Harvard v. State
Decision Date | 07 April 1977 |
Docket Number | No. 47052,47052 |
Parties | William Lanay HARVARD, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee. |
Court | Florida Supreme Court |
Richard L. Jorandby, Public Defender, Bruce Zeidel and Craig S. Barnard and Jerry L. Schwarz, Asst. Public Defenders, for appellant.
Robert L. Shevin, Atty. Gen., and Michael M. Corin and Michael H. Davidson, Asst. Attys. Gen., for appellee.
This is an appeal from a conviction of murder in the first degree and a sentence of death. We have jurisdiction. 1
Shortly after midnight on February 16, 1974, appellant William Lanay Harvard sat in his car near Cocoa Beach and drank beer with a young friend, Ralph Baggett. A single-barrel, twelve-gauge shotgun lay in the back seat. Harvard had placed his car within view of the Sanspar Bar and was apparently waiting for his ex-wife Ann Bovard to leave the tavern. According to the testimony of Baggett, when Ann Bovard drove off alone in her car, appellant followed. They had driven in tandem for about eight miles when they approached the residential area in which the woman lived. Harvard ordered Baggett into the rear seat and pulled the shotgun into the front. For some reason, Ann Bovard slowed to a stop on the right shoulder of the road. With his right hand, Harvard placed the barrel of the shotgun in the open window of the passenger's door; with his left hand he steered the automobile tightly along the left side of Ann Bovard's car so that the weapon aimed directly at her throat. He yelled, "Bitch," and fired into her neck. Ann Bovard died of massive damage to the trachea, esophagus, right artery, and left jugular vein.
Harvard was indicted for murder in the first degree. At trial, the jury found him guilty as charged. In the separate sentence advisory proceeding, the jury recommended death.
The trial court ordered a presentence investigation. The trial judge, upon consideration of the report, the evidence presented at the trial and sentencing proceedings, determined that there were sufficient aggravating circumstances which outweighed the mitigating factors to justify the recommended sentence. The trial judge sentenced William Lanay Harvard to death, entering the formal judgment as required by Section 921.141(3), Florida Statutes. The judgment stated the facts on which the death sentence is based as follows:
Appellant urges reversal of his conviction of first degree murder on three grounds. First, he contends that there was insufficient evidence to support a finding of premeditation; second, he contends that it was reversible error for the trial court to refuse to instruct the jury on aggravated assault as a lesser included offense; and third, he contends that it was reversible error for the state to make certain remarks during the closing arguments. We have searched appellant's arguments for merit, but have found none. The conviction is affirmed.
When the sentence of death has been imposed, it is this Court's responsibility to evaluate anew the aggravating and mitigating circumstances of the case to determine whether the punishment is appropriate. State v. Dixon, 283 So.2d 1 (Fla.1973). We must also ensure that punishment for murder is evenly applied so that similar homicides will draw similar penalties.
The aggravating circumstances include the following. Appellant has previously been convicted of a felony involving violence against a person. That conviction resulted from appellant's attempted murder of another former wife. In that prior incident the appellant forcibly entered the woman's home and, in front of the children, threw her to the floor, placed his right foot on her back, and fired a twenty-two pistol into her head. Miraculously, she lived.
In the instant case, appellant again demonstrated his propensity toward calculated homicide in the killing of Ann Bovard. The murder was the final, deliberate stroke in appellant's campaign of terror against his ex-wife. He sought her out in the early morning hours, stalked her in the dark, and then in cold blood killed her with a shotgun at...
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