John Sexton v. State of Florida

221 So. 3d 547, 42 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 713, 2017 WL 2806993, 2017 Fla. LEXIS 1431
CourtSupreme Court of Florida
DecidedJune 29, 2017
DocketSC14-62
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 221 So. 3d 547 (John Sexton 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
John Sexton v. State of Florida, 221 So. 3d 547, 42 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 713, 2017 WL 2806993, 2017 Fla. LEXIS 1431 (Fla. 2017).

Opinions

[550]*550PER CURIAM.

John Sexton appeals his conviction for the first-degree murder of Ann Parlato and sentence of death. We have jurisdiction. See art. V, § 3(b)(1), Fla. Const. For the reasons explained below, we affirm Sexton’s conviction but reverse his sentence of death and remand this case to the trial court for a new penalty phase.

I. BACKGROUND

Ann Parlato was a ninety-four-yéar-old woman who lived alone in her Pasco County home. John Sexton began cutting her lawn in the summer of 2010. On September 23, 2010, a friend of Parlato’s found her deceased on her living room floor. Her face had been bludgeoned to the point of being unrecognizable, and her naked body was partially covered with a white sheet. There was blood spatter all around her head. Her right breast had been cut off and a prosthetic breast pad (which Parlato owned due to a prior mastectomy of her left breast) was placed over the area where her right breast had been. The excised 'right breast was on the floor near Parla-to’s head. A vase protruded from her rectum. A purse had been placed between her legs and set on fire, burning her genital and thigh areas. A knife was on the floor near her body.

Despite having been cleaned two days earlier, Parlato’s home was in complete disarray. The front door was left partially open and the foyer was covered in dirt and leaves. Various objects had been pulled out of drawers and were on the floor in the living room. There was blood in the foyer, in the living room, on the curtain above the kitchen sink, on a stool in the shower in the master bathroom, on the floor and shower curtain in the hall bathroom, and on the door and sheets in Parlato’s bedroom, The kitchen was a mess, with food strewn about on the floor. Several kitchen knives were in the basin of the kitchen sink. A large wooden clock in the living room had a knife protruding from the top of it. Bottles of cleaner that appeared to have been opened were on the floor near the washer and dryer, and a bottle of bleach had blood on it. There were bloodstains on the exteriors of the washer and dryer. There was what appeared to be a bloody handprint on the dryer. There were also bloodstains inside the washer, as well as some grass, cigarette butts, and several items of clothing. The contents of the washer were wet, as if they had been through the wash cycle. There were Band-Aid wrappers and a Band-Aid box on the kitchen counter. Although Parlato had asthma and did not allow smoking in her home, there were cigarette ashes in the dining room and on a footstool in the living room and cigarette butts in the kitchen trashcan and the toilet, in "addition to the washing machine.

Dr. .Jonathan Thogmartin, the. medical examiner, observed Parlato’s body as it was found, at the crime scene and subsequently conducted the autopsy. He determined the cause of Parlato’s death to be blunt trauma to the face, head,, and neck and the manner of death to be homicide. The autopsy revealed that Parlato’s cheek bones, eye sockets, and chin were'crushed. Her jaw was broken and dislocated. She suffered multiple lacerations, blunt force impacts, rib fractures, a dislocated spine, and bruising to the brain. There were five vaginal- lacerations or tears, which were consistent- with a forcible sexual battery having occurred. Dr. Thogmartin determined that the removal of the right breast, insertion of the vase, burning, and a stab wound to the abdomen occurred postmortem.

An expert in blood pattern analysis and crime scene reconstruction determined that Parlato was struck by. -at least three [551]*551impact blows in the foyer area. And an impact bloodstain on a chair in the living room indicated another forceful blow. At least seven other forceful blows were indicated by stains in the area where her body was found. Parlato’s upper, body was in a raised position during one blow and her head was on the floor for the remainder of the blows. Blood in other areas of the home indicated that the perpetrator moved around the home after the attack. Three circles on the living room floor were consistent with the size of the bottom of a two-gallon bucket found in the house and indicated an attempt to clean up. The cleanup attempt was corroborated by the odor of bleach in the house.

Devlynn Saunders, David Carlin, and Patrick Grattan lived together in the house next door to Parlato’s. Around 11:30 p.m. on September 22, Carlin went outside to smoke a cigarette. At that time, he did not notice a truck in Parlato’s driveway or anything unusual about her house. Around midnight, all three of the roommates heard a loud boom or thud coming from the direction of Parlato’s house. When they went outside to investigate the noise, they saw a truck parked in Parlato’s driveway and, through an open kitchen window and open curtains, observed a man standing at her kitchen sink. The man appeared to be doing dishes; the water was .running and items were clanking around in the sink. Saunders and Carlin recognized the man as Sexton because they had seen him cutting Parlato’s grass and he had approached them on several occasions inquiring whether they were interested in his lawn care services. They also recognized the truck in Parlato’s driveway as Sexton’s. They thought it was odd that Sexton was at Parlato’s at such a late hour,- but they were not too concerned because Par-lato was a “night owl.” They assumed that maybe Sexton was helping Parlato with something and decided just to take down the license plate number from the truck and go back to bed. After learning of Parlato’s murder the next day, Carlin provided the plate number from the truck to the police, who confirmed that the truck was registered to Sexton and his wife, Catherine. Although Saunders and Carlin were unable to pick Sexton out 'front sets of six photographs shown to them by police, they both identified him at trial as the man they saw in Parlato’s kitchen after midnight on September 23, 2010.

Several hours after Parlato’s body was discovered, Pasco County Sheriffs Detectives Robert Grady and Jason Hatcher went to speak with Sexton at his home, which was located less than a mile from Parlato’s house.. Sexton was standing outside when the detectives arrived. He was wearing a gray T-shirt and khaki shorts, which appeared to have bloodstains on them. When the detectives approached, Sexton appeared nervous, his hands were shaking, and he kept trying to turn his knuckles inwards. Sexton had a small, half-moon-shaped cut on his right knuckle, which he said was caused by a razor blade he used to trim a tree earlier that week. The conversation was recorded by a device in Detective Hatcher’s pocket.

. The detectives told Sexton that they were there because Parlato had been murdered. Sexton acted surprised by the news. He said he had last seen Parlato the night before when he stopped by her house around 8 p.m. or. 8:30 p.m. to ask if she wanted any more work done in her, yard. He said that he was only there for about ten-minutes and had talked to Parlato in her foyer. Sexton said that after he left Parlato’s, he went to a bar for one beer and then he drove around and had another beer in the car before going home around 10:30 p.m.

[552]*552During the conversation, Sexton’s wife, Catherine, came outside, and Sexton told her that Parlato had been murdered. Sexton asked Catherine what time he got home the night before. He asked her, “10:30, maybe? Something like that?” and then stated, “She doesn’t remember.” Detective Grady said that Catherine then said to him in a quiet voice, which was not picked up by the recording device, “He’s not telling the truth.

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Bluebook (online)
221 So. 3d 547, 42 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 713, 2017 WL 2806993, 2017 Fla. LEXIS 1431, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/john-sexton-v-state-of-florida-fla-2017.