Haygood v. State

• Decision Date: 14 February 2013
• Docket Number: No. SC11–294.,SC11–294.
• Citation: 109 So.3d 735
• Parties: Jeremy HAYGOOD, Petitioner, v. STATE of Florida, Respondent.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

109 So.3d 735

Jeremy HAYGOOD, Petitioner,

v.STATE of Florida, Respondent.

No. SC11–294.

Supreme Court of Florida.

Feb. 14, 2013.

James Marion Moorman, Public Defender and Maureen E. Surber, Assistant Public Defender, Bartow, FL, for Petitioner.

Pamela Jo Bondi, Attorney General, Tallahassee, FL and Cerese Crawford Taylor, Assistant Attorney General, Tampa, FL, for Respondent.

Nancy Ann Daniels, Public Defender and Richard Michael Summa, Assistant Public Defender, Second Judicial Circuit, Tallahassee, FL, for Amicus Curiae Public Defender, Second Judicial Circuit.

Michael Terrance Kennett, Florida Department of Corrections, Office of the General Counsel, Tallahassee, FL, as Amicus Curiae.

LABARGA, J.

This case is before the Court for review of the decision of the Second District Court of Appeal in Haygood v. State, 54 So.3d 1035 (Fla. 2d DCA 2011), in which the Second District certified a question to this Court to be of great public importance. We have jurisdiction. Seeart. V, § 3(b)(4), Fla. Const. We rephrase the certified question as follows:

IF A JURY RETURNS A VERDICT FINDING A DEFENDANT GUILTY OF SECOND–DEGREE MURDER, DOES A TRIAL COURT COMMIT FUNDAMENTAL ERROR BY GIVING AN ERRONEOUS MANSLAUGHTER BY ACT INSTRUCTION WHEN IT ALSO GIVES AN INSTRUCTION ON MANSLAUGHTER BY CULPABLE NEGLIGENCE AND THE EVIDENCE SUPPORTS ONLY A THEORY OF MANSLAUGHTER BY ACT?

Id. at 1038. For the reasons explained below, we answer the certified question in the affirmative. We hold that giving the erroneous manslaughter by act instruction, which we found to be fundamental error in State v. Montgomery, 39 So.3d 252 (Fla.2010),¹ is also fundamental error even if the instruction on manslaughter by culpable negligence is given where the evidence supports manslaughter by act but does not support culpable negligence and the defendant is convicted of second-degree murder.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Jeremy Haygood was tried in September 2009 on the charge of second-degree murder for the November 2008 death of his girlfriend, Jeanine Tuckey, in Pinellas County, Florida. The State presented evidence that Haygood became angry with Tuckey and, at various times during the argument, head-butted her, kicked her legs out from under her, choked her, and elbowed her in the chest. When Tuckey became unresponsive, Haygood ran indoors and told her mother to call for an ambulance, and he attempted to perform CPR until the ambulance arrived. The beating, during which she hit her head, resulted in swelling in her brain that damaged her brain and brain stem. Tuckey fell into a permanent coma from which the neurologist advised she would never recover. She died after being removed from life support the day after her injuries.

After Haygood was advised of his rights, he told police that he had consumed about nine beers in a five-hour period that afternoon and evening before Tuckey was injured and was “[n]ot sober but ... wasn't drunk.” Haygood first told police he only elbowed Tuckey twice in the chest “in a blind rage” over her infidelity. Haygood said that he hit her a couple of times “to prove a point, get her attention,” but not to seriously hurt her. He later admitted to the much more extensive beating. Haygood expressed remorse in the police interview and said, “It was an accident.... [W]hat I did was on purpose, but I didn't mean to kill her.”

The jury was instructed without objection as to second-degree murder and the lesser included offense of manslaughter. The manslaughter instruction included the instructions on manslaughter by act and manslaughter by culpable negligence. Haygood was subsequently found guilty of second-degree murder. He appealed to the Second District Court of Appeal, alleging that fundamental error occurred when the jury was given the then-standard jury instruction on manslaughter by act, which this Court held to be fundamental error in Montgomery, 39 So.3d at 258. We turn first to discuss the manslaughter by act instruction given in this case.

The Instruction Given in this Case

The jury was instructed in Haygood's trial in pertinent part as follows:

THE COURT: Therefore, if you decide that the main accusation [of second-degree murder] has not been proved beyond a reasonable doubt, you will next need to decide if the defendant is guilty of any lesser included crime. The lesser included crime ... is manslaughter.

To prove the crime of manslaughter, the State must prove the following two elements beyond a reasonable doubt. Number one, Jeanine Tuckey is dead. Number two, Jeremy Haygood intentionally caused the death of Jeanine Tuckey, or the death of Jeanine Tuckey was caused by culpable negligence of Jeremy Haygood. However, the defendant cannot be found guilty of manslaughter if the killing was either justifiable or excusable homicide as I have previously explained those terms.

(Emphasis added). In closing argument, the prosecutor argued that there are two ways to prove manslaughter and, under the first way, the State must prove that Haygood intentionally caused Tuckey's death, although, the prosecutor explained: “Now, that doesn't mean that he—that he meant to kill her. That just means that he meant to do what he did and she ended up dying.” The prosecutor also argued to the jury that manslaughter by culpable negligence was not proven. Haygood was subsequently convicted of second-degree murder and appealed to the Second District Court of Appeal, where he argued that the trial court fundamentally erred in giving the erroneous manslaughter by act instruction that required the jury to find that he intentionally caused Tuckey's death.

On appeal, the district court held that “[a]lthough Mr. Haygood's argument [of fundamental error] is arguably supported by supreme court precedent, we adhere to the precedent of this district as established in Barros–Dias v. State, 41 So.3d 370 (Fla. 2d DCA 2010), and Nieves v. State, 22 So.3d 691 (Fla. 2d DCA 2009), and we accordingly affirm Mr. Haygood's judgment of conviction.” Haygood, 54 So.3d at 1036. The district court recognized that this Court held in Montgomery that the then-standard jury instruction on manslaughter by act was erroneous because, although the offense of manslaughter by act does not require proof of intent to kill, the standard jury instruction informed the jury that to convict for manslaughter by act, the jury must find that the defendant “intentionally caused the death of [the victim].” Haygood, 54 So.3d at 1036. Nevertheless, the Second District relied on Nieves where it had found significant the fact that “unlike Montgomery ... the jury in Nieves' case was also instructed on the lesser-included offense of manslaughter by culpable negligence.” Haygood, 54 So.3d at 1037 (quoting Nieves, 22 So.3d at 692).

After acknowledging that Montgomery held it was fundamental error to give this jury instruction in cases where the defendant was convicted of second-degree murder, which is one step removed from manslaughter, the Second District held that the erroneous instruction was not fundamental error in this case because the jury was also instructed on manslaughter by culpable negligence. Haygood, 54 So.3d at 1037. Even so, the district court expresseddoubt about whether that distinction was warranted. The district court stated:

In this case, Mr. Haygood was charged with and convicted of fatally beating his girlfriend. Arguably, the evidence presented at trial is inconsistent with a theory of manslaughter by culpable negligence. Additionally, as for manslaughter by act, the instruction as given was flawed. Thus, if the jury believed Mr. Haygood's act was an intentional one but not that he possessed the intent to kill, then neither form of manslaughter provided a viable lesser offense of which the jury could find Mr. Haygood guilty. Although the evidence unquestionably supports the jury's verdict finding Mr. Haygood committed second-degree murder, it is impossible to speculate what the jury would have found had it been properly instructed that manslaughter by act does not require the intent to kill. In this regard, giving the flawed manslaughter by act instruction appears to run afoul of principles which the supreme court has articulated in [Pena v. State, 901 So.2d 781, 787 (Fla.2005) ], and Montgomery, 39 So.3d at 257–59.

In sum, adhering to the decisional law of this district, we affirm Mr. Haygood's judgment of conviction.

Haygood, 54 So.3d at 1037. The Second District then certified a question of great public importance to this Court asking if, in a case where the evidence does not support a theory of culpable negligence, giving the flawed manslaughter by act instruction is fundamental error where the manslaughter by culpable negligence instruction is also given. Id. at 1038. Judge Altenbernd noted in his special concurrence in part and dissent in part, “I simply fail to see the logic by which a fundamental error of this kind becomes harmless merely because a jury receives an alternative instruction that has little or no application to the evidence presented at trial.” Id. (Altenbernd, J., specially concurring in part and dissenting in part).

ANALYSIS

The certified question presented by the district court is solely a legal question. Thus, this Court's review is de novo. See Kirton v. Fields, 997 So.2d 349, 352 (Fla.2008); see also D'Angelo v. Fitzmaurice, 863 So.2d 311, 314 (Fla.2003) (stating that the standard of review for pure questions of law is de novo). Because the legal effect of this Court's decision in State v. Montgomery, 39 So.3d 252 (Fla.2010), is at the heart of the certified question in this case, that decision will be discussed first. We recognized in Montgomery that the then-existing standard jury instruction on manslaughter by act required the jury to find that the defendant “intentionally caused the death” of the victim. See Fla. Std. Jury Instr. (Crim.) 7.7 (2006). We also recognized that section 782.07, Florida Statutes, did not require the jury to...