Guardado v. State
| Decision Date | 28 June 2007 |
| Docket Number | No. SC05-2035.,SC05-2035. |
| Citation | 965 So.2d 108 |
| Parties | Jesse GUARDADO, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee. |
| Court | Florida Supreme Court |
Nancy A. Daniels, Public Defender, and W.C. McLain, Assistant Public Defender, Second Judicial Circuit, Tallahassee, FL, for Appellant.
Bill McCollum, Attorney General, and Charmaine M. Millsaps, Assistant Attorney General, Tallahassee, FL, for Appellee.
We have on appeal the judgment and sentence of the trial court finding Jesse Guardado guilty of murder in the first degree and imposing a sentence of death. We have jurisdiction. See art. V, § 3(b)(1), Fla. Const. For the reasons stated below, we affirm the convictions and sentences.
Guardado was indicted on charges of murder in the first degree and robbery with a weapon based on events occurring on or about September 13, 2004, in Walton County, Florida. Guardado pled guilty to both counts on October 19, 2004. Before the penalty phase, Guardado filed several motions that were denied, including a motion to declare Florida's death penalty unconstitutional. On September 12-15, 2005, a penalty phase jury convened and heard evidence in support of aggravating and mitigating factors.
At the time these crimes were committed, Guardado had served time in prison, having been sentenced to twenty years for the crime of robbery with a deadly weapon in Orange County, Florida, and fifteen to twenty years for the crimes of robbery and robbery with a weapon in Seminole County, Florida. The Seminole County sentences ran concurrent with the Orange County sentence. He was placed on conditional release supervision on January 1, 2003, with the conditional release to expire on February 6, 2014.
Guardado had known the victim of the present crimes, 75-year-old Jackie Malone, since 2003, and had rented places to live from her. Guardado had been a guest in her home, including a few overnight stays when he was between rentals. He received assistance from Ms. Malone on numerous occasions including financial assistance, and she had assisted him in getting the job with the local water treatment plant which he held at the time of the crime. Guardado knew certain things about Ms. Malone, including the fact that she kept some money on hand in her wallet.
On the day in question, September 13, 2004, Guardado wanted to get high and continue his recent crack cocaine binge. Desperate for money to fix his truck and obtain drugs, Guardado decided to rob a local grocery store. His attempted robbery with a knife was thwarted by one of the employees. Still desperate for money, Guardado decided to rob and murder Ms. Malone that night because she lived in a secluded area and because she would open her home to him based on their prior trusting relationship.
Guardado arranged to drive his girlfriend's vehicle to work for the night shift. He generally maintained a change of clothes in his girlfriend's car because of the nature of his work at the treatment plant. On this occasion he made sure there were clothes in the car because a hurricane was due to make landfall in a few days. In addition to leaving clothes in the car, Guardado armed himself with a metal "breaker bar." He next drove to the parking lot at the Wal-Mart in DeFuniak Springs, where he got a kitchen knife from his disabled truck that was parked there. With both weapons in his possession, he then drove his girlfriend's car to Ms. Malone's house.
Ms. Malone had already retired for the night so Guardado continually knocked on her door to awaken her. Guardado identified himself by name when she came to the door. She greeted Guardado, and he told her he needed to use the telephone. When she turned away to allow him to enter the house, he pulled the "breaker bar," which was hidden behind his back in his pants, and struck her repeatedly about her head. Ms. Malone raised her hands in defense, and then fell to the living room floor. Ms. Malone did not die from the numerous blows with the "breaker bar," so Guardado pulled the kitchen knife and stabbed her several times, then slashed her throat.
Guardado said he hit her on the head with the "breaker bar" and thought that would have killed her, but it did not, so he hit her several more times. He also said that when she fell on the floor behind the couch it seemed she was not going to die so he stabbed her with the knife, including to the heart, so it would be over. However, Guardado confessed, "It just seemed not to go that way, she would not die." After beating and stabbing Ms. Malone, Guardado went to her bedroom, looked through her belongings for money and valuables, and took her jewelry box, briefcase, purse, and cell phone.
Dr. Minyard, a forensic pathologist and Chief Medical Examiner for Walton County, testified concerning the cause of death and her review of the autopsy report and photographs. Dr. Minyard testified that Ms. Malone suffered several injuries including (1) at least twelve abrasions, contusions, and lacerations of the skin on the head, neck and face, (2) bruising under the surface of the scalp, (3) a subarachnoid hemorrhage, (4) at least two incised wounds on the neck, (5) five stab wounds to the chest, (6) a fracture of the finger, and (7) incised wounds to the right hand. The evidence further revealed Ms. Malone was conscious at least through the time that Guardado inflicted the stab wound to her heart. Dr. Minyard said the fracture and wounds to Ms. Malone's hands were consistent with the victim attempting to fend off repeated blows from the breaker bar and her attacker, by reaching or grabbing for the knife.
On September 15, 2005, the jury returned a unanimous recommendation that Guardado be sentenced to death. After the jury's advisory sentence, Guardado waived a Spencer1 hearing, and the trial court found his waiver to be voluntary. The trial court stressed however, that Guardado would be offered another opportunity to present additional mitigation before sentencing. The trial court set final sentencing for September 30, 2005, and requested sentencing memoranda from the State and Guardado. The State requested a Spencer hearing despite Guardado's waiver of such a hearing. On September 30, 2005, over Guardado's continued assertion of waiver, the trial court held a Spencer hearing, received additional mitigation evidence, and set final sentencing for October 13, 2005.
On October 13, 2005, based on the evidence presented at the penalty phase proceeding and the Spencer hearing, the trial court sentenced Guardado to death for the first-degree murder of Ms. Malone. On the count of robbery with a weapon, Guardado was sentenced to thirty years' imprisonment with the sentence to run consecutive to the murder count.
The trial court made detailed findings on the aggravating and mitigating factors. The court found five aggravating factors: (1) the capital felony was committed by a person under sentence of imprisonment or on conditional release supervision; (2) the defendant was previously convicted of another capital felony or of a felony involving the use or threat of violence to the person (to wit: armed robbery, April 9, 1984; robbery with a deadly weapon, July 6, 1990; robbery, January 23, 1991; robbery with a weapon, January 23, 1991; attempted robbery with a deadly weapon, February 17, 2005); (3) the capital felony was committed while the defendant was engaged in the commission of, or attempt to commit, or escape after committing, a robbery with a weapon; (4) the capital felony was especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel (HAC); and (5) the crime was committed in a cold, calculated and premeditated manner (CCP).
Guardado did not ask the trial court to consider any statutory mitigating circumstances, and the trial court did not find any. The trial court did find nineteen nonstatutory mitigating factors (ten as requested by Guardado, seven additional ones based upon review and consideration of the defense expert at the Spencer hearing, and two that were suggested by the State).2 The trial court gave the jury's advisory sentence and recommendation great weight and considered and weighed the aggravating and mitigating circumstances. The trial court found, as did the jury, that the aggravating circumstances outweighed the mitigating circumstances. Guardado raises four issues on this direct appeal, which we address below.
Guardado argues the trial court erred by failing to comply with the requirements outlined in Nelson v. State, 274 So.2d 256 (Fla. 4th DCA 1973), when he expressly asked the court to remove his court-appointed counsel. Guardado maintains that his continued request to discharge counsel was a request to represent himself and that the trial court's denial violated his right of self-representation. The State asserts most of Guardado's complaints were generalized complaints about counsel and did not require a Nelson inquiry, and that other complaints about counsel were meritless as a matter of law, and thus they were properly denied. Additionally, the State argues Guardado never asked to represent himself.
Guardado's history of self-representation and representation by counsel is a convoluted one. It is clear, however, that the only issue before this Court is whether or not Guardado should have been allowed to represent himself at the Spencer hearing. Guardado was allowed, after proper inquiry by the trial court, to represent himself at the plea hearing. After the guilt phase proceedings were concluded, Guardado, at his own request, was represented by counsel during the presentation of evidence at the penalty phase. We find under the circumstances presented here that the trial court did not err in its ruling on the complaints made by Guardado concerning counsel at the Spencer hearing.
A trial court's decision involving withdrawal or discharge of counsel is subject to review for abuse of discretion. See Weaver v....
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