LaMarca v. State

• Decision Date: 08 March 2001
• Docket Number: No. SC92610.,SC92610.
• Citation: 785 So.2d 1209
• Parties: Anthony LaMARCA, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

785 So.2d 1209

Anthony LaMARCA, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.

No. SC92610.

Supreme Court of Florida.

March 8, 2001.

Rehearing Denied May 18, 2001.

James Marion Moorman, Public Defender, and Paul C. Helm, Assistant Public Defender, Tenth Judicial Circuit, Bartow, FL, for Appellant.

Robert A. Butterworth, Attorney General, and Scott A. Browne, Assistant Attorney General, Tampa, FL, for Appellee.

PER CURIAM.

The State charged and the jury convicted Anthony LaMarca of the first-degree murder of Kevin Flynn. The jury recommended death by a vote of eleven to one and the trial judge sentenced him accordingly. We have jurisdiction. See art. V, § 3(b)(1), Fla. Const.

The State presented the following evidence. James Hughes testified that prior to the murder appellant told him he was going to kill the victim. Hughes asked why and appellant replied, "I'm gonna kill him."

On December 2, 1995, at approximately 4:30 p.m., the victim and Tonya Flynn, his wife, went to a neighborhood bar. Appellant, Tonya's father, was also at the bar and asked Tonya if he could borrow her car. The victim offered to drive appellant home and they left at approximately 7:45 p.m.

Appellant returned to the bar alone at approximately 8:30 and told Tonya that she had to drive to Hudson County to pick up the victim. After arriving at their destination, appellant raped Tonya in an otherwise unoccupied house. Tonya subsequently called the police, who began to look for appellant. Deputy Sean Kennedy testified that he saw appellant walking along a road, appellant dropped objects he was carrying, and he ran away. Detective Jeffrey Good arrived at appellant's trailer at 2:15 a.m. on December 3. Good looked through the bedroom window and saw the victim's body. He entered and saw bullet casings on the floor, blood in the living room, kitchen, and hall, and the body in the bedroom.

Stephanie Parker testified that on the night in question she heard a car drive up, she looked out her window, and she saw appellant and another man walking from the car to the front door of appellant's trailer. They appeared to be arguing because of their hand gestures. Parker stated that she then fell asleep and her father subsequently awakened her at the behest of the police.

Later that morning, appellant arrived at the home of Jeremy Smith, who testified that appellant said: "I did it. I killed him." Smith asked who he killed and appellant said "Kevin." Appellant said that he killed Kevin in a trailer, that it really "sucked," but that he had to do it.

Appellant testified in his defense and pursued the theory that Tonya killed her husband. He also denied making incriminating statements.

During the penalty phase, appellant waived his right to counsel and elected to represent himself with the appointed public defender acting as standby counsel. Appellant rested his case without testifying or presenting any mitigating evidence, although standby counsel proffered mitigating evidence she could have presented.

The trial court found one aggravating factor—prior convictions for violent felonies based on appellant's 1984 convictions for kidnapping and attempted sexual battery. The trial court found that appellant knowingly and voluntarily waived his right to present mitigating evidence. The court recognized that it had to give good faith consideration to any mitigation in the record and specifically considered the following factors: (1) insufficient evidence that appellant was subject to extreme mental or emotional disturbances; (2) appellant's age—forty—was not mitigating; (3) appellant was drinking and angry at his daughter on the day of the offense, but the circumstance was unestablished; (4) insufficient evidence of appellant's work record; (5) appellant was generally well-behaved at trial—very little weight; and (6) appellant suffered from drug and alcohol abuse and psychological problems—very little weight. The court ruled that the proffered evidence could not be considered in mitigation.

The first issue for our review is whether the trial court abused its discretion in admitting collateral crime evidence. The admissibility of such evidence is within the discretion of the trial court and its determination shall not be disturbed absent an abuse of that discretion. See Sexton v. State, 697 So.2d 833, 837 (Fla.1997)

. "Discretion ... is abused when the judicial action is arbitrary, fanciful, or unreasonable, which is another way of saying that discretion is abused only where no reasonable man would take the view adopted by the trial court." Huff v. State, 569 So.2d 1247, 1249 (Fla.1990).

The admissibility of evidence generally turns on relevance:

Our initial premise is the general canon of evidence that any fact relevant to prove a fact in issue is admissible into evidence unless its admissibility is precluded by some specific rule of exclusion. Viewing the problem at hand from this perspective, we begin by thinking in terms of a rule of admissibility as contrasted to a rule of exclusion.

Williams v. State, 110 So.2d 654, 658 (Fla. 1959). Evidence of other crimes or bad acts are admissible if relevant, i.e., if it is probative of a material issue other than the bad character of the accused. See Hunter v. State, 660 So.2d 244, 251 (Fla. 1995)

. In Hunter, this Court explained:

Among the purposes for which a collateral crime may be admitted is establishment of the entire context out of which the criminal action occurred. See also Ashley v. State, 265 So.2d 685, 693-94 (Fla.1972)

(holding that evidence of four other murders committed shortly after the murder for which defendant was tried was admissible). Inseparable crime evidence is admitted not under 90.404(2)(a) as similar fact evidence but under section 90.402 because it is relevant.

Id. at 251 (citations omitted). On the other hand, "[r]elevant evidence is inadmissible if its probative value is substantially outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice, confusion of issues, misleading the jury, or needless presentation of cumulative evidence." § 90.403, Fla. Stat. (1995). All of the evidence presented in a prosecution "prejudices" the defendant; thus, the pertinent question is whether that prejudice is so unfair that it should be deemed unlawful. See Wuornos v. State, 644 So.2d 1000, 1007 (Fla.1994)

.

In the present case, the trial court did not abuse its discretion in admitting two pieces of inextricably intertwined evidence: (1) testimony that appellant told the victim that he had done something to Tina LaMarca—appellant's stepdaughter—that caused her to cease living with him; and (2) testimony that appellant raped Tonya. The two pieces of evidence must be viewed together. The first piece of disputed testimony consisted of Tina affirming that there was an "incident" between appellant and herself and her testimony that what appellant "had done" to her prompted her to stop living with him. The appellant had allegedly raped Tina, although that was not expressly stated to the jury. Tina's testimony was relevant because it puts into context the victim's statement to appellant to keep away from Tonya. Absent the nexus to the "incident" between appellant and Tina, the jury would have been left wondering why the victim told appellant to stay away from Tonya. Thus, Tina's testimony was relevant to prove motive and premeditation, and was focused and limited.

The second part of the contested testimony was provided by Tonya, who stated that after appellant and the victim left the bar, appellant returned alone and told her that she had to meet the victim at appellant's relative's house. They drove there and found the house unoccupied, and appellant raped her. Afterwards, appellant asked Tonya to leave Florida with him and told her that her feelings for the victim would not last.

Evidence that appellant raped his daughter and did something to cause Tina to move out puts into context appellant's statements about his wanting Tonya to leave Florida with him and that her feelings for her husband (the victim) would not last. The testimony is therefore relevant to show appellant's motive in killing the victim—to have Tonya for himself. If the testimony as to the rape and Tina being forced to move out by appellant is omitted, you simply have a father asking his daughter to leave Florida and stating that her feelings for her husband would go away. Thus, absent the testimony of Tonya and Tina relative to appellant's actions, it would not be clear that the father desired his daughter in a way that would exclude his son-in-law and why the son-in-law wanted to separate appellant and Tonya and told appellant—just hours before appellant killed him—that he could not be near his daughter because he knew of the "incident" with Tina. Thus, appellant's incestuous desire for his daughter and the victim's demand that appellant stay away are relevant to prove appellant's motive to kill his son-in-law. The motive contradicts the defense strategy of attempting to prove that Tonya killed her husband and tends to prove appellant's premeditation. Thus, the trial court did not abuse its discretion in admitting the evidence.

The second issue for our consideration is whether the trial court abused its discretion in excluding defense evidence that might have shown that Tonya had a motive to commit the murder. We agree that the trial court abused its discretion. Evidence that the victim drank excessively, that Tonya wanted a divorce, and that she had sex with another man while she was briefly separated from the victim arguably tends to establish that she had a motive to kill the victim. See State v. Savino, 567 So.2d 892, 894 (Fla.1990)

. Moreover, the substance of the evidence did not seem likely to cause confusion or mislead the jury. The trial court, therefore, abused its discretion in excluding the evidence. See Guzman v. State, 644 So.2d 996, 1000 (Fla.1994) (explaining that courts "should be extremely cautious when denying defendan...