Morris v. State
| Decision Date | 21 February 2002 |
| Docket Number | No. SC95623.,SC95623. |
| Citation | 811 So.2d 661 |
| Parties | Robert Dwayne MORRIS, Appellant/Cross-Appellee, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee/Cross-Appellant. |
| Court | Florida Supreme Court |
James Marion Moorman, Public Defender, and Steven L. Bolotin, Assistant Public Defender, Tenth Judicial Circuit, Bartow, FL, for Appellant/Cross-Appellee.
Robert A. Butterworth, Attorney General, and Scott A. Browne, Assistant Attorney General, Tampa, FL, for Appellee/Cross-Appellant.
Robert Dwayne Morris appeals his convictions of first-degree murder, burglary, and armed robbery, and his sentence of death. We have jurisdiction. See art. V, § 3(b)(1), Fla. Const. For the reasons that follow, we affirm Morris's convictions and sentence of death.1
On the morning of September 2, 1994, the body of the 88-year-old victim, Violet Livingston, was found in her Lakeland apartment by her son. When the police responded to the murder scene, they found the victim lying on her bedroom floor between two beds. Her head was wrapped tightly in bed sheets. There was blood on the walls, the furniture, and her walking cane, which was on one of the beds. Both bedrooms were in disarray.
The point of entry to the apartment appeared to be the kitchen window on the south side of the apartment. The screen was off the window and was leaning against the building. The window was shut but the glass was broken. Window latches and broken glass were found on the ground. Near the window was a yellow chair sitting underneath the porch light. The porch light cover was off the fixture and was lying on the ground.
According to the associate medical examiner, Dr. Alexander Melamud, the victim died as a result of multiple injuries. She had sustained bruises, lacerations, abrasions, rib fractures, brain hemorrhage, and mechanical asphyxia due to suffocation. Some of the injuries were consistent with her having been beaten with her walking cane. There were neck injuries consistent with strangulation, and wounds to her right forearm, hand, and knee, which could be classified as defensive wounds. Dr. Melamud could not determine the sequence of the injuries, or when the victim became unconscious, but he determined she was alive for a short period of time after the attack began.
At trial, the four main categories of evidence the State presented against Morris were: (1) DNA test results; (2) Morris's fingerprint on a lightbulb outside the victim's residence; (3) Morris's possession of various items taken from the victim's residence; and (4) the testimony of Damion Sastre, a jailhouse informant. Additionally, the State presented further inculpatory evidence that Morris had healing scars on his forearms and hands, and that the police obtained a bloody glove from Morris's apartment.
First, the State's DNA experts testified that Morris could not be excluded as the source of the DNA obtained from two locations on the victim's body and from the kitchen curtain. According to the State's population geneticist, the frequency of this DNA pattern in the African-American database would be 1 in 7.1 million (meaning the chance that the DNA was not from Morris was between 1 in 710,000 to 1 in 71 million). Morris presented his own population geneticist, who testified that the frequency of the DNA pattern within the African-American population is 1 in 2.2 million.
Second, the police obtained a total of eleven fingerprints of value for comparison from the interior and exterior of the victim's apartment. No prints found inside the victim's apartment matched Morris's fingerprints. However, a single print, obtained from the partially unscrewed lightbulb outside the kitchen window, was later matched to Morris. Of the remaining prints, one print belonged to the victim's son, four belonged to a police department intern, and five were never matched to anyone.
Third, the police found several items known to have belonged to the victim in and around Morris's residence. These included coin wrappers, coin booklets, a coin sorter, and a television. Additionally, witnesses who worked at a sandwich shop and a gas station near the victim's apartment identified Morris as the man who purchased items with rare coins that were missing from the victim's coin collection.
Finally, Damion Sastre, a convicted felon, testified that Morris told him in jail that Morris committed the murder. Sastre testified that because Morris told Sastre that Morris had previously stolen a bicycle from the victim's apartment complex, Sastre suggested that Morris testify that he touched the lightbulb during that previous theft. However, Sastre also testified that Morris told him there was a screened porch into which Morris had to cut a slit to gain access to the victim's apartment, but then acknowledged, upon being shown a photograph on cross-examination, that there was no screened porch to the victim's apartment.
Morris took the stand in his own defense and stated that he did not kill the victim or break into her apartment. He testified that he went to the victim's apartment complex to play basketball, but nobody was there. He then stated that he remembered that a friend had asked him if he could get a bicycle for her, so he walked to the back of the apartments and saw a bike on the top stairs. Morris admitted he unscrewed the lightbulb on the victim's porch and went upstairs. However, he testified that he was unable to obtain the bicycle because it was secured by a lock. He testified that on his way home, he found a brown paper sack containing a coin sorter, coin books, a chain necklace, and some little bags containing coins. He spent the coins in a neighborhood sandwich shop and a gas station. Morris further testified that he never told Sastre that he killed the victim, took coins out of her apartment, or gained entry through a screened porch. Finally, Morris testified that Sastre must have obtained the information about which Sastre testified by looking at Morris's discovery materials to which Sastre had access in prison.
The jury convicted Morris of first-degree murder, armed burglary of a dwelling or battery committed during burglary of a dwelling, and robbery with a deadly weapon.
The State introduced documents to establish Morris's two 1989 robbery convictions in Missouri based on two pursesnatching incidents, one of which resulted in the victim sustaining a fractured wrist; and to establish that Morris was on parole from those convictions at the time of the instant offense. The State also recalled the medical examiner, Dr. Melamud, who testified that the victim sustained at least thirty-one bruises, abrasions, and lacerations, including what Dr. Melamud classified as defensive wounds, and further testified that the injuries would have caused pain while the victim was conscious. The State also called a Florida Department of Law Enforcement bloodstain pattern expert, Leroy Parker, who testified that there was some movement of or by the victim within the bedroom during the time she received the forceful impacts, and that objects in the bedroom were in disarray, indicating a struggle. Finally, the State called the victim's two sons, a grandson, and a granddaughter as victim impact witnesses.
Morris, who was thirty-one years old at the time of the crime, called several family members to testify to the circumstances of his childhood, and Dr. Henry Dee, a clinical psychologist, to establish Morris's brain damage and learning disabilities. Dr. Dee categorized Morris's intelligence as borderline to dull-normal and opined that Morris suffered from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. He also found evidence of diffuse frontal lobe brain damage, which is associated with increased impulsivity and an inability to control one's behavior, and noted that Morris's use of drugs, including marijuana, powdered cocaine, freebase, and rock cocaine, probably exacerbated his brain damage.
The jury recommended the death sentence by a vote of eight to four. The trial court found four aggravators,2 one statutory mitigator,3 combined eight nonstatutory mitigators,4 and found numerous other nonstatutory mitigators that it considered individually and cumulatively.5 The trial court found that the aggravating circumstances outweighed the mitigating circumstances by a substantial margin and imposed the death sentence. On appeal, Morris raises five issues with regard to his conviction and sentence.6
Morris argues that the trial court erred in excluding the proffered testimony of defense witness, Toni Maloney. In his opening statement, Morris told the jury that Sherry Laventure, a neighbor of the victim, would testify that on the day before the victim's body was discovered, Laventure saw a man walking around the victim's apartment looking at the windows and doors. Morris then asserted that Laventure would confirm that the man she saw was definitely not a black man, and therefore could not have been Morris. However, when Morris sought to elicit this testimony on direct examination, Laventure instead testified that the man she saw was not white. On cross-examination, the prosecutor followed up on this testimony:
Morris did not object to this line of questioning at the time, but Morris subsequently advised the trial court that he intended to call Maloney to "rebut" the suggestion that Maloney told Laventure how to testify. Morris argued that the testimony was necessary because Laventure's testimony impugned the integrity of the defense and thus infringed upon Morris's rights to a fair trial and to counsel....
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