects the following facts. Hartley, Ronnie Ferrell, and Sylvester Johnson were all convicted of the first-degree murder, robbery, and kidnapping of seventeen-year-old Gino Mayhew (the victim). They were each tried separately. Ferrell was convicted as charged and sentenced to death for the first-degree murder conviction.[1] Johnson was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. The following evidence was presented at Hartley's trial.

Sidney Jones worked for the victim in the victim's crack cocaine business. He testified to the following information. On April 22, 1991, the victim was selling crack from his Chevrolet Blazer at an apartment complex. On that date, Jones saw the three codefendants together near the Blazer. He saw Hartley holding a gun to the victim's head and saw him force the victim into the driver's seat. Hartley climbed into the back seat behind the victim. Ferrell climbed into the front, passenger seat. Johnson was outside the Blazer talking to Hartley. After Hartley, Ferrell, and the victim entered the Blazer, Jones saw it leave the apartment complex at a high speed and heard Ferrell shout out of the Blazer that the victim would "be back." Johnson followed soon afterward in a truck.

Another witness confirmed that the victim, Ferrell, and another individual, whom the witness was unable to positively identify, left the apartment complex together in the victim's Blazer at a high rate of speed.

On April 23, police found the victim's Blazer parked in a field behind an elementary school. The victim's body was slumped over in the driver's side seat of the Blazer. The victim had died as a result of bullet wounds to the head (he had been shot five times: one shot into his forehead, three shots into the back of his head, and one shot into his shoulder).

Several weeks after the victim was found, Jones told police what he had seen on April 22, and Ferrell, Hartley, and Johnson were arrested for the victim's murder. Hartley told police that he did not know the victim but told several other witnesses that he had robbed the victim two days before the murder. Specifically, he told one witness that "the only reason they [are] saying that [I killed the victim] is because I robbed him two days before he was killed." Hartley later told the witness (who at the time of the second statement was Hartley's cellmate) that the plan was Sylvester Johnson's; that they originally planned to rob some "dreads" but then decided to "get [the victim]," i.e., rob and murder the victim; that they forced the victim to drive to the elementary school; that Johnson drove the getaway vehicle; that "I left my trade mark, left no witnesses"; and that his trademark was to "shoot the person in the head leaving no witnesses." He also told the witness that Ferrell and Johnson acted so nervous that he considered shooting them and that he would "get off" because everyone was too scared to testify. *1319 A number of the details provided by this witness were never released to the public.

Additionally, Hartley told another cellmate that he was not involved in the murder but that he had robbed the victim a few days before the murder. He later admitted to the cellmate that he had robbed and murdered the victim and provided numerous details of the crime very similar to those provided by the previous witness.

Another witness testified that he heard Hartley state: "I think I really fucked up this time by doing this with that motherfucker Ferrell. I think he's going to turn on me and testify against me when he's just as guilty in doing this as I am."

Each of these last three witnesses had been convicted of various felony charges and were awaiting sentencing at the time they testified. They were to receive negotiated pleas in exchange for their testimony, but their sentences were potentially lengthy ones (up to twenty-five years, thirty years, and fifteen years, respectively).

The defense presented no evidence in the guilt phase and Hartley was convicted of armed robbery, armed kidnapping, and first-degree murder.

At the penalty phase, the State introduced evidence of Hartley's three prior violent felony convictions: a 1986 manslaughter conviction for killing a fifteen year-old girl with a shotgun; a 1991 conviction for the armed robbery of a taxi driver; and a second 1991 conviction for the armed robbery of another taxi driver.

Hartley presented two witnesses in his defense. An attorney testified regarding fifteen-year and twenty-five-year mandatory minimum sentences. A pastor testified that he had known Hartley since 1980, that he had a quiet and peaceful spirit, that he attended church off and on, that he came from a good family, and that he was intelligent.

The jury recommended the death penalty by a nine-to-three vote, and the trial judge sentenced Hartley to death. The trial judge found six aggravating circumstances (prior violent felony conviction; committed during the course of a kidnapping; committed to prevent a lawful arrest; committed for pecuniary gain; heinous, atrocious, or cruel (HAC); and cold, calculated, and premeditated (CCP)). He found minimal mitigation. The trial judge sentenced Hartley to consecutive sentences for the other two convictions: fifteen years as a habitual felony offender for the armed robbery conviction and life imprisonment for the armed kidnapping conviction.

In this appeal, Hartley raises eleven issues, claiming that: (1) the trial judge erred in admitting a police officer's statement regarding a robbery committed against the victim two days before the victim was murdered; (2) the trial judge improperly excluded the testimony of a witness regarding a letter purportedly containing a confession by another individual as to this crime; (3) the trial judge improperly denied Hartley's motion for mistrial, which was based on improper prosecutorial statements during opening; (4) the trial judge improperly excluded testimony from Sidney Jones concerning the name of the police officer to whom he reported; (5) the trial judge erred in finding that the State had a race-neutral reason for excluding a prospective juror; (6) the trial judge erred in excusing a prospective juror for cause because the juror was against imposition of the death penalty; (7) the trial judge erroneously instructed the jury on the aggravating circumstance of CCP; (8) the trial judge erred in finding the murder to be CCP; (9) the trial judge erroneously doubled the aggravating circumstances of committed for pecuniary gain and committed during the course of a kidnapping; (10) the trial judge erroneously instructed the jury on the aggravating circumstance of HAC; and (11) the trial judge erred in finding the murder to be HAC.

In his first claim, Hartley contends that the State was improperly allowed to introduce the testimony of a police officer at trial regarding Hartley's arrest.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
686 So. 2d 1316, 1996 WL 528456, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hartley-v-state-fla-1996.