Johnson v. State

• Decision Date: 09 April 2014
• Docket Number: SC12–2464.,Nos. SC12–1204,s. SC12–1204
• Parties: Richard Allen JOHNSON, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee. Richard Allen Johnson, Petitioner, v. Michael D. Crews, etc., Respondent.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

135 So.3d 1002

Richard Allen JOHNSON, Appellant,

v.STATE of Florida, Appellee.

Richard Allen Johnson, Petitioner,

v.Michael D. Crews, etc., Respondent.

Nos. SC12–1204, SC12–2464.

Supreme Court of Florida.

Jan. 9, 2014.

Rehearing Denied April 9, 2014.

Craig J. Trocino, Special Assistant, and Scott Gavin, Staff Attorney, CCRC–South, Fort Lauderdale, FL, for Appellant/Petitioner.

Pamela Jo Bondi, Attorney General, Tallahassee, FL; Lisa–Marie Lerner, Assistant Assistant Attorney General, West Palm Beach, FL, for Appellee/Respondent.

PER CURIAM.

Richard Allen Johnson, who was twenty-three years old at the time of the crime, was convicted of the first-degree murder, kidnapping, and sexual battery with great force of Tammy Hagin. This Court affirmed his convictions and sentence of death on direct appeal. Johnson v. State, 969 So.2d 938, 962 (Fla.2007). Johnson now appeals the denial of his initial motion for postconviction relief filed pursuant to Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.851 and petitions this Court for a writ of habeas corpus. We have jurisdiction. Seeart. V, § 3(b)(1), (9), Fla. Const. For the reasons that follow, we affirm the postconviction court's denial of relief and deny Johnson's petition for a writ of habeas corpus.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

On direct appeal, this Court summarized the facts underlying this crime as follows:

The victim in this case is Tammy Hagin. Johnson met Hagin on the evening of February 14, 2001, at a nightclub in Port St. Lucie. After Johnson and Hagin spent several hours together at the club, she accompanied Johnson to a residence he was sharing with others, including Johnson's roommate, John Vitale. Hagin and Johnson had several drinks at the club and left with a bottle of rum Johnson purchased. Hagin's brother and a friend, who were also at the club, followed in another car. Hagin and Johnson began drinking from the bottle on the drive to Johnson's residence. At the house, Johnson and his guests had mixed drinks and played pool for several hours. Hagin's brother and friend left after Johnson assured them he would get Hagin home. In the early morning hours of February 15, Vitale agreed to drive Hagin home to Vero Beach. Johnson, who did not have a driver's license, also went along. Hagin was ambivalent about returning home. The threesome went to Savannas State Preserve, a park where Johnson and Hagin had consensual sex while Vitale waited a short distance away. Afterward, Hagin remained uncertain whether she wanted to go home, so Vitale returned to the house in Port St. Lucie.

There an argument ensued. A neighbor, Catherine Shipp, heard a woman screaming. When Shipp opened her front door a few minutes later, she heard the woman say, “I want to go home. Just let me go.” Shipp saw Johnson and Vitale outside the car, holding the car doors to prevent Hagin from exiting. According to Shipp, Hagin ultimately got out of the car. Johnson grabbed her from behind, picked her up, and took her inside the house. The woman kicked her feet, grabbed the door frame, and yelled, “I don't want to go in and clean up.”

The commotion involving Hagin awoke other residents in the house where Johnson and Vitale were living. Thomas Beakley shared a bedroom with his girlfriend, Stacy Denigris, next to the bedroom Johnson shared with Vitale. Beakley heard a woman scream and then cry, and awoke Denigris, who left the room to check on the noise. Awakened by Beakley, Denigris heard a girl cry and say that she wanted to go home. Denigris opened the bedroom door to see a woman with brown hair holding onto the door frame of Johnson's bedroom. Johnson grabbed the woman from behind and yanked her into the bedroom. Denigris then saw Vitale in the garage, where the pool table and seating area were located, spoke to him there for a few minutes, and returned to bed.

Vitale, who had agreed to plead guilty to accessory to murder for a twenty-two-year sentencing cap, testified for the State. He stated that Hagin was loudly demanding to go to the bathroom and be taken home at the point when Johnson pulled her into his bedroom on the morning of February 15. The house then became quiet, and Vitale lay on the couch. Johnson eventually emerged from the bedroom and went into the bathroom. Vitale looked into the bedroom and saw that Hagin appeared to be sleeping. Johnson came out of the bathroom, found Vitale in the garage, and told him that Hagin was “gone.” Asked what he meant, Johnson said he had broken her neck. Vitale testified that Johnson eventually told him that it takes longer to break someone's neck than he thought, and—over defense objection—that Hagin said as she was being strangled that she wanted to see her children.

Acting together, Johnson and Vitale wrapped Hagin's body in a deflated air mattress and placed it in the trunk of Vitale's car. The two men attempted to enlist the help of Johnson's friend, Shane Bien, in disposing of the body at sea. Bien allowed Johnson to call boat rental businesses and gave Johnson a fishing pole so it would appear they were fishing as they disposed of the body. According to Bien, Johnson said he'd killed a woman who was “the most annoying person he had ever met” and who “had tried to stab him with an object.” Johnson showed Bien the outline of a body wrapped in an air mattress in the trunk of Vitale's car.

Using money from Hagin's purse, Johnson and Vitale purchased a large cooler, [three] concrete blocks, a chain, and a padlock. They returned to the Savannas State Preserve, where they [rented a canoe and] submerged the body in several feet of water [attached to three concrete blocks, a chain, and a padlock. Records at the state park reflected that Vitale had rented a canoe the day of the murder.¹] A fisherman discovered the body three days later.

[Vitale and Johnson moved into a different residence the day of the murder; the move had been prearranged. The person with whom they moved in testified that Vitale and Johnson had a large cooler when they moved into the house. She also witnessed them washing Vitale's vehicle, bleaching the floor mats, and tearing out a cushion on the back seat.]

Medical examiner Charles Diggs testified that Hagin died of strangulation in which the killer used both a ligature and a bare hand. Diggs testified that a strangulation victim starts to lose consciousness within fifteen to thirty seconds and that death occurs within three to four minutes. Hagin also had a superficial premortem cut on her scalp that was consistent with a knife wound, and bruises on her forehead and chin. There was also a postmortem laceration of her perineum, including the uterus, bladder, and vulva. Diggs could not rule out marine life as the cause of the damage to the perineum, although he said that marine animals will usually attack more than one area of the body. No semen was discovered in what remained of Hagin's vagina or uterus. Her blood alcohol level was .186, of which .04 to .06 could have been the result of decomposition.

Johnson and Vitale were both arrested within days of the discovery of Hagin'sbody. Vitale, questioned first, incriminated Johnson. Confronted with Vitale's statement, Johnson stated that he was drunk and lost his mind when Hagin was killed. He then said that he and Hagin were having sex and she was not fighting him, but “I put my hand on her neck and she died.” Asked when he realized she was dead, he stated, “When we stopped having sex, when I got up and I said get up, and she didn't get up.” Johnson adamantly denied mutilating Hagin's body.

Testifying in his own behalf at trial, Johnson stated that Vitale, who acknowledged at trial that he is gay and admitted being in love with Johnson, argued with Hagin throughout the evening and morning of February 14–15. When Johnson, Hagin, and Vitale ultimately returned to the house after their trip to the Savannas park, all three were arguing. Johnson grabbed her to calm her down and pulled her into the room to keep from disturbing others sleeping in the house. He said that he and Hagin then had consensual sex and he passed out for about an hour, discovering she was dead only when he awoke. Johnson said that in his statement to police, he meant that he had placed his hand in the area of her neck during sex, but did not choke or kill her. He explained that when he said he lost control, he meant that he lost control of the alcohol, stating, “I couldn't control how I was spinning, how I was standing.” He also stated that he meant that he discovered she was dead after he had passed out, not immediately after sex.

Johnson further testified that after learning Hagin was dead, he found and told Vitale. Johnson testified that Vitale responded by saying “you killed her,” and discouraged him from calling the police. Johnson believed that he had killed Hagin until he read Vitale's statement, particularly Vitale's assertion that Johnson stated he broke Hagin's neck, which Johnson stated was false. Johnson testified that he eventually came to believe that Vitale had killed Hagin.

Johnson, 969 So.2d at 943–45.

The jury found Johnson guilty of first-degree murder and indicated in an interrogatory verdict that its finding was based on both premeditated and felony murder theories. Id. at 945. The jury also found Johnson guilty of kidnapping, sexual battery with great force, and theft of less than $300. Id.

After the penalty phase, the jury recommended death by a vote of eleven to one. Id. The trial court followed the jury's recommendation and imposed a sentence of death. Id. at 945–46. The trial court found three aggravators: (1) that the murder was committed while Johnson was on community control (moderate weight); (2) that the murder was committed during the commission of a sexual battery or kidnapping or both (great weight); and (3) that the murder was especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel (HAC) (great weight). Id. at 945.

The trial court found the statutory mitigator of no significant history...