Nowitzke v. State

572 So. 2d 1346, 1990 WL 198321
CourtSupreme Court of Florida
DecidedDecember 6, 1990
Docket71729
StatusPublished
Cited by59 cases

This text of 572 So. 2d 1346 (Nowitzke v. State) 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
Nowitzke v. State, 572 So. 2d 1346, 1990 WL 198321 (Fla. 1990).

Opinion

572 So.2d 1346 (1990)

Frederick NOWITZKE, Appellant,
v.
STATE of Florida, Appellee.

No. 71729.

Supreme Court of Florida.

December 6, 1990.

*1348 James Marion Moorman, Public Defender and Steven L. Bolotin, Asst. Public Defender, Tenth Judicial Circuit, Bartow, for appellant.

Robert A. Butterworth, Atty. Gen., and William L. Munsey, Jr., Asst. Atty. Gen., Tampa, for appellee.

PER CURIAM.

Frederick Nowitzke appeals two convictions for first-degree murder and one conviction for attempted murder as well as the imposition of the death penalty.[1] We reverse the convictions, vacate the sentence, and remand for a new trial.

At the time of the shootings in this case, Nowitzke lived with his mother Frances, his stepfather Clay Carroll, and two of Clay's children, Lori and Bret. Clay testified that on November 16, 1985 he and Bret were watching TV while Frances and Lori prepared dinner. Nowitzke came home, went into the bathroom, then went back outside through the patio and back door. After dinner, Lori left to baby-sit, and Clay and Bret watched more TV. Nowitzke reentered the house and went to his room where Frances spoke with him for about twenty minutes. When they emerged, Clay noticed that Nowitzke had a shotgun in his hand and another gun strapped to his side. Clay grabbed Nowitzke, knocked him against the wall and took the shotgun away. Nowitzke then pulled out the other gun and shot Clay in the head. Although injured, Clay did not lose consciousness and heard more shots. After Nowitzke left, Clay discovered the bodies of Frances and Bret lying on the floor. Frances had a gunshot wound in the back of her head; Bret had a gunshot wound in his right temple and another in his left flank. Frances and Bret both died from the head injuries. Clay was hospitalized for several weeks, but recovered following surgery for a fractured jaw.

Witnesses testified that several months before the shootings, Nowitzke began acting strangely. He was sure people were watching him; he talked about a black raven-type bird that followed him everywhere; he made "weird and bizarre" statements; he appeared suicidal and was obsessed with a lake, continually remarking that the bottom of the lake was calling to him and that there was a doorway through the lake. Witnesses who saw Nowitzke on the day before the shootings testified that he was worse than usual. They observed that he was unresponsive, detached, and confused.

A family history revealed that Nowitzke's grandmother was diagnosed in the 1930s as having "dementia praecox," commonly known today as schizophrenia, and died in a New Jersey state hospital. Nowitzke's great-grandfather spent the last ten years of his life in a mental institution in Italy, in a catatonic, schizophrenic state.

After Nowitzke's arrest on the night of the shootings, police videotaped an interview with the defendant in which he confessed. He was charged with first-degree murder of his mother and stepbrother and with attempted first-degree murder of his stepfather. The court postponed the trial because it found Nowitzke incompetent to stand trial. Nowitzke was hospitalized at *1349 the North Florida Evaluation and Treatment Center for six months. When he was pronounced competent, he was returned, tried, and found guilty on all counts. After the penalty phase, the jury recommended life imprisonment for the murder of Frances Carroll, and death (by a 7-to-5 vote) for the murder of Bret Carroll. The judge sentenced Nowitzke to life imprisonment for the murder of Frances, death for the murder of Bret, and imposed a consecutive prison sentence of seventeen years on the attempted murder charge.

Nowitzke raises multiple claims, two of which we find dispositive. First, Nowitzke claims that the trial court erred in refusing to order a second competency hearing immediately prior to trial. On the Friday before the trial was to begin, the prosecution offered Nowitzke concurrent life sentences on the murder charges and a consecutive twenty-two-year sentence on the attempted murder charge in return for a guilty plea. When his attorney conveyed the plea offer, Nowitzke rejected it, stating that he believed he would be released on July 4, 1989 because it was Independence Day and because of the number of letters in his three names. Nowitzke stated he obtained this information from a judge in his dreams. He laughed at the possibility of a death sentence, telling his lawyers that the trial was a necessary "step" he must go through; but since he would be spiritually released on July 4, 1989, he could not be executed. Nowitzke's attorney conveyed this information to the judge and moved for a competency hearing. The judge summarily denied the motion on the basis of the competency evaluation made three months earlier when Nowitzke had been returned for trial from the North Florida Treatment Center. We find that the trial judge erred in failing to conduct a competency hearing.

Under both Florida and federal law, it is well settled that due process prohibits a person accused of a crime from being proceeded against while incompetent. Lane v. State, 388 So.2d 1022, 1024-25 (Fla. 1980) (and cases cited therein). Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.210 unambiguously requires the trial court to order a competency examination and conduct a hearing when it "has reasonable ground to believe that the defendant is not mentally competent to proceed." This obligation is a continuing one.

In Pridgen v. State, 531 So.2d 951 (Fla. 1988), we quoted from Drope v. Missouri, 420 U.S. 162, 95 S.Ct. 896, 43 L.Ed.2d 103 (1975), wherein the United States Supreme Court recognized:

Even when a defendant is competent at the commencement of his trial, a trial court must always be alert to circumstances suggesting a change that would render the accused unable to meet the standards of competence to stand trial.

Pridgen, 531 So.2d at 954 (quoting Drope, 420 U.S. at 180-81, 95 S.Ct. at 908). We then noted:

Florida courts have also held that the determination of the defendant's mental condition during trial may require the trial judge to suspend proceedings and order a competency hearing. Scott v. State, 420 So.2d 595 (Fla. 1982); Holmes v. State, 494 So.2d 230 (Fla. 3d DCA 1986). See Lane v. State, 388 So.2d 1022 (Fla. 1980) (finding of competency to stand trial made nine months before does not control in view of evidence of possible incompetency presented by experts at hearing held on eve of trial).

Pridgen, 531 So.2d at 954.

Thus, a prior determination of competency does not control when new evidence suggests the defendant is at the current time incompetent. See also Lane, 388 So.2d at 1022. In this case, defense counsel presented ample reasonable grounds to believe that Nowitzke might be incompetent. See Scott v. State, 420 So.2d 595, 597 (Fla. 1982) (a finding of incompetency is based on "whether there is reasonable ground to believe the defendant may be incompetent, not whether he is incompetent"). While refusing a plea offer in itself is not evidence of incompetence, here the reasons Nowitzke gave for refusing the *1350 offer indicate a lack of rational thought process such that it is doubtful whether Nowitzke had the present ability to assist his attorneys or understand the proceedings against him. Thus, the trial court should have held a second competency hearing.

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572 So. 2d 1346, 1990 WL 198321, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/nowitzke-v-state-fla-1990.