Cozzie v. State

• Decision Date: 11 May 2017
• Docket Number: No. SC13-2393.,SC13-2393.
• Parties: Steven Anthony COZZIE, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

225 So.3d 717

Steven Anthony COZZIE, Appellant,

v.STATE of Florida, Appellee.

No. SC13-2393.

Supreme Court of Florida.

[May 11, 2017]

Andy Thomas, Public Defender, and Nada M. Carey, Assistant Public Defender, Second Judicial Circuit, Tallahassee, Florida, for Appellant

Pamela Jo Bondi, Attorney General, Tallahassee, Florida; and Melissa J. Roca, Assistant Attorney General, Miami, Florida, for Appellee

PER CURIAM.

Steven Anthony Cozzie appeals his conviction for first-degree premeditated or felony murder with a weapon and his sentence of death. For the reasons below, we affirm.¹

BACKGROUND

The evidence presented at trial established that, on June 13, 2011, the victim, 15–year-old Courtney Wilkes, and her mother, father, and two younger siblings arrived in Seagrove Beach in Walton County for a family vacation. On the first day of their stay, several members of the Wilkes family encountered the defendant, 21–year-old Steven Cozzie, at the beach outside their condominium. Courtney's mother testified that, at the time, she believed Cozzie worked for the company that provided the condominium's beach chairs and umbrellas because he offered to put away all the other beach chairs before theirs. In the two days that followed, Mrs. Wilkes testified to seeing Cozzie around the beach but to having no conversations with him or seeing him with any of her children.

On June 16, 2011, the day before they were scheduled to return home to Georgia, the entire Wilkes family spent time together at the beach. After lunch, Courtney "bounced over" to where her parents were sitting and asked permission to go on a walk with Cozzie. Believing that Cozzie was in the same age group as their daughter, Courtney's parents gave her permission. At approximately 1:15 p.m., Mr. and Mrs. Wilkes watched their daughter walk with Cozzie eastward along the shore, lost sight of them after a few minutes, and never saw Courtney alive again.

The Wilkes reported Courtney missing that same day after their independent search for her failed. Within hours, Michael Spencer, a friend of Cozzie's, alerted police that Cozzie had told him he killed the missing girl and that Cozzie had also taken him to see her body. Spencer then led sheriff's deputies to the body at the Cassine Gardens Nature Trail, and Cozzie was arrested that same evening.

At Cozzie's 2013 trial, Spencer testified that, in the days leading up to Courtney's murder, Cozzie talked to him about "[r]aping and killing underage girls and women his own age," including how "[Cozzie] would want to tie them up and just practically rape them and then kill them.... Because you just raped somebody's daughter or somebody's mother, why not kill them."

Spencer testified that, at the time, he thought Cozzie was only describing fantasies. However, on the day of Courtney's murder, Spencer said that Cozzie came to see him at the apartment where he was staying that summer and told Spencer, "I just killed this chick." Spencer testified that he did not believe Cozzie at first, but after they left the apartment, rather than head toward the beach, Cozzie led him to the nature trial where he said he had killed the girl.

Spencer testified that, once they got to the nature trail, Cozzie pointed out a disturbed area in the pine straw at the end of the wooden boardwalk and said, "I wrestled with her for like 20 minutes right there." Then, Spencer testified that Cozzie took him several yards off the boardwalk to see the body, which was on the other side of a fallen tree. Spencer further testified that the victim's body was nude, a bloody blue shirt was covering her head, and he could tell she was not breathing. Spencer said that Cozzie picked up the shirt and threw it into the bushes, and with the shirt removed, he saw that the victim's hair was bloody, and "[i]t looked like there was a hole" in her head.

Spencer also testified to details Cozzie told him about the murder on the way to the nature trail and in the few minutes they were at the scene. Specifically, Cozzie told Spencer that he met the girl on the beach and took her for a walk, but when they arrived at the nature trail, she turned around to go back, and Cozzie "strangled her with his shirt, then with her shirt, then with his bare hands; he stomped on the back of her neck and then found some sort of piece of wood and bashed her head in repeatedly."

Spencer further testified to things Cozzie told him he said and thought during the attack. For example, Spencer said Cozzie told him "that he was yelling at [the victim] for her to take her clothes off" and further described his thoughts as he picked up the piece of wood he used to beat the victim: "I stood there next to her and looked at the piece of wood; do you want to use the flat end or the side; the flat end or the side. And then ... I said f*ck it and just started hitting her in the head with the side of it.... Bam, bam; I bashed her head in like ten times with it."

The medical examiner testified that the cause of death was from the combined effects of blunt impact to the head and strangulation. She further testified to the victim's numerous injuries, including: Skull fractures were visible through a laceration in the scalp, and the victim's skull had been shattered into 16 pieces in a 5–inch-by-five-inch area by at least two (but probably more) blows to the head. There were large scratches on the victim's neck extending down to the upper chest, and injuries to the shoulder that appeared to be from glancing blows that missed the victim's head. A splinter was pulled from the wound overlying the skull fractures, and the head injuries were consistent with having been inflicted by a wooden piece of lumber or a piece of a tree.

The medical examiner further testified that the victim had been choked or strangled with force extreme enough to bruise her esophagus. The strangulation was more consistent with ligature strangulation, and could have been from a bikini top or a shirt, and there was bruising on the inner lips indicating some type of smothering. There were mirror-image abrasions to the inside of both of the victim's inner thighs that were consistent with hip bones thrusting into the thigh area. The outer labia had abrasions or scrapes caused by a penis, finger, or some type of instrument that caused blunt or frictional force; these injuries were consistent with contact to the vagina and definitely showed contact to the labia. Vertically oriented abrasions on the victim's back and buttocks were consistent with being dragged, and numerous contusions and abrasions on the victim's body looked like they could have been made by rolling around on the ground. There were no markings on the back of the victim's neck consistent with the claim that it had been stomped, and there were no defensive injuries of note; however, all of the injuries were caused prior to death, and one of the victim's hands was bloody, which indicated that it was probably near one of her injuries.

No semen was found in the victim's rape kit or in swabs taken from her thighs. However, DNA analysis linked Cozzie to numerous items recovered at the scene, including the victim's bikini bottoms, sunglasses on which the victim's blood was found, a blue multi-colored shirt on which the victim's blood was found, and a swab from the victim's left thigh. DNA testing also excluded Spencer as a contributor to all items tested, except for one item for which there was not enough DNA present to exclude or include anyone. The victim's DNA matched a swab taken from under Cozzie's fingernail at 12 of 13 genetic markers. Blood on a cut piece of lumber recovered from a pile of wood between the victim's head and the fallen log behind which her body was located matched the victim's DNA.

Prior to trial, Cozzie (who did not testify during any phase of the proceeding) gave two statements to police. In the first, he denied that he did anything other than walk with Courtney and denied that he took Spencer to see her body. In the second, Cozzie said that Courtney fell and hit her head and was rendered unconscious, he went and got Spencer for help, and Spencer forced him to kill Courtney at gunpoint. The jury heard recordings of both of these interviews. However, just prior to closing argument, defense counsel notified the trial court that Cozzie intended to concede that he killed Courtney as part of a strategy to argue for the lesser- included offense of second-degree murder. During his closing arguments, defense counsel acknowledged that Cozzie killed Courtney and that it was unlawful to do so and further argued that Cozzie had told a "tale that Michael Spencer made him do it," but that Spencer had exaggerated the details. Defense counsel asked the jury to find Cozzie guilty of second-degree murder.

On June 14, 2013, Cozzie's jury found him guilty of first-degree premeditated murder or felony murder with a weapon; sexual battery with a deadly weapon or force likely to cause serious personal injury; aggravated child abuse causing great bodily harm, permanent disability, or permanent disfigurement; and kidnapping with a weapon with intent to commit a felony.

During the penalty phase, the State presented testimony of Courtney's mother, father, and godfather as victim impact evidence. The State also presented testimony from five witnesses who testified regarding Cozzie's alleged attack on a 14–year-old girl on the same nature trail, just one week prior to Courtney's murder.

Cozzie presented penalty phase testimony from one person in support of his argument that he did not attack another girl on the nature trail. He also presented testimony from seven family members, one long-time friend, and two mental health experts, Dr. Steven Gold, a forensic psychologist, and Dr. Stephen Zieman, a clinical psychologist with a specialty in clinical neuropsychology.

Dr. Gold testified to Cozzie's deprived childhood, which included physical abuse, sexual abuse, verbal and emotional abuse, emotional and physical...