Humberto Delgado, Jr. v. State of Florida

162 So. 3d 971, 40 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 214, 2015 Fla. LEXIS 871, 2015 WL 1825753
CourtSupreme Court of Florida
DecidedApril 23, 2015
DocketSC12-579
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 162 So. 3d 971 (Humberto Delgado, Jr. v. State of Florida) 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
Humberto Delgado, Jr. v. State of Florida, 162 So. 3d 971, 40 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 214, 2015 Fla. LEXIS 871, 2015 WL 1825753 (Fla. 2015).

Opinions

PER CURIAM.

Humberto Delgado, Jr., appeals his sentence of death for the murder of Corporal Michael Roberts of the Tampa Police Department. We have jurisdiction. See art. V, § 3(b)(1), Fla. Const. For the reasons that follow, we vacate the sentence of death and remand to the trial court for imposition of a life sentence.

I. FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

In November 2011, Humberto Delgado, Jr. (Delgado) was convicted of carrying a concealed firearm, depriving a law enforce[973]*973ment officer of his means of communication, and first-degree felony murder in the shooting death of Corporal Roberts in Hillsborough County. Delgado was also found guilty of aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer, Sergeant Paul Mumford, in connection with the same events that resulted in the death of Corporal Roberts. The evidence presented at Delgado’s trial established the following facts.

On August 19, 2009, Delgado took a bus to a jewelry store to retrieve some money he had previously used to place a watch on layaway. Upon arriving at the store, he was told that there was not yet enough money in the cash drawer for him to receive his refund and he would have to wait for someone with cash to make a transaction at the store. Delgado waited about forty-five minutes, but when the store still could not process his refund, he left, taking a bus back to the storage facility where he had slept the night before. He transferred some of his belongings, including his laptop computer and four firearms, from the storage unit into a backpack. Then, despite suffering from chronic knee pain, Delgado decided to walk, with his cane, from Oldsmar, Florida, to a veterans’ hospital in Tampa to seek assistance and shelter.

Approximately eight hours later, Corporal Roberts observed Delgado pushing a shopping cart along the roadway in an area known for shopping cart theft and other crimes committed by homeless individuals. It was a hot, rainy day, and Delgado had walked approximately fifteen miles at that point. At 9:58 p.m., Roberts radioed a Tampa police dispatcher that he was about to conduct a routine field investigation. Roberts then pulled his police cruiser onto the side of the road and stopped Delgado for questioning. According to Delgado’s description of the events as told to the various mental health experts testifying at trial, Roberts asked Delgado for identification, at which point Delgado presented his Florida driver’s license and his veteran identification card. Roberts then began to search the shopping cart and the backpack Delgado was transporting in the cart. Delgado became concerned that Roberts would discover the laptop and the firearms, so he began to flee, at which point Roberts tasered him. A fistfight then broke out between the two men, ending when Delgado shot Roberts. Delgado then called his uncle, stating that after a scuffle with an officer, Delgado had shot the officer, the officer was on the ground, and Delgado thought the officer might be dead. Delgado’s stepmother, who had heard the conversation via speakerphone, testified that Delgado stated, “Uncle, forgive me. Uncle, forgive me. I think I killed a police officer. Uncle, forgive me. I think that I am going to kill myself.”

At some point during the scuffle, the police dispatcher received a brief transmission from Roberts’ handheld radio, indicating to her that Roberts might be in distress. She immediately requested that another officer respond to Roberts’ location. Within minutes, Sergeant Mumford arrived on the scene. He saw Delgado holding a backpack, jogging slowly toward Roberts’ police car. When Mumford scanned Delgado’s path of travel, he noticed Roberts’ motionless body on the ground. He thought Delgado was a homeless person coming to assist Roberts, until Delgado passed Roberts’ body and kept running.

At that point, Mumford realized Delgado was a possible suspect and began running after Delgado, telling him to stop. While running, Delgado began digging in his backpack, until it fell to the ground. He reached inside of it and retrieved a firearm. Mumford then witnessed Delgado [974]*974position himself in a “two-point stand,” which officers are trained to do, with the gun pointed directly at Mumford. Mumford sought cover behind a building, but Delgado did not shoot. When Mumford peered back around the corner of the building, he saw Delgado running towards a park with the weapon still in his hand. Realizing that he was no longer in immediate danger, Mumford went back to the original crime scene to cover Roberts and wait for back-up.

At trial, an eighteen-year-old boy walking in the park that night with his brother testified that a man he later identified as Delgado was running through the park, crying, holding a gun down by his side. Delgado asked the boys for help and stated that the police were trying to kill him, but the two boys ran away. Several minutes later, a K-9 unit apprehended Delgado, who was hiding in a wood pile in the yard of a nearby home.

After Delgado was taken into custody, officers retrieved — either from his person, his effects, or the vicinity — four firearms: one Kel-Tee high-capacity assault rifle with a thirty-round magazine; one RG Industries .22 caliber, six-shot revolver; one Taurus .45 caliber, semiautomatic pistol; and one Glock 9mm semiautomatic pistol. Additionally, officers retrieved a cell phone, lead TASER wires, and a green wallet found on the ground near Delgado’s shopping cart. The wallet contained receipts for four firearms that had been purchased between November 2006 and April 2008, a community college ID card in the name of Humberto Delgado, and a folded note which read:

A message of promise to this evil world, filled with liars and cheaters and monkey cheetahs. I am who I am. A living man who was betrayed and who knows that he is always being betrayed for bullshit. But since I do not like bullshit the Living GOD and eye have designed a punishment that is so great 4 U MONKEY CHEETAHS. That you will understand who is, who is, A LIVING GOD. DON’T worry for me anymore because of your zips and socials your SOULS, soulS, souls, souls are lost to be MINED. So as (I am) priceless and free so will all mines be. .All who stand against this Ay Ay will understand what it means to dye.
In loving memory I meditate you. As Pacheco as can be, as Humberto Delgado Jr. and all his children can be, as Tito can be, as those I love can be, as Abel can be, as the third Adam can be, as Wahman can be, as this whole world can be. Love you GOD for ever and ever, Amen.
777
8

A walking cane was found leaning against the shopping cart that Delgado had been using. At the scene where Delgado was apprehended, officers found Roberts’ han-dheld police radio.

A. Background

At the guilt phase, the defense presented testimony regarding Delgado’s background and the events leading up to the shooting. Delgado grew up in the Virgin Islands and, after high school, obtained'his first job as a police officer with the United States Virgin Islands Police Department. During Delgado’s five-year tenure there, he was approached about joining the Masons, but declined the invitation. This occurrence created not only a distrust for the police force, but also a cycle of extreme paranoia and abnormal behavior that made Delgado’s mental health issues more apparent to his family and friends.

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Bluebook (online)
162 So. 3d 971, 40 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 214, 2015 Fla. LEXIS 871, 2015 WL 1825753, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/humberto-delgado-jr-v-state-of-florida-fla-2015.