Sims v. State

681 So. 2d 1112, 1996 WL 399962
CourtSupreme Court of Florida
DecidedJuly 18, 1996
Docket83612
StatusPublished
Cited by39 cases

This text of 681 So. 2d 1112 (Sims 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
Sims v. State, 681 So. 2d 1112, 1996 WL 399962 (Fla. 1996).

Opinion

681 So.2d 1112 (1996)

Merrit Alonso SIMS, Appellant,
v.
STATE of Florida, Appellee.

No. 83612.

Supreme Court of Florida.

July 18, 1996.
Rehearing Denied October 24, 1996.

*1113 Bennett H. Brummer, Public Defender and Christina A. Spaulding, Assistant Public Defender, Miami, for Appellant.

Robert A. Butterworth, Attorney General and Fariba N. Komeily, Assistant Attorney General, Miami, for Appellee.

PER CURIAM.

We have on appeal the convictions of armed robbery and first-degree murder and the sentence of death imposed on Merrit Alonso Sims. We have jurisdiction. Art. V, § 3(b)(1), Fla. Const.

Charles Stafford, a Miami Springs police officer, followed Sims as he drove onto state road 112 on June 11, 1991. Premised upon his belief that Sims was driving a stolen car, Officer Stafford, in full uniform and driving a clearly marked police car, signaled to Sims to pull over on the exit ramp. It was subsequently discovered that Sims had borrowed the car from his cousin, Sam Mustipher, but when Sims failed to return the car as promised, Mustipher reported it stolen.

As Officer Stafford was handcuffing him, Sims struck the officer in the head with his police radio, robbed him of his police pistol, and shot him twice. Sims admitted shooting Officer Stafford, who subsequently died from his wounds, but asserted from the outset that he had done so in self-defense after Officer Stafford had choked him, used racial epithets, and repeatedly threatened to kill him. After the shooting, Sims drove to a park and threw the gun into a river. He spent the night in his car, changed his clothes in the morning, and found a friend to cut the handcuff off his arm. Four days later, Sims arrived by bus in California searching for his former girlfriend and their two children. He testified that he intended to surrender to police the next day, but panicked and tried to escape when the police arrived. Sims confessed to the crime and waived extradition.

Sims was convicted of first-degree murder and armed robbery. The court found six aggravating circumstances,[1] no statutory mitigating circumstances, and attributed little or no weight to the nonstatutory mitigating circumstances presented by the defense. Sims was sentenced to death for the murder of Officer Stafford and a term of seventy-five years imprisonment for the armed robbery. He raises eleven issues on appeal.[2]

*1114 First, we address Sims' contention that the court failed to conduct an adequate Richardson[3] hearing when the state surprised the defense by calling Sims' parole officer, Essie Lynn, as a witness. When the state calls an unlisted witness, and the defendant asserts a violation of the discovery rule, Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.220(b), as in the instant case, the trial court must conduct a Richardson hearing. See Richardson, 246 So.2d at 775. We reiterate the Richardson requirement as stated in our decision in State v. Hall, 509 So.2d 1093 (Fla. 1987):

Richardson states that although the trial court has discretion in determining whether the state's noncompliance with the discovery rules resulted in harm or prejudice to the defendant, such discretion could be exercised only after the court made an adequate inquiry into all of the surrounding circumstances. At a minimum the scope of this inquiry should cover such questions as whether the state's violation was inadvertent or willful, whether the violation was trivial or substantial, and, most importantly, whether the violation affected the defendant's ability to prepare for trial.

Id. at 1096.

The trial court properly recognized that a Richardson hearing was required and inquired as to the prosecutor's reasons for the omission and the nature of the testimony to be adduced:

THE COURT: Tell me why her name isn't on the list first.
MR. ROSENBERG [prosecutor]: I can't find it in my discovery, but she is listed as 127 in my discovery for the trial packet, which is prepared from the additional discovery list gone out. But I can't find it.
. . . .
I get a list prior to trial, witness list of every witness, through the computer, of discovery that's listed in the office. Witness 127 is Essie Lynn on my sheet. I have looked through my discovery and I don't see her name, but it's so long that something—that I don't have my additional discovery or I fail to list her name or I gave it to my secretary to put it on the additional discovery sheet and it was not handed out.
THE COURT: What would she testify to?
MR. ROSENBERG: The defense, months ago, listed a witness by the name of Linda Vestman (phonetic), who is a probation officer with Essie Lynn. I took Linda Vestman's deposition. She told both myself and Mr. Carter [defense counsel] that it's not her that was the control officer for the defendant, it's Essie Lynn.
THE COURT: Okay.
MR. ROSENBERG: Along with that, Mr. Carter and Mr. Pitts were provided in discovery all the community control—I should say all the controlled release papers signed by Ms. Lynn and the defendant. So apparently it was inadvertence by me not putting her name on additional discovery, but both counsel have known for months about Ms. Lynn. In fact, Ms. Lynn was the control officer who did the arrest warrant for the defendant when he was in California. So as far as the Richardson hearing goes, it is clear that I provided all discovery with her name and it's clear that inadvertently I failed to place her name [on the witness list].
MS. LEHNER [prosecutor]: The defense has also been aware since sometime last week that the state will be establishing in this case that the defendant was a parolee. *1115 In fact, that's in the third paragraph of the state's motion in limine.[4]
. . . .
MR. ROSENBERG: Ms. Lynn has a form which the defendant signed upon his release indicating that if you either possess, use or have narcotics, you're in violation of your controlled release from state prison.
. . . .
[T]he State is entitled to prove motive on premeditated murder. That's our theory. I am entitled to show the reason, and I am going to argue the reason why he killed Officer Stafford. Forget the stolen car. He knew it wasn't stolen. That's not the reason. He killed Charlie Stafford because Charles Stafford was going to find that he is using his cousin's car to transport drugs and he is going to go back to state prison for it.

Sims claims that he was prejudiced by the surprise witness, and had he known the state's theory of the case, he would have demanded a separate hearing to determine the admissibility of the dog-alert testimony.[5] The court found that the omission of Lynn's name from the witness list was inadvertent and that Sims was not procedurally prejudiced. We conclude that the trial court's inquiry complied with the minimum requirements set forth in Richardson and in light of the evidence adduced at the Richardson hearing, we find that the violation neither surprised nor prejudiced Sims.

Sims argues that the trial court erred in admitting Lynn's testimony to prove that he violated parole without clear and convincing evidence of his drug possession. We reject this argument.

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Bluebook (online)
681 So. 2d 1112, 1996 WL 399962, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sims-v-state-fla-1996.