Brown v. State

Decision Date01 October 1998
Docket NumberNo. 89537.,89537.
PartiesPaul Anthony BROWN, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.
CourtFlorida Supreme Court

J. Peyton Quarles, Daytona Beach, for Appellant.

Robert A. Butterworth, Attorney General, and Judy Taylor Rush, Assistant Attorney General, Daytona Beach, for Appellee.

PER CURIAM.

We have on appeal the judgment and sentence of the trial court imposing the death penalty upon Paul Anthony Brown ("Brown"). We have jurisdiction. Art. V, § 3(b)(1), Fla. Const. For the reasons expressed, we affirm Brown's conviction and sentence of death.

MATERIAL FACTS1

On November 6, 1992, Roger Hensley ("Hensley") was found dead on the bedroom floor of an apartment in Ormond Beach, Florida. He had been stabbed multiple times and his throat had been slashed. The police found two steak knives on the floor in the living room, one of which was covered in blood. Investigators documented blood spatter in several areas of the victim's bedroom and bathroom, as well as fingerprints and bloody shoe prints inside the apartment. Investigators also discovered several empty beer bottles and a bag of a substance presumed to be marijuana. Missing were the victim's white Nissan pick-up truck and keys thereto.

In October of 1992, Brown traveled from Tennessee to Daytona Beach where he met Scott Jason McGuire ("McGuire"). McGuire moved into Brown's motel room and the two spent the next two weeks consuming alcoholic beverages and smoking crack cocaine. At some point Brown decided to return to Tennessee. According to McGuire, Brown offered him $1000 to drive Brown to Tennessee but McGuire's vehicle did not work.

Thereafter, on November 5, Brown and McGuire approached Roger Hensley outside of a bar and, with Hensley driving, accompanied him to his apartment. McGuire testified that during the drive, Brown held a gun behind Hensley's seat. McGuire also claimed that during before entering Hensley's apartment, Brown whispered, "How would you like to do it?," to which McGuire made no response. Inside, the three men each drank a bottle of beer, shared half of a marijuana cigarette, and talked about various things, including employment possibilities. Hensley invited Brown and McGuire to spend the night. However, before retiring to his bedroom, Hensley dropped a few dollars on the table and stated, "I don't know what you guys' game is. If you've come here to rob me, this is all the money I have. You can take it." McGuire assured Hensley that they were not there to rob him and Hensley went to bed.

After Hensley left the room, Brown told McGuire he was going to shoot Hensley and steal his truck. McGuire objected to the use of the gun because of the noise. Appearing angry at McGuire's response, Brown walked to the kitchen and got two steak knives, handing one to McGuire. McGuire threw the knife to the ground and denounced any intention of taking part in murder. Brown said he would take care of it himself and, in a symbolic gesture, dragged his hand across his throat.

Brown told McGuire to stand by the door to block Hensley's escape and he entered the bedroom where Hensley was lying on the bed. McGuire then heard what he thought were stabbing sounds and heard the victim say "no." Upon hearing something hit the floor, McGuire approached the bedroom where he noticed Hensley lying on the floor covered in blood and "making sounds" as if he was "struggling to breathe." Brown was rummaging through the victim's bedroom looking for car keys. He found the victim's wallet and removed a twenty-dollar bill. Brown, who had blood on his hands, arms, and pants, then tried to wash it off. McGuire did not have any blood on him, but attempted to wipe his fingerprints from everything in the apartment that he had touched.

Ten or fifteen minutes later, the two left the victim's apartment in Hensley's truck, stopped at their motel room to collect their belongings, and drove to Tennessee.2 There, Brown burned his bloody pants in a stove and McGuire departed on foot a day or two later. Brown was arrested on November 8 at a farmhouse in Tennessee by agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (F.B.I.) on unrelated charges.3

While in the custody of the F.B.I., Brown stated, "I'm a murderer, not only a bank robber", and declared that he and another man named "Scott" killed "a white male" in Daytona Beach and stole his truck. Brown explained how the two met the victim and went back to the victim's "motel room", where they smoked "crack" cocaine and then stabbed and killed the victim. Brown claimed that it was McGuire's suggestion that they find someone who owned a car, steal the car, and kill the owner. He also claimed that he stabbed the victim several times in the chest and once in the back but that McGuire slit the victim's throat. Brown's statements to the FBI were admitted in evidence at trial.

Brown also testified at trial and denied any involvement in the homicide, claiming instead that McGuire killed Hensley while Brown was asleep as a result of smoking marijuana. Brown testified that he awoke to find Hensley standing over him with a bloodied knife. He claimed that McGuire had stabbed Hensley once in the back and was attempting to slit his throat. Brown also claimed that after they left the apartment, McGuire threatened to frame him for the murder if Brown told anyone about it.

The jury found Brown guilty of first-degree premeditated murder and first-degree felony murder. After a penalty phase proceeding, the jury recommended a sentence of death by a vote of twelve to zero. The trial court followed the jury's recommendation and sentenced Brown to death. The trial court found four aggravating factors4 and two non-statutory mitigating factors.5

APPEAL

Brown raises five issues on appeal, all of which pertain to the penalty phase of the trial.6 Although Brown does not contest the sufficiency of the evidence for his conviction of first-degree murder, we must, nevertheless, make an independent determination that the evidence is adequate. See § 921.141(4), Fla. Stat. (1997); Fla. R.App. Pro. 9.140(h); see also Reese v. State, 694 So.2d 678, 684 (Fla.1997)

; Christian v. State, 550 So.2d 450, 451 (Fla.1989). Based upon our review, we find that there is competent, substantial evidence to support the verdict. That evidence has been outlined in detail above.

HAC

As his first claim, Brown argues that the evidence does not support the trial court's finding that the murder was heinous, atrocious or cruel (HAC).7 This Court has held that "[t]he factor of heinous, atrocious, or cruel is proper only in torturous murders—those that evince extreme and outrageous depravity as exemplified either by the desire to inflict a high degree of pain or utter indifference to or enjoyment of the suffering of another." Shere, 579 So.2d at 95; Cheshire v. State, 568 So.2d 908, 912 (Fla.1990); State v. Dixon, 283 So.2d 1, 9 (Fla.1973). Unlike the cold, calculated and premeditated aggravator, which pertains specifically to the state of mind, intent and motivation of the defendant, the HAC aggravator focuses on the means and manner in which death is inflicted and the immediate circumstances surrounding the death. Stano v. State, 460 So.2d 890, 893 (Fla.1984).

We have upheld the heinous, atrocious, or cruel aggravator in a number of cases where the victim has been repeatedly stabbed. See, e.g., Mahn v. State, 714 So.2d 391 (Fla.1998)

; Williamson v. State, 681 So.2d 688, 698 (Fla.1996),

cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 117 S.Ct. 1561, 137 L.Ed.2d 708 (1997); Finney v. State, 660 So.2d 674, 685 (Fla.1995); Barwick v. State, 660 So.2d 685, 696 (Fla.1995); Pittman v. State, 646 So.2d 167, 173 (Fla.1994); Campbell v. State, 571 So.2d 415 (Fla.1990); Hardwick v. State, 521 So.2d 1071, 1076 (Fla.1988); Nibert v. State, 508 So.2d 1 (Fla.1987); Johnston v. State, 497 So.2d 863, 871 (Fla.1986). In Nibert, the victim was stabbed seventeen times by the defendant who had entered the victim's home with the intent to rob him. The evidence established that of the seventeen stab wounds, several were defensive wounds, and the victim remained conscious during the attack. This Court found that those facts supported a finding of HAC. 508 So.2d at 4. We find the facts in this case comparable to those in Nibert and the stabbing cases cited above.

The medical examiner testified that Hensley was stabbed a total of nine or ten times, including three in the chest, two in the back, and the remainder in the neck, abdomen, and left shoulder. In addition, the victim suffered abrasions to his face, nose, and mouth from blunt trauma, consistent with being pushed into something or hit, and had several non-fatal incise wounds on various portions of his neck.

Importantly, although the stabbing lasted only for a period of minutes, expert testimony at trial indicated that the victim was alive and conscious during the attack and obviously had moved either in an effort to stand or to evade his attacker. Both the medical examiner and an expert in blood pattern interpretation based this conclusion on the location and trail of blood spatter in the bedroom.8 The medical examiner further based this conclusion on the existence of abrasions on the victim's shoulder, which would not have occurred had the victim been still. This evidence that the victim was alive and conscious during the attack is also consistent with McGuire's testimony that he heard Hensley say "no" and noticed that he was struggling to breathe even after the attack had ended.

Thus, it was reasonable for the trial court to conclude that Hensley was conscious at the time of the attack and was aware of what was happening as he clearly had moved in an effort to avoid his attacker. As in Nibert, we find this evidence sufficient to support the trial court's finding that the murder was heinous, atrocious, or cruel.

Brown contends that his use of alcohol and drugs on the day of the murder, as well as during the...

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