Bailey v. State

Citation998 So.2d 545
Decision Date18 December 2008
Docket NumberNo. SC07-748.,SC07-748.
PartiesRobert J. BAILEY, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.
CourtUnited States State Supreme Court of Florida

Nancy A. Daniels, Public Defender, and W.C. McLain, Assistant Public Defender, Second Judicial Circuit, Tallahassee, Florida for Appellant.

Bill McCollum, Attorney General, Charmaine Millsaps and Stephen R. White, Assistant Attorneys General, Tallahassee, Florida, for Appellee.

PER CURIAM.

This case is before the Court on appeal from a judgment of conviction of first-degree murder and a sentence of death. We have jurisdiction. See art. V, § 3(b)(1), Fla. Const. For the reasons explained below, we affirm both the conviction and sentence.

FACTS

Robert J. Bailey was indicted for resisting a police officer with violence and first-degree murder in the shooting death of Sergeant Kevin Scott Kight, which occurred after Sergeant Kight stopped Bailey for a traffic infraction.

On March 26, 2005, Robert Bailey, John Braz, and D'Tori Crawford drove from Chicago to Florida to look for women during spring break. For the trip, Bailey used a white Dodge Durango that his grandfather rented for him. The three men drank beer and smoked marijuana on the way, driving all through the night. Crawford saw that both Braz and Bailey had handguns with them. The men arrived in Pensacola on March 27, but once they arrived, they learned that a recent hurricane had damaged the beaches in Pensacola significantly. After eating lunch at a restaurant, they drove to Panama City and checked into the Sugar Sands Motel. They met a few men from Kentucky, drank some more, and went to a nearby bar called "Sweet Dreams" with a few of the men from Kentucky.

After some time had passed, Bailey and Crawford left the bar in the white Durango to pick up some girls. Traffic was bumper-to-bumper and was moving very slowly. While they were driving, Bailey and Crawford paused to talk to some girls walking down the road, exchanging their phone numbers and hotel room numbers. Bailey and Crawford did not notice that traffic had begun to move until a police officer, Sergeant Kight, pulled them over. Sergeant Kight requested Bailey's driver's license, and after Bailey gave him identification, the officer left, saying that he would be right back. At that point, Bailey started to panic and told Crawford that he did not have a valid license and had a parole violation. He asked Crawford what he thought would happen. Bailey's hand was shaking so badly that he asked Crawford to call his girlfriend for him. Crawford heard Bailey tell his girlfriend that he was being pulled over by a cop and was going to need her to pick him up because Bailey would "pop this cop" if the officer tried to arrest him. Bailey then reached under the driver's seat to retrieve a handgun, placing it under his right leg. Bailey's face was red, and he had tears in his eyes. Crawford tried to calm Bailey down, but Bailey told Crawford that he was not going back to jail again. Crawford refused to be a part of the plan, and when he noticed that the officer was looking down, Crawford got out of the vehicle, blending in with a crowd of people who were walking by. Crawford barely knew Bailey and did not warn the police officer because he was afraid that if he approached the officer, Bailey would shoot him too.

While Bailey was being pulled over, a number of people in other vehicles were watching the events, particularly since traffic was barely moving. As Hillary Chaffer drove by, she noticed that Bailey tried to pull forward while the officer was looking down. Sergeant Kight approached Bailey's vehicle again, removing his handcuffs from his belt. Bailey stuck his gun out the window and fired it three times at the officer. Two of the bullets hit the officer, and the other bullet hit a passing van and lodged in the door of the van. Bailey sped off in his vehicle, while Sergeant Kight radioed dispatch that he had been shot. Many other officers were close by at the time of the shooting. The first responding officers arrived in less than a minute and tried to administer first aid, but Sergeant Kight was unresponsive and never regained consciousness. He was declared dead at the hospital.

Meanwhile, Bailey drove his vehicle onto a dead-end road that ended at the beach. He abandoned the Durango near some condominiums at the beach and walked back to the road, jumping into the bed of a passing truck. Corey Lawson was one of the people already riding in the back of the truck when Bailey jumped into it. Bailey told Lawson that he had just "popped a cop" and lifted up his shirt so the gun in his waistband was visible. Bailey told them that he needed to get off the street and, after talking to a person on his cell phone, told Lawson to take him to the Sweet Dreams bar. Lawson thought Bailey was acting like a "loose cannon" and was afraid that if he did not follow directions, he would be risking his friends' lives. Lawson told the driver where Bailey wanted to go and let her know that Bailey had a gun. While they were driving to the bar, Bailey told Lawson that he shot the officer because he was wanted and would go to jail for life if he was caught. Bailey said that the only way the police were going to catch him is if they killed him. As soon as they dropped Bailey off at the bar, Lawson and his friends contacted the police and told them that they had been carjacked.

Crawford also caught a ride back to the bar. When he arrived, he found Braz and Bailey already there, arguing. Crawford, Braz, and Bailey went back to the Sugar Sands Motel together, and while at the hotel, Crawford tried calling his family. While he was on the telephone, he heard Braz and Bailey on the patio arguing about getting rid of the guns and bullets. Bailey came back into the room, emptied a box of bullets into his pocket, and left. Braz and Crawford decided not to leave; they knew the police would be coming so they waited for the police to arrive.

When the police arrived, they took Braz and Crawford into custody for questioning. The officers then proceeded to search the area surrounding the hotel. Deputy Donna Land was searching a building west of the motel, and Deputy Jim Jenkins went around the back side of the same building. After walking around a corner, Deputy Jenkins saw Bailey peeking around the far corner of the building, watching Deputy Land, who was walking up the stairs. Bailey was doing something with his hand around his waistline, which Deputy Jenkins could not see clearly. Deputy Jenkins drew his weapon and ordered Bailey to put his hands in the air. Bailey refused to comply, however, and was jerking something with his right hand. Deputy Jenkins became quite anxious and yelled very loudly for Bailey to raise his hands. Other officers arrived, and Bailey finally complied. The officers patted down Bailey and found a fully loaded gun in his waistband. Bailey also had a pocket full of ammunition and a key with a rental car tag on it for a Dodge Durango. After he was arrested, Bailey inquired as to the status of the officer he shot.

During the trial, the State presented the testimony of Crawford, who testified about the trip and the circumstances before and after the shooting. Crawford, however, was not present when the police officer was shot. The State presented two eyewitnesses to the shooting: Hillary Chaffer and Jarrod Schalk. Both witnesses were driving past Bailey when he shot Sergeant Kight, and both identified Bailey as the person who shot the officer. Hillary Chaffer testified that when she passed the white Durango that was pulled over, she saw only Bailey in the vehicle, and he looked very pale and very scared. When she first heard the gunshots, she was facing forward but quickly turned around and saw Bailey with a gun in his hand before he drove away. Jarrod Schalk was the other eyewitness who testified at trial. He was riding in a van as a passenger and began to watch the officer who pulled over a white Durango. He also testified that he saw only Bailey inside the vehicle. As the officer approached Bailey with handcuffs in his hand, Schalk told his friends they were about to see somebody get arrested. Schalk noticed that Bailey's face looked really mean and upset. Bailey suddenly pointed a gun, and Schalk saw the fire from the gun before he ducked. One of the bullets hit the van in which Schalk was riding. Lawson testified for the State and detailed how Bailey jumped in the back of his truck after the shooting, admitted that he had "popped a cop," showed them the gun, and instructed the occupants to take him to a particular bar named Sweet Dreams.

Numerous officers and investigators also testified about the evidence found during the investigation. Officer Clayton Jordon testified that Bailey's identification was found still clipped to Sergeant Kight's citation book holder when they arrived at the scene. Joseph Hall, who worked for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE), testified that the two projectiles obtained from the victim were fired from the gun that Bailey possessed when he was arrested. Dr. Charles Siebert, the medical examiner, testified that the stippling pattern on Sergeant Kight's face showed that the weapon was fired approximately eighteen inches away from the victim. The two bullets that struck the officer went through the top portion of the officer's bullet-proof vest and, based on a downward trajectory, hit his heart, liver, and kidney. Both of the wounds were fatal, and Sergeant Kight would have quickly lost consciousness within about a minute.

The State also called Catherine Hanson, who was the dispatcher on the evening of the crime. Sergeant Kight called dispatch when he first stopped Bailey; he requested a license check at 10:25 p.m.; and at 10:30 p.m., he reported that he had been shot. The State called a company representative from Bailey's cellular company to establish that on the night of the murder, two calls1 were made from Bailey's...

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