Maglio v. State

918 So. 2d 369, 2005 WL 3478162
District Court of Appeal of Florida·Decided December 21, 2005·No. 4D03-3442·Published·Cited by 13 cases

Opinion

918 So.2d 369 (2005)

Daniel John MAGLIO, Appellant,
v.
STATE of Florida, Appellee.

No. 4D03-3442.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fourth District.

December 21, 2005.
Rehearing Denied February 10, 2006.

*372 John Olea of John Olea, P.A., Palm Beach Gardens, for appellant.

Charles J. Crist, Jr., Attorney General, Tallahassee, and Laura Fisher Zibura, Assistant Attorney General, West Palm Beach, for appellee.

POLEN, J.

Daniel Maglio timely appeals a conviction, following a jury trial, for second degree murder and a sentence of life in prison. We affirm.

Maglio was convicted as charged of the second degree murder of Jeffrey Shubin. The following evidence was adduced at trial:

On June 17, 1997 at approximately 6:25 a.m., Detective Paul Yesbeck responded to a dumpster fire in Hallandale Beach. Both the dumpster and the body of Jeffrey Shubin on the ground next to the dumpster were engulfed in flames. Doctor Flanagan, a forensic pathologist, testified that the victim had been deceased a few days when he was burned, based on the significant amount of decomposition. The general timeframe for when Shubin was killed was between June 12 and 17. The cause of death was blunt head trauma. Flanagan testified that the injuries were consistent with someone bashing his head in with a wrench. Underneath Shubin's face, there were several skull fractures, as well as fractures of the facial bones and jaw. Flanagan testified that it would take a large amount of force to cause that degree of fracture.

Detective Daniel Semkow, the lead investigator assigned to the case, encountered Maglio two times on June 17, 1997, the day the burning body was discovered. Semkow first encountered Maglio at approximately 9:30 a.m.-10:00 a.m. in front of the apartment building. Maglio told Semkow that he lived in apartment number 3 and that he had been out all night and not in his apartment. He claimed he had spent the night with Kimberly Segar at the Beach House Inn and was just returning. An officer went to the Beach House that day to investigate. The officer met with Kimberly Segar and Romano Ceravolo, who were renting a room there. At the Beach House, the officer found Shubin's gym shoes in a trash can. The shoes smelled very rancid like rotting flesh. Maglio's DNA was found on the right shoe.

Detective Semkow encountered Maglio again at approximately 1 p.m. the day the burning body was discovered. Maglio was coming out of his apartment with another man and was locking the door. Maglio again claimed that he had been out all night and that he had just gotten home the first time Semkow saw him at around 10:00 a.m.

Detective Yesbeck investigated Maglio's apartment during the area canvas following the discovery of the burning body. No one answered the door when the officer knocked. The window was slightly ajar and Yesbeck could smell what smelled like a deceased person inside. He also observed dead flies on the window sill, which sometimes indicated that maggots had started to grow on the body and turn into *373 flies. Photographs of drag marks coming from Maglio's apartment building were introduced into evidence.

A search of Maglio's apartment revealed a pipe wrench lying on the floor next to Maglio's bed, from which blood was extracted for DNA testing. DNA specialist Donna Marchese matched the blood on the wrench found in Maglio's apartment to an oral swab of the victim. There were no fingerprints on the wrench. Officers also found a trash can containing a pair of hospital scrubs belonging to Maglio, which were partially burned, with what appeared to be human tissue on the trousers. There was blood in Maglio's apartment on the mattress, the headboard, and the floor leading to the bathroom. The mattress was drenched in blood. The DNA of the blood on the mattress matched Shubin's. Three white socks, a towel, and a sheet found in a trash bag were also blood soaked. The bed was completely soaked in blood, the items stained in blood were removed from the bed, and the bed was remade. The apartment was very filthy, but the bathroom tub and sink had been cleaned. Based on the blood found at the crime scene, law enforcement concluded that the homicide occurred in Maglio's bedroom.

The police also noticed brush marks of some kind of paint on the wall above Maglio's headboard. A Kilz Stain Blocker paint can was found underneath Maglio's bed with a brush on top. The blood found in the painted-over drywall from above Maglio's headboard matched Shubin's DNA. Additionally, Maglio's fingerprints were found on the Kilz paint can. Detective Semkow learned that Shubin had been evicted from his trailer and was living in Maglio's apartment at the time of his death. Semkow also learned that people often came and went from Maglio's apartment. One of these people was Kimberly Segar. Semkow also testified that he explored the possibility that the killing was related to drugs.

Gerald Kairnes worked at the nearby Chevron gas station and lived in number 4 of the subject apartment building. Kairnes testified that at 5:38 a.m. on the morning the body was found burning, Maglio purchased a dollar's worth of gasoline from him and put it in an empty can. Maglio took the can with the gasoline and headed north on U.S. 1. Kairnes got off of work at 6:57 a.m. He also headed north on U.S. 1, in the same direction Maglio had walked away from the Chevron station, and came upon the crime scene. Kairnes picked Maglio out of a photograph lineup as the one he sold the dollar's worth of gasoline to that morning. Forensic chemist Randy Hilliard testified that the blanket the body was wrapped in and the debris found under and around the body revealed the presence of gasoline.

Roger Pace, who lived in apartment 4 with Kairnes, shared a common wall with Maglio's apartment. Leading to the day of the burning body, he noticed a terrible odor that kept getting worse. Pace smelled the odor for three or four days and it kept getting stronger. Pace also testified that on June 17, 1997 between 8:00 and 8:30 a.m., he saw Maglio exit his apartment alone.

Pace testified that in the week immediately preceding the week of the discovery of the body there was "quite a bit" of traffic in and out of Maglio's apartment. However, during the week right before the body was discovered, there was very little traffic. He also did not hear anything out of the ordinary during the week the body was found. Pace did not remember if he saw Maglio during the several days before the discovery of the body. Pace also testified that he once saw a lady he knew as Kim breaking into Maglio's apartment *374 through the kitchen window. Pace had seen Kim in the company of men coming and going in Maglio's apartment on several occasions. He also said that they had a lot of trouble with people coming and going through a gate on the side of the apartment building.

Maglio did not testify at trial, nor did he provide any witnesses in his defense.

Maglio first argues that the trial court erred in denying his motion for judgment of acquittal. "The standard of review for a court's denial of a judgment of acquittal is de novo." Sampson v. State, 863 So.2d 404, 405 (Fla. 4th DCA 2003) (citation omitted). In addressing the question of sufficiency of the evidence when moving for a judgment of acquittal, Maglio admits the facts adduced in evidence and every conclusion favorable to the state which is fairly and reasonably inferable therefrom. Spinkellink v. State, 313 So.2d 666, 670 (Fla.1975), cert. denied, 428 U.S. 911, 96 S.Ct. 3227, 49 L.Ed.2d 1221 (1976).

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Maglio v. State, 918 So. 2d 369, 2005 WL 3478162 (Fla. Ct. App. 2005).

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