King v. State, 52185
| Decision Date | 08 May 1980 |
| Docket Number | No. 52185,52185 |
| Citation | 390 So.2d 315 |
| Parties | Amos Lee KING, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee. |
| Court | Florida Supreme Court |
Jack O. Johnson, Public Defender, and W. C. McLain, Asst. Public Defender, Bartow, for appellant.
Jim Smith, Atty. Gen., and Richard G. Pippinger, Asst. Atty. Gen., Tampa, for appellee.
The appellant Amos Lee King was convicted by a jury of the first-degree murder of Natalie Brady and of the offenses of escape, involuntary sexual battery, robbery, arson, and attempted first-degree murder of James McDonough. After a jury recommendation of death for the first-degree murder conviction, the trial judge imposed the death sentence. We have jurisdiction. 1 We affirm the convictions and the imposition of the death sentence.
The relevant facts are as follows. On March 18, 1976, the appellant was an inmate at the Tarpon Springs Community Correctional Center, a work release facility serving a sentence for larceny of a firearm. On this date a routine bed check was made by James McDonough, a prison counselor, at about 3:40 a. m. The appellant King was absent from his room. The counselor began a search of the building grounds and found the appellant outside the building. Appellant was wearing light-colored pants which had the crotch portion covered with blood. The counselor directed King back to the office control room inside the building. When the counselor turned to get handcuffs, King attacked him with a knife. A struggle ensued, and the counselor received several cuts and stab wounds. King left the office, then returned and found the counselor talking to his superior on the phone. He stabbed the counselor again and cut the telephone cord.
At approximately 4:05 a. m., the police and fire personnel arrived at the scene of a fire at a house approximately 1500 feet from the correctional center. The police officers discovered the body of Natalie Brady. She had received two stab wounds, bruises over the chin, and burns on the leg. An autopsy revealed other injuries, which included bruises on the back of the head, hemorrhaging of the brain, hemorrhaging of the neck, and broken cartilage in the neck. There was a ragged tear of the vagina, apparently caused by the wooden bloodstained knitting needles which were found at the scene, as well as evidence of forcible intercourse. Appellant's blood type was found in Brady's vaginal washings. The medical examiner attributed Mrs. Brady's death to multiple causes and established the time of death as 3:00 a. m. Arson investigators concluded that the fire was intentionally set at approximately 3:00 to 3:30 a. m.
An indictment charging King with the first-degree murder of Natalie Brady, together with the arson and robbery of her house, was returned by the grand jury. The state attorney filed a direct information, charging King with escape and the attempted murder of McDonough. Although the information and indictment offenses were not consolidated, both were set for trial on July 5, 1977. Pretrial motions and orders were considered jointly, with one order being entered. On the date of trial, counsel for the defendant advised the court that he would not agree to a consolidation, and the court advised the state that it could proceed on either the indictment or the information offenses. The state initially elected to proceed on the information offenses but subsequently, on the basis of new authority under Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.151, moved to consolidate. The motion was granted.
The jury found King guilty of all offenses and recommended the imposition of the death penalty for the first-degree murder. The trial judge immediately imposed the death penalty and subsequently filed written findings of fact in support of that decision.
The appellant raises five challenges to the validity of his convictions.
Appellant's first argument is that the indictment offenses were improperly consolidated with the information offenses. Appellant contends that (1) no consolidation is proper without consent of the defendant, and (2) even if it is allowable, the request in this instance was so late as to be necessarily prejudicial.
Prior to July 1, 1977, the state was without authority to move for consolidation. On that date, an amendment to Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.151 was adopted. After amendment, the rule stated: "(b) Two or more indictments or informations charging related offenses shall be consolidated for trial on a timely motion by a defendant or by the state." (emphasis added.) The underlined amendment, allowing the state to request consolidation, was thus in effect at the time of the consolidation motion.
We find that the trial court was not in error in granting the consolidation motion. The record reflects that these two causes had been consistently treated as one during the course of pretrial proceedings and that counsel for appellant was prepared to try all offenses on the trial date. The state could not have moved to consolidate at an early stage of the case, as such a motion was not authorized until July 1. The consolidation caused no undue prejudice.
Further, the evidence of the attempted murder of the prison counselor and the appellant's escape from the prison complex would, in our view, be clearly admissible in the trial of the indictment offenses even if they had not been consolidated. Considering the manner in which these causes were treated prior to trial, the fact that counsel was fully prepared to try all offenses, and the fact that evidence for any of the offenses would have been admissible in whichever one was tried separately, we find that there was no prejudice to the appellant in this cause.
The appellant objected to the presence of television and still cameras at his trial and contends that (1) the presence of cameras in the courtroom is inherently prejudicial and (2) the presence of cameras produced negative effects in this case sufficient to warrant reversal. The contention that cameras in the courtroom are inherently prejudicial is without merit and has previously been expressly rejected by this Court. Clark v. State, 379 So.2d 97 (Fla.1979); In Re Petition of Post-Newsweek Stations, Florida, 370 So.2d 764 (Fla.1979). With reference to the second point, we find that King has failed to demonstrate any specific denial of due process resulting from the presence of cameras in the courtroom during his trial. General allegations of prejudice are insufficient. The record reflects that the trial court was alert to any possible disruption or prejudicial effect the cameras might have had during the course of the trial. In response to certain objections and conclusory statements made by appellant's counsel concerning the cameras, the trial court stated: "I will not hesitate to have them removed from the courtroom." In denying the objections made by counsel for the appellant, the trial court stated:
Mr. Rondolino, I have also been aware of their (cameras) presence. I have a much better view of their activities than you do. . . . I have also been aware of the jurors and from what I have been able to determine from the jurors their attentions have been devoted exclusively and entirely to the witnesses' testimony.
In our examination of this record, we find no demonstrated evidence of prejudice resulting from the presence of cameras during the course of the trial of this cause.
The appellant contends that a prospective juror was improperly excused for cause after the following colloquy:
(Emphasis added.)
We faced a similar issue in Witt v. State, 342 So.2d 497 (Fla.1977), in which we stated:
It is proper to exclude prospective jurors who "state that their reservations about capital punishment would prevent them from making an impartial decision as to the defendant's guilt . . . (or) who say they could never vote to impose the death penalty or that they would refuse even to consider its imposition in the case before them." Witherspoon v. Illinois, 391 U.S. 510, 513-14, 88 S.Ct. 1770, 1772, 20 L.Ed.2d 776, 780 (1968) (footnotes omitted).
See Portee v. State, 253 So.2d 866 (Fla.1971).
We find the venirewoman was...
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