McDuffie v. State

• Decision Date: 21 November 2007
• Docket Number: No. SC05-587.,SC05-587.
• Citation: 970 So.2d 312
• Parties: Roy Lee McDUFFIE, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

970 So.2d 312

Roy Lee McDUFFIE, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.

No. SC05-587.

Supreme Court of Florida.

November 21, 2007.

Todd G. Scher, Miami Beach, FL, for Appellant.

Bill McCollum, Attorney General, Tallahassee, FL, and Barbara C. Davis, Assistant Attorney General, Daytona Beach, FL, for Appellee.

PER CURIAM.

Roy Lee McDuffie appeals his convictions of first-degree murder of Dawniell Beauregard and Janice Schneider, robbery with a firearm, and false imprisonment while armed and his sentences of death for the murders. We have mandatory jurisdiction. See art. V, § 3(b)(1), Fla. Const. We conclude that errors occurred during the course of the trial which, when viewed cumulatively, are not harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. Therefore, we reverse McDuffie's convictions, vacate his sentences, and remand for a new trial. Because we conclude that reversible error occurred in the guilt phase of the trial, we do not discuss the penalty phase issues.

FACTS

This case involves the October 25, 2002, murders of Dawniell Beauregard and Janice Schneider, two employees of the Dollar General store on Deltona Boulevard in Volusia County. Several hours after 8 p.m., the normal closing time for the store, Beauregard and Schneider were found shot to death in the back office of the store after a family member reported Schneider missing. The exact time that Beauregard and Schneider were shot is unknown, but popping sounds were heard from the vicinity of the Dollar General around 9:10 p.m. Both victims died from close contact gunshots to the head, although each had cutting wounds on their necks. Additionally, Schneider had a gunshot wound to her abdomen. Beauregard, whose mouth was taped, was bound with duct tape on her hands and feet. It appeared that Schneider, who was not bound with tape, had been able to cut the duct tape on Beauregard's feet before being killed. The store was found with the lights on and the doors locked. Cash from that day in the amount of $4,946.17, along with checks in the amount of $1,467.76, were missing. The money, checks and bank bag were never recovered. The murder weapon was also never found.

Roy McDuffie was eventually charged with the murders but the only physical evidence linking him to the crimes was a partial palm print on duct tape taken from Beauregard's wrists. McDuffie, who was an employee of Dollar General at the time, testified at trial that he had used the tape earlier that day to assist a customer who needed some boxes assembled. Other circumstantial evidence and an eyewitness identification linked McDuffie to the scene close in time to when the murders probably occurred. The eyewitness identification, although admissible, was subject to challenge.

We discuss the evidence in detail because, although there was competent, substantial evidence to support the jury's verdict, the State has not demonstrated that the errors that occurred were harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. The evidence at trial revealed that McDuffie, a local youth-league football coach, had been hired as an assistant manager trainee for Dollar General earlier that week and had been training at the Deltona store. Because his second car had been repossessed, he and his wife, Troy, were carpooling. McDuffie took his wife to her nursing assistant job Friday, October 25, and then went to The Coca-Cola Company offices where he filled out papers for a new job he had just accepted—a fact he had shared with his immediate supervisor, Linda Torres, but no one else. He planned to work just one week at Dollar General and then take the Coca-Cola job on the following Monday.

McDuffie attended a Dollar General meeting at another location for most of the afternoon, then picked up his wife from her job at about 5:15 p.m. and drove to the Deltona Dollar General. Troy McDuffie stayed in the store for a while and then went next door to the Winn-Dixie to buy a money order. As closing time approached, she left the store and sat in the car to wait for McDuffie where she reclined in the seat and rested.

Employee Carol Hopkins was working the cash register at the front of the store while McDuffie, Schneider, and Beauregard did the closing procedures. This involved cleaning up the store, counting the cash in the cash register drawers and cash that had been placed in the safe during the day, and preparing the bank deposit bag into which the day's cash and checks would be placed. This nightly closing procedure usually took thirty to forty-five minutes to complete.

After locking up the store at 8 p.m., Beauregard and McDuffie stayed mainly in the back office counting out the cash register drawers and filling out the paperwork for the bank deposit. A tear off tag from the bank deposit bag—something that is one of the last things done during closing—bore both Beauregard's and McDuffie's signatures, indicating McDuffie was still in the store at that point in the process. Beauregard had banded the money, sealed and pulled off the tab from the bank deposit bag, and locked the bag in the safe. They then left the office, locked the office door, and went to the front of the store to do a final register reading.

Store policy required that there always be two people in the office with the cash, and that if three or fewer employees close the store, they must always leave together. Because there were four employees in the store that evening, and cashier Carol Hopkins' register had been counted, she clocked out at 8:34 p.m. and asked if she could leave for the day. As she was leaving the Dollar General, she saw two men sitting on a bench outside the store, which she thought was suspicious. She later gave law enforcement investigators descriptions of the men and composite drawings were created based on her descriptions.

Olivia Sousa was working that night at her restaurant in the Deltona Plaza where the Dollar General is located. Around 9:30 p.m., she walked to the Winn-Dixie and on her way back to the restaurant, she saw a black man inside the Dollar General walking toward the back of the store. She did not see his face but he was wearing a black shirt and tan pants, which was the Dollar General uniform. Earlier in the week she had noticed a black man, who was a new employee, working in the store. McDuffie was the only black employee working at the Deltona store that week. Ms. Sousa could not say the man she saw on October 25 was that same man, but he appeared to have a similar build.

At approximately 9:27 p.m., Alex Matias was standing next to his truck in the parking lot in the vicinity of the Dollar General and the Winn-Dixie talking on his cell phone. He noticed the Dollar General store lights were still on. This was unusual because the store closes at 8 p.m. and the lights are usually off by 8:45 p.m., a fact known to him because he used to work at the Dollar General. Matias testified that he saw a black male unlock the Dollar General door from the inside, open it, relock it, go to a dark-colored car in the parking lot, and open the car's back door. The man then shut the car door, returned to the store, unlocked the door, entered, and relocked it. Each locking and unlocking procedure required a separate key. This same process happened a second time. Matias did not see anyone in the car and did not see the man carrying anything to the car.

Matias was a friend of Dawniell Beauregard's sister, Crystal, and spoke with her the day after the murders. At her urging, he called the Sheriff's office and met with investigators to report what he had seen. Matias met with police and gave a composite description of a black male, between six feet and six feet three inches tall, mid-twenties to late-thirties, heavy build, darker than normal complexion, clean shaven, hair short on top with shaved sides, wearing a knit, collared, dark shirt over a white undershirt, and dark-colored long pants. The man was about fifty feet away, but looked right at Matias. In contrast, although McDuffie was in his late thirties, he was five feet seven inches tall, wearing a dark shirt and tan pants while working in the store that night.

When McDuffie was arrested on December 17, 2002, Matias saw his picture on television and believed McDuffie was the man he saw that night at the Dollar General. However, it was not until April 2003 that he told a Sheriff's investigator that he thought the man he saw on television was the same man he saw October 25, 2002, at the Dollar General. Based on information given to him by the investigator, Matias wrote a letter requesting the $10,000 reward offered by Dollar General. Matias agreed that it was likely that if he did not come to court and identify McDuffie, he would not get the reward. He did receive the reward, however, prior to the time of the trial.

Sheriff's investigators interviewed McDuffie in the early morning hours after the murders were discovered and again some days later. McDuffie told investigators he left the store that night shortly after Carol Hopkins left. He said that he and his wife drove approximately forty-five minutes to an Aaron's home furnishing rental center to put Troy's money order payment in the night drop box. He said they arrived about 9:35 p.m. and then drove to a nearby McDonald's for some food. McDuffie estimated he arrived home by about 10:15 p.m., but the evidence established that he could not have reached Aaron's before 10:30 p.m. A videotape taken at McDonald's showed McDuffie buying his food there at 10:34 p.m.

The only physical evidence linking McDuffie to the crimes was a partial palm print matching the upper portion of McDuffie's right hand, which was found on a reconstructed strip of Dollar General duct tape taken from around Beauregard's wrists. The State's latent print examiner testified that a palm print could, under certain circumstances, be transferred from one portion of duct tape to another if the tape was pressed together. This was one hypothesis offered by the defense for...