Jackson v. State

• Decision Date: 23 March 2017
• Docket Number: No. SC13–1232,SC13–1232
• Citation: 213 So.3d 754
• Parties: Kenneth R. JACKSON, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

213 So.3d 754

Kenneth R. JACKSON, Appellant,

v.STATE of Florida, Appellee.

No. SC13–1232

Supreme Court of Florida.

[March 23, 2017]

Howard L. "Rex" Dimmig, II, Public Defender, and Julius J. Aulisio, Assistant Public Defender, Tenth Judicial Circuit, Bartow, Florida, for Appellant

Pamela Jo Bondi, Attorney General, Tallahassee, Florida; and C. Suzanne Bechard, Assistant Attorney General, Tampa, Florida, for Appellee

Karen M. Gottlieb of Florida Center for Capital Representation, Florida International University College of Law, Miami, Florida, for Amicus Curiae Florida Center for Capital Representation at Florida International University College of Law

PER CURIAM.

Appellant Kenneth R. Jackson was convicted of the first-degree murder of Cuc Thu Tran, sexual battery with a deadly weapon, second-degree arson, and grand theft of a motor vehicle. Jackson was sentenced to death for the murder conviction. We have jurisdiction. See art. V, § 3(b)(1), Fla. Const.

FACTS

At approximately 6:30 a.m. on September 13, 2007, an individual who lived at Bullfrog Court in Gibsonton initially heard noises that sounded like gunshots, which he did not originally consider to be unusual. He walked outside to investigate, but returned inside when he did not observe anything out of the ordinary. Approximately twenty or thirty minutes later, he heard further noises that sounded like glass breaking or tires exploding. He again walked outside, this time to the sound of an emergency siren, and he saw fire and smoke rising from a burning vehicle. Firefighters from the Hillsborough County Fire Rescue responded to the fire at approximately 7:03 a.m., and in the process of extinguishing the fire, they discovered a body inside the van. Officers from the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office (HCSO) arrived shortly thereafter. A lighter was recovered a short distance away from the van. After the fire was extinguished, the van was towed to an HCSO garage for further investigation.

Approximately twelve miles northwest of Gibsonton, in Seffner, seventeen-year-old Truong Tran returned home from school that afternoon and found his father, Banh Tran, very distraught. Cuc Tran, Truong's mother and Banh's wife, was not home, but her keys, cell phone, and purse were in their mobile home residence. Truong called the police and reported that Cuc was missing and had not arrived as scheduled at work that morning. Truong also informed officers that his mother usually jogged to and from a local church every morning before work.

HCSO investigators recovered several pieces of evidence found in front of the St. Francis of Assisi Church in Seffner, including a pair of black pants, shoes, socks, and a pink hair roller. The items were found near a patch of grass that appeared to be covered in blood, and the hair roller also appeared to be covered in blood.

The investigation further expanded to encompass the van found burning in Gibsonton. Luis Carrero owned a 1993 midnight blue Dodge Caravan that he hoped to sell; he left the van with a "For Sale" sign in front of his place of employment, an Advanced Auto Parts Store in Seffner. The van was seen in the business parking lot at 9:30 p.m. on September 12, 2007, but was not in the parking lot by 6:30 a.m. on September 13. In the early morning hours of September 13, 2007, one witness observed a blue minivan driving at five or six miles per hour as she turned from Martin Luther King Boulevard onto State Road 579. Another witness reported that he was cut off by a speeding Chrysler minivan that also ran a red light as it headed west on Martin Luther King Boulevard.

During the course of the investigation, Detective Troy Morgan encountered Christina Elhelw, a clerk at a BP gas station at the intersection of State Road 579 and Martin Luther King Boulevard. Elhelw informed Morgan that on September 14, Jackson, who would regularly stop by the BP gas station and talk to her, had asked her and William Driskell, another regular customer, whether they had heard about the crime. Jackson told them that a Vietnamese woman who lived in a nearby trailer park had been found in a burning van in Gibsonton, and the van had been stolen from the nearby Auto Parts Store in Seffner. He also told them that law enforcement recovered some articles of clothing near Clay Pit Road. Further, Jackson told them that he had previously seen the victim jogging in the neighborhood. Jackson explained that he learned this information after he had been riding his bicycle and was stopped by law enforcement officers, who asked him whether he had seen anything unusual on September 13. Elhelw thought Jackson seemed more excited than sympathetic about this information, and Driskell thought Jackson appeared to brag about having more information than either of them.

In September 2007, Jackson lived with Linda and Wallace O'Neal. Wallace had known Jackson as a child because Wallace was the live-in boyfriend of Jackson's grandmother, who had custody of Jackson when he was a young child.¹ Jackson did not have a car, cell phone, or steady employment when he lived with the O'Neals in September 2007; he spent part of his days at the local Walmart and a local gas station. According to Linda, Jackson was not home on the morning of September 13. Linda had also received several phone calls from Iris Williams, a friend of hers who had encountered Jackson in Gibsonton earlier that morning walking north. Jackson told Williams that he had been locked out of his home and needed a place to stay. Williams thought it was odd to see Jackson in Gibsonton and attempted to contact Linda. Linda testified that Jackson walked into their home in Seffner between 1 and 1:30 p.m. that afternoon. Jackson was sweating, and the bike that he usually rode had remained in the home. Jackson moved out of the O'Neals' home the following Monday.

After receiving the phone calls from Williams, Linda contacted Margaret Gofinch, a young woman who had known Jackson from school. In September 2007, Jackson expressed interest in dating Gofinch and contacted her daily, but she was not interested and was dating someone else. On September 12, 2007, she worked at a McDonald's Restaurant in Riverview until 10:00 p.m. and received several phone calls from Jackson throughout the night; the phone calls became more frequent as the night progressed. Jackson wanted to see her that night when she finished work, but she declined and went home.

On September 20, Jackson agreed to be interviewed by Detectives Morgan and Bunten. He told the detectives that on the morning of September 13, he stopped at a Walmart and later met law enforcement officers conducting a traffic stop, but denied that he was in Gibsonton or otherwise involved in Tran's murder. However, when the detectives informed him that Linda O'Neal and Margaret Gofinch had informed them that Jackson was not at home on the night of September 12 or the morning of September 13, Jackson told them that he found himself locked out of the O'Neals' trailer. Upset, he tried contacting Gofinch for a place to stay for the night, but when she refused, he biked to Gibsonton. He also initially denied encountering Iris Williams in Gibsonton, but later admitted that he had seen her that morning and explained that he did not previously mention that fact because he did not want to be associated with her. Jackson also admitted that he had spoken to a woman at a church in Gibsonton to ask for a ride back to Seffner. He also told them that he had ridden his bike home from Gibsonton, but explained that he had taken his time to get home, a trip that ultimately lasted twelve hours. At the end of the interview, Jackson agreed to provide the detectives the shirt and shoes he was wearing, which he told them were what he had worn on September 13.

Bunten and Morgan interviewed Jackson again on September 27. They confronted Jackson with the fact that they did not believe his account of the events of September 13, but Jackson denied that he had seen the victim or stolen the car. Later that day, Jackson was arrested. On October 10, 2007, a grand jury indicted Jackson for the first-degree murder of Tran, sexual battery with a deadly weapon, second-degree arson, and grand theft of a motor vehicle.

The trial court conducted a pretrial Frye ² hearing to determine whether the defense could present evidence during the penalty phase pertaining to quantitative electroencephalography

(qEEG) testing. Both parties produced multiple scientific publications discussing the value of qEEG as a diagnostic tool for neurological and psychiatric conditions. Additionally, both parties presented testimony from psychologists, neurologists, and psychiatrists who debated the relative acceptance of qEEG in their respective fields for the purposes of diagnosing brain injuries. The trial court ruled that the qEEG evidence as used in diagnosing brain injuries or disorders did not satisfy the Frye standard of admissibility.

During trial, the State presented testimony from the emergency responders, crime scene investigators, detectives, and other witnesses who encountered Jackson between September 12 and 14, 2007. A woman who performed community service at First Baptist Church in Gibsonton testified that one morning in September, a man who was on foot approached her and asked for money. She directed him to another individual in the church, who was unable to help him, and he became very upset.

Additionally, the State presented surveillance footage from the Seffner Walmart from the night of September 12 until approximately 6:45 a.m., September 13. Jackson was observed at approximately 5:10 a.m. and again at 5:13 a.m. Further, an individual who matched Jackson's appearance was also visible at approximately 5:40 a.m.

Several forensic investigators also testified on behalf of the State. One detective testified that he observed a notch across the van's door handle, which he had previously seen in other Chrysler vehicles that had been stolen. Randy St. Clair...