Joseph Eli Bearden v. State of Florida

161 So. 3d 1257, 40 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 208, 2015 Fla. LEXIS 800, 2015 WL 1724590
CourtSupreme Court of Florida
DecidedApril 16, 2015
DocketSC12-1314
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 161 So. 3d 1257 (Joseph Eli Bearden 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
Joseph Eli Bearden v. State of Florida, 161 So. 3d 1257, 40 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 208, 2015 Fla. LEXIS 800, 2015 WL 1724590 (Fla. 2015).

Opinions

LABARGA, C.J.

Joseph Eli Bearden (Bearden) seeks review of the decision of the Second District Court of Appeal in Bearden v. State, 62 So.3d 656 (Fla. 2d DCA 2011), on the ground that it expressly and directly conflicts with a decision of another district court of appeal, DeWolfe v. State, 62 So.3d 1142 (Fla. 1st DCA 2011), on a question of law. Specifically, the district courts reached conflicting decisions on whether the judge or jury is charged with determining the credibility of an in-court witness testifying as to an out-of-court statement against penal interest made by a third party. We have jurisdiction. See art. V, § 3(b)(3), Fla. Const. For the following reasons, we quash the Second District’s decision in Bearden and approve the First District’s decision in DeWolfe.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

The facts of this case involve the underlying circumstances surrounding the murder of Ryan Skipper (Skipper) and the relevant events at Bearden’s trial for Skipper’s murder, which were set forth in the Second District’s opinion:

The murder victim was a young man named Ryan Skipper. On March 14, 2007, his body was found on the side of Morgan Road in the Wahneta area — he had been stabbed to death. The evidence at trial reflected that on March 13, 2007, Skipper left home in his car after taking a telephone call at 11:10 p.m. Shortly thereafter, he encountered Bearden, who was walking on the side of the road. Skipper picked up Bearden and drove a few blocks to J.T. Brown’s home. While Skipper waited outside, Bearden went inside and unsuccessfully attempted to trade a used laptop computer for drugs. Present in the residence were J.T. Brown, Ray Allen Brown (J.T.’s son), John Kirchoff (who was temporarily living there), and William Brown (J.T.’s nephew). All four of these men were methamphetamine users.
The events that followed Skipper and Bearden’s arrival at the Brown residence led to Skipper’s murder. And there was no question that William Brown wielded the knife used to kill Skipper. [n-2] But, as discussed below, Bearden’s conviction hinged on whether the jury accepted his version of the events as reflected in his pretrial statement [n-3] or the version testified to by J.T., Ray Allen, and Kirchoff at trial. Bearden’s version implicated William and Ray Allen in the murder; J.T., Ray Allen, and Kirchoffs version implicated William and Bearden.
[N.2.] William Brown was tried and convicted of the first-degree murder of Skipper. [1260]*1260His appeal is currently pending in this court under case number 2D 10-74.
[N.3.] Bearden did not testify in his own defense. But a few days after Skipper’s murder, Bearden voluntarily gave detectives a taped statement. The State played this statement for the jury at Bearden's trial.
J.T., Ray Allen, and Kirchoff testified that after Bearden and Skipper arrived, the generator providing electrical power to the residence began to falter because it was low on fuel. They asked Skipper to drive to a nearby gas station to buy gas for the generator. According to them, Skipper was accompanied on this trip by William, Ray Allen, and Kirchoff. Skipper and the three men returned from the gas station without incident. Thereafter, William, Bearden, and Skipper left in Skipper’s car while Ray Allen remained at home for the rest of the night and went to sleep.
This testimony conflicted with Bear-den’s pretrial statement that the trip to the gas station was a ruse to permit the Browns to rob Skipper. Bearden also claimed that only William and Ray Allen went with Skipper to buy gas and that they returned alone in Skipper’s car. When they returned, the men and the car were covered in blood. Although Bearden acknowledged that he knew of the Browns’ plan to rob Skipper, he claimed to have no idea that they would kill him. He admitted that he and William cleaned the car and unsuccessfully attempted to sell it or trade it for drugs. But he denied assisting in Skipper’s murder or being present when Skipper was killed.
Thus the critical issue of fact at Bear-den’s trial was whether Skipper was stabbed on the trip to get gas, as Bear-den claimed, or when Skipper drove away from the Browns’ residence after returning safely from that trip, as the State’s witnesses suggested. William— the person who actually stabbed Skip-
per — was in the ear on both trips. If the killing occurred during the trip to the gas station, Ray Allen was directly implicated in the killing because he went along on that trip, but Bearden did not. If the killing occurred after Skipper left the Brown residence the second time with William and Bearden, then Bearden was implicated and Ray Allen — who remained at the Brown residence and went to sleep — could not have had any direct involvement in the killing.
Skipper’s partially burned car was discovered near a boat ramp at a lake in the area. Law enforcement officers recovered several sets of fingerprints from the vehicle, including Bearden’s and William’s fingerprints. After law enforcement officers arrested Bearden, a grand jury indicted him for first-degree murder and robbery with a deadly weapon. The State sought the death penalty, but the jury’s verdict of second-degree murder eliminated the death penalty as a sentencing option. Cn-4] On the count charging Bearden with robbery with a deadly weapon, the jury found him guilty of the lesser-included offense of grand theft of a motor vehicle. The trial court sentenced Bearden to five years in prison on the grand theft of a motor vehicle conviction, to run concurrently with his life sentence. Bearden does not challenge his conviction and sentence for grand theft of a motor vehicle.
[N.4.] In a separate information, the State charged Bearden with accessory after the fact to first-degree murder, tampering with physical evidence, and dealing in stolen property. Bearden moved to consolidate the two cases, and the trial court granted his motion. Bear-den has not appealed the disposition of the charges filed in the separate information, and we do not address those matters further.

Bearden, 62 So.3d at 657-58.

Bearden’s Trial

Bearden’s trial began in February 2009. On the second day, a witness named Ange[1261]*1261la Tyler (Tyler) contacted the prosecutor’s office and a Sheriffs Office detective was sent to take her statement. Tyler was not previously identified as a witness during the investigation. Tyler told the detective that a few days after the murder Ray Allen Brown admitted to her that he was with William Brown in the car when Skipper was stabbed. After receiving a copy of Tyler’s statement, the defense planned to call her as a defense witness to impeach Ray Allen Brown’s anticipated testimony that he was not present at the time of the murder. Although the State planned to call Ray Allen Brown as a witness, his testimony was not presented in order to prevent the defense from impeaching him. Therefore, the defense called Ray Allen Brown as a defense witness, but did so prior to the proffer of Tyler’s testimony. Following Ray Allen Brown’s testimony, which was cumulative to that of J.T. Brown and Kirchoff, the defense announced that Ray Allen Brown was subject to recall.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
161 So. 3d 1257, 40 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 208, 2015 Fla. LEXIS 800, 2015 WL 1724590, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/joseph-eli-bearden-v-state-of-florida-fla-2015.