Jennings v. State
| Decision Date | 03 October 2013 |
| Docket Number | Nos. SC11–1016,SC11–1031.,s. SC11–1016 |
| Citation | 123 So.3d 1101 |
| Parties | Brandy Bain JENNINGS, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee. Brandy Bain Jennings, Petitioner, v. Michael D. Crews, etc., Respondent. |
| Court | Florida Supreme Court |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Paul Kalil, Assistant Capital Collateral Regional Counsel–South, and Elizabeth Stewart, Staff Attorney, Fort Lauderdale, FL, for Appellant/Petitioner.
Pamela Jo Bondi, Attorney General, Tallahassee, FL, and Carol M. Dittmar, Sernior Assistant Attorney General, Tampa, FL, For Appellee/Respondent.
Brandy Bain Jennings, who was twenty-six years old at the time of the crime, was convicted and sentenced to death for the November 1995 first-degree murders of Dorothy Siddle, Vicki Smith, and Jason Wiggins, all of which occurred during a robbery of the Cracker Barrel Restaurant in Naples. On direct appeal, we affirmed his convictions and sentences. See Jennings v. State, 718 So.2d 144 (Fla.1998). Jennings now appeals the denial of his motion for postconviction relief, filed pursuant to Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850,1 and simultaneously petitions this Court for a writ of habeas corpus. We have jurisdiction. Seeart. V, § 3(b)(1), (9), Fla. Const. For the reasons expressed herein, we affirm the postconviction court's denial of relief and deny Jennings' petition for a writ of habeas corpus.
This Court summarized the pertinent facts underlying this crime on direct appeal as follows:
Dorothy Siddle, Vicki Smith, and Jason Wiggins, all of whom worked at the Cracker Barrel Restaurant in Naples, were killed during an early morning robbery of the restaurant on November 15, 1995. Upon arriving on the scene, police found the bodies of all three victims lying in pools of blood on the freezer floor with their throats slashed. Victim Siddle's hands were bound behind her back with electrical tape; Smith and Wiggins both had electrical tape around their respective left wrists, but the tape appeared to have come loose from their right wrists.
Police also found bloody shoe prints leading from the freezer, through the kitchen, and into the office, blood spots in and around the kitchen sink, and an opened office safe surrounded by plastic containers and cash. Outside, leading away from the back of the restaurant, police found scattered bills and coins, shoe tracks, a Buck knife, a Buck knife case, a pair of blood-stained gloves, and a Daisy air pistol.
Jennings (age twenty-six) and Jason Graves (age eighteen), both of whom had previously worked at the Cracker Barrel and knew the victims, were apprehended and jailed approximately three weeks later in Las Vegas, Nevada, where Jennings ultimately made lengthy statements to Florida law enforcement personnel. In a taped interview, Jennings blamed the murders on Graves, but admitted his (Jennings') involvement in planning and, after several aborted attempts, actually perpetrating the robbery with Graves. Jennings acknowledged wearing gloves during the robbery and using his Buck knife in taping the victims' hands, but claimed that, after doing so, he must have set the Buck knife down somewhere and did not remember seeing it again. Jennings further stated that he saw the dead bodies in the freezer and that his foot slipped in some blood, but that he did not remember falling, getting blood on his clothes or hands, or washing his hands in the kitchen sink. Jennings also stated that the Daisy air pistol belonged to Graves, and directed police to a canal where he and Graves had thrown other evidence of the crime.
In an untaped interview the next day, during which he was confronted with inconsistencies in his story and the evidence against him, Jennings stated,
At trial, the taped interview was played for the jury, and one of the officers testified regarding Jennings' untaped statements made the next day. The items ultimately recovered from the canal were also entered into evidence.
The medical examiner, who performed autopsies on the victims, testified that they died from “sharp force injuries” to the neck caused by “a sharp-bladed instrument with a very strong blade,” like the Buck knife found at the crime scene. A forensic serologist testified that traces of blood were found on the Buck knife, the Buck knife case, the area around the sink, and one of the gloves recovered from the crime scene, but in an amount insufficient for further analysis. An impressions expert testified that Jennings' tennis shoes recovered from the canal matched the bloody shoe prints inside the restaurant as well as some of the shoe prints from the outside tracks leading away from the restaurant.
The State also presented testimony concerning previous statements made by Jennings regarding robbery and witness elimination in general. Specifically, Angela Chainey, who had been a friend of Jennings', testified that about two years before the crimes Jennings said that if he ever needed any money he could always rob someplace or somebody. Chainey further testified that when she responded, Jennings replied, while making a motion across his throat, “Not if you don't leave any witnesses.” On cross-examination, Chainey further testified that Jennings had “made statements similar to that several times.”
The State also presented testimony concerning previous statements made by Jennings regarding his dislike of victim Siddle. Specifically, Bob Evans, one of the managers at Cracker Barrel, testified that Jennings perceived Siddle to be holding him back at work and that, just after Jennings quit, he said about Siddle, Donna Howell, who also worked at Cracker Barrel, similarly testified that she was aware of Jennings' animosity and dislike of Siddle, and that Jennings had once said about Siddle,
The jury found Jennings guilty as charged. In the penalty phase, the defense presented mitigation evidence, including general character testimony from witness Mary Hamler, who testified on direct examination that she had lived with Jennings for two and one-half years. She also testified that Jennings had gotten along well with her children during that time, and that he cried when they (Jennings and Hamler) broke up.
On cross-examination, the State elicited testimony from Hamler that there was another side to Jennings' character and that Jennings once said that if he ever committed a robbery, he would not be stupid enough to stick around, but would go north. Hamler further testified on cross-examination that Jennings was angry at Cracker Barrel in general, and Siddle in particular, for “jerking him around” and holding him back at work, and that in this regard Jennings once said of Siddle that “one day she would get hers.”
The defense presented further character evidence from several of Jennings' friends that he was good with children, got along with everybody, and was basically a nonviolent, big-brother type who was happy-go-lucky, fun-loving, playful, laid back, and likeable. Jennings' mother testified that her son never met his father and that she raised Jennings herself. She claimed that Jennings had been a straight-A student, but quit school to take care of her when she became sick.
The jury recommended death by a vote of ten to two as to each of the murders. In its sentencing order, the trial court found three aggravators: (1) that the murders were committed during a robbery; (2) that they were committed to avoid arrest; and (3) that they were cold, calculated, and premeditated (CCP).
The trial court found only one statutory mitigator: that Jennings had no significant history of prior criminal activity (some weight). The trial court explicitly found that two urged statutory mitigators did not exist: that Jennings was an accomplice in a capital felony committed by another and that his participation was relatively minor; and that Jennings acted under extreme duress or under the substantial domination of another person. The trial court also found eight nonstatutory mitigators: (1) that Jennings had a deprived childhood (some weight); (2) that accomplice Graves was not sentenced to death (some weight); (3) that Jennings cooperated with police (substantial weight); (4) that he had a good employment history (little weight); (5) that he had a loving relationship with his mother (little weight); (6) that he had positive personality traits enabling the formation of strong, caring relationships (some weight); (7) that he had the capacity to care for and be mutually loved by children (some weight); and (8) that he exhibited exemplary courtroom behavior (little weight).
After evaluating the aggravators and mitigators, the trial court sentenced Jennings to death for each murder. The trial court also sentenced Jennings to fifteen years' imprisonment for the robbery.
Jennings, 718 So.2d at 145–47 (footnotes omitted). This Court affirmed Jennings' convictions and sentences. Id. at 155.2 Jennings filed a petition for writ of certiorari with the United States Supreme Court, which was denied. See Jennings v. Florida, 527 U.S. 1042, 119 S.Ct. 2407, 144 L.Ed.2d 805 (1999).
In March 2000, Jennings filed an initial motion for postconviction relief. He filed an amended motion in June 2000 and a second amended motion in August 2009, in which he raised twenty-five claims.3 Followinga Huff4 hearing, the postconviction court granted an evidentiary hearing on five of Jennings' claims: (1) trial counsel's alleged failure to adequately impeach State witness Angela Cheney (a portion of claim 1 in Jennings' second amended postconviction motion); (2) trial counsel was ineffective concerning the lack of a mental health evaluation (claim 3); (3) trial counsel failed to investigate...
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