Griffin v. State, SC93906.
| Decision Date | 30 May 2002 |
| Docket Number | No. SC93906.,SC93906. |
| Citation | 820 So.2d 906 |
| Parties | Michael GRIFFIN, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee. |
| Court | Florida Supreme Court |
James Marion Moorman, Public Defender, and Kevin Briggs, Assistant Public Defender, Tenth Judicial Circuit, Bartow, FL, for Appellant.
Robert A. Butterworth, Attorney General, and Candance M. Sabella, Assistant Attorney General, Tampa, FL, for Appellee.
We have on appeal the judgments and sentences of the trial court imposing the death penalty upon Michael Griffin. We have jurisdiction. Art. V, § 3(b)(1), Fla. Const. For the reasons explained below, we affirm Griffin's convictions and sentences of death.
Griffin pled guilty to two counts of first-degree murder. At the penalty phase, Griffin waived an advisory jury and the evidence was presented to the judge. He also waived the presentence investigation report and the Spencer1 hearing. After hearing testimony and considering evidence and sentencing memoranda from both sides, the trial court sentenced Griffin to death for each of the murders.
The following facts were developed during the sentencing hearing before the trial court. Sometime in 1989, after graduation from high school, Griffin started working for his father as a service and repair technician at Moore's Refrigeration (Moore's). Moore's dealt with companies which needed servicing for their vending machines and coolers. One such vending company was Service America Corporation (Service America). At various times, Griffin had been to Service America to fix or service their refrigerators and coolers. Consequently, Griffin had become very familiar with Service America's warehouse. Particularly, he had become aware that Service America kept a great deal of cash on site. That cash was deposited daily in lockers at Service America by drivers who had returned from replenishing and collecting the coins from the vending machines throughout various sites.
In 1995, Griffin stopped working for Moore's. He had become addicted to cocaine and started living his life mainly to procure the money to acquire the drug. At some point, Griffin moved out of his house and moved in with a drug dealer acquaintance, Nicolas Kocolis. Anthony Lopez, another addict, also resided at Kocolis's place along with Kocolis's girlfriend. From there, Griffin was able to sell drugs for Kocolis and would use the proceeds to support his addiction.
Sometime during his stay at Kocolis's, Griffin felt he needed more money. Griffin was in arrears with his child support, automobile, and pager payments. As a result, he decided to steal the money from Service America's lockers. He brought up the idea to Kocolis and Lopez while at Kocolis's place. He told them that he knew where the cash was at Service America and would be able to steal it. The three of them then started planning the theft. Although Kocolis was initially supposed to take part in the crime, he later decided against it. Instead, Griffin and Lopez agreed to go to Service America.
Prior to going to Service America, Griffin traded his gold chain to Kocolis for a 9mm pistol to use during the theft. He also had a shotgun, though the testimony is not clear as to who used which weapon during the commission of the crime. Finally on October 6, 1995, Griffin and Lopez set out to carry out their plan. At Shorty's, a bar located across from Service America, they sat and observed Service America for a while. Because of the locked gate and the alarm system, Griffin realized that he would not be able to get in. Having serviced the equipment at Service America many times, he then hoped that an employee would be present and would recognize him from past jobs and thus let him in. On that night, no employee showed up and the plan was thwarted.
The following night, on October 7, they went back to the bar, once again hoping that an employee would be at Service America. Tom McCallops (McCallops), an employee who had seen Griffin fix coolers many nights in the past, arrived with his wife, Patricia McCallops. As predicted by Griffin, when Griffin and Lopez went to Service America, McCallops immediately recognized Griffin and let them in. Once inside, they wielded their weapons. Lopez then took the McCallopses to a cooler and locked them inside while Griffin opened the money lockers with a crowbar. Griffin testified that while he was opening the money lockers, he heard a shotgun and ran back and saw Lopez shooting at McCallops as he attempted to rise off the floor. He then grabbed the shotgun from Lopez.
However, other witnesses testified that Griffin admitted otherwise after the murder. Immediately after the murder, Griffin had a celebration party at the Kimberly Hotel where he and the guests had champagne and cocaine. There, Griffin told Melissa Clark, Kocolis's girlfriend, that he and Lopez killed the McCallopses. Griffin told her that once the money bags were placed in his van, he went back inside, stood the McCallopses together and shot them with the shotgun. Afterwards, he told Lopez to clean up and finish the job (with the 9mm). Mary Hall, Griffin's girlfriend at the time, gave similar testimony. They also testified that Griffin's arms were all scratched up and his clothes bloody when they met him at the party.2
The medical examiner testified with regard to the result of the autopsies and her observations. She stated that McCallops had five gunshot wounds, one from a shotgun and four from a handgun. The shotgun wound, which appeared to be the first shot McCallops received, was life-threatening in that it severed the aorta. Mrs. McCallops had two gunshot wounds (9mm), one in the head and one in the chest. Pictures were introduced at the penalty phase to show that the metallic grill of the money lockers was pried open and contained spots of blood. The spots of blood were found to be consistent with Griffin's.
The detectives testified as to the findings of their investigation. The findings establish that sometime after the celebration at the hotel, the money was taken to Kocolis's place. Since the loot ($11,300) was made up mostly of coins, Kocolis, Lopez, Griffin, and some others proceeded to pack some of it in paper rollers. Afterwards, they took the rolled coins to Seminole Bingo and exchanged them for currency bills (about $300). They then burned the empty coin bags. The investigators recovered some of the partially burnt bags. They were also able to match tire tracks left at the warehouse with the tires on Griffin's van.
After the above evidence was presented, testimony was offered with regard to Griffin's mental state. Griffin was found to be competent by the two doctors, Dr. Michael Maher, a psychiatrist and expert on forensic psychology, and Dr. Sidney Merin, a clinical psychologist. Some of the testimony, however, dealt with an accidental pellet gunshot injury Griffin suffered at the age of ten. After undergoing surgery, Griffin suffered a speech impairment for an unspecified number of months. Dr. Maher testified that while the injury did not cause any permanent damage, it left Griffin vulnerable to other impairments that might occur in the future. For instance, Griffin's depression, attempted suicide at the age of sixteen as a result of complications with a girlfriend, and later cocaine use related in some way to the head injury. On the other hand, Dr. Merin testified categorically that the injury simply had no effect on Griffin's brain. He stated that due to the location of the injury, any defect would only have resulted in cognitive disability. Given Griffin's performance in high school (3.3 GPA) and his certification and work in refrigeration which required high-order brain-processing skills, his cognitive ability was definitely not damaged. Therefore, Dr. Merin concluded, there was no permanent damage.
Although Griffin denied killing the McCallopses, he pled guilty to the charges and accepted the factual basis of the plea. He stated that had he not taken Lopez to Service America, this would not have happened; therefore, he felt responsible for what happened. Sometime before or at the time he was put in jail, Lopez developed severe mental problems. Consequently, he has since been institutionalized in order to restore his competency to stand trial. As to Kocolis, he was incarcerated on a violation of probation.
As earlier mentioned, Griffin pled guilty to the two counts of first-degree murder. At the penalty phase, Griffin waived an advisory jury, any presentence investigation report, and a Spencer hearing. After hearing evidence and considering memoranda from both sides, the trial court sentenced Griffin to death on both counts.
As support for the death sentences, the trial court found four aggravating factors: (1) the defendant was previously convicted of another capital offense or of a felony involving the use of violence;3 (2) the capital felony was committed while the defendant was engaged, or was an accomplice, in the commission of, or attempt to commit, or in flight after committing or attempting to commit a kidnapping;4 (3) the capital felony was committed for the purpose of avoiding or preventing a lawful arrest;5 and (4) the capital felony was committed for pecuniary gain.6 As it relates to statutory mitigators, the court found that Griffin had no significant prior criminal history. The court also found that Griffin partly established the mitigator that he was an accomplice in the capital felony committed by another person and his participation was relatively minor. Griffin's age (25 at the time of the murders) was rejected as a statutory mitigator.7 Griffin raises three issues for review.8
We first consider Griffin's challenge of the voluntariness of the waiver of his right to a jury during the penalty phase. After Griffin pled guilty to the charges, he indicated that he wanted to waive his right to a sentencing jury. The trial judge subsequently conducted a colloquy to...
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