Carroll v. State
| Citation | 815 So.2d 601 |
| Decision Date | 07 March 2002 |
| Docket Number | No. SC94611, No. SC00-46. |
| Parties | Elmer Leon CARROLL, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee. Elmer Leon Carroll, Petitioner, v. Michael W. Moore, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections, Respondent. |
| Court | United States State Supreme Court of Florida |
Gregory C. Smith, Capital Collateral Counsel-Northern Region, Andrew Thomas, Chief Assistant CCRC-Northern Region, Scott B. Mario, Staff Attorney, Office of the Capital Collateral Counsel-Northern Region, Tallahassee, FL, for Appellant/Petitioner.
Robert A. Butterworth, Attorney General, and Scott A. Browne, Assistant Attorney General, Tampa, FL, for Appellee/Respondent.
Elmer Leon Carroll, a prisoner under sentence of death, appeals the trial court's denial of his motion for postconviction relief pursuant to Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850, and he petitions this Court for a writ of habeas corpus. We have jurisdiction. See art. V, § 3(b)(1), (9), Fla. Const. For the reasons set forth below, we affirm the trial court's order denying Carroll postconviction relief. We also deny Carroll's petition for writ of habeas corpus.
Carroll was convicted for first-degree murder and sexual battery on a child under twelve years of age. The facts in this case are set forth in greater detail in Carroll v. State, 636 So.2d 1316 (Fla.1994). The relevant facts are as follows:
On October 30, 1990, at about 6 a.m., Robert Rank went to awaken his ten-year-old stepdaughter, Christine McGowan, at their home in Apopka. When she did not respond to his calls, Rank went into her bedroom and found her dead. Shortly thereafter, Rank noticed that his front door was slightly ajar and that his pickup truck he had parked in the yard with the keys in it the night before was missing. When the police arrived, they determined that Christine had been raped and strangled. A BOLO was issued for the missing truck, which was a white construction truck bearing the logo ATC on the side.
Id. at 1317. Shortly thereafter, the truck was seen parked on the side of a highway and Carroll was observed walking about one mile down the road from the truck. Carroll was subsequently stopped and searched, and the keys to the truck were found on Carroll. Two witnesses had also observed Carroll driving the truck earlier that morning. Blood was found on Carroll's sweatshirt and genitalia, and semen, saliva, and pubic hair recovered from the victim were consistent with that of Carroll.
The jury convicted Carroll of both charges and recommended death for the first-degree murder conviction by a vote of twelve to zero. See id. at 1317. The trial court followed the jury's recommendation and sentenced Carroll to death.1 We affirmed Carroll's conviction and sentence on direct appeal. See id. at 1321. The United States Supreme Court denied Carroll's petition for writ of certiorari on October 31, 1994. See Carroll v. Florida, 513 U.S. 973, 115 S.Ct. 447, 130 L.Ed.2d 357 (1994).
Carroll timely filed his initial 3.850 motion on February 1, 1996. Thereafter, Carroll filed an amended 3.850 motion raising twenty-four claims.2 Following a Huff3 hearing, the trial court ordered that an evidentiary hearing be held as to five of the twenty-four claims raised in Carroll's amended motion.4 The trial court held an evidentiary hearing on August 4-5, 1997. Subsequent to this hearing, the trial court entered an order denying relief on all of Carroll's claims. This appeal follows.
Carroll raises eight issues on appeal,5 several of which may be disposed of summarily because they are procedurally barred,6 facially insufficient,7 or without merit.8 Carroll's remaining claims, however, warrant discussion and we will address them in turn.
We first address the claim of ineffective assistance of counsel. In order to prove such a claim, a defendant must establish two elements:
First, the defendant must show that counsel's performance was deficient. This requires showing that counsel made errors so serious that counsel was not functioning as the "counsel" guaranteed the defendant by the Sixth Amendment. Second, the defendant must show that the deficient performance prejudiced the defense. This requires showing that counsel's errors were so serious as to deprive the defendant of a fair trial, a trial whose result is reliable. Unless a defendant makes both showings, it cannot be said that the conviction or death sentence resulted from a breakdown in the adversary process that renders the result unreliable.
Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 687, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984); see also Rutherford v. State, 727 So.2d 216, 219-20 (Fla.1998); Rose v. State, 675 So.2d 567, 569 (Fla.1996). To establish prejudice, Strickland, 466 U.S. at 694, 104 S.Ct. 2052. Ineffective assistance of counsel claims present a mixed question of law and fact subject to plenary review based on the Strickland test. See Stephens v. State, 748 So.2d 1028, 1033 (Fla.1999) (citing Rose v. State, 675 So.2d 567, 571 (Fla.1996)). This requires an independent review of the trial court's legal conclusions, while giving deference to the trial court's factual findings. See id.
First, Carroll alleges that abundant psychiatric testimony before, during, and since trial establishes that he was incompetent at the time of trial. Carroll's underlying claim that he was incompetent to stand trial should have been raised on direct appeal and therefore is procedurally barred. See Patton v. State, 784 So.2d 380, 393 (Fla.2000); Johnston v. Dugger, 583 So.2d 657, 659 (Fla.1991). As a corollary to the substantive competency claim, however, Carroll argues that trial counsel's ineffectiveness deprived him of a reliable competency hearing.
In this case, trial counsel filed a motion for a competency hearing on August 15, 1991. Thereafter, the trial court appointed Drs. Gutman and Danziger to evaluate Carroll for competency and sanity. In addition, the trial court requested Drs. Kirkland, Erlich, and Benson, who had previously evaluated Carroll for competency in November December of 1990, to reevaluate Carroll for competency and sanity. On November 15, 1991, the trial court held a competency hearing at which Drs. Gutman, Danziger, Kirkland, and Benson testified.9 Of these four doctors, Dr. Benson was the only one to testify that Carroll was incompetent to stand trial.10 On December 27, 1991, the trial court entered an order finding Carroll competent to stand trial based upon consideration of the expert testimony and argument of counsel at the competency hearing, as well as the experts' reports submitted to the court.
Nonetheless, Carroll argues that trial counsel's ineffectiveness in failing to provide adequate background information to the doctors deprived him of a reliable competency determination. Carroll alleges that Drs. Danziger and Gutman testified at the evidentiary hearing that based on additional background information supplied by collateral counsel, consisting of school records and affidavits from family members, they would reconsider their original opinions regarding Carroll's competency at the time of trial. The record, however, refutes Carroll's claim. Neither Dr. Danziger nor Dr. Gutman testified that in light of the additional background information provided by collateral counsel they would have found Carroll incompetent to stand trial. Thus, even assuming trial counsel was deficient for failing to provide the additional background information, Carroll has not demonstrated prejudice under Strickland. See Strickland, 466 U.S. at 694, 104 S.Ct. 2052. Accordingly, we find this claim was properly rejected.
Carroll also asserts that the trial court erred in denying his claim alleging that trial counsel rendered ineffective assistance during the guilt phase. Specifically, Carroll argues trial counsel was ineffective in presenting an insanity defense; trial counsel was ineffective in failing to retain a confidential DNA expert; and trial counsel was ineffective in failing to impeach the testimony of the medical expert.
First, Carroll maintains that the failure of his insanity defense is directly related to trial counsel's ineffectiveness. In particular, Carroll contends that: (1) trial counsel did virtually nothing to affirmatively present an insanity defense; and (2) trial counsel allowed the State to present damaging testimony from experts who based their opinions on incomplete information.
We find that the record refutes Carroll's allegation that trial counsel did "virtually nothing" to affirmatively present an insanity defense. First, trial counsel called several lay witnesses to testify at trial in support of Carroll's insanity defense. In particular, trial counsel called the director of the halfway house in which Carroll was residing at the time of the offense. She testified that Carroll began to act differently a couple of weeks before the alleged offense and that she spoke with him about getting counseling. Additionally, trial counsel called two bartenders from the taverns Carroll patronized the night before the victim was discovered. Both bartenders testified that they witnessed Carroll acting strangely and observed him talking to his jacket and speaking about demons and Satan.
More importantly, trial counsel called several mental health experts in support of Carroll's insanity defense. Dr. McMahon, who had examined Carroll within two days of the offense, testified that she observed Carroll to be extremely disorganized and only partially oriented. In her clinical opinion, Carroll was psychotic at the time of her interview, experiencing both auditory and visual...
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