Buenoano v. State, 68091

• Decision Date: 23 June 1988
• Docket Number: No. 68091,68091
• Parties: 13 Fla. L. Weekly 401 Judias V. BUENOANO a/k/a Judy Ann Goodyear, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

Page 194

527 So.2d 194

13 Fla. L. Weekly 401

Judias V. BUENOANO a/k/a Judy Ann Goodyear, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.

No. 68091.

Supreme Court of Florida.

June 23, 1988.

James A. Johnston, Pensacola, for appellant.

Robert A. Butterworth, Atty. Gen. and Margene A. Roper, Asst. Atty. Gen., Daytona Beach, for appellee.

PER CURIAM.

Judias V. Buenoano appeals her conviction for first degree murder and sentence of death. We have jurisdiction. Art. V, § 3(b)(1), Fla. Const. We affirm both the conviction and sentence.

On August 31, 1984, Buenoano was indicted for first degree murder for the September 16, 1971 death by suspected arsenic poisoning of her husband, Sergeant James E. Goodyear. Evidence at trial revealed that, shortly after Sergeant Goodyear returned to Orlando from a tour of duty in South Vietnam, he began suffering from nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. When hospitalized at the naval hospital in Orlando on September 13, 1971, Goodyear reported to Dr. R.C. Auchenbach that he had been ill with these symptoms for two weeks. When Dr. Auchenbach could find no explanation for these symptoms, he attempted to stabilize Goodyear's condition but these attempts failed. Goodyear suffered fluid overload and pulmonary congestion and died as a consequence of cardiovascular collapse and renal failure.

No toxicological assay was performed at the time of Goodyear's death because there was no reason to suspect toxic poisoning. However, Dr. Auchenbach testified that, had he known in 1971 arsenic was present in Goodyear's body, his medical opinion would be that Goodyear could have died as a result of acute arsenic toxication because circulatory collapse and the other symptoms Goodyear exhibited are manifestations of acute arsenic poisoning.

Forensic toxicologist Dr. Lenard Bednarczyk analyzed tissue samples from the exhumed body of Goodyear. He testified that the level of arsenic found in the liver, kidneys, hair and nails of Goodyear indicated chronic exposure to arsenic poison. The opinion of Dr. Bednarczyk and Dr. Thomas Hegert, the Orange County medical examiner who autopsied Goodyear's remains in 1984, was that Goodyear's death was the result of chronic arsenic poisoning occurring over a period of time.

In addition to the medical evidence regarding Goodyear's condition, Debra Sims, who lived with Buenoano and Goodyear shortly before Goodyear's death, testified that Goodyear became sick gradually and that she witnessed him having hallucinations about a rabbit on his bed as he picked at the bed linens. She also testified that Buenoano hesitated to take Goodyear to the hospital when he became ill. Two of Buenoano's acquaintances, Constance Lang and Mary Beverly Owens, both testified that Buenoano discussed with each of them on separate occasions the subject of killing a person by adding arsenic to his food. Owens and Lodell Morris each testified that Buenoano admitted she killed Goodyear.

Evidence was also presented at trial that Bobby Joe Morris, with whom Buenoano lived after Goodyear's death, became ill and died after exhibiting the same symptoms of vomiting, nausea, fever and hallucinating that Goodyear exhibited before his death. When Morris' remains were exhumed in 1984, the tissue analysis revealed acute arsenic poisoning.

After Morris' death Buenoano and John Gentry began living together and later became engaged. Gentry testified at trial that Buenoano told him Goodyear died in a plane crash in Vietnam and Morris died of alcoholism. In November of 1982, Gentry caught a cold, and Buenoano began giving him the vitamin C capsule Vicon C to treat it. Because he was experiencing extreme nausea and vomiting, Gentry checked into a hospital on December 15, 1982. After a full recovery he returned home, and on that same day Buenoano gave him Vicon C capsules again. The nausea and vomiting returned. Gentry had the capsules chemically analyzed, and the capsules were found to contain paraformaldehyde, a class III poison. Testimony at trial was that Buenoano had been telling her associates Gentry was suffering from terminal cancer.

Following Goodyear's death in 1971, Buenoano collected the benefits from various life insurance policies on her husband's life totalling approximately $33,000. She also received $62,000 in dependency indemnity compensation from the Veterans Administration. When Bobby Joe Morris died, Buenoano again received insurance money from three separate policies on Morris' life totalling approximately $23,000. The house mortgage was also paid off. Buenoano owned life insurance on Gentry's life totalling $510,000 in benefits, and she was a 50% beneficiary under his will.

At trial the jury found Buenoano guilty of first degree murder for the death of James Goodyear and recommended imposition of the death penalty. The trial court found four aggravating circumstances and no mitigating factors and sentenced Buenoano to death.

Buenoano raises six points on appeal. Buenoano first claims it was error for the trial court to admit collateral crimes evidence regarding the arsenic poisoning of Bobby Joe Morris and the attempted poisoning of John Gentry in violation of the Williams rule. Williams v. State, 110 So.2d 654 (Fla.), cert. denied, 361 U.S. 847, 80 S.Ct. 102, 4 L.Ed.2d 86 (1959). Buenoano contends that the collateral crimes evidence was admitted only to show bad character and criminal propensity of the accused.

Under the Williams rule evidence of other crimes, wrongs and acts is admissible if it is relevant to and probative of a material issue even though the evidence may indicate the accused has committed other uncharged crimes or may otherwise reflect adversely upon the accused's character. Section 90.404(2)(a), Florida Statutes, (1983), codifies the ruling in Williams v. State and lists the purposes for which such evidence is deemed to be admissible: proof of motive, opportunity, intent, preparation, plan, knowledge, identity, or absence of mistake or accident.

Because of the potential for prejudice to the defendant's case, evidence of collateral crimes will not be admitted solely on the basis of mere similarity between the crime charged and the collateral crimes. For collateral crimes to be admissible there must be something so unique or particularly unusual about the perpetrator or his modus operandi that introduction of the collateral crimes evidence would tend to establish that he committed the crime charged. Chandler v. State, 442 So.2d 171 (Fla.1983).

In the case at bar we find poisoning to be a particularly unusual modus operandi to warrant the introduction of the collateral crimes evidence. When compared, the details of each offense are strikingly similar. All three victims established a close relationship with Buenoano either as her husband, common-law husband or fiance. While living with her, each victim became seriously ill, requiring hospitalization upon displaying similar symptoms. A poison was used in all three cases. Buenoano was the beneficiary under a number of life insurance policies issued on the lives of the three victims and was also entitled to other monetary benefits upon the victims' deaths. These details are not merely evidence of a general similarity between the charged offense and the collateral crimes. "These points of similarity 'pervade the compared factual situations' and when taken as a whole are 'so unusual as to point to the defendant.' " Kight v. State, 512 So.2d 922, 928 (Fla.1987) (quoting Drake v. State, 400 So.2d 1217, 1219 (Fla.1981)). Under these facts the collateral crimes evidence was admissible to prove motive, opportunity, identity, intent, and absence of mistake, and to show a common plan or scheme.

Second, Buenoano contends that the state did not prove the corpus delecti in the instant case independent of Buenoano's confessions ¹ and the collateral crimes evidence and, thus the trial court improperly denied the motion for directed verdict of acquittal. The corpus delecti in a homicide case consists of: (1) the fact of death; (2) the existence of the criminal agency of another; and 3) the identity of the deceased. Bassett v. State, 449 So.2d 803 (Fla.1984). The state must establish that the specific crime charged has actually been committed. However, the state is not required to prove the corpus delecti beyond a reasonable doubt before a confession or evidence of collateral crimes is admitted. Circumstantial evidence is all that is required to establish a preliminary showing of the necessary elements of the crime. State v. Allen, 335 So.2d 823 (Fla.1976).

In the instant case Dr. Auchenbach testified at trial to the fact of James Goodyear's death. A certified copy of the...