Cochran v. State, 67972
| Citation | 14 Fla. L. Weekly 406,547 So.2d 928 |
| Decision Date | 27 July 1989 |
| Docket Number | No. 67972,67972 |
| Parties | 14 Fla. L. Weekly 406 Guy Reginald COCHRAN, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee. |
| Court | United States State Supreme Court of Florida |
James Marion Moorman, Public Defender, and Douglas S. Connor, Asst. Public Defender, Bartow, for appellant.
Robert A. Butterworth, Atty. Gen., and Joseph R. Bryant, Asst. Atty. Gen., Tampa, for appellee.
Guy Reginald Cochran appeals his conviction of first-degree murder and sentence of death. We have jurisdiction. Art. V, § 3(b)(1), Fla. Const. We affirm the conviction but remand for the imposition of a life sentence in accordance with the jury's recommendation.
On February 7, 1985, the body of Carol Harris was found in a field near Route 301 in Hillsborough County. A day or so later a police officer spotted Harris' BMW and attempted to stop it. The vehicle's occupants fled on foot and the car was impounded. Fingerprints lifted from the automobile were identified as Cochran's and led to his arrest and confession.
At trial, the state introduced Cochran's taped confession in which he asserted that the shooting was not deliberate and he never intended to hurt Harris. Cochran said he approached Harris with a gun, intending to rob her, as she was getting into her car in the Ybor City section of Tampa, Florida. When she screamed, he forced her into her car and drove off. He said he was driving and holding the gun in one hand when Harris jumped at him and tried to stab him. During the struggle, as he tried to steer the car, the gun went off. Cochran also confessed that Harris asked him to take her to a hospital but he got scared and left her on Route 301. He said he later went back to help her but could not find his way to where he had left her.
The medical examiner testified that Harris had been shot once at close range and that the wound track, through the abdomen from left to right horizontally and slightly backward, was consistent with a scenario of the shooter seated on the left side of the victim in an automobile. He also said the victim could have lost consciousness within moments and lived for only a few minutes or could have remained alive and conscious with the wound for as much as an hour.
Police detectives testified that drag marks and the position of the victim's body and clothing indicated the body had been dragged approximately seventeen feet from the highway to where it eventually was found. The police also testified that a fork, but no knife, had been found in the vehicle.
In addition to the medical examiner and crime scene investigators, the state introduced the testimony of Darrell Shorter and Willie Long, who were friends of Cochran. Shorter, who admitted he was in the BMW when the Tampa police car tried to stop it, testified that he saw a sharp instrument that looked like a letter opener on the dashboard of the car. He also testified that "[Cochran] told me that he got the car from a bar on 7th Avenue and that he took the girl somewhere and shot her and that is how he got the car." Long said that when he asked Cochran about the car, Cochran replied that "he got it from a lady and she tried to stab him and that he had to shoot her."
At the penalty phase, the state offered no additional evidence. The defense presented testimony from Dr. Arturo Gonzalez, a psychiatrist; Caroline Barnard, the supervisor of school psychiatric services in the Hillsborough County School District; Susan Watson, Cochran's seventh grade teacher; Dennis Namen, Cochran's high school teacher; several members of Cochran's family; and Detective Kendall Glenn, who initially questioned Cochran regarding the homicide.
The jury recommended life imprisonment. The trial judge, however, concluded that the aggravating circumstances substantially outweighed the mitigating circumstances and imposed the death penalty. The judge stated that Cochran's prior conviction of another capital felony, which had been unknown to the jury, was "substantially the basis" for the jury override.
Appellant challenges his conviction of first-degree murder on the ground that there was insufficient evidence to prove premeditation. He argues that the state's circumstantial evidence on the element of premeditation was not legally sufficient because it did not exclude the hypothesis of an unpremeditated shooting. Assuming arguendo that the jury's verdict was limited to premeditated murder, 1 we find the evidence in this case sufficient to support such a verdict.
Appellant correctly points out that in order to prove a fact by circumstantial evidence, the evidence must be inconsistent with any reasonable hypothesis of innocence. McArthur v. State, 351 So.2d 972, 976 n. 12 (Fla.1977). Where the element of premeditation is sought to be established by circumstantial evidence, the evidence relied upon by the state must be inconsistent with every other reasonable inference. Wilson v. State, 493 So.2d 1019 (Fla.1986); Hall v. State, 403 So.2d 1321 (Fla.1981).
But the question of whether the evidence fails to exclude all reasonable hypotheses of innocence is for the jury to determine, and where there is substantial, competent evidence to support the jury verdict, the verdict will not be reversed on appeal. Heiney v. State, 447 So.2d 210, 212 (Fla.), cert. denied, 469 U.S. 920, 105 S.Ct. 303, 83 L.Ed.2d 237 (1984); Williams v. State, 437 So.2d 133 (Fla.1983), cert. denied, 466 U.S. 909, 104 S.Ct. 1690, 80 L.Ed.2d 164 (1984); Rose v. State, 425 So.2d 521 (Fla.1982), cert. denied, 461 U.S. 909, 103 S.Ct. 1883, 76 L.Ed.2d 812 (1983). The circumstantial evidence standard does not require the jury to believe the defense version of facts on which the state has produced conflicting evidence, and the state, as appellee, is entitled to a view of any conflicting evidence in the light most favorable to the jury's verdict. Buenoano v. State, 478 So.2d 387 (Fla. 1st DCA 1985), review dismissed, 504 So.2d 762 (Fla.1987).
With these principles in mind, we find the evidence sufficient to support a verdict of premeditated murder. Cochran claimed that the shooting was accidental, that he "let [the victim] out of the car" after he panicked, and later attempted to find her to take her to the hospital. The evidence showed, however, that the victim's body was dragged seventeen feet from the roadway. Given this conflict in the physical evidence, the jury properly could have concluded that appellant's version of events was untruthful. We find sufficient competent evidence to support a finding of premeditation and accept the jury's evaluation of that evidence. See Songer v. State, 322 So.2d 481 (Fla.1975) (), vacated on other grounds, 430 U.S. 952, 97 S.Ct. 1594, 51 L.Ed.2d 801 (1977).
Appellant's first argument, that the trial court erred in refusing to allow him to present evidence that the death penalty is imposed in a racially discriminatory manner, has been foreclosed by the recent United States Supreme Court decision in McCleskey v. Kemp, 481 U.S. 279, 107 S.Ct. 1756, 95 L.Ed.2d 262 (1987).
Appellant next asserts that the trial court erred in considering letters from the victim's next-of-kin. Because of our resolution of the next two points, we find it unnecessary to address this claim of error.
In his fourth point, appellant argues that the trial court erred in finding that this murder was especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel. 2 In support of this finding, the trial court stated:
(h) The capital felony was especially heinnous [sic], atrocious, and cruel. The defendant exhibited a lack of remorse by taking the wounded victim to a remote area, probably still alive, rather than taking some action which could result in her getting medical attention for the injury, thus reflecting a cold and calculating conscienceless act.
We agree with appellant that this finding does not comport with prior decisions of this Court defining the parameters of the heinous, atrocious, or cruel aggravating factor. Lack of remorse is clearly improper as an aggravating factor or enhancement of an aggravating factor. Pope v. State, 441 So.2d 1073 (Fla.1983). Failure to get medical attention for the victim does not make a murder especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel. Teffeteller v. State, 439 So.2d 840, 846 (Fla.1983), cert. denied, 465 U.S. 1074, 104 S.Ct. 1430, 79 L.Ed.2d 754 (1984); Tedder v. State, 322 So.2d 908, 910 (Fla.1975). Nor can the defendant's acts after the victim is unconscious support this aggravating circumstance. See Jackson v. State, 451 So.2d 458 (Fla.1984); Clark v. State, 443 So.2d 973 (Fla.1983), cert. denied, 467 U.S. 1210, 104 S.Ct. 2400, 81 L.Ed.2d 356 (1984). Our cases make clear that where, as here, death results from a single gunshot and there are no additional acts of torture or harm, this aggravating circumstance does not apply. Jackson v. State, 502 So.2d 409 (Fla.1986), cert. denied, 482 U.S. 920, 107 S.Ct. 3198, 96 L.Ed.2d 686 (1987); Fleming v. State, 374 So.2d 954 (Fla.1979).
Lastly, we address appellant's argument that the trial court's override of the jury's recommendation of life does not meet the standard set out in Tedder. In Tedder, we held that in order to sustain a sentence of death following a jury recommendation of life, the facts suggesting death must be so clear and convincing that virtually no reasonable person could differ. 322 So.2d at 910.
At the sentencing hearing, 3 in response to the prosecutor's inquiry, the judge explained the override as follows:
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