Coolen v. State
| Decision Date | 22 May 1997 |
| Docket Number | No. 84018,84018 |
| Citation | 696 So.2d 738 |
| Parties | 22 Fla. L. Weekly S292 Michael Thomas COOLEN, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee. |
| Court | Florida Supreme Court |
James Marion Moorman, Public Defender and Douglas S. Connor, Assistant Public Defender Tenth Judicial Circuit, Bartow, for Appellant.
Robert A. Butterworth, Attorney General and Candance M. Sabella, Assistant Attorney General, Tampa, for Appellee.
We have on appeal the judgment and sentence of the trial court imposing the death penalty upon Michael Thomas Coolen. We have jurisdiction pursuant to article V, section 3(b)(1) of the Florida Constitution. We reverse the first-degree murder conviction and vacate the death sentence because the evidence was insufficient to prove premeditation.
Coolen was charged with first-degree murder for the stabbing death of John Kellar on November 7, 1992. The evidence introduced at trial revealed the following facts. Kellar and his wife, Barbara Caughman Kellar, went to a pub in Clearwater at approximately 4:30 p.m. and struck up a conversation with Coolen and his girlfriend Deborah Morabito. The two couples drank beer and talked for three or four hours and then went back to the Kellars' home where they continued to party and drink beer in the backyard. According to nine-year-old Jamie Caughman, Barbara's son, the two men fought over a can of beer during the evening.
Coolen and Jamie walked down a nearby dirt road to shoot off fireworks that Coolen had in his van. Coolen then played tag with Jamie in the yard. During the game of tag, Coolen pulled Jamie away from the van door, put him on the ground, took a knife out of his pocket, and warned Jamie not to step on the door again. Jamie told no one about the incident and went into the house to play Nintendo.
John Kellar escorted Morabito into the house so that she could use the bathroom. During their absence, Coolen put his hand down Barbara Kellar's shirt. She pushed Coolen away and did not know where he went. When John Kellar and Morabito returned from the house a few minutes later, they joined Barbara Kellar at the van and the three continued their conversation. Suddenly Coolen pulled John Kellar away and backed him up to the house. John Kellar began to holler and moan as Coolen stabbed him. Barbara Kellar ran to assist her husband when he fell to the ground. She threw her body over his as protection and Coolen struck her several times with a knife. Jamie came outside in time to see John Kellar and Coolen fighting. He saw Coolen stabbing his stepfather and his stepfather trying to push Coolen away. While Coolen was driving away from the scene, he hit a tree and the Kellars' truck.
In response to Barbara Kellar's 911 call, deputies and emergency medical personnel were dispatched to the scene. John Kellar was transported by helicopter to the hospital and died from his stab wounds. The medical examiner testified that Kellar had six stab wounds, including two defensive wounds to his forearm and hand, a deep stab wound to the right chest, and one to his right back. Kellar's blood alcohol level was .22.
Based upon the description given by Barbara Kellar and Jamie Caughman, deputies stopped Coolen's van on an adjacent street shortly after the stabbing. Coolen and Morabito were transported to the Kellar residence where they were identified by Barbara Kellar. Coolen was read his rights, expressed his understanding of those rights, and responded to questioning. According to the deputy, Coolen appeared to be intoxicated but had no trouble understanding the deputy or responding to questions. Coolen admitted that a knife found in Morabito's coat pocket was his and that he had used the knife to stab John Kellar.
Coolen was also interviewed at the sheriff's office several hours after the stabbing. In that taped interview, which was played to the jury, Coolen admitted stabbing Kellar with the knife found in Morabito's coat. He stated that he had been "playing word games" with Barbara Kellar when John Kellar "copped an attitude." He saw "something silver" in Kellar's hand, thought it was a small handgun that Kellar said he owned, and attacked Kellar to protect himself.
At the close of the State's evidence, defense counsel moved for a judgment of acquittal on the basis that the State had failed to adduce any evidence of premeditation. Defense counsel renewed the motion on the same grounds at the close of all evidence. The court denied the motion both times. The jury returned a verdict of guilty of murder in the first degree as charged.
During the penalty phase, the State presented evidence of Coolen's prior violent felony convictions. Coolen presented the testimony of his aunt, cousin, and sister regarding his family background, testimony of his girlfriend Morabito regarding his drinking problem, and the testimony of two friends with whom he had previously worked.
The jury recommended the death sentence by a vote of eight to four. The judge followed that recommendation and imposed the death sentence. The judge found one aggravating circumstance (prior violent felony), no statutory mitigating circumstances, and three nonstatutory mitigating circumstances (employment background, participation in self-help programs while in jail, and being a caring relative). The judge gave no weight to the first two mitigating factors and only slight weight to the caring relative mitigating factor.
Coolen raises ten issues on appeal; four involve the guilt phase of his trial and six relate to the penalty phase. 1 We find the first issue to be dispositive as to Coolen's appeal of the first-degree murder conviction and death sentence. For the reasons discussed below, we find the evidence to be insufficient to support Coolen's conviction for first-degree murder.
Premeditation is the essential element which distinguishes first-degree murder from second-degree murder. Wilson v. State, 493 So.2d 1019 (Fla.1986). Premeditation is defined as
more than a mere intent to kill; it is a fully formed conscious purpose to kill. This purpose to kill may be formed a moment before the act but must exist for a sufficient length of time to permit reflection as to the nature of the act to be committed and the probable result of that act.
Id. at 1021. While premeditation may be proven by circumstantial evidence, the evidence relied upon by the State must be inconsistent with every other reasonable inference. Hoefert v. State, 617 So.2d 1046 (Fla.1993). Where the State's proof fails to exclude a reasonable hypothesis that the homicide occurred other than by premeditated design, a verdict of first-degree murder cannot be sustained. Hall v. State, 403 So.2d 1319 (Fla.1981).
The State asserts that the following evidence establishes premeditation in the instant case. Barbara Kellar testified that Coolen suddenly attacked Kellar without warning or provocation. Jamie Caughman testified that Coolen had threatened him with the knife earlier in the evening, that he had seen Kellar and Coolen fight over a beer, and that Kellar tried to fend off Coolen during the attack. The State also contends that the deep stab wounds to Kellar's chest and back and the defensive wounds on his forearm and hand are indicative of the premeditated nature of the attack and inconsistent with Coolen's claim of self-defense.
Although this evidence is consistent with an unlawful killing, we do not find sufficient evidence to prove premeditation. Barbara Kellar testified that the two men had not been arguing and that Coolen simply "came out of nowhere" and starting stabbing her husband. Jamie Caughman described an ongoing pattern of hostility between two intoxicated men that culminated in a fight over a beer can. The testimony of these eyewitnesses is contradictory and neither provides sufficient evidence of premeditation. While the nature and manner of the wounds inflicted may be circumstantial evidence of premeditation, Holton v. State, 573 So.2d 284, 289 (Fla.1990), the stab wounds inflicted here are also consistent with an escalating fight over a beer (Jamie Caughman's account) or a "preemptive" attack in the paranoid belief that the victim was going to attack first (Coolen's version). Because the evidence was insufficient to prove premeditation, we reverse the conviction for first-degree murder and vacate the death sentence.
Having reversed the first-degree murder conviction, we need not reach any of the claims relating to the penalty phase. We reject Coolen's other guilt-phase claims as being without merit. Claims 2 and 3 relate to the court's denial of two defense motions: to excise portions of Coolen's taped statement that referred to his prior criminal convictions and prison sentences; and to bar testimony about Coolen's knife threat to Jamie Caughman.
During a taped interview at the sheriff's office, Coolen made several references to his previous criminal convictions and prison sentences. Defense counsel filed a motion to redact Coolen's taped statement so that the jury would not hear about his criminal record. While the court recognized that evidence of a prior criminal record is inadmissible to show bad character or propensity to commit crimes, the court determined that the statements were relevant here to show Coolen's state of mind during the attack. Thus, the court denied the motion to excise the tape and admitted the confession in its entirety.
We agree with the trial court that these statements were properly admitted to explain Coolen's state of mind at the time of the offense. Coolen stated that Kellar had "something silver in his hand." Coolen reacted quickly by stabbing Kellar because his previous "eight years in maximum prisons up in Massachusetts" had taught him not to take chances, to "react very quickly," and that it's better to "be safe than sorry." Thus, these statements were relevant to explain Coolen's actions and state of mind at the time of the stabbing. 2
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