Caraballo v. State Of Fla.
| Decision Date | 24 June 2010 |
| Docket Number | No. SC07-1375.,SC07-1375. |
| Citation | 39 So.3d 1234 |
| Parties | Victor CARABALLO, Appellant,v.STATE of Florida, Appellee. |
| Court | Florida Supreme Court |
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Carlos J. Martinez, Public Defender, and Andrew Stanton, Assistant Public Defender, Eleventh Judicial Circuit, Miami, FL, for Appellant.
Bill McCollum, Attorney General, Tallahassee, Florida, Sandra Jaggard, and Lisa A. Davis, Assistant Attorneys General, Miami, FL, for Appellee.
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 Caraballo's convictions; however, we reverse his death sentence and remand this case to the trial court for a new penalty phase.
Victor Caraballo (Caraballo) was convicted of the 2002 first-degree murder, kidnapping, robbery, and sexual battery of Ana Maria Angel (Angel). Caraballo was also convicted of the attempted first-degree murder, robbery, and kidnapping of Nelson Portobanco (Portobanco). At the conclusion of the penalty phase, the jury recommended by a vote of nine to three that Caraballo be sentenced to death for the murder of Angel. We affirm Caraballo's convictions and sentences as to all crimes except for the death sentence for the murder of Angel. As to the death sentence, because of error that occurred during the penalty phase, we reverse Caraballo's death sentence and remand this case to the trial court for a new penalty phase. We first discuss the facts of the murder and the investigation as well as the procedural posture of the case. Next, we discuss the guilt phase issues raised by Caraballo. We then turn to the penalty phase issue which dictates reversal of Caraballo's death sentence.
The evidence presented at trial established that on Saturday, April 27, 2002, Angel and her boyfriend Portobanco, both high school students, went on a dinner date. After dinner, the two went for a walk on Miami Beach that lasted about thirty minutes. Around 12:30 a.m. on April 28, they decided to leave the beach and go home. As Angel and Portobanco walked to their car, they were accosted at gunpoint and forced into the rear cab of a white Ford F-150 pickup truck by a group of five men that included Victor Caraballo, Joel Lebron, Hector Caraballo, Cesar Mena, and Jesus Torres Roman.1 The group had traveled from Orlando to Miami Beach on the evening of April 27 in the truck which was rented in Orlando on the morning of April 27. The evidence presented at trial established that Mena was the driver and Caraballo was the front seat passenger. Hector Caraballo, Lebron, and Roman sat in the rear cab of the truck with Angel and Portobanco. While in the truck, Angel and Portobanco were robbed of their belongings which included Angel's purse, cell phone, Florida identification card, automatic teller machine (ATM) card, various items of jewelry, and Portobanco's wallet and cell phone. After forcing Angel to reveal her personal identification number (PIN), the robbers used her ATM card to withdraw money from an ATM and to purchase gasoline.
Thereafter, the truck entered Interstate 95 and proceeded in a northerly direction with Angel and Portobanco trapped in the rear cab. At one point, Portobanco was told to kiss Angel and then to touch her in an intimate manner. When Portobanco refused, he was pushed onto the floorboard. Angel was then brutally gang-raped by the other three occupants of the rear cab. Thereafter, Caraballo exclaimed that it was his turn, climbed into the back seat, and sexually battered Angel.
After the sexual attacks ended, the truck continued traveling north and then stopped alongside the interstate. Portobanco was forced out of the truck and down an embankment. There, he was repeatedly stabbed and left for dead. One of Portobanco's multiple stab wounds was located extremely close to an artery. Thereafter, the truck continued to travel north on the interstate for several more miles with Angel still trapped inside. When the truck stopped again, Angel was forced out of the truck and taken to a retaining wall alongside the interstate. There, Angel was forced to her knees and was shot once in the back of her head killing her instantly.
After brutally stabbing Portobanco and fatally shooting Angel, the group of five headed back home to Orlando during the early morning hours of April 28. The rental truck was returned to the rental agency in Orlando that same day.
Portobanco, who did not succumb to his injuries, made his way to the side of the road and summoned help. There, a passerby stopped and emergency personnel were called. Portobanco was taken to a Miami hospital where he talked with law enforcement officers while being treated. Portobanco told the officers about the kidnapping and explained that when he last saw Angel, she was alive. After law enforcement officers obtained the numbers for both Angel's and Portobanco's cell phones, a call was traced from one of the phones to a residential telephone number at the Hawthorne Village Apartments in Orlando. The phone number was linked to Hector Caraballo.
Given that information, during the morning of April 28, local and statewide law enforcement officers set up a staging area in south Orange County in the vicinity of the Hawthorne Village Apartments. Although the officers did not locate Hector Caraballo, the Hawthorne Village staff informed them that a person named Victor Caraballo was recently a tenant in the complex. Apartment staff told law enforcement that Caraballo had been evicted and that his apartment should be vacant.
Law enforcement officers went to the apartment formerly rented by Caraballo and knocked on the door. Hawthorne Village staff, who accompanied the officers to the apartment, discovered that someone placed a new noncompliant lock on the apartment door. Despite multiple attempts to get the attention of anyone who might be inside, no one came to the door. Thereafter, with the consent of Hawthorne Village staff, law enforcement officers kicked in the door and entered the apartment. Once inside the apartment, they discovered that the door had been barricaded with a piece of wood and a hydraulic jack, and they discovered someone who identified himself as Victor Caraballo.
Caraballo, whose primary language is Spanish, identified himself as Victor Caraballo and also verified that Hector Caraballo was his brother. Agent Francisco Hidalgo, a Spanish-speaking Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) agent, was brought to the apartment to speak to Caraballo. Around 4:10 p.m. on April 28, Caraballo was advised in Spanish of his Miranda2 rights, and after indicating that he understood his rights, he signed a waiver form printed in Spanish. Caraballo acknowledged that he and four others (Hector Caraballo, Mena, Lebron, and Roman) traveled to Miami Beach the evening before and robbed a young couple. Caraballo stated that Portobanco was beaten and left at some point during the trip back to Orlando, but he claimed that Angel traveled back to Orlando with the group and that she begged to be let go throughout the trip. Caraballo admitted to having some of the items belonging to Angel and Portobanco. He showed Agent Hidalgo where various items were located in the apartment, including Portobanco's wallet and Angel's purse, cell phone, and ATM card. In an abundance of caution, Hidalgo also obtained consent from Caraballo to search the apartment and seize the items. That evening, Caraballo was taken to the Orlando FDLE office where he made another statement.
Around 10 p.m. on April 28, Caraballo was questioned in the presence of Miami Beach Police Detective Larry Marrero and FDLE Agent Hidalgo. Caraballo admitted certain facts regarding the kidnapping, robbery, rape, and attempted murder, but he did not admit that Angel was shot and killed. Throughout the evening of April 28 and into the morning of April 29, additional information was gathered and others in the group of five were brought in for questioning. During that time, it was revealed that Angel was murdered and that her body was left along Interstate 95, several miles from where Portobanco was stabbed and left for dead. Using this information, law enforcement located Angel's body.
Between the time that Caraballo was arrested and put on trial, he participated in an interview with a local Spanish-language television station. During the interview, Caraballo said that he did not anticipate what happened that night because he and the others were only supposed to go to a discotheque and have fun. Caraballo also told the interviewer that Angel and Portobanco were violently forced into the pickup truck and that Lebron had a gun, possibly a .45 caliber or other type of gun with a magazine.
Caraballo recalled that Angel pleaded for her life and that Roman bragged about the impact of the gunshot wound. Caraballo also pointed to Lebron as the person who stabbed Portobanco. Additionally, Caraballo demonstrated how Angel was shot in the back of her head. Portions of Caraballo's interview were introduced at trial.3
Several months after the murder, Caraballo wrote a letter which contained a “voluntary confession” and sent it to the State Attorney's Office. In the confession, Caraballo said that on April 27 he was at his brother Hector's apartment when Mena, Lebron, and Roman came over. The group decided to go to a discotheque in Miami. Before leaving Orlando, they stopped at Mena's home at about 4:30 p.m. to get money for gasoline and say goodbye to Mena's wife.
At 6 p.m. the group left for Miami, stopping on the way to buy orange juice and vodka. At approximately 7 p.m., Mena asked...
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