Bradley v. State

• Decision Date: 30 March 2017
• Docket Number: No. SC14–1412,SC14–1412
• Citation: 214 So.3d 648
• Parties: Brandon Lee BRADLEY, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

214 So.3d 648

Brandon Lee BRADLEY, Appellant,

v.STATE of Florida, Appellee.

No. SC14–1412

Supreme Court of Florida.

March 30, 2017

James S. Purdy, Public Defender, and Nancy Ryan, Assistant Public Defender, Seventh Judicial Circuit, Daytona Beach, Florida, for Appellant

Pamela Jo Bondi, Attorney General, Tallahassee, Florida; and Stacey E. Kircher, Assistant Attorney General, Daytona Beach, Florida, for Appellee

PER CURIAM.

Brandon Lee Bradley appeals his conviction of first-degree murder and his sentence of death. We have jurisdiction. See art. V, § 3(b)(1), Fla. Const. For the reasons that follow, we affirm Bradley's convictions for first-degree murder, robbery, fleeing and eluding, and resisting arrest with violence. We vacate his sentence of death and remand for a new sentencing proceeding.

FACTS

Brandon Lee Bradley and Andria Kerchner were seen by another Econo Lodge guest and motel employees loading Econo Lodge property, including pillows, sheets, and an air conditioning unit, into Bradley's white Ford Explorer on the morning of March 6, 2012, between 10:30 and 10:45 a.m. Employees of the Melbourne, Florida, Econo Lodge confronted Bradley and Kerchner in the parking lot. As the codefendants attempted to drive away, Andrew Jordan, a motel maintenance man, yelled that he would call 911 if Bradley did not get out of the car and return the property. Mr. Jordan stood in front of the car to stop its movement. As he drove out of the parking lot, Bradley hit Mr. Jordan with the car. Mr. Jordan was not injured. Econo Lodge owner Mohammad Malik called police to report the events he witnessed in the parking lot as they unfolded. Mr. Malik gave police the tag number of Bradley's white Ford Explorer, the direction of the vehicle on U.S. 192 as it left the Econo Lodge parking lot, and a description of Bradley as a black male driver accompanied by a white female passenger.

Deputy Barbara Pill was driving southbound on John Rhodes Boulevard within two miles of the Econo Lodge when she learned of the motel theft via police dispatch and spotted the white Ford Explorer. Bradley passed Deputy Pill driving northbound. Deputy Pill confirmed that the license plate matched the police dispatch description, turned to chase the vehicle, and activated her lights.

The dash camera in Deputy Pill's police cruiser began recording at 11:07:18 a.m. as she followed Bradley's white Ford Explorer. The video recording was introduced at trial. The recording shows Bradley's vehicle turn onto a residential street, Elena Way, where Deputy Pill initiated a traffic stop. Deputy Pill instructed Bradley to exit his vehicle over twenty times, but Bradley did not comply. Deputy Pill's weapon was not drawn during the traffic stop. On the video, Bradley can be heard refusing to exit the vehicle through the partially open front driver's side door.

Eventually, Bradley began to slowly move the car forward, and Deputy Pill approached his partially open door. Deputy Pill reached into the vehicle to retrieve the keys and prevent Bradley from driving away. At about 11:11 a.m., Bradley pulled out a semiautomatic firearm and pointed it at Deputy Pill. Bradley fired eight shots at Deputy Pill from a distance of about two feet through the partially open door. The gunshots were recorded not only on the dash camera, but also on the police radio system and simultaneously broadcast to other law enforcement officers. Bradley continued pulling forward as he shot Deputy Pill. Bradley made a U–turn on the street and drove away.

A resident of Elena Way witnessed the shooting, called 911, and rushed to the street to help Deputy Pill. The resident reported a black male driver and white female passenger. Deputy James Troup arrived on the scene seconds after the shooting to find Deputy Pill lying in the street. Deputy Pill's firearm was strapped in its holster. Deputy Victor Velez arrived next. He described Deputy Pill as gasping and lying on her back. The gunshot wound to her head was so severe he did not believe she would live. Dr. Sajid Qaiser's autopsy confirmed that Deputy Pill had been shot at a distance of under two feet, producing five gunshot wounds. Dr. Qaiser testified that the wound to Deputy Pill's head was fatal and another wound on her upper left arm was lethal.

Bradley attempted to elude law enforcement by driving down side streets and through residential yards in the neighborhood. Kerchner testified that they stopped at a house with an open garage door, hoping to find gasoline inside. Bradley parked in Gerard Joseph Weber's driveway on Janewood Lane. Weber heard the police helicopter overhead, went to his garage, and found Kerchner hiding while smoking a cigarette. Mr. Weber told her to take what she needed. Inside his home, Weber called police and notified them to follow the Explorer. Law enforcement later found Kerchner's cell phone inside Mr. Weber's garage.

A police chase ensued after Bradley and Kerchner left Janewood Lane, with the police helicopter overhead, recording the chase on video. Police on the ground employed stop sticks to halt the Explorer, and Bradley drove around them. Police cruisers activated lights and sirens throughout the chase. Bradley did not stop until he ran over stop sticks deployed by Officer Chad Cooper on Turtlemound Road. The stop sticks caused the vehicle to hit a stop sign and a guard rail, rolling to land passenger side down in a ditch filled with water. Bradley and Kerchner did not exit the vehicle until police threw a brick through the rear window to shatter the glass about twenty minutes later. Both Bradley and Kerchner were arrested on Turtlemound Road.

Tests conducted by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement confirmed that the handgun retrieved from Bradley's vehicle matched the bullets retrieved from Deputy Pill's body, the ground at Elena Way, and the inside of Bradley's vehicle. Bradley did not testify at trial, but his March 6, 2012, interview was played for the jury. In the video, Bradley told police that he shot Deputy Pill because she was trying to get her gun and he feared she would kill him. The trial judge noted that the murder was clearly recorded on the dash camera inside Deputy Pill's police cruiser. The trial judge also found the evidence of Bradley's guilt was "overwhelming, and beyond a shadow of any doubt ... [e]ven without [Bradley's] confession."

Bradley was indicted for the following: (1) first-degree premeditated murder with a firearm of law enforcement officer Deputy Barbara Pill; (2) robbery; (3) aggravated fleeing or attempting to elude a law enforcement officer (siren and lights activated with high speed or reckless driving); and (4) resisting arrest with violence. Bradley's codefendant Andria Kerchner was indicted for felony murder, robbery, and burglary. The indictment alleged that the offenses took place March 6, 2012. The codefendants were tried separately.

Bradley's jury trial was held from February 24, 2014, through April 1, 2014. The jury convicted Bradley of all four charges. The penalty phase was conducted from April 3, 2014, through April 8, 2014, and the jury recommended death by a vote of ten to two. Bradley waived a Presentence Investigation Report on April 8, 2014. A hearing pursuant to Spencer v. State , 615 So.2d 688 (Fla. 1993), was conducted on June 5, 2014, at which the victim's father, brother, and husband made statements. The defense presented no evidence or testimony. Both the State and defense submitted sentencing memoranda on June 18, 2014.

The trial court found five aggravators proven beyond a reasonable doubt and gave all five great weight: (1) the capital felony was committed by a person under sentence of imprisonment or placed on community control or felony probation; (2) prior violent felony; (3) the capital felony was committed in the course of a robbery; (4) the capital felony was committed for the purpose of avoiding lawful arrest or escape from custody and the victim was a law enforcement officer in performance of her official duties; and (5) the capital felony was committed in a cold, calculated, and premeditated manner (CCP).

The trial court found one statutory mitigator, the age of the defendant at the time of the crime, and assigned it no weight. The trial court also found the following nonstatutory mitigating factors¹ : (1) Bradley was severely physically abused as a child (some weight); (2) Bradley was verbally and emotionally abused as a child (some weight); (3) Bradley's mother chose his stepfather over him and failed to protect Bradley from the stepfather's abuse (some weight); (4) Bradley witnessed the abuse of his mother by his stepfather (some weight); (5) Bradley witnessed the abuse of his siblings by his stepfather (some weight); (6) Bradley had no loving father figure or male role model (some weight); (7) Bradley has a close, loving relationship with his brother (little weight); (8) Bradley is known by family and friends to be generous and supports his mother and friends financially (little weight); (9) Bradley was addicted to and abused drugs from an early age (little weight); (10) Bradley suffers from brain damage and functional deficits (no weight); (11) Bradley suffered devastating emotional and psychological impact from the death of his cousin in October 2011 (little weight); (12) Bradley's girlfriend miscarried days after the death of his cousin and he began significantly greater drug abuse (little weight); (13) Bradley became paranoid after the death of his cousin and his girlfriend's miscarriage, believed someone was out to kill him, and obtained a gun for protection (little weight); (14) several other family members and friends were murdered or died, contributing to Bradley's emotional state (little weight); (15) Bradley has been diagnosed with mental disorders and is being treated with psychotropic medication (little weight); (16) Bradley has been diagnosed with polysubstance dependence, which is currently in remission in a controlled environment,...