Malone v. State
| Decision Date | 25 September 1980 |
| Docket Number | Nos. 54024,54025,s. 54024 |
| Citation | 390 So.2d 338 |
| Parties | Charles Willis MALONE, Jr., Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee. |
| Court | Florida Supreme Court |
Jack O. Johnson, Public Defender, and Wayne Chalu and Samuel Robert Mandelbaum, Asst. Public Defenders, Tampa, for appellant.
Jim Smith, Atty. Gen., and C. Marie King, Asst. Atty. Gen., Tampa, for appellee.
Charles Willis Malone, Jr. appeals his convictions for the first-degree murders of Manuel Tanner and Jessee Woodward and his sentences of death. He also appeals his conviction and sentence for robbery. We reverse.
On July 14, 1977, Jessee Woodward appeared at the residence in St. Petersburg, Florida, where Malone and his friend and co-perpetrator, Freddie Lee Morris, were staying. Three days earlier, Malone and Morris had attempted to commit a robbery and kidnapping. They suspected that Woodward was a detective investigating those crimes, but, in fact, he was not. At gunpoint, they searched Woodward and took two dollars and a wallet from him. Then, using Woodward's automobile, they forced him to accompany them on a forty-mile trip to a remote, deserted location on the outskirts of Tampa. During this trip, Woodward pleaded for his life. When they arrived, Malone took Woodward away from the automobile into a marshy, wooded area and shot him twice in the back of his head. Then, after visiting some friends in Tampa, Malone and Morris drove around in Woodward's automobile looking for a place to rob. They finally selected a Tampa service station and, at gunpoint, robbed the attendant, Manuel Tanner, taking fifty to sixty dollars and two hundred to three hundred packs of cigarettes. During the robbery, Malone beat Tanner to death with a blunt, pipe-like instrument. As a result of being struck on the head approximately ten times, Tanner sustained severe skull fractures, numerous fractures on the right side of his scalp and on the base of his skull, and ten lacerations on his scalp. The police later found Woodward's car parked in an apartment area in Tampa. From several items of physical evidence found in the automobile, including Malone's fingerprints, the police were able to connect Malone with Woodward's automobile and with the service station robbery.
Malone was convicted for the premeditated, first-degree murders of Jessee Woodward and Manuel Tanner and the robbery of the service station. The jury recommended death sentences. The trial court sentenced Malone to death for each of the murders and to life imprisonment for the robbery.
Malone argues that his convictions should be reversed and the cause remanded for a new trial because the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress certain incriminating statements made by him to one of his cellmates who, unknown to Malone, was an informer for the State. He concedes that these statements were not coerced and were voluntary, but argues that they may not be used against him because they were deliberately elicited by a State agent in the absence of his counsel and without his being informed of his Miranda rights by the informant.
The informer, who was also a prisoner, first met Malone in the Pinellas County jail in September, 1977. Two and one-half weeks after meeting Malone, the informer met Detective Hazzard who asked him to assist in finding the body of Jessee Woodward by just listening to whatever Malone said about the case and reporting anything he heard about where the body was located. The informer testified that he did not ask Malone where the body was or in any way interrogate him, but he did suggest a plan to the police by which he might be able to obtain information from Malone as to where Woodward's body was hidden. The plan was to have the informer transferred to another county jail and then to have him come back and visit Malone in civilian clothes. Prior to being transferred, the informer went back to his cell and told Malone that he was being released and assured Malone that he knew a black female attorney whom he would try to retain for Malone. Under the misimpression that the informer would be able to assist him on the outside, Malone then told the informer that he had killed Woodward, that there were several things he wanted the informer to do for him, and that he would tell the informer about them when he returned on visitation day. Some time later, dressed in civilian clothes, the informer returned to the jail, as requested by Malone. Anxious to ensure that he would not be linked with Woodward's body, Malone gave the informer directions to where the body was located and instructed the informer to dispose of the remains. From the directions given by Malone, the police were unable to find the body. Pursuant to police directions, the informer returned to the jail and told Malone that he was unable to locate the body from the previous directions. Malone then gave more detailed directions, but the police were still unable to find the body. The...
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Smith v. State
...active efforts of law enforcement or whether it came to them passively." Id. at 291 (emphasis supplied). For example, in Malone v. State, 390 So.2d 338, 339 (Fla.1980), an inmate and a detective established a plan whereby the inmate would be transferred to another jail. The inmate would the......
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Rolling v. State
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