Melehan v. State

126 So. 3d 1118, 2012 WL 2012218, 2012 Fla. App. LEXIS 9064
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedJune 6, 2012
DocketNo. 4D09-5326
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 126 So. 3d 1118 (Melehan v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Melehan v. State, 126 So. 3d 1118, 2012 WL 2012218, 2012 Fla. App. LEXIS 9064 (Fla. Ct. App. 2012).

Opinion

CONNER, J.

Patrick Melehan appeals his conviction and sentence for manslaughter and burglary with an assault or battery after a trial by jury. He argues the trial court erred in four ways: (1) failing to grant a mistrial after improperly admitting deposition testimony of an eyewitness, (2) allowing improper testimony that the eyewitness was threatened by Melehan’s friends, (3) failing to grant a mistrial after an improper comment during opening statement by the State and after the arresting officer testified before the jury that Melehan did not make any statements when arrested, and (4) failing to grant a judgment of acquittal. The evidence presented during the trial presents a highly unusual factual scenario for appellate review. The State charged Melehan with the second degree murder of the victim (“C.L.”), but the jury found him guilty of manslaughter. C.L. died as the result of a thin, L-shaped rod, approximately five feet long, being impaled in his head while driving his truck. No witnesses testified as to how the rod came to be impaled into C.L.’s head. No witness testified seeing the rod before it was sticking out of C.L.’s head. No witness could explain where the rod came from.

[1121]*1121The trial judge denied motions for mistrial on two different occasions when the State elicited inadmissible evidence. Instead of granting a mistrial, the trial judge gave curative instructions both times. The grounds asserted for mistrial were renewed in a post-trial motion for new trial. Having considered carefully the peculiar circumstances of this case, we determine that the trial judge abused her discretion in denying the motions for mistrial. Thus, we reverse and remand the case for a new trial.

Discussion of the Facts and the Trial

The victim (“C.L.”) drove his pickup truck to a residence in Jupiter to visit a friend. While driving to his friend’s house, C.L. passed in front of a house where Melehan was living with others. Melehan had several friends at his house that day. C.L. had ongoing problems with one of Meleharis friends, who was not at the house at that time. As C.L. drove past Meleharis house, a verbal confrontation arose between C.L. and some of Meleharis friends who were in the front yard. Mele-han was inside the house the first time C.L. drove past the house. C.L. made threats to shoot or kill some of them. C.L. then drove away from the house, but returned about fifteen minutes later and slowly drove by in front of the house again.

Having learned of the confrontation when C.L. passed by the first time, Mele-han was outside in the driveway of the house as C.L. approached the second time. Melehan was angry about C.L.’s confrontational behavior. Melehan and two of his friends approached C.L.’s truck, and a verbal confrontation between the three of them and C.L. ensued. C.L. started to drive away a second time, at which time Melehan and one of the other two friends ran to catch up to the truck. Melehan was seen striking the truck with his fist and moving toward the driver’s side door. Me-lehan was also seen jumping onto the running board on the driver’s side of the truck, reaching into the window, and punching at C.L. When Melehan jumped off, the truck began to drive in a circular motion through an intersection, at one point going through a yard, and eventually rolling to a stop straddling the edge of a street.1 After the truck stopped, C.L. was seen with a metal rod impaled into his head.

There was evidence the rod was approximately five feet long and 3/10 of an inch in diameter.2 The evidence showed the rod was bent in an “L” shape, with one leg being slightly longer than the other. The eyewitnesses who first saw the rod in C.L.’s head described that C.L. sat slumped in the driver’s seat with the truck running and the rod was protruding out of the driver’s window. The front windshield of the truck had to be removed by emergency responders, and the rod had to be cut by them before the driver’s door could be opened to remove C.L. from the vehicle.

The rod was blunt on both ends. One end went through the top of C.L.’s skull near the hair line and exited the back of the skull, but did not puncture through the skin on the back of the head. The defense expert testified the rod was bent before it entered C.L.’s skull. The defense expert also opined that given the force necessary to bend the rod, the composition of the steel, and the uniform smoothness of the curve in the rod, the rod was bent using a tool and not using one’s knee and two hands.

No witness testimony was presented at trial as to how C.L. came to be impaled by [1122]*1122the metal rod.3 Although there was DNA evidence obtained from the rod, the DNA evidence did not link Melehan to the rod. C.L. died from the injury in the hospital shortly after the incident. He was not conscious at the scene and never regained consciousness due to massive brain injury.

Melehan was arrested two days after the incident and charged with second degree murder with a weapon and burglary with an assault or battery. Prior to his arrest, Melehan knew that the police wanted him to come in for questioning; however, he did not follow through with arrangements made to speak to the police.

Prior to trial, counsel for Melehan took a discovery deposition of A.S. A.S. was not only one of Melehan’s roommates at the time, but also an eyewitness to the incident. A.S. testified in the deposition that he saw Melehan pick up “something off the ground and in a javelin form throw it towards the car,” referring to C.L.’s truck. After A.S.’s deposition, but before trial, A.S. told the prosecutor he would invoke the Fifth Amendment if called to testify because he was concerned about being charged with perjury if he repeated his deposition testimony at trial.

At trial, a proffer of A.S.’s testimony was made by the State. During the proffer, A.S. did not invoke his Fifth Amendment privilege. Instead, he consistently and repeatedly stated he did not remember any details of the events surrounding the incident except that he saw Melehan slap C.L.’s truck as he was running beside it. When specifically asked if he saw Me-lehan throw an object toward the truck, A.S. testified that he didn’t remember. The State then sought leave to call A.S. to testify before the jury and use his deposition testimony if he claimed before the jury that he could not remember the event.

The defense anticipated A.S. would invoke the Fifth Amendment and the State would attempt to introduce his deposition testimony. Melehan’s trial counsel filed a memorandum of law in opposition to the use of A.S.’s testimony for substantive purposes.4 Trial counsel argued the deposition testimony could not be used for impeachment because A.S. was claiming a lack of memory; thus, there was no inconsistent statement. Trial counsel also argued that A.S.’s deposition testimony could not be used for substantive purposes because such use would violate Melehan’s right of confrontation, citing State v. Lopez, 974 So.2d 340 (Fla.2008) and Leighty v. State, 981 So.2d 484 (Fla. 4th DCA 2008). Trial counsel further argued that A.S.’s claim of lack of memory deprived Melehan of the opportunity to cross-examine A.S. in front of the jury on the statement that he saw Melehan pick something up and throw it at C.L.’s truck.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
126 So. 3d 1118, 2012 WL 2012218, 2012 Fla. App. LEXIS 9064, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/melehan-v-state-fladistctapp-2012.