Gore v. State
| Decision Date | 25 June 2009 |
| Docket Number | No. SC05-1848.,SC05-1848. |
| Citation | 24 So.3d 1 |
| Parties | Marshall Lee GORE, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee. |
| Court | Florida Supreme Court |
Melissa Minsk Donoho and Steven J. Hammer, Fort Lauderdale, FL, for Appellant.
Bill McCollum, Attorney General, Tallahassee, Florida, and Sandra S. Jaggard, Assistant Attorney General, Miami, FL, for Appellee.
Appellant, Marshall Lee Gore, was convicted of and sentenced to death for the first-degree murder and armed robbery of Robyn Novick in Dade County, Florida, after his initial conviction and death sentence were overturned. Gore v. State, 784 So.2d 418, 423 (Fla.2001).1 In this appeal we consider the denial of postconviction relief arising from Gore's motion to vacate his judgment of conviction and sentence of death filed under Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.851. For the reasons set forth in this opinion, we affirm the denial of postconviction relief.
The relevant facts regarding the murder of Robyn Novick are set forth in this Court's opinion on Gore's second direct appeal:
Police discovered Novick's nude body in a rural area of Dade County on March 16, 1988. Her body was hidden by a blue tarpaulin-like material. Novick suffered stab wounds to the chest and had a belt tied around her neck. According to the medical examiner, Novick died as a result of the stab wounds and mechanical asphyxia. He estimated that Novick was killed between 9 p.m. and 1 a.m. on March 11 into March 12, 1988.
Novick was last seen alive on March 11, 1988, leaving the parking lot of the Redlands Tavern in her yellow Corvette. A witness testified that Novick left with a man, whom the witness identified as Gore.
In the early morning of March 12, Gore was seen driving Novick's automobile. David Restrepo, a friend of Gore's, testified that Gore arrived at his home driving a yellow Corvette with a license plate reading "Robyn." ...
....
In its case-in-chief, the State also introduced Williams[n.2] rule evidence that Gore committed similar crimes against [Susan] Roark and [Tina] Coralis. The State presented evidence that Gore had murdered Roark shortly after her disappearance in January 30, 1988, by inflicting trauma to her neck and chest. In addition, evidence established that Gore stole Roark's black Ford Mustang and other personal property, then left her nude body in a rural area used as a trash dump. Similarly, the State presented evidence that Gore attacked Coralis on March 14, 1988, two days after the murder of Novick. Coralis herself testified against Gore, stating that he beat her with a rock, raped, choked and stabbed her, and left her for dead on the side of the road near the scene where Novick's body was found. Gore proceeded to steal Coralis's red Toyota sports car and personal property.
FBI agents finally arrested Gore in Paducah, Kentucky on March 17, 1988. At the time of his arrest, Gore was in possession of Coralis's red Toyota automobile and he had her bank and credit cards in the pocket of his jacket. Police officers subsequently questioned Gore regarding the Coralis and Roark crimes. According to the police, Gore denied knowing Roark or Coralis and denied all involvement in the crimes. Gore also denied knowing Novick. When police prepared to show Gore a photograph of Novick, Gore stated "just make sure it is not gory" because his "stomach could not take it." At the time that Gore made such statements, the police had yet to inform Gore that Novick was dead. Detective David Simmons of the Miami Dade Police Department testified that when Gore looked at Novick's picture, Gore's eyes "swelled with tears." Gore also stated that "if I did this, I deserve the death penalty."
In his defense, Gore took the stand and testified on his own behalf. Gore claimed that prior to his interrogation by police in Miami concerning the Novick murder, reporters previously had told him upon his arrest that Novick was dead. He also claimed that during his interrogation, police had placed gruesome photographs of the murders all over the interview room. Moreover, Gore stated that police had given him a polygraph examination, which he claimed he had passed.
Gore testified that he was the owner of an escort service and claimed that Coralis, Novick, Roark, and Restrepo all worked for the escort business. Gore maintained that Novick worked for him as a nude dancer and he admitted that he was with Novick at the Redlands Tavern on the evening of March 11, 1988. Gore, however, denied killing her....
....
On cross-examination, Gore admitted that he previously had been convicted of committing fifteen felonies. Gore denied trying to kill Coralis and claimed that her injuries were the result of her jumping out of a moving car. Gore also asserted that all of the State witnesses had lied and he refused to explain why he was in possession of the property of people who were either killed or attacked.
Ana Fernandez testified on Gore's behalf. Fernandez worked for Gore in 1984 or 1985 when she was fifteen years old, answering phones for the escort service. Fernandez claimed to have known Roark, Coralis, and Novick through her association with Gore. However, she could not state when, where, or how many times that she had met Coralis or Novick and was unable to describe them. Moreover, when presented with a photograph of several women, she could not identify Coralis.
After the close of all the evidence, the jury convicted Gore of first-degree murder and armed robbery with a deadly weapon of Novick. During the penalty phase, Gore chose to represent himself.[2] The jury recommended that Gore be sentenced to death by a vote of twelve to zero. The trial court imposed the death penalty for the first-degree murder conviction[3] and imposed an upward departure life sentence for the armed robbery conviction to run consecutive to any other sentence Gore was serving.
[N.2] Williams v. State, 110 So.2d 654 (Fla.1959).
784 So.2d at 423-26 (footnotes omitted).
Gore filed his second direct appeal, raising eight claims.4 The Court affirmed Gore's convictions and sentence, id. at 438, after which Gore filed this current motion for postconviction relief. In his rule 3.851 motion, Gore alleged ten claims.5 Following a Huff6 hearing, the trial court granted an evidentiary hearing on claim four only—Gore's ineffective assistance of counsel claim arising from the Spencer hearing—and summarily denied Gore's remaining claims.7 However, the trial court ultimately did not hold an evidentiary hearing on this single claim based on its determination that Gore, by his actions, waived any evidentiary hearing. The trial court thus denied Gore's motion for postconviction relief, concluding that all of the claims raised were without merit. Gore appeals the denial of his postconviction motion to this Court and raises several issues for this Court's review.8
We begin with an examination of the issue of Gore's competency. We start with the issue of competency because Gore's mental status has been a recurrent theme throughout the trial, direct appeal, and postconviction proceedings in this case as well as in the proceedings concerning the first-degree murder of Susan Roark in Columbia County, in which Gore was also sentenced to death and in which the issue of Gore's competency to proceed was also raised. See Gore v. State, 846 So.2d 461 (Fla.2003) (); Gore v. State, 599 So.2d 978 (Fla.1992) () (hereafter referred to as "the Columbia County case").9 While Gore's current counsel asserts that Gore is "mentally deranged," the trial judges who have evaluated this issue have concluded that, rather than being incompetent or seriously mentally ill, Gore has intentionally manipulated and attempted to obstruct the ongoing proceedings against him. The question of whether Gore's actions are the product of a serious mental illness or the result of purposeful manipulation is best analyzed by a thorough review of the record in this case and the Columbia County case.10
Gore's claims of incompetency arise from both his trial and postconviction proceedings. As to his trial-related claims, Gore asserts the following: (1) the trial court erred in finding that he was competent to proceed to trial; (2) his trial counsel was ineffective in advocating his incompetency claims; and (3) the trial court erred in failing to instruct the jury on the extreme mental disturbance mitigator.
As to his postconviction-related claims, Gore alleges that the trial court erred in finding that he was competent at the time of the postconviction proceedings and he claims that he is possibly incompetent and/or insane at present. To provide context to these claims, we will first provide a history of the competency proceedings in Gore's case and then analyze his postconviction and trial-related incompetency claims.
We turn first to the Columbia County case because the proceedings in that case gave rise to some of the trial court's decisions regarding competency in this case. In 1998, after the filing of Gore's rule 3.851 motion in the Columbia County case involving the murder of Susan Roark, counsel in that case filed a motion to determine Gore's competency to proceed. In the motion, counsel stated that Gore had "no present ability to consult with and communicate with postconviction counsel regarding factual matters at issue in his postconviction proceedings." In the absence of the State's objection to the examination, the court appointed two experts to evaluate Gore's competency, Dr. Richard Greer and Dr. Umesh Mhatre, who concluded that Gore was competent to proceed. At the competency hearing,...
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