Mansfield v. Secretary, Dept. of Corrections
| Decision Date | 26 February 2009 |
| Docket Number | Case No. 6:05-cv-1466-Orl-31KRS. |
| Citation | 601 F.Supp.2d 1267 |
| Parties | Scott MANSFIELD, Petitioner, v. SECRETARY, DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS, et al., Respondents. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Middle District of Florida |
James L. Driscoll, Jr., Capital Collateral Regional Counsel, Tampa, FL, for Petitioner.
Stephen D. Ake, Office of the Attorney General, Tampa, FL, for Respondents.
At approximately 3:00 a.m. on October 15, 1995, Sara Robles was brutally murdered in a vacant lot adjacent to a Winn-Dixie store in Kissimmee, Florida. Her body was discovered that morning, and the Kissimmee Police Department began an investigation. A pager was found at the scene and traced to Petitioner, Scott Mansfield. It was also determined that Mansfield and another man, William Finneran, were the last people to be seen with the victim before her death.
About 9:30 p.m. that same day, several detectives from the Kissimmee Police Department went to Mansfield's house and took him to the Kissimmee police station where he was interrogated over the course of two and one-half hours without any Miranda warnings. Shortly after midnight, he was arrested and charged with the murder of Sara Robles.
Mansfield's jury trial was held two years later. Over Mansfield's objection, the trial judge permitted the State to play a two-and-one-half-hour video of Mansfield's interrogation to the jury. On November 10, 1997, after approximately five and one-half hours of deliberation, the jury returned its verdict: guilty of murder in the first degree. Following the penalty phase, the jury returned a 12-0 recommendation for imposition of the death penalty. The trial court sentenced Mansfield to death on January 30, 1998.
Having exhausted his direct appeals and State collateral review over the past ten years, Petitioner now seeks a federal writ of habeas corpus. The Court has jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2241.
The facts, as set forth by the Florida Supreme Court, are as follows:
On the morning of October 15, 1995, the body of Sara Robles was found lying in a grassy area next to a Winn-Dixie grocery store in Kissimmee, Florida. Robles was lying on her back with her legs and arms outstretched. Her shirt and skirt were pushed up partially revealing her breasts and pelvic area which were mutilated.
Examination revealed that Robles' nipples had been excised, as well as portions of her labia minor, majora and clitoris.
The police recovered from the scene a Winn-Dixie bag with a receipt inside, and another receipt reflecting the purchase of some groceries which were found scattered near Robles' body, [nl] Robles was found wearing a watch, apparently broken during the murder, which was cracked and stalled at 3 a.m. Additionally, among the items recovered strewn around her body were food stamps and a pager.
[n1] Juanita Roberson, a Winn-Dixie night clerk working the early morning hours of October 15, testified that Robles, accompanied by Mansfield, made the purchases reflected in the receipts recovered by the police at the scene.
The ensuing investigation revealed that the receipts found near Robles' body reflected purchases made roughly at 2:35 and 2:36 a.m. [n2] The police then questioned Jesus Alfonso, a friend of Robles, who visited with Robles the previous evening. Alfonso told police that he and Robles went to Rosie's Pub, located in the same shopping plaza as the Winn-Dixie. Alfonso left the bar at 1:30 a.m., but Robles remained at the bar playing pool with a male whose description matched Mansfield's.
[n2] The receipts found at the crime scene indicated that the documented purchases were made at 1:35 and 1:36 a.m. However, when the police took the receipts to the Winn-Dixie and had the assistant manager run some receipts to check the accuracy of the time reflected therein it was discovered that the registers were approximately an hour behind.
Karen Hill, a bartender at Rosie's Pub, was then interviewed and indicated that Robles was at the bar the previous evening in the company of Mansfield. According to Hill, Mansfield, Robles, and a third individual by the name of William Finneran exited the bar together shortly after 2 a.m.
After speaking with other witnesses confirming that Robles was in the company of Mansfield and Finneran during the early morning hours of October 15, the police questioned Finneran who indicated that he had exited the bar with Mansfield and Robles shortly after 2 a.m. and that he last saw them around 3 a.m. at Winn-Dixie.
The police, after learning that the pager found at the murder scene was traced to Mansfield, focused their investigation on him. Additionally, the police interviewed Juanita Roberson, a Winn-Dixie night clerk, who indicated that Robles purchased the items reflected in the recovered receipts with a man whose description matched Mansfield's and that Robles was in the company of that same man outside the Winn-Dixie when Roberson took her break at approximately 3 a.m. the night of the murder. With this information in hand, three detectives went to Mansfield's residence the night following the murder to question him. Mansfield agreed to be interviewed by the detectives at the police station.
Prior to being transported to the station, the detectives noticed that Mansfield had fresh scratches on his knees and hands. Once at the station, he avoided and inconsistently answered many of the questions posed to him during the roughly two-and-a-half hour videotaped session. Specifically, Mansfield admitted to being at Rosie's Pub with Robles, but initially insisted that he had gone directly home after leaving the bar. Following further questioning, he begrudgingly admitted going to Winn-Dixie after leaving Rosie's Pub.
Shortly before the interrogation ended, the police received further evidence placing Mansfield at the scene of the crime. Juanita Roberson, the Winn-Dixie night clerk, identified Mansfield in a photograph lineup at the police station as the man she saw with Robles outside the Winn-Dixie the previous evening at approximately 3 a.m. The detectives directed Mansfield to lift his shirt at which time they observed a bruise on his chest. The police then arrested Mansfield and took into evidence a ring he was wearing with a distinctive "grim reaper" design.
The following day, Mansfield's brother, Charles, called the police and asked them to come down to his apartment to gather some items found in Mansfield's room. Once there, the police recovered food stamps, a knife and sheath, clothing, and a towel. [n3]
[n3] During its case in chief, the State's senior crime lab analyst, David Baer, testified as to the results of DNA and blood testing done on the items recovered from Mansfield's room. His testimony established that some of the items had blood that was consistent with Mansfield's. The tests conducted on the items recovered from Mansfield's room, however, did not reveal the presence of Robles' blood.
While at the apartment the police also questioned Mansfield's 10-year-old niece, Melissa [Johnson], who told them that Mansfield arrived home on the morning of October 15 at about 4:30. Melissa told police that Mansfield came to the door soaking wet, wearing shorts but no shirt, and carrying his shoes. Melissa told police she gave Mansfield a towel at his request, and that she noticed what appeared to be a small blood stain on his shorts. [n4]
[n4] During Mansfield's interrogation with police the previous evening, Mansfield told police that he had taken a swim in the pool in the early morning hours of October 15 before entering the apartment and that his niece saw him enter the apartment afterwards.
The State introduced several other witnesses at trial who placed Mansfield with Robles at or near the crime scene at approximately the time the murder was presumed to have occurred. The State's medical examiner, Dr. Julie Martin, testified as to the existence of a pattern injury on the neck of Robles consistent with the pattern found on the "grim reaper" ring removed from Mansfield following his arrest.
Dr. Martin testified that Robles died of asphyxia due to airway compression as a result of blunt force trauma to the neck. Specifically, Dr. Martin opined that the murderer, while straddling Robles, strangled her with one hand, using the other hand or an object (the ring) to press down on her lower neck, causing her trachea to collapse. She further testified as to the existence of extensive bruising about Robles' eye, neck and collarbone. Dr. Martin concluded that Robles was conscious and struggling to breathe for "more than a few minutes" before becoming unconscious. According to Dr. Martin, Robles was alive but most likely unconscious when parts of her genitalia were excised by a sharp object consistent with the knife recovered from Mansfield's room.
The State also introduced the testimony of convicted felon Michael Derrick Johns who recounted a jailhouse conversation with Mansfield in which Mansfield confessed to Robles' murder. The defense did not present any evidence.
The jury, after being instructed on both first-degree premeditated murder and first-degree felony murder, found Mansfield guilty of first-degree murder. The jury unanimously recommended the death penalty. The trial court followed the recommendation and sentenced Mansfield to death.
In support of the death sentence, the trial judge found two aggravating circumstances: (1) the crime was especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel; and (2) the crime was committed during the commission of or an attempt to commit a sexual battery. The court found no statutory mitigation and five nonstatutory mitigators and found the following three mitigators were entitled to...
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Mansfield v. Sec'y, Dep't of Corr.
...in violation of Miranda was not harmless), and denying relief on Mansfield's remaining fourteen claims. Mansfield v. Sec'y, Dep't of Corr., 601 F.Supp.2d 1267 (M.D.Fla.2009). The State timely appealed the district court's order granting habeas relief on Claim One. There is no dispute at thi......