Easley v. State, 92-03926
| Decision Date | 29 December 1993 |
| Docket Number | No. 92-03926,92-03926 |
| Citation | 629 So.2d 1046 |
| Parties | 19 Fla. L. Weekly D89 Melissa Sue EASLEY, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee. |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
Stevan T. Northcutt of Levine, Hirsch, Segall & Northcutt, P.A., Tampa, for appellant.
Robert A. Butterworth, Atty. Gen., Tallahassee, and William I. Munsey, Jr., Asst. Atty. Gen., Tampa, for appellee.
Melissa Sue Easley appeals from her convictions of first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder. She contends that the trial court erred in precluding her expert witness' testimony on the voluntary intoxication defense. We agree and reverse.
Easley and the deceased, William Penn Parsons, had a dating relationship which Parsons ended in December 1990. In 1991, Parsons began a relationship with Carmen Coton. Late in the evening on Sunday, October 20, 1991, Parsons was with Coton in his apartment when he heard knocking on the glass sliding doors. He refused admittance to Easley and her companion, Cliff Donovan, who wanted "to come in for a drink." Some time later Easley returned and began knocking on the door saying, "I want my swimsuit." Coton, who recalled seeing a woman's swimsuit in Parsons' closet, retrieved the swimsuit and delivered it to Easley on the apartment patio. Coton and Easley engaged in a friendly conversation, and Easley gave simple "yes" and "no" responses to Coton's statements. As the conversation progressed, Easley began searching through her purse. She produced a handgun and fired several shots at Coton. As Coton fled to a nearby apartment, she heard additional shots. A neighbor also heard the shots and saw Easley running from the scene. Later that night a local tavern owner saw Easley barefoot in the tavern doing a "wild dance" by herself. After the owner denied her further drinks, Easley ordered some takeout food and left.
The police found Parsons dead on the apartment floor. He had been shot once in the chest, once in the back, and five times in the back of his right shoulder. The morning after the murder the police confronted Easley at her apartment. She seemed to be confused. During an interview later that day at the police station, Easley told the detectives that she had been home all Sunday night, that she did not remember going to Parsons' apartment, and that the last thing she remembered was telephoning Parsons between 11:30 p.m. and midnight about getting her swimsuit back. At trial, Easley's and Donovan's testimony established that Easley had spent the day drinking and taking various medications. Donovan had passed out on Easley's couch at approximately 10:00 p.m.
In the context of these facts, Easley asserted a voluntary intoxication defense, averring that she was unable to form the specific intent required to commit the crimes charged. The defense retained Michael Maher, M.D., a psychiatrist, as an expert witness. Dr. Maher's opinion was that because of various prescription drugs Easley took, together with the alcohol she ingested, she was unable to form the specific intent to premeditate a murder. Dr. Maher considered the appellant's history of severe clinical depression relevant to the question of whether Easley was intoxicated to the point that she could not form the specific intent to kill.
On August 25, 1992, after jury selection, but before opening statements, the state served a motion in limine, seeking to preclude the defense from making "[a]ny reference to mental disease or defect; specifically incidences of depression and any dissociative state the defendant may have experienced previously." The trial court, after brief argument by counsel, deferred ruling on the motion.
At the close of the state's case, the trial court revisited the motion in limine. Defense counsel proffered that Dr. Maher would testify that alcohol and drugs affect everyone differently, depending on their underlying mental condition. The court ruled that Easley "will not be allowed to introduce evidence relating to her general mental impairment or other esoteric condition." During Easley's testimony, the trial court limited her testimony to the amounts and types of alcohol and the names of the drugs and prescription medication that she consumed on the day of the murder. She was not permitted to describe her prior medical history or for what conditions the medications had been prescribed. She testified that her memory of the night of the murder was limited to making some telephone calls and that she had no memory of the events surrounding the murder.
When the defense sought to call Dr. Maher, the following exchange occurred between the trial court and Dr. Maher outside the presence of the jury.
....
When Dr. Maher stated that he could not render an opinion based on the trial court's restriction of his thought process, he was precluded from taking the stand. The court's ruling also precluded the defense from calling several lay witnesses who would have testified about Easley's emotional difficulties, her prior psychiatric treatment, and her use of alcohol, illegal drugs and prescription medications. The defense rested and Easley was convicted as charged.
This appeal presents two distinct issues. The first is the role of a trial court in limiting or precluding expert testimony. The second is the type and extent of evidence which may be presented in support of a voluntary intoxication defense.
In regard to the first issue, several sections of chapter 90, Florida Statutes (1991), are applicable:
90.702 Testimony by experts.--If scientific, technical, or other specialized knowledge will assist the trier of fact in understanding the evidence or in determining a fact in issue, a witness qualified as an expert by knowledge, skill, experience, training, or education...
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