& SC16-6 John Lee Hampton v. State of Florida and John Lee Hampton v. Julie L. Jones, etc.

219 So. 3d 760
CourtSupreme Court of Florida
DecidedMay 4, 2017
DocketSC15-1360; SC16-6
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 219 So. 3d 760 (& SC16-6 John Lee Hampton v. State of Florida and John Lee Hampton v. Julie L. Jones, etc.) 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
& SC16-6 John Lee Hampton v. State of Florida and John Lee Hampton v. Julie L. Jones, etc., 219 So. 3d 760 (Fla. 2017).

Opinions

PER CURIAM.

John Lee Hampton appeals an order of the circuit court denying his motion to vacate his -conviction of first-degree murder and sentence of death filed under Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.851, and petitions this Court for a writ of habeas corpus. We have jurisdiction. See art. V, § 3(b)(1), (9), Fla. Const. For the reasons explained below, we affirm the postconviction court’s order to the extent it denies Hampton relief based upon his claim of ineffective assistance of guilt phase counsel. However, we decline to address the remaining issues because we grant the ha-beas petition and order that Hampton receive a new penalty phase proceeding in light of Hurst v. State (Hurst), 202 So.3d 40 (Fla. 2016), petition for cert. filed, No. 16-998 (U.S. Feb. 13, 2017).

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

This Court set forth the following facts on direct appeal:

On June 10, 2007, at approximately 10 a.m., the nude body of Renee McKinness (the victim), a twenty-five-year-old single mother of three, was found dead, lying face up in her own blood on the floor of her bedroom in her apartment in Clearwater, Florida. The victim’s bedroom was in a state of disarray, with drawers, clothes, and a mattress strewn about the room. The victim had suffered numerous injuries, including hemorrhaging of the brain, multiple sharp trauma injuries, defensive wounds, and the complete severing of her jugular vein. The victim’s face and eyes were bruised and swollen. The victim’s legs were spread open and her body had a petroleum-like odor. A blue soapy liquid was found in her vagina, along with semen. Two bloody handprints were found on the floor, one on each side of the body; and the walls and floor of the victim’s bedroom had blood spatters and stains suggestive of a struggle occurring on the floor.
A police officer who was called to the scene inspected the contents of a garbage dumpster outside the victim’s apartment and found bloody socks, a canister of lighter fluid, a bottle of cleaning solution, and bloody bed linens—all of which were collected for testing. While the police were processing the [766]*766crime scene and. gathering information by talking to the victim’s Mends and •neighbors, Reginald Span and his wife Dorothy, family friends of the victim who had received a ■ telephone call regarding the victim’s demise, drove to the crime scene and approached the police. Dorothy’s brother-in-law, John Lee Hampton (the defendant), a thirty-three-year-old man who had recently moved from Georgia into the Span household, had come with the Spans to the crime scene at Dorothy’s insistence. Although the Spans immediately approached the police, Hampton indicated he was “not going up there,” and walked to another part of the apartment complex to avoid the police.
■Unbeknownst to . Dorothy Span, her husband Reginald was having a romantic affair with the victim. And, on the previous evening into the early morning hours, Reginald, the victim, Hampton, and a female friend of the victim were at the victim’s.apartment drinking gin and playing cards. Although Reginald Span knew .that his story would not help his marriage,, he told the. police and his wife about the “card party” at the victim’s apartment. Upon hearing her husband’s version of events, Dorothy Span set out to find Hampton to encourage him to talk to the police. The lead detective from the Clearwater Police Department spoke to Hampton at the crime scene, and he noticed that Hampton was not wearing socks. The detective also noticed that Hampton had what appeared to be dried blood on his feet, pants, and his necklace....
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... Testimony introduced at trial established that none of the physical evidence that was collected linked Reginald Span to the murder of the victim.
Hampton’s Post-Miranda Statement
At the Clearwater Police Department, Hampton was photographed and swabs were taken from his feet, pants, and his necklace for DNA testing. Other than a small scrape on Hampton’s right foot, he had no injuries. After waiving his Miranda[1] rights, Hampton gave a two-hour videotaped statement to the police. During his post-Miranda statement, Hampton relayed at least eight different descriptions of what occurred in the early morning hours preceding the victim’s death....
In his first account of the events, Hampton told police that once he arrived at the Span residence in. the early morning hours, he went inside, drank a beer, and went to sleep in a chair downstairs. After further questioning, Hampton then relayed another version of the events, one that indirectly implicated Reginald Span as the individual who might have harmed the victim. In this narrative, Hampton stated that he “dozed off’ at the victim’s apartment after playing cards, and was awakened by Reginald Span who declared it was time to go home;- Hampton recounted that he saw the victim lying oh the floor, and that he tried to help her by performing CPR on her. Hampton reported that this was how his socks became saturated with the victim’s blood. In this version of the events, Reginald Span and Hampton then went back to the Span residence at 3 a.m. and went to sleep. While relaying this story, Hampton twice told the detectives that he did not have sex with the victim.
After further questioning by police, Hampton provided numerous additional narratives wherein he and the victim had sexual intercourse and he-thereafter killed the victim. In each of the varying descriptions of his sexual encounter with [767]*767the victim, Hampton reported that at some time during or after the sexual event, the victim attacked him with a knife, and that his act of killing the victim was in self-defense or accidental. In his final version of the events leading up to the victim’s death, Hampton stated that he and Reginald Span left the victim’s apartment at approximately 3 a.m., and after they arrived at the Span residence, Hampton did not go inside, taut rather returned alone to the victim’s apartment. Hampton recounted that upon his return to the victim’s apartment, he had sex'with her, she fell asleep, and he then attempted to steal money or drugs from her. According to Hampton, the victim caught Hampton riffling through her drawers, and in response to her attempt to stop him, he killed her with a knife. In this version of the story—consistent with the testimony of Réginald and Dorothy Span—Hampton returned to the Span residence when it was light outside. Hampton also admitted to using a rag, cleaning solution, and lighter fluid to try to clean his semen from the -victim’s vagina. Nevertheless, he insisted that his sexual encounter with the victim was consensual. Hampton also admitted to throwing his bloody socks, the bloody bed linens, and the ■ cleaning solution in the dumpster near the victim’s apartment. Upon further questioning, Hampton told police that Reginald Span was not involved in the victim’s death, and that Span was not at the victim’s apartment when Hampton killed her. Based on the evidence collected by the Clearwater Police Department, Hampton was charged on a single count of first-degree murder. Hampton pled not guilty.
The Trial
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219 So. 3d 760, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sc16-6-john-lee-hampton-v-state-of-florida-and-john-lee-hampton-v-julie-fla-2017.