Delhall v. State

• Decision Date: 12 July 2012
• Docket Number: No. SC09–87.,SC09–87.
• Citation: 95 So.3d 134
• Parties: Wadada DELHALL, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

95 So.3d 134

Wadada DELHALL, Appellant,

v.STATE of Florida, Appellee.

No. SC09–87.

Supreme Court of Florida.

July 12, 2012.

Melodee Smith of the Law Offices of Melodee A. Smith, Fort Lauderdale, FL, for Appellant.

Pamela Jo Bondi, Attorney General, Tallahassee, FL, and Sandra S. Jaggard, Assistant Attorney General, Miami, FL, for Appellee.

PER CURIAM.

Wadada Delhall appeals from a judgment of conviction of first-degree murder and a sentence of death. We have jurisdiction. Seeart. V, § 3(b)(1), Fla. Const. For the reasons set forth below, we affirm Delhall's conviction for first-degree murder, but we vacate Delhall's death sentence and remand for a new penalty phase proceeding.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Overview

Wadada Delhall, age twenty-four at the time of the murder, was indicted on January 8, 2002, for the November 29, 2001, first-degree premeditated murder of Hubert McCrae in his auto repair shop in Opa-locka, Florida. He was also charged with unlawful use of a firearm in violation of section 782.04, Florida Statutes (2001), unlawful discharge of the firearm resulting in death or serious bodily harm upon McCrae in violation of section 790.07(2), Florida Statutes (2001), and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. ¹ At the jury trial held in June 2008, the State presented evidence that Delhall murdered McCrae because he was, at that time, the only known eyewitness to the murder of another individual named Gilbert Bennett with which Delhall's brother Negus Delhall was charged. The jury found Wadada Delhall guilty of all the charges and the case proceeded to the penalty phase trial.

At the conclusion of the penalty phase, the jury recommended a death sentence by a vote of eight to four, and the trial court ultimately entered an order sentencing Delhall to death. This appeal ensued. Delhall raises ten issues on appeal concerning admission of evidence in the guilt phase and improper prosecutorial argument in the penalty phase, as well as a claim of error in a jury instruction in the penalty phase.² We turn first to the facts of the case based on the evidence presented in the guilt phase of the trial.

The Guilt Phase

Fred Williams was working at the J & B Body Shop in the warehouse area of Opa-locka Boulevard in Opa-locka on November 29, 2001. Around 6:50 p.m., he heard a series of gunshots coming from the direction of Ray's Auto Service shop (sometimes called Ray's Auto Shop or Ray's Auto Body Shop) located at 2143 Opa-locka Boulevard. Williams looked in that direction and saw a slim, brown-skinned man, about 5' 11? tall, coming out of Ray's Auto Service with his hand held down by his side. Williams could not make out the man's face. The man came out to a car, reached for the door handle, then turned around and shot one more time toward the shop. The man then got into the passenger side of the car and, as it drove away, shot one more time out the window. Williams said the car was a small, light-colored car with tinted windows. Rolando Rodriguez was also at work at the J & B Body Shop on November 29, 2001, and heard a series of shots. He did not see who was shooting, but he did see a person at the passenger side door of the car just before it left. As the car turned left to leave, Rodriguez heard another shot.

Miami–Dade Police Officer Michael Hufnagel arrived at the scene of the shooting and found Hubert McCrae lying on the ground in front of a car repair bay. McCrae was still alive but in obvious pain from gunshot wounds, including an apparent stomach wound. McCrae told Officer Hufnagel that he was having difficulty breathing. Hufnagel rolled McCrae onto his side to ease his breathing. Officer Hufnagel asked McCrae if he had any idea who shot him and, over defense objection to hearsay, Officer Hufnagel testified that McCrae said “it was the brother of the guy who shot the man who owned the business before.” Officer Hufnagel said McCrae gave him a description of the shooter's car as “a small gray Mazda, possibly a 323” with tinted windows, and Hufnagel relayed this information to the detectives when they arrived. During the time he was talking, McCrae continued to have labored breathing and a look of pain on his face. Fire rescue then arrived and began working on McCrae, during which time he died.

The Gilbert Bennett Murder

Over Delhall's objection, the State presented a substantial amount of testimony and evidence concerning the earlier murder of Gilbert Bennett at that same repair shop in 1998, which was referred to by McCrae. The evidence included testimony of four witnesses, a detailed description of the Bennett murder crime scene and investigation, as well as photos showing Bennett's lifeless body lying in a pool of blood. The asserted purpose for presentation of the evidence concerning the Bennett murder was to prove Wadada Delhall's motive for murdering McCrae, who was at the time the sole known witness to the Bennettmurder. A fingerprint lifted from the outside of the office door at the scene of Bennett's murder was attributed to Negus Delhall, Wadada Delhall's younger brother. An arrest warrant was subsequently issued for Negus Delhall in the murder of Bennett, but it was not until 2001 that Negus was finally arrested out of state and transported back to Miami from Virginia Beach, Virginia.

Hubert McCrae had provided police with a description of Bennett's shooter and had given a sworn statement about what he witnessed. After Negus's arrest, an Arthur hearing to determine if bond would be set for Negus was held on September 6, 2001.³ McCrae did not testify at the bond hearing, but his sworn affidavit describing how he witnessed the Bennett murder and identified a photograph of the shooter was introduced at that hearing. ⁴ No other eyewitness had been located as of that date. The evidence also established that Wadada Delhall had visited Negus in jail and was very disturbed by the fact that he was charged with Bennett's murder and might be facing the death penalty.

After Hubert McCrae was killed, the police located another eyewitness to the Bennett murder—Clarence Gooden. Gooden used to operate a food truck in the warehouse area and testified at Wadada's trial that he actually witnessed the murder of Gilbert Bennett at that auto repair shop in 1998, but did not come forward as a witness. Gooden described how he was parked near the shop in 1998 when he heard shots from inside the office area of the shop and then observed a man leaving the shop carrying a gun. Gooden described how he entered the shop and found Bennett lying on the floor in a pool of blood. Gooden testified that it was Negus Delhall who shot Bennett, although he did not know Negus's name at the time, and that McCrae was also present. Gooden said he left because he did not want to get involved. After Negus's arrest, Gooden said Wadada Delhall and a man named Erwin Bruce came to Gooden's food truck to talk to him about Bennett's murder, and Gooden assured them he was not going to tell the police anything about the murder. It was some days later that Gooden learned McCrae had been killed at the same auto shop. Gooden subsequently became a witness at Negus's trial.

Investigation of McCrae's Murder

The State's theory of the case was that Wadada Delhall learned that Hubert McCrae was the sole witness against Negus after the Arthur hearing and began searching for him. The State contended that after Delhall learned that Gooden was not the eyewitness who was prepared to testify against Negus, Delhall concluded that the man who worked at Ray's Auto Service must be the sole eyewitness identified as Hubert McCrae. After learning that McCrae had identified his assailant as the brother of the shooter in the Bennett murder, Miami–Dade Police Detective John Butchko began searching for Negus's brothers, Wadada and Atiba, to question them. Butchko and his team, Sergeant Yolanda Rayborn and Detectives Julio Estopinan and Gus Bayas, finally located an apartment connected to Wadada Delhall in Pembroke Pines.

On December 5, 2001, Butchko and his team went to the apartment where they observed a car matching the description of the car seen leaving the McCrae shooting. The apartment door was answered by Delhall's cousin, Tiese Caldwell, who explained that Wadada Delhall lived there but was not home. Caldwell told the officers that aside from the several small children playing in the living room, no one else was home. When asked if they could search, she refused but did allow them in to talk with her. At one point Detective Bayas became alarmed and asked her again if anyone else was there. She said there was not, but Bayas insisted that he “just heard a noise behind me.” When he heard the sound again, Bayas immediately drew his gun and went to the adjacent bedroom, and within seconds was yelling at someone to get down on the floor. Bayas said he found a man hiding in a closet. When the man emerged from the closet, he told Bayas he was hiding because he was on probation and did not want to get into trouble. After being checked for weapons—he had none—the man was taken downstairs in handcuffs. Once the officers learned that the man was Wadada Delhall, the handcuffs were removed and Delhall was not placed under arrest.

Delhall agreed to go to the police station to answer some questions and was not handcuffed on the ride to the station or when he arrived there. Once at the station, a Miranda⁵ rights form was read to him, after which he initialed each right and signed the form. When asked about his activities on November 29, 2001, Delhall initially reported that he was with his girlfriend, Marcia Berry, after picking her up from work at 6:30 p.m. Delhall told Butchko that after going to a shopping mall and then to Berry's father's house, he and Berry took her father's car, a black Chevrolet, back to their apartment at 10640 Washington Street, Pembroke Pines, where they stayed through the night. Delhall also told Butchko that his girlfriend, ...