Wainwright v. State

896 So. 2d 695, 2004 WL 2694943
CourtSupreme Court of Florida
DecidedNovember 24, 2004
DocketSC02-1342, SC02-2021
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 896 So. 2d 695 (Wainwright 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
Wainwright v. State, 896 So. 2d 695, 2004 WL 2694943 (Fla. 2004).

Opinion

896 So.2d 695 (2004)

Anthony Floyd WAINWRIGHT, Appellant,
v.
STATE of Florida, Appellee.
Anthony Floyd Wainwright, Petitioner,
v.
James V. Crosby, Jr., etc., Respondent.

Nos. SC02-1342, SC02-2021.

Supreme Court of Florida.

November 24, 2004.
Rehearing Denied March 1, 2005.

*696 Joseph T. Hobson of McFarland, Gould, Lyons, Sullivan and Hogan, P.A., Clearwater, FL, for Appellant/Petitioner.

Charles J. Crist, Jr., Attorney General, Cassandra K. Dolgin, Meredith Charbula and Charmaine M. Millsaps, Assistants Attorney General, Tallahassee, FL, for Appellee/Respondent.

PER CURIAM.

Anthony Floyd Wainwright, an inmate under sentence of death, appeals an order denying his motion for postconviction relief under Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850 and petitions for a writ of habeas *697 corpus. We have jurisdiction. See art. V, § 3(b)(1), (9), Fla. Const. For the reasons stated below, we affirm the denial of Wainwright's motion and deny the petition.

I. FACTS

Wainwright was convicted of first-degree murder, armed robbery, armed kidnapping, and armed sexual battery. He was sentenced to death. The facts of Wainwright's crimes are discussed in this Court's opinion in Wainwright v. State, 704 So.2d 511, 512-13 (Fla.1997). We briefly restate them.

Wainwright and his co-defendant, Richard Hamilton, escaped from a North Carolina prison and made their way to Florida in a stolen car. In April 1994, when the car overheated in Lake City, Florida, the men abducted at gunpoint Carmen Gayheart, a young mother of two, as she loaded groceries into her Ford Bronco. They stole the Bronco and drove north on Interstate 75. The men raped, strangled, and executed Gayheart by shooting her twice in the back of the head. They were arrested the next day in Mississippi following a shootout with a trooper. Wainwright and Hamilton were tried in a single trial with separate juries.

This Court affirmed Wainwright's convictions and sentence on direct appeal. Wainwright, 704 So.2d at 512. Wainwright later filed a motion for postconviction relief under Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850, raising 14 issues.[1] After a Huff[2] hearing, the trial court granted an evidentiary hearing on claims 4, 7, 10, 12, and 14. After the evidentiary hearing, the court denied relief on all claims.

II. 3.850 APPEAL

On appeal, Wainwright raises eight issues. We affirm the trial court's denial of relief as to all the issues raised. Only three issues merit extended discussion: (1) whether trial counsel was ineffective regarding the admission of additional DNA evidence; (2) whether trial counsel was ineffective regarding Wainwright's statements and admissions; and (3) whether initial counsel was ineffective in his pretrial representation of Wainwright.

To prevail on a claim that defense counsel provided ineffective assistance, a defendant must demonstrate specific acts or omissions of counsel that are "so serious that counsel was not functioning as the `counsel' guaranteed the defendant *698 by the Sixth Amendment." Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 687, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984). The defendant must also demonstrate prejudice by "show[ing] that there is a reasonable probability that, but for counsel's unprofessional errors, the result of the proceeding would have been different. A reasonable probability is a probability sufficient to undermine confidence in the outcome." Id. at 694, 104 S.Ct. 2052. Ineffective assistance of counsel claims present mixed questions of law and fact subject to plenary review. This Court independently reviews the trial court's legal conclusions, while giving deference to the trial court's factual findings. Occhicone v. State, 768 So.2d 1037, 1045 (Fla.2000).

A. Additional DNA Evidence

Wainwright first claims that trial counsel was ineffective with respect to additional DNA evidence the State introduced after opening statements. At the time of trial, the State had provided the defense with three genetic loci on the sperm sample from the back seat of the victim's car. At the end of the day following opening statements, the State informed trial counsel that new test results revealed three additional genetic loci, making a total of six, and that odds against the donor being anyone but Wainwright were now astronomical. Wainwright, 704 So.2d at 514. On day eight of the proceedings (opening statements occurred on day four), trial counsel filed a motion in limine seeking to exclude the additional DNA evidence. The trial court heard arguments on the motion, denied it, and gave the defense 24 hours to prepare for the conclusion of the testing. On direct appeal, this Court held the trial court did not err in admitting the additional evidence. Wainwright, 704 So.2d at 514-15. This Court noted that trial counsel made no subsequent objection after the twenty-four hour continuance. Id. at 515.

Wainwright now claims that trial counsel was ineffective for failing to preserve the issue and for failing to raise the issue of prosecutorial misconduct or discovery violation. The trial court denied this claim without an evidentiary hearing, finding it procedurally barred.

"[A] defendant is entitled to an evidentiary hearing on a postconviction relief motion unless (1) the motion, files, and records in the case conclusively show that the prisoner is entitled to no relief, or (2) the motion or a particular claim is legally insufficient." Freeman v. State, 761 So.2d 1055, 1061 (Fla.2000). Where the motion lacks sufficient factual allegations, or where alleged facts do not render the judgment vulnerable to collateral attack, the motion may be summarily denied. Ragsdale v. State, 720 So.2d 203, 207 (Fla.1998). However, in cases where there has been no evidentiary hearing, this Court must accept the factual allegations made by the defendant to the extent that they are not refuted by the record. See Peede v. State, 748 So.2d 253, 257 (Fla.1999). In other words, this Court must examine each claim to determine if it is legally sufficient, and if so, determine whether or not the claim is refuted by the record. Atwater v. State, 788 So.2d 223, 229 (Fla.2001).

The trial court properly denied this claim because it is refuted by the record. The record demonstrates that trial counsel did preserve the issue; trial counsel filed a motion in limine seeking to exclude the DNA evidence and argued the motion to the trial court. In fact, this Court addressed the issue of the admissibility of the evidence on direct appeal, which demonstrates that the issue was preserved. Also, during the arguments on the motion, trial counsel argued that the defense was prejudiced by the discovery being provided after opening statements. The defendant is entitled to an evidentiary hearing on a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel if *699 he alleges specific "facts which are not conclusively rebutted by the record and which demonstrate a deficiency in performance that prejudiced the defendant." Gaskin v. State, 737 So.2d 509, 516 (Fla.1999) (quoting Roberts v. State, 568 So.2d 1255, 1259 (Fla.1990)).

Even if counsel's performance were deficient, Wainwright has failed to demonstrate any prejudice. During trial, several witnesses testified that Wainwright admitted to sexually assaulting the victim.

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896 So. 2d 695, 2004 WL 2694943, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wainwright-v-state-fla-2004.