Young v. State

739 So. 2d 553, 1999 WL 394889
CourtSupreme Court of Florida
DecidedJune 10, 1999
Docket90,207
StatusPublished
Cited by27 cases

This text of 739 So. 2d 553 (Young 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
Young v. State, 739 So. 2d 553, 1999 WL 394889 (Fla. 1999).

Opinion

739 So.2d 553 (1999)

David YOUNG, Appellant,
v.
STATE of Florida, Appellee.

No. 90,207.

Supreme Court of Florida.

June 10, 1999.
Rehearings Denied September 15, 1999.

Todd G. Scher, Chief Assistant CCRC of the Capital Collateral Regional Counsel for the Southern Region, Miami, Florida, for Appellant.

Robert A. Butterworth, Attorney General, and Sara D. Baggett, Assistant Attorney General, West Palm Beach, Florida, for Appellee.

PER CURIAM.

David Young appeals an order entered by the trial court in which the trial judge *554 denied Young's motion for postconviction relief filed pursuant to Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850. We have jurisdiction. Art. V, § 3(b)(1), Fla. Const. We conclude that we must reverse the trial court's order because the trial court erred in limiting the scope of a postconviction evidentiary hearing so as to exclude review of exculpatory evidence that should have been disclosed pretrial pursuant to Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963). Because of the substance of the Brady information, which is undisputed, we remand for a new sentencing proceeding before a jury.

FACTS

The facts of this case are provided fully in our opinion on direct appeal. Young v. State, 579 So.2d 721 (Fla.1991). Young was indicted for the first-degree shotgun murder on August 31, 1986, of Clarence John Bell in Palm Beach County. Young's theory of defense at trial was self-defense, but trial testimony conflicted as to whether Young or Bell shot first. Three of the victim's neighbors testified that they were familiar with firearms and that the first and last shots came from a shotgun with pistol shots in between. Trooper Michael Brinker,[1] an off-duty state trooper working nearby as a security guard, also testified that shotgun blasts preceded and followed the pistol shots. Two of Young's companions testified that Bell shot first. The jury convicted Young as charged and, by a vote of ten to two, recommended a death sentence for the crime. After finding four aggravating circumstances[2] and little in mitigation,[3] the trial judge sentenced Young to death. In his sentencing order, the trial judge expressly relied upon Trooper Brinker's being "sure that the first shot fired was that of the blast of the short barreled shotgun" in finding the avoid-arrest aggravator.

PROCEDURAL HISTORY

On direct appeal, this Court found sufficient evidence for both premeditated and felony murder, struck the CCP aggravating circumstance, found harmless error in the trial court's CCP finding, and affirmed Young's conviction and sentence. Young, 579 So.2d at 724-25. In his postconviction motion pursuant to Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850, originally filed on May 13, 1993, and later amended, Young challenged his conviction and sentence on a variety of grounds. Following submission of proposed orders by both parties, the trial judge, in a written order dated December 27, 1996, summarily denied all claims except the claim alleging that trial counsel was ineffective during the guilt phase in failing to call two witnesses, Larry Hessemer and Elizabeth Painter, both of whom were neighbors of the victim and allegedly would have supported Young's theory of self-defense. Although the order denied Young's claim that the State failed to disclose certain documents asserted to be Brady material on the basis of materiality as to the conviction, the order was essentially silent regarding materiality as to the sentence. The court strictly limited the order for evidentiary hearing to defendant's claim of ineffective assistance of trial counsel in failing to present the two witnesses to support his self-defense claim.

An evidentiary hearing was held January 22, 1997, in which the court heard testimony from Hessemer, Painter, and Young's trial counsel. The trial judge filed a written order on January 27, 1997, finding that appellant failed to prove prejudice under Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. *555 668, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984), and materiality under Brady and denying relief on all claims. State v. Young, No. 86-8682-CF (Fla. 15th Cir. order filed Jan. 27, 1997). The trial judge found that testimony of Hessemer and Painter concerning self-defense would have had no significant impact on the outcome of the case because this Court held in the decision on direct appeal that the evidence was sufficient to support a felony murder conviction. Id. The judge reasoned that the testimony of the two witnesses was irrelevant because self-defense is not available as to a felony murder.[4]Id.

In this Court, Young appeals the trial court's postconviction orders, raising twelve claims, eleven of which are procedurally barred,[5] meritless,[6] or moot in light of this opinion.[7]

BRADY VIOLATION

Young's fifth claim in this appeal concerns the dispositive issue as to whether the trial court erroneously excluded a consideration of Brady claims by limiting the postconviction evidentiary hearing to Young's claim that his trial attorney was ineffective for failing to call two witnesses to support his theory of self-defense at trial.[8] Young asserts within this claim that the court erred in denying Young an expanded postconviction evidentiary hearing to consider whether, under Brady, the State unlawfully withheld the following exculpatory materials: state attorney notes concerning witness Brinker's initial interview as to his hearing gunshots at the time of the murder; state attorney notes concerning a statement by a Dr. Roth concerning his hearing gunshots at the time of the murder; state attorney notes regarding an initial interview with witness Hessemer; and state attorney notes regarding interviews with State witnesses at a firearms shooting range. Young also contends that the court erred in finding that state attorney notes concerning witness *556 Brinker's initial interview and the interviews with State witnesses at the firing range were not Brady material. Young argues that a reasonable probability exists that the outcome of the trial would have been different if this information had been provided to the judge and the jury.

The state attorney's witness information became an issue after Young learned during postconviction public records proceedings that the State did not disclose during pretrial discovery certain notes concerning interviews with key witnesses. In his brief in this appeal, Young presents the following quotation of a note that was part of the material the state attorney's office disclosed pursuant to Young's postconviction records request:

Bolster Trooper Brinker
arms expert
when he heard the noises, he was 1 block away + detached, because he didn't know if it was gunshots or fireworks.

Young also includes in his brief the following quotation of a state attorney note regarding Dr. Roth's pretrial statement:

Dr. Roth—don't need.
heard firecrackers, then 2 more bangs. thought all the shots were firecrackers. not a good W.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
739 So. 2d 553, 1999 WL 394889, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/young-v-state-fla-1999.