Adams v. State, 56134

Decision Date11 February 1982
Docket NumberNo. 56134,56134
Citation412 So.2d 850
PartiesAubrey Dennis ADAMS, Jr., Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.
CourtFlorida Supreme Court

Jim Smith, Atty. Gen., and David P. Gauldin, Asst. Atty. Gen., Tallahassee, for appellee.

Michael M. Corin, Asst. Public Defender, Second Judicial Circuit, Tallahassee, for appellant.

ADKINS, Justice.

This is a direct appeal from a judgment adjudging defendant guilty of murder in the first degree and sentence of death.

The victim, eight years of age, left school on January 23, 1978, at about 2:30 P.M. Her body was found on March 15, 1978, in a wooded area near Ocala, Florida, by three men who were gopher hunting. The defendant's involvement in the disappearance and death of the victim was shown through circumstantial evidence and by statements, both written and oral, made by him to officers of the Ocala police department.

In his written statements, the defendant stated that he saw the victim walking home from school about a block and a half from her house and offered to give her a ride home. She got in the car and defendant drove away with her. The defendant remembered "being stopped somewhere and she was screaming and I put my hand over her mouth", and she quit breathing. In his oral statement the defendant said he had removed the clothes from the victim and used some cord which he carried in his car to tie her up so that she would fit into plastic bags. He also said that he tried to have sexual relations with her, but couldn't bring himself to do it. He denied having sexual relations with her.

Two expert witnesses testified that the cause of death was strangulation, but one of the experts stated that the child could have died from manual suffocation. One expert rendered an opinion that the victim's wrists had been taped prior to death. The defendant, in his oral statement, said that he had removed the victim's clothes, but there was an indication from this statement that the clothes were removed after she quit breathing. However, the state argues that as a matter of logic, the clothes were removed prior to the time the wrists were bound, and, at that time, the victim was still alive.

The jury found the defendant guilty of murder in the first degree, and, after hearing evidence in the penalty phase of the trial, recommended that the defendant be sentenced to death.

The defendant argues that the trial court committed reversible error in failing to instruct the jury on the elements of the underlying felonies of sexual battery and kidnapping. The instructions of the court contained the following:

The killing of a human being in committing, or in attempting to commit any arson, rape, robbery, burglary, abominable and detestable crime against nature or kidnapping is murder in the first degree, even though there is no premeditated design or intent to kill.

If a person kills another while he is trying to do or commit any arson, rape, robbery, burglary, abominable and detestable crime against nature or kidnapping, or while escaping from the immediate scene of such crime the killing is in the perpetration of or in the attempt to perpetrate such arson, rape, robbery, burglary, abominable and detestable crime against nature or kidnapping and is murder in the first degree.

Defendant correctly points out that the instruction included references to two crimes which do not exist, to wit: rape and an abominable and detestable crime against nature. Defendant argues that it is an indispensable requisite to a fair trial to instruct the jury on all essential elements of a crime, but the jury was not instructed on the essential elements of sexual battery and kidnapping, the only possible applicable felonies with which the state could have sought a conviction for felony murder. He relies on Robles v. State, 188 So.2d 789 (Fla.1966).

The indictment alleged that defendant murdered the victim, unlawfully, from a premeditated design by strangling. Under this charge, the state could prosecute under both a theory of premeditation and a theory of felony-murder. Barton v. State, 193 So.2d 618 (Fla.2d DCA 1966), cert. denied, 201 So.2d 459 (1967).

The record shows that defendant had visited in the home of the victim and she voluntarily accompanied defendant during the fatal ride. The evidence is sufficient to sustain a finding that the death was caused by strangulation, not by the defendant placing his hand over the mouth of the victim so as to keep her from screaming or yelling. Her hands were tied and taped behind her head, and a rope was around her neck. "Premeditation, like other factual circumstances, may be established by circumstantial evidence." Larry v. State, 104 So.2d 352, 354 (Fla.1958).

The final argument of the state was geared toward the single question of whether or not the evidence was sufficient to show a premeditated design on the part of defendant to murder the victim.

In Knight v. State of Florida, 394 So.2d 997, 1002 (Fla.1981), we considered that question:

The first issue concerns the trial judge's failure to instruct the jury on the elements of the underlying felony. The petitioner contends that our decision in Robles v. State, 188 So.2d 789 (Fla.1966), is determinative and that a trial court's failure to give an adequate instruction on the underlying felony is a fatal error even when such instruction has not been requested by the defendant. Subsequent to our opinion on the initial appeal in this cause, we decided State v. Jones, 377 So.2d 1163 (Fla.1979), which reaffirmed our decision in Robles v. State.

The record in the instant case reflects that the trial judge gave the general definitive instructions for homicide but did not specifically instruct upon the elements of the underlying felony of kidnapping or robbery. There was no request or objection by petitioner's trial counsel to this failure to give these instructions.

It is clear that in both Robles and Jones the primary charge was felony murder and the state in neither case contended the evidence was sufficient to establish premeditated murder. We expressly noted in Jones that there was no contention that there was sufficient evidence to establish premeditated murder. We conclude that where there is sufficient evidence of premeditation, the failure to give the underlying felony instruction, where it has not been requested, is not error which mandates a reversal absent a showing of prejudice. See Frazier v. State, 107 So.2d 16 (Fla.1958).

....

(T)he record in this cause, and in particular the final argument of counsel, demonstrates that the state, although it mentioned felony murder, strongly argued premeditated murder to the jury. The record reflects that there is not only sufficient but overwhelming evidence of premeditated murder. We find that under the circumstances of this case and our review of the record that neither Robles nor Jones applies, but Frazier does apply. We are satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that the failure to give the instruction at issue was not prejudicial and did not contribute to the petitioner's conviction. See Chapman v. California, 386 U.S. 18, 87 S.Ct. 824, 17 L.Ed.2d 705 (1967).

See also McKennon v. State, 403 So.2d 389 (Fla.1981).

Although an erroneous or uninvited felony murder instruction was given, the evidence of premeditation was sufficient to render the erroneous instruction harmless.

Of course, it may have been defendant's counsel's strategy to avoid, at all costs, any unnecessary reference to the underlying felonies committed by the defendant during the perpetration of the murder. Perhaps that explains his failure to make any objection to the instruction. Request for an instruction or an objection to a failure to give an instruction is a prerequisite to raising an alleged error on appeal. Alford v. State, 280 So.2d 479 (Fla. 3d DCA), cert. denied, 284 So.2d 218 (1973); Flagler v. State, 198 So.2d 313 (Fla.1967).

Defendant says that the trial court committed reversible error in admitting into evidence, over defendant's objection, two photographs of the victim. One photograph in color, was taken at the scene where the body was discovered. The other photograph, apparently taken somewhere else, is of the body and shows the victim's hands taped together with adhesive tape. The guidelines to be followed in determining the admissibility of photographic evidence were set forth by this Court in State v. Wright, 265 So.2d 361, 362 (Fla.1972), as follows:

(T)he current position of this Court is that allegedly gruesome and inflammatory photographs are admissible into evidence if relevant to any issue required to be proven in a case. Relevancy is to be determined in the normal manner, that is, without regard to any special characterization of the proffered evidence. Under this conception, the issues of "whether cumulative", or "whether photographed away from the scene," are routine issues basic to a determination of relevancy, and not issues arising from any "exceptional nature" of the proffered evidence.

If the photograph meets the guidelines set forth above, the fact that the evidence is gruesome and offensive does not bar the admissibility. Foster v. State, 369 So.2d 928 (Fla.), cert. denied, 444 U.S. 885, 100 S.Ct. 178, 62 L.Ed.2d 116 (1979). This is consistent with the reasoning in Mardorff v. State, 143 Fla. 64, 196 So. 625, 626 (1940), where the Court said:

Counsel contends that the pictures tended "to inflame the minds of the jury to a state of passion" and to "prejudice them against" the defendant rendering the evidence inadmissible. That this proof was prejudicial to the defendant there can be no doubt, but, as was so aptly stated in Wharton's Criminal Evidence, 11th Ed., Sec. 773, p. 1321:

"Where they are otherwise properly admitted, it is not a valid objection to the admissibility of photographs that they tend to prejudice the jury. Competent and material evidence should not be excluded merely because it may...

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