Bell v. State

• Decision Date: 07 June 2007
• Docket Number: No. SC02-1765.,No. SC05-610.,SC02-1765.,SC05-610.
• Citation: 965 So.2d 48
• Parties: Michael B. BELL, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee. Michael B. Bell, Petitioner, v. James R. McDonough, etc., Respondent.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

965 So.2d 48

Michael B. BELL, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.

Michael B. Bell, Petitioner, v. James R. McDonough, etc., Respondent.

No. SC02-1765.

No. SC05-610.

Supreme Court of Florida.

June 7, 2007.

Christopher J. Anderson, Atlantic Beach, FL, for Appellant/Petitioner.

Bill McCollum, Attorney General, and Meredith Charbula, Assistant Attorney General, Tallahassee, FL, for Appellee/Respondent.

PER CURIAM.

Michael B. Bell appeals an order of the circuit court denying his motion to vacate his two convictions of first-degree murder and two sentences of death filed under Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850, and petitions this Court for a writ of habeas corpus. We have jurisdiction. See art. V, § 3(b)(1), (9), Fla. Const. For the reasons that follow, we affirm the circuit court's denial of the motion for postconviction relief and deny Bell's petition for a writ of habeas corpus.

I. FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Bell was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder. The facts as described by this Court on direct appeal are as follows:

On December 9, 1993, appellant Michael Bell shot to death Jimmy West and Tamecka Smith as they entered a car outside a liquor lounge in Jacksonville. Three eyewitnesses testified regarding the murders, which the trial court described in the sentencing order as follows. In June 1993, Theodore Wright killed Lamar Bell in a shoot-out which was found to be justifiable homicide committed in self-defense. Michael Bell then swore to get revenge for the murder of his brother, Lamar Bell. During the five months following Lamar Bell's death, Michael Bell repeatedly told friends and relatives he planned to kill Wright. On December 8, 1993, Michael Bell, through a girlfriend, purchased an AK-47 assault rifle, a thirty-round magazine, and 160 bullets. The next night, Bell saw Theodore Wright's car, a yellow Plymouth. Bell left the area and shortly returned with two friends and his rifle loaded with thirty bullets. After a short search, he saw the yellow car in the parking lot of a liquor lounge. Bell did not know that Wright had sold the car to Wright's half-brother, Jimmy West, and that West had parked it and had gone into the lounge. Bell waited in the parking lot until West left the lounge with Tamecka Smith and another female. Bell picked up the loaded AK-47 and approached the car as West got into the driver's seat and Smith began to enter on the passenger's side. Bell approached the open door on the driver's side and at point-blank range fired twelve bullets into West and four into Smith. The other female ducked and escaped injury. After shooting West and Smith, Bell riddled with bullets the front of the lounge where about a dozen people were waiting to go inside. Bell then drove to his aunt's house and said to her, "Theodore got my brother and now I got his brother."

Appellant was charged with two counts of first-degree murder. At trial in March 1995, appellant pleaded not guilty by reason of self-defense, stating that he believed West had reached for a weapon just before appellant began shooting. The defense presented no evidence or witnesses. A jury found appellant guilty of the first-degree murders of Smith and West and unanimously recommended the death penalty for both murders. During the penalty phase, a lounge security guard testified for the State that he and seven or eight other people were in the line of fire and hit the ground when appellant sprayed bullets in the parking lot of the lounge. He also testified that appellant shot four or five bullets into a house next door in which three children were residing at the time. The State introduced a copy of a record showing that appellant was convicted of armed robbery in 1990. Also during the penalty phase, appellant's mother testified for the defense that she and appellant had received death threats from Wright and West. She testified that appellant was in good mental health and was gainfully employed and that she believed he did not commit the murders.

Bell v. State, 699 So.2d 674, 675-76 (Fla. 1997). Following the jury's unanimous recommendation to impose the death sentence for both convictions, the trial court sentenced Bell to death for each conviction, finding three aggravating circumstances¹ and one statutory mitigating circumstance.² State v. Bell, No. 94-9776 CF (Fla. 4th Cir. Ct. order filed June 2, 1995).

Bell appealed to this Court, raising four issues.³ This Court rejected each of Bell's claims and affirmed the convictions and sentences. Bell, 699 So.2d at 679. The United States Supreme Court thereafter denied Bell's petition for a writ of certiorari. Bell v. Florida, 522 U.S. 1123, 118 S.Ct. 1067, 140 L.Ed.2d 127 (1998).

Bell filed a motion for postconviction relief, which the circuit court summarily denied. State v. Bell, No. 94-9776 CF (Fla. 4th Cir. Ct. order filed Jan. 13, 2000). Following oral argument, we reversed the summary denial and remanded the case to the circuit court for the purpose of conducting an evidentiary hearing. Bell v. State, 790 So.2d 1101 (Fla.2001).

On October 3, 2001, the circuit court granted Bell's motion to represent himself at his postconviction proceedings. The circuit court also appointed Jeanine Sasser to serve as stand-by counsel. Bell then filed an amended pro se motion for postconviction relief, raising twenty-nine claims. The circuit court held evidentiary hearings on fourteen of the claims raised in this motion on April 8-10, 2002. Bell called a number of witnesses to testify in support of his claims, including various witnesses who had testified at trial, character witnesses, and his trial counsel, Richard Nichols.

The circuit court denied each of Bell's postconviction claims. State v. Bell, No. 94-9776-CF (Fla. 4th Cir. Ct. order filed May 31, 2002) (Postconviction Order). Bell appeals the circuit court's denial of his postconviction motion through appellate counsel to this Court,⁴ raising twenty-four issues.⁵ Bell also petitions this Court for a writ of habeas corpus, raising eight issues.⁶

II. ANALYSIS OF POSTCONVICTION CLAIMS

Bell argues that the circuit court erred in denying his claims in his postconviction motion. Finding no error in the circuit court's conclusion that several of Bell's claims are procedurally barred, we affirm the circuit court's denial of those claims.⁷

The remainder of Bell's claims assert that trial counsel was ineffective. To establish a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel, a defendant must first show that counsel's performance was deficient. Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 687, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984). An attorney's performance is deficient when it falls below an objective standard of reasonableness under prevailing professional norms. Id. at 688, 104 S.Ct. 2052. Second, the defendant must show that counsel's deficiency prejudiced the defendant, which occurs when "there is a reasonable probability that, but for counsel's unprofessional errors, the result of the proceeding would have been different. A reasonable probability is a probability sufficient to undermine confidence in the outcome." Id. at 694, 104 S.Ct. 2052. Ineffective assistance of counsel claims are mixed questions of law and fact. We review the legal issues under a de novo standard of review. The circuit court's factual determinations are given deference if they are supported by competent, substantial evidence. We affirm the circuit court's denial on the merits of Bell's ineffective assistance of counsel claims as set forth below.

A. Failure to Object to Comments Regarding Dale George's Plea

Bell first alleges that his trial counsel was ineffective for failing to object to the introduction of statements that Dale George, who admitted to driving Bell's car on the night of the murders, pled guilty to a charge of accessory after the fact for his participation in this crime.

At Bell's trial, the prosecutor stated in his opening argument that Dale George pled guilty to the charge of accessory after the fact for the instant crime and that he negotiated an agreement with the State that in exchange for his testimony, he would receive a prison sentence of no more than five years. At the start of George's testimony, he admitted that he pled guilty to this charge and detailed the terms of his agreement. The prosecutor reiterated these facts in his closing argument. Bell argues that his trial counsel should have objected to any statements about George pleading guilty to participating in the crime because such statements implied that Bell was also guilty.

The circuit court denied this claim, finding that the prosecutor's comments about George's plea were "legitimate comments on the evidence anticipated and presented at trial, and were not improper." Postconviction Order at 3.

In support of his argument to the circuit court and to this Court on appeal, Bell cites to several cases in support of his claim that trial counsel should have objected to the prosecutor's statements concerning George's plea. However, in each of the cases cited by Bell, the accomplice whose plea was referenced had not testified at trial. See Bruton v. United States, 391 U.S. 123, 137, 88 S.Ct. 1620, 20 L.Ed.2d 476 (1968) (codefendant's confession inadmissible against defendant because since codefendant did not testify, right to confrontation was violated); Parker v. State, 458 So.2d 750, 753 (Fla.1984); Thomas v. State, 202 So.2d 883, 884 (Fla. 3d DCA 1967); Moore v. State, 186 So.2d 56 (Fla. 3d DCA 1966).

Evidence that a witness has received a lighter sentence in exchange for his or her testimony goes to the bias of the witness and is therefore a proper subject for impeachment. § 90.608, Fla. Stat. (1995). The State addressed these matters in an effort to fully disclose the terms of the plea agreement, in anticipation of trial counsel's cross-examination of George. We have held that there is no violation of the Florida Evidence Code when a party attempts to ...