Figueroa-Sanabria v. State
| Docket Number | SC2021-1070 |
| Decision Date | 29 June 2023 |
| Parties | REYNALDO FIGUEROA-SANABRIA, Appellant, v. STATE OF FLORIDA, Appellee. |
| Court | Florida Supreme Court |
NOT FINAL UNTIL TIME EXPIRES TO FILE REHEARING MOTION AND, IF FILED, DETERMINED.
An Appeal from the Circuit Court in and for Pinellas County, Pat Siracusa, Judge - Case No. 522013CF006490XXXXNO
Howard L. "Rex" Dimmig, II, Public Defender, and Steven L Bolotin, Assistant Public Defender, Tenth Judicial Circuit Bartow, Florida, for Appellant
Ashley Moody, Attorney General, Tallahassee, Florida, and Timothy A Freeland, Assistant Attorney General, Tampa, Florida, for Appellee
Reynaldo Figueroa-Sanabria was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder after stabbing John Travlos and Germana Morin to death on their houseboat. See § 782.04(1)(a), Fla Stat. (2013). At the end of the penalty phase, he was sentenced to death for each murder. This is Figueroa-Sanabria's direct appeal of his convictions and sentences, over which we have jurisdiction. See art. V, § 3(b)(1), Fla. Const.
We affirm Figueroa-Sanabria's convictions. The trial court committed no reversible error during Figueroa-Sanabria's guilt phase proceedings, and the State presented competent, substantial evidence to support the jury's verdicts. But we set aside Figueroa-Sanabria's sentences of death and remand his case for a new penalty phase because we find that he was deprived of his right to "have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence" when the trial court put him to an improper choice at the outset of that phase of the proceedings. Amend. VI, U.S. Const.
Early in the morning on April 12, 2013, Germana Morin and John Travlos were stabbed to death on their houseboat in St Petersburg. Both were found face down; duct tape bound together Morin's ankles and wound around Travlos's left wrist and ankle.
Morin was stabbed first in bed and then, mortally, on the ground. A stab wound twenty centimeters long severed her jugular vein; it was deep enough to hit a disc of her spinal cord. She also suffered two stab wounds to the chest, which resulted in two perforations of her left lung and slowly made it harder for her to breathe. Travlos, too, was first stabbed in bed, then suffered ten more stab wounds to his chest before he died. The intruder made off with the victims' jewelry, valued at over $80,000.
As the authorities investigated, they learned that the last time the victims were seen alive was around 9:00 p.m. on April 11 by a visiting neighbor. Security footage showed that the houseboat's motion-sensing lights, which could be triggered by a person walking across the gangplank, turned off at 10:42 p.m. on the 11th and were next illuminated at 2:29 a.m. on the 12th. The lights then turned off at 3:49 a.m. and did not come on for the rest of the day. An examination of Travlos's computer revealed that someone had used it to access his contact list at 3:43 a.m. That list contained the combination to his safe where some of the jewelry was stored. There was no evidence of damage to any of the locks on the houseboat. Two workers found the bodies around 11:00 a.m.
According to a neighbor, Reynaldo Figueroa-Sanabria was seen at the houseboat at 7:00 p.m. on the 11th, but he left soon after. Figueroa-Sanabria, the victims' handyman, was often given a key to the houseboat so that he could access it to work. Some weeks earlier, according to both Figueroa-Sanabria and other witnesses, Figueroa-Sanabria had argued with Travlos about his wages, but he eventually returned to the job.
Figueroa-Sanabria lived in an apartment complex across the street from the marina where the houseboat was docked with his girlfriend, Tessa Cooper. According to Cooper, who later assisted the police with its investigation, the couple went to sleep around 1:00 a.m. on the 12th. She woke up to a phone call from Figueroa-Sanabria around 4:30 a.m. that morning. He sounded to Cooper "like he was in a panic" and asked her to pick him up near the marina.
Cooper found Figueroa-Sanabria holding a backpack. He told her that he needed to travel to New York to see his brother.[1] The couple stopped at their apartment before heading to the airport. On the way to the airport, however, Figueroa-Sanabria told Cooper he had changed his mind; he asked her to take him to rent a car.
Cooper later testified that, sometime during this drive, she saw Figueroa-Sanabria hold a knife in his lap with his hand over it.
They stopped at a gas station and Cooper vacuumed out her van. Figueroa-Sanabria walked over to a dumpster and threw away some grocery bags. Later, the assistant manager of the gas station discovered bloodstained clothes in the dumpster, including two t-shirts-one white and the other gray-a pair of jeans, and a belt, all of which Cooper later identified as Figueroa-Sanabria's.[2] After leaving the gas station, the couple went back to their apartment, and then later went on the hunt for a rental car.
Failing to find one, the couple instead went to a jewelry store. There, around 9:30 a.m., Figueroa-Sanabria sold a necklace and bracelet for a combined $2,569, which included $2,000 in bills wrapped in a bank strap.[3] Cooper testified that Figueroa-Sanabria carried the jewelry in the backpack that he had when she picked him up earlier that morning.
After leaving the jewelry store, Figueroa-Sanabria finally found a company that would rent him a car. There, after Figueroa-Sanabria instructed Cooper to mention nothing about the morning other than that she dropped him off at a car rental business and that he was traveling to see his brother, the couple parted ways. Figueroa-Sanabria began to travel northeast, reaching a shipping business in Palm Coast on the afternoon of the 12th. From there, Figueroa-Sanabria sent a package to his brother in New York. It was later found to contain over one hundred pieces of jewelry.
As Figueroa-Sanabria continued north, the investigation into the murders began. According to the testimony of a detective, the name "Rey" came up repeatedly around the marina. Soon investigators found the apartment complex where Cooper and Figueroa-Sanabria lived and impounded the van that the couple had been driving around town. Cooper told the police what had happened earlier that morning.[4] They persuaded a judge to issue a warrant for Figueroa-Sanabria's arrest.
Figueroa-Sanabria's run ended just hours later in North Carolina. The officer who arrested him explained that law enforcement in Florida wanted to speak with him; Figueroa-Sanabria replied that he "figured they would." A search of Figueroa-Sanabria's vehicle revealed, among other things, a cell phone with the battery removed and a black backpack. He was carrying the money band from the jewelry store that he had visited the prior day; later, he tried to get rid of it outside the county jail where he was held. An officer found it tucked behind a gutter.
On April 18, 2013, a grand jury indicted Figueroa-Sanabria on two counts of first-degree murder.
The court appointed Keith Hammond as Figueroa-Sanabria's lawyer in January 2014 after the public defender's office withdrew for conflict reasons.[5] The attorney-client relationship between Figueroa-Sanabria and Hammond was fraught. Over the next five years, Figueroa-Sanabria repeatedly expressed dissatisfaction with Hammond's representation. Along with complaints raised in pretrial hearings, Figueroa-Sanabria filed three motions before trial in which he asked the court to dismiss Hammond and appoint new counsel. His grievances included a lack of communication and a lack of progress in preparing for trial. For example, at one hearing Figueroa-Sanabria told the court that Hammond had not visited him for almost a year, and at a later hearing he told the court that Hammond had only been to see him ten times in the preceding twenty-two months, with the visits cumulatively lasting less than ten hours.
Hammond himself recognized these issues, telling the court once that he had an "ethical problem" because of his workload and low staffing, and then suggesting to the court that it should "seriously consider appointing somebody else." At another hearing, speaking of Figueroa-Sanabria, Hammond remarked that "I drive him crazy, and he drives me crazy." And on another occasion Hammond said that his ability to represent Figueroa-Sanabria was "borderline," and projected that his representation of Figueroa-Sanabria was "going to cause a problem for the next 20 years." Despite these issues, Hammond told the court that he could represent Figueroa-Sanabria.
All three motions filed by Figueroa-Sanabria were denied by the trial court.[6] Each time, the court, after a hearing, found that Figueroa-Sanabria had not provided an adequate basis for his request and that Hammond was providing adequate representation. After the first request, which was in October 2014, Hammond met twice with Figueroa-Sanabria, demonstrated progress on discovery matters, and successfully sought a continuance. At one point, however, after his second request to replace Hammond was denied, Figueroa-Sanabria decided to represent himself. But almost six months later, in August 2016, he changed his mind and asked for counsel. Hammond, who was serving as standby counsel, was reinstated.
In September 2017, after denying Figueroa-Sanabria's third request to replace Hammond, the court asked Figueroa-Sanabria to list discovery objectives that he wanted accomplished. It told Figueroa-Sanabria that it would appoint a new attorney if Hammond failed to accomplish what was listed. Hammond demonstrated progress over the course of pretrial hearings that took place the next year; however, Figueroa-Sanabria continued to send letters to the court documenting his...
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