Hurst v. State

Citation18 So.3d 975
Decision Date17 September 2009
Docket NumberNo. SC07-1798.,SC07-1798.
PartiesTimothy Lee HURST, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.
CourtUnited States State Supreme Court of Florida

Jeffrey M. Hazen and Harry Brody of Brody and Hazen, P.A., Tallahassee, Florida, for Appellant.

Bill McCollum, Attorney General, and Stephen R. White, Assistant Attorney General, Tallahassee, Florida, for Appellee.

PER CURIAM.

Timothy Lee Hurst appeals from an order denying his motion filed under Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.851 seeking to vacate his judgment of conviction of first-degree murder and sentence of death.1 For the reasons explained below, we vacate the sentence of death and remand for a new penalty phase proceeding. We affirm the circuit court's order denying relief as to the remainder of Hurst's claims.

I. BACKGROUND

Hurst, who was nineteen at the time of the murder, was convicted of the May 2, 1998, first-degree murder of Cynthia Harrison in Escambia County. His conviction and sentence of death were affirmed on direct appeal in Hurst v. State, 819 So.2d 689 (Fla.), cert. denied 537 U.S. 977, 123 S.Ct. 438, 154 L.Ed.2d 336 (2002).2 Hurst now appeals the denial of his initial and amended rule 3.851 motions after an evidentiary hearing was held on most of his claims. First, the relevant circumstances of the crime and trial are set forth.

A. Facts of the Murder

On May 2, 1998, Hurst was employed at a Popeye's restaurant on Nine Mile Road in Escambia County, where Cynthia Harrison was employed as an assistant manager. Hurst and Harrison were both scheduled to arrive at work that day at 8 a.m., in order to prepare for the 10:30 a.m. opening. Harrison arrived first, somewhere between 7:15 and 7:30 a.m. That same morning, Carl Hess arrived for work at a nearby Wendy's restaurant at 7 a.m. He testified that sometime between 7 and 8:30 a.m., as he was working in the Wendy's parking lot, he saw a man who was about six feet tall and weighing between 280 and 300 pounds, dressed in a Popeye's uniform, arrive at Popeye's and bang on the door and window. Eventually, a woman came to the door and let him in. Hess picked Hurst from a photographic lineup as the man he saw banging on the door and window and, at trial, he identified Hurst as the man he saw that morning. Hess said he had seen Hurst working at Popeye's before and that Hurst had filed an application for employment at Wendy's, but had not been hired.

That same May 2 morning, a Popeye's delivery truck was making rounds to the restaurants. Janet Pugh, who worked at another Popeye's, telephoned Harrison at 7:55 a.m. to tell her that the delivery truck should be expected soon at her restaurant. Pugh spoke to Harrison for four or five minutes and did not detect anything wrong or hear anyone in the background. Shortly after 8 a.m., Popeye's employee Anthony Brown arrived, only to find the door locked, although he saw Harrison's car in the parking lot. The delivery truck arrived about five minutes after Brown, and the driver and Brown waited outside the restaurant until Tonya Crenshaw, another Popeye's assistant manager, arrived. Neither Brown nor the delivery driver saw Hurst or his car.

When Tonya Crenshaw arrived at about 10:30 a.m. and unlocked the door, she and the delivery driver entered and found the safe open and the previous day's receipts and $375 in small bills and change missing. Harrison's body was discovered inside the freezer with her hands bound behind her back with electrical tape and with tape over her mouth. Similar tape was later found in the trunk of Hurst's car. A significant amount of the victim's blood was present although it appeared from water on the floor that someone had attempted to clean up the scene.

Harrison suffered at least sixty slash and stab wounds to her face, neck, back, torso, and arms. Dr. Michael Berkland testified that several of the wounds had the potential to be fatal and that Harrison probably survived no more than fifteen minutes. A box cutter with Harrison's blood on it was found near her body, and Dr. Berkland testified that her wounds were consistent with the use of a box cutter. It was not the type of box cutter that was used at Popeye's, but was similar to a box cutter that Hurst had been seen with several days earlier. Dr. Berkland testified that the likely "window" for the time of death was between 7:55 a.m. and 8:15 a.m.

Hurst's friend, Michael Williams, testified that Hurst had previously talked about robbing Popeye's and had subsequently admitted that he killed Harrison with a box cutter after they had an argument and because he "did not want the woman to see his face." Another friend, Lee ("Lee-Lee") Smith, testified that on the night before the murder, Hurst said he was going to rob Popeye's. On the morning of the murder, Hurst arrived at Smith's house and, according to Smith, admitted that he had killed Harrison and put her in the freezer. Hurst brought with him a container of money and instructed Smith to keep it for him. Smith said he washed Hurst's bloody pants and threw away Hurst's socks and shoes, along with some other items. Later that same morning, Smith and Hurst went to Wal-Mart where Hurst bought a new pair of shoes. They also went to a pawn shop near Wal-Mart where Hurst saw some rings he wanted to buy. After retrieving some of the stolen money, he returned to the pawn shop and bought three rings for $300. An employee of the pawn shop picked Hurst out of a photographic lineup as the man who had purchased the rings, and the rings were recovered from Hurst.

Smith's parents, who were out of town on the day of the murder, discovered the container of money in Smith's room when they returned on May 3. They contacted law enforcement, and responding deputies found a coin purse containing Harrison's driver's license in a garbage can located in Smith's yard. They also found a bank bag marked "Popeye's"; a deposit slip with three of Hurst's fingerprints; a bloodstained sock with DNA typing consistent with Harrison; and a sheet of notebook paper marked "Lee Smith, language lab" on one side and with $2,226 and $1,751.54 written on the other side. One of the numbers written there matched a number on the deposit slip. Smith's father also gave the police a pair of size fourteen shoes, which had been found in the same trash can. The shoes were several sizes larger than those worn by Lee-Lee Smith and appeared to have blood stains on them. Florida Department of Law Enforcement crime lab analyst Jack Remus testified that the shoes exhibited indications of blood but that attempts at DNA testing were unsuccessful.

In a tape recording of Hurst's interview with the police several days after the murder, Hurst said he had been on his way to work on May 2 when his car broke down. Hurst said he telephoned Harrison to say he would not be in and that during the conversation she sounded scared. He testified that he then went to Smith's house, changed out of his work clothes, and went to the pawn shop where he bought necklaces for friends. In the taped interview, he did not mention buying the three rings at the pawn shop or buying new shoes at Wal-Mart that morning, although the investigative reports did indicate that the Sheriff's investigators knew Hurst had gone to Wal-Mart and purchased new shoes. The jury found Hurst guilty of first-degree murder, and the case proceeded to the penalty phase. Because this appeal involves a significant penalty phase claim requiring remand for a new penalty phase proceeding, a brief summary of the penalty phase evidence is set forth.

B. Penalty Phase and Sentencing

In the penalty phase, the State presented only the victim's sister, Tricia Poleto, who testified that Cynthia Harrison was twenty-eight years old when she died and was much loved and missed by her family and her husband. In mitigation, the defense presented Hurst's mother, Bertha Bradley, who testified that he did not have a bad temper but was a happy child who never had trouble with the law. She testified that Hurst was helpful around the house, attended church regularly, and made average grades in school, although he was slow and could not learn like other children. According to Mrs. Bradley, Hurst had an emotional age of a child about ten or eleven years old, was a follower and not a leader, and would do whatever his friend Lee-Lee Smith told him to do. She related that Hurst was employed at Popeye's and worked hard to reach his goal of being able to buy a car. To her knowledge, he never had any psychiatric problems and had not been treated by a psychiatrist or psychologist.

The defense also presented Hurst's sister, Sequester Katina Hurst, who testified that she and Hurst grew up in a house where the children did a lot of things together and played a lot of games. Because their father worked two jobs and their mother also worked, Hurst had to take care of the younger children and care for the house. She never saw Hurst lose his temper or get into fights and said he was a happy person who liked to joke around. She agreed Hurst was slower than others his age but said that he tried really hard in everything he did. The last mitigation witness, Hurst's father, Timothy Bradley, testified that Hurst was a Christian who participated in Bible studies and helped out at church. He testified that Hurst was a good boy who helped around the neighborhood and did not have a violent streak.

The trial court instructed the jury on two aggravating circumstances—commission of the murder during a robbery and that the murder was especially heinous, atrocious or cruel (HAC)—and on a number of mitigating circumstances for consideration by the jury. The jury voted eleven to one to recommend death. The trial court sentenced Hurst to death and found not two (the number on which the jury was instructed), but three aggravating circumstances: (1) the murder was committed by a person engaged in the commission of a robbery ("great weight"); (2) the murder was especially heinous,...

To continue reading

Request your trial
118 cases
  • Hurst v. State, SC12–1947.
    • United States
    • United States State Supreme Court of Florida
    • October 14, 2016
  • Braddy v. State, SC07–2174.
    • United States
    • United States State Supreme Court of Florida
    • April 10, 2013
    ...... cumulative effect of such errors' may ‘deny to defendant the fair and impartial trial that is the inalienable right of all litigants.’ ” Hurst v. State, 18 So.3d 975, 1015 (Fla.2009) ( quoting Brooks v. State, 918 So.2d 181, 202 (Fla.2005)( Brooks II )). We have identified three ......
  • Martin v. State
    • United States
    • United States State Supreme Court of Florida
    • February 1, 2013
    ...... Compare Hurst v. State, 18 So.3d 975, 1015 (Fla.2009) (likening a mental health expert's diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder to other “unfavorable ......
  • Poole v. Sec'y, Case No. 3:15-cv-1157-J-34JBT
    • United States
    • United States District Courts. 11th Circuit. United States District Court of Middle District of Florida
    • August 2, 2018
    ...Ground One, Issue A, fails to demonstrate the deficient performance prong of the Strickland standard, and will be denied. Hurst v. State, 18 So.3d 975 (Fla. 2009). ("[W]hen a defendant fails to make a showing as to one prong, it is not necessary to delve into whether he had made a showing a......
  • Request a trial to view additional results
4 books & journal articles
  • Miscellaneous
    • United States
    • James Publishing Practical Law Books The Florida Criminal Cases Notebook. Volume 1-2 Volume 2
    • April 30, 2021
    ...claim in a capital post-conviction proceeding relating to evidence in a flipped codefendant’s negotiated plea.) (See Hurst v. State , 18 So. 3d 975 (Fla. 2009) for the denial of a Giglio motion alleging that the state presented false evidence regarding possible lenient treatment of a jail h......
  • Pretrial motions and defenses
    • United States
    • James Publishing Practical Law Books The Florida Criminal Cases Notebook. Volume 1-2 Volume 1
    • April 30, 2021
    ...counsel regarding the terms of a plea deal) is not fundamental error. Cole v. State, 36 So. 3d 597 (Fla. 2010) (See Hurst v. State , 18 So. 3d 975 (Fla. 2009) for discussion of the effect and legality of ex parte communications between the judge and prosecutor about the prosecution of a cod......
  • Post-conviction relief
    • United States
    • James Publishing Practical Law Books The Florida Criminal Cases Notebook. Volume 1-2 Volume 1
    • April 30, 2021
    ...impeached and was shown to be lying. The fact that he now admits to the lie is not newly discovered evidence Hurst v. State, 18 So. 3d 975 (Fla. 2009) In reviewing a post-conviction motion alleging newly discovered evidence, the court should review the new evidence, plus any new evidence pr......
  • Discovery
    • United States
    • James Publishing Practical Law Books The Florida Criminal Cases Notebook. Volume 1-2 Volume 1
    • April 30, 2021
    ...The court abused its discretion in refusing to allow the deposition, but the defendant was not prejudiced by the failure. Hurst v. State, 18 So. 3d 975 (Fla. 2009) (See Riechmann v. State , 966 So. 2d 298 (Fla. 2007) for discussion of the law relating to depositions to perpetuate testimony ......

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT