Griffin v. State
| Decision Date | 16 May 2013 |
| Docket Number | Nos. SC09–01,SC09–1894.,s. SC09–01 |
| Citation | 114 So.3d 890 |
| Parties | Michael Joseph GRIFFIN, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee. Michael Joseph Griffin, Petitioner, v. Michael D. Crews, etc., Respondent. |
| Court | Florida Supreme Court |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Terri Lynn Backhus, Special Assistant Capital Collateral Regional Counsel, and Celeste Bacchi, Assistant Capital Collateral Regional Counsel, Southern Region, Fort Lauderdale, FL, for Appellant/Petitioner.
Pamela Jo Bondi, Attorney General, Tallahassee, FL, and Candance M. Sabella, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Tampa, FL, for Appellee/Respondent.
Michael Joseph Griffin appeals an order of the circuit court denying his motion to vacate his conviction for first-degree murder and sentence of death filed under Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.851. Griffin also petitions this Court for a writ of habeas corpus. We have jurisdiction. Seeart. V, § 3(b)(1), (9), Fla. Const. For the reasons explained below, we affirm the trial court's order denying relief on the claims relating to Griffin's guilty plea and an alleged Brady violation and granting relief on the claim of ineffective assistance of counsel in the penalty phase. We also deny his petition for habeas relief as the claim in the petition should have been raised in the postconviction motion at the trial court and is therefore procedurally barred.
Griffin pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of husband and wife Tom and Patricia McCallops at the Service America Corporation location in Pinellas County in 1995. Griffin had worked as a service and repair technician for his father's refrigeration company after he graduated from high school in 1989. Griffin provided service to the refrigerators and coolers at the Service America warehouse for a number of years and became very familiar with its business practices, including that a great deal of cash was deposited daily in lockers at the warehouse by the drivers who collected the coins from vending machines at various sites. When Griffin became addicted to cocaine, he stopped working for his father's company and moved out of the house he shared with his wife. Griffin moved in with a drug dealer acquaintance, Nicolas Kocolis, and another drug addict named Anthony Lopez.
Griffin came up with a plan to steal money from the Service America lockers and convinced Lopez to assist him. Kocolis was initially going to participate in the crime, but decided against it. Prior to going to Service America, Griffin traded his gold chain to Kocolis for a nine millimeter pistol that he intended to use during the theft. Griffin also possessed a shotgun that was used during the crime. Griffin realized that he would not be able to get into Service America because of the locked gate and the alarm system. However, Griffin hoped that an employee would recognize him from his past work on the refrigeration equipment and thus let him into the warehouse. Griffin and Lopez waited at a bar across from the warehouse on the night of October 6, but no employee arrived at the warehouse that night. The two men went back to the bar the next night and waited again. Service America employee McCallops and his wife arrived and, as Griffin hoped, McCallops recognized him and let him into the facility. Once inside, Griffin and Lopez wielded their weapons. Lopez locked the husband and wife inside a cooler, while Griffin opened the money lockers with a crowbar. There was some dispute about who actually shot the McCallopses, but both victims were killed by gunshots. Tom sustained one shotgun wound that severed his aorta and four other wounds from a handgun. Patricia suffered two handgun wounds, one in the head and one in the chest. Griffin testified that he heard Lopez shoot Tom with the shotgun when Tom attempted to get up from the floor. However, other witnesses testified that Griffin had stated that he went back inside the facility after the money bags were removed and shot Tom McCallops with the shotgun and then told Lopez to finish the job with the handgun. Immediately after the murders and robbery, Griffin had a party at a hotel suite, where his guests were served champagne and cocaine.
The State informed Griffin's defense counsel that the victims' families were amenable to a life sentence if both defendants pled guilty to the murders. Although Griffin denied killing the McCallopses, he pled guilty to the charges and accepted the factual basis of the plea. He stated that he felt responsible for what happened because he had taken Lopez with him to Service America. However, Lopez was unable to accept the plea when he developed severe mental problems and was institutionalized in order to restore his competency to stand trial.
At the penalty phase, Griffin waived an advisory jury, any presentence investigation report, and a Spencer1 hearing. Griffin presented evidence during a two-day penalty phase proceeding before the judge. After hearing evidence and considering memoranda from both sides, the trial court sentenced Griffin to death on both murder counts in July 1998. The trial court found four aggravating factors: (1) a previous conviction of another capital offense (based on the other conviction of first-degree murder of the victims); (2) the murders were committed during a kidnapping; (3) the murders were committed to avoid arrest;and (4) the murders were committed for pecuniary gain. The trial court found the statutory mitigator of no significant prior criminal history. The court also found that Griffin had partly established the mitigating factor that he was an accomplice in the capital felony committed by another; established his family background as a loving son, brother, and father and a hard worker; exhibited good jail conduct and courtroom behavior; and displayed remorse for his actions. The court rejected Griffin's age of twenty five at the time of the murder and his mental and emotional problems as mitigating factors. While the court found that drug usage and dependency had been established, it gave this very little weight because there was no testimony that Griffin committed the crime while under the influence of drugs or that his ability to comprehend what was going on was impaired by drugs.
On appeal, this Court affirmed Griffin's convictions and the death sentences. Griffin v. State, 820 So.2d 906, 917 (Fla.2002). Griffin raised three issues on appeal: (1) the validity of his waiver of a jury during the penalty phase; (2) the failure of the trial court to consider his potential for rehabilitation as a mitigating circumstance; and (3) that the kidnapping and pecuniary gain aggravators constituted improper doubling. Even though not raised by Griffin, we also addressed the proportionality of his death sentences. We found the waiver issue was procedurally barred on appeal because Griffin did not move to withdraw his plea at the trial court. Id. at 913. We found no merit to the two other claims and found the death sentences to be proportionate.
Griffin filed his initial postconviction motion in August 2003, raising eleven claims. The trial court granted an evidentiary hearing on three of Griffin's claims: (1) that his trial counsel rendered ineffective assistance during the guilt phase; (2) that Griffin was not afforded adequate assistance of a mental health expert; and (3) that counsel rendered ineffective assistance during the penalty phase. The court reserved ruling on a claim of cumulative error, but denied the remaining claims.
After codefendant Lopez's trial was completed in 2005, Griffin filed an amended motion in which he amended the three claims to be heard at the evidentiary hearing. After the trial judge granted a motion to disqualify himself, the case was assigned to a new judge who also served as the administrative judge for the circuit. Due to this judge's busy schedule and the large number of witnesses to be heard, the evidentiary hearing was conducted over the course of fourteen months, concluding in February 2008. Griffin filed a number of amended motions, including a new claim of a Brady violation based on the testimony of the hearing witnesses. In September 2007, Griffin also filed a motion to withdraw his guilty plea pursuant to Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.170. In November 2008, the trial court entered an order granting Griffin a new penalty phase proceeding based on the claim of ineffective assistance of counsel during the penalty phase, but denying the remaining claims and Griffin's motion to withdraw his guilty plea. Sua sponte, the court also addressed the validity of Griffin's death sentences in light of Lopez's subsequent life sentences for the same crimes, but concluded that it lacked “sufficient record evidence to satisfactorily weigh the culpability of Defendant Griffin to co-defendant Lopez” and could not say whether the relief granted to Griffin (i.e., a new penalty phase proceeding) might have been further justified by Lopez's subsequent life sentence.
Both parties filed timely notices of appeal. Griffin raises several postconviction claims: (1) that he should have been able to withdraw his guilty plea; (2) that counsel rendered ineffective assistance in the guilt phase through various actions that affected Griffin's decision to accept the guilty plea; and (3) that the State committed a Brady2 violation based on an alleged immunity deal given to the drug dealer Kocolis for statements he made to the police. On cross-appeal, the State argues that the trial court erred in granting Griffin a new penalty phase proceeding based on ineffective assistance of counsel. Griffin has also filed a habeas petition, claiming that his death sentence is disparate and disproportionate based on the newly discovered evidence of the subsequent life sentence of his codefendant Lopez. We address each claim in turn below.
Griffin was sentenced to death on July 10, 1998, on each...
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