Carter v. State, SC06-156.

• Decision Date: 14 February 2008
• Docket Number: No. SC06-156.,SC06-156.
• Citation: 980 So.2d 473
• Parties: Pinkney CARTER, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

980 So.2d 473

Pinkney CARTER, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.

No. SC06-156.

Supreme Court of Florida.

February 14, 2008.

Rehearing Denied April 16, 2008.

Nancy Daniels, Public Defender, and David A. Davis, Assistant Public Defender, Second Judicial Circuit, Tallahassee, FL, for Appellant.

Bill McCollum, Attorney General, and Charmaine M. Millsaps, Assistant Attorney General, Tallahassee, FL, for Appellee.

PER CURIAM.

Pinkney Carter appeals his three convictions for first-degree premeditated and felony murder as well as his two death sentences. We have jurisdiction. See art. V, § 3(b)(1), Fla. Const. For the reasons set forth in this opinion, we affirm Carter's convictions and sentences.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Carter and Elizabeth Reed dated on and off for approximately four years, during which time Carter periodically lived with Reed and her four children. During the course of their relationship, Carter helped Reed purchase a house on Barkwood Drive in Jacksonville and assisted her financially when she fell behind on her mortgage payments. At one point in early 2002, Carter proposed marriage, and Reed accepted. However, the engagement was soon called off and Carter moved out. Yet, according to Carter, he and Reed continued to date and were intimate.

By the summer of 2002, Carter learned that Reed had been seeing Glenn Pafford, who managed the Publix Supermarket where she worked. Around this time, neighbors spotted Carter lurking suspiciously near Reed's home and noticed his red Dodge pickup truck in the neighborhood.

On Sunday, July 21, 2002, Reed visited Carter's apartment, where he was staying with his mother and his brother. Carter testified that Reed gave him some of her prescription pills for depression, and the two made plans to meet on Tuesday night. When Reed did not show up, Carter drove by her house and saw Pafford's truck in her driveway. From there, Carter drove home and spent several hours thinking about his relationship with Reed. He took three of the antidepressant pills Reed had given him and drank four to five glasses of whiskey. Around 11:30 p.m., Carter telephoned Reed. Her fourteen-year-old son Richard answered and told Carter that Reed was not home.

In the predawn hours of the following day, Carter returned to Reed's home. He parked in her front yard, retrieved his loaded .22 caliber rifle from the back seat of his truck, and began walking toward the house.¹ As Carter approached Reed's home, Pafford walked out and Reed stood in the doorway. Concealing his rifle at his side, Carter confronted the couple and asked why Reed was still seeing him if she was seeing Pafford. Pafford asked Reed if she was still seeing Carter, and Reed responded that she was not. Pafford then asked Reed if she wanted him to stay, but Reed said that she wanted both men to leave. Carter responded that he was not leaving until he got some answers. According to Carter, Reed opened the door wider, and the three entered and stood in Reed's living room.

Once inside, Carter yelled at Reed, "I can't believe you're going to lie straight to the man's face like that." Then, according to Carter, Reed noticed the gun concealed at his side and grabbed for it. Reed began struggling with Carter in an attempt to take the gun away from him. Carter's finger was on the trigger and Reed had both hands on the barrel. Hearing the commotion, Reed's eldest daughter, Courtney Smith, ran into the living room, saw the gun, and then ran back toward her room. At that moment, according to Carter, the gun discharged, shooting Smith once in the head. Carter testified that Reed immediately let go of the gun and screamed, "Oh my God, dial 911!" As Reed ran toward her daughter, Carter aimed and shot Reed twice in the head. Immediately thereafter, Carter turned toward Pafford, aimed, and shot him three times in the head. Carter then fled the premises. The noise of the gunshots woke Richard, who came from his bedroom to find Pafford and Reed dead and Smith critically injured. Smith later died from her injuries. Reed's two other children, Rebecca and Brian, ages eight and six respectively, were also home at the time of the shooting.

Following the murders, Carter drove to his brother's house where he wrote notes to his mother and his sister. He then drove to Valdosta, Georgia, stole a Georgia state license plate from his friend's vehicle and placed it on his red Dodge pickup truck. From there, Carter drove to Starr County, Texas, where he abandoned his truck on the bank of the Rio Grande and swam across, entering Mexico illegally. While swimming, Carter abandoned his rifle, which was later recovered by the Mission County, Texas, Fire Rescue dive team. Upon entering Mexico, Carter was detained by the Mexican Military Police but was later released. Carter then traveled to Central America before returning to the United States to find work. He worked in both Illinois and Kentucky under the aliases Chris Cruse and Rodney Vonthun. Then, on January 6, 2004, while working in Kentucky as a roofer, Carter was identified by the Kentucky State Police and arrested for the murders of Pafford, Reed, and Smith.

On January 15, 2004, a grand jury indicted Carter for three counts of first-degree murder with a firearm. Following several continuances, a trial was conducted. By special verdict, the jury unanimously found Carter guilty of both premeditated and felony murder for each of the three killings. This special verdict also showed that the jury determined the murders were committed in the course of a burglary. In the penalty phase, the jury recommended death for the murder of Pafford by a vote of nine to three, death for the murder of Reed by a vote of eight to four, and life imprisonment for the murder of Smith.

In its sentencing order, the trial court followed the jury's recommendation and imposed a life sentence for the murder of Smith and death sentences for the murders of Pafford and Reed. The court found three statutory aggravators and assigned great weight to each: (1) that Carter was previously convicted of a capital offense (the other two contemporaneous murders); (2) that the murders were committed while engaged in the commission of a burglary; and (3) that the murders were cold, calculated, and premeditated (CCP). The court found no statutory mitigators and seventeen nonstatutory mitigators: (1) Carter was raised in a broken home; (2) Carter was an above-average achiever in high school and college; (3) Carter was president of a club that helped others at Oklahoma State University; (4) Carter had a distinguished military record in the United States Air Force for almost four years; (5) Carter was a good employee with supervising responsibilities and had a consistent work record from a young age; (6) Carter was a good son with the strength to reconcile with his father, who abandoned him; (7) Carter was a good brother who protected his sister during her early years; (8) Carter saved a child's life while working as a lifeguard; (9) Carter was a loyal friend who made friends easily; (10) Carter had a close relationship with his nephew, Jacob; (11) Carter worked for a living in Kentucky while avoiding the police; (12) Carter demonstrated potential to be a productive inmate while in Duval County Jail; (13) Carter had the support of family and friends; (14) society can be protected by life sentences without parole; (15) Carter offered to plead guilty for three consecutive life sentences; (16) Carter resisted adopting the racist traits of his father and has had positive race relations throughout his life; and (17) Carter had a good relationship with Reed and her children prior to the murders. The court accorded all of these nonstatutory mitigators "some" weight. Ultimately, the trial court found that the "aggravating circumstances in this case far outweigh[ed] the mitigating circumstances," and that "any of the considered aggravating circumstances found in this case, standing alone, would be sufficient to outweigh the mitigation in total presented regarding the murders of Glenn Pafford and Elizabeth Reed."

GUILT PHASE

Regarding the guilt phase, Carter claims that the statute abolishing the voluntary intoxication defense is unconstitutional. In addition, we independently determine whether sufficient evidence supports Carter's convictions.

A. Voluntary Intoxication Defense

Carter argues that section 775.051, Florida Statutes (2002), which prevented him from asserting a defense of voluntary intoxication,² is constitutionally invalid because it operates as an evidentiary proscription rather than a redefinition of mens rea. As we recently held in Troy v. State, 948 So.2d 635 (Fla.2006), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 127 S.Ct. 2981, 168 L.Ed.2d 711 (2007), this claim is meritless. See id. at 643-45 (holding that section 775.051 did not violate due process or equal protection).

B. Sufficiency of the Evidence Supporting Carter's Convictions

Although not argued by Carter, we independently review the record to determine whether sufficient evidence exists to support Carter's first-degree murder convictions. See Fla. R.App. P. 9.140(i); Davis v. State, 859 So.2d 465, 480 (Fla. 2003). Upon review of the record, we find that competent, substantial evidence exists to support Carter's convictions. Carter admitted killing Reed, Pafford, and Smith, and his trial testimony and the events surrounding the murders are supported by the direct testimony of those involved in this case. For example, Richard Smith testified that he answered the telephone call Carter made to Reed earlier in the evening and heard the gunshots before discovering the bodies of Reed, Pafford, and Smith. Also, Christian Carter testified that he observed Carter behaving suspiciously in the neighborhood of the Reed residence in the weeks prior to the murders. No competent evidence was presented to dispute the evidence in support of Carter's convictions.

PENALTY PHASE

As to the...