McGirth v. State

• Decision Date: 10 November 2010
• Docket Number: No. SC08-976.,SC08-976.
• Parties: Renaldo Devon McGIRTH, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

48 So.3d 777

Renaldo Devon McGIRTH, Appellant,
v.
STATE of Florida, Appellee.

No. SC08-976.

Supreme Court of Florida.

Nov. 10, 2010.

48 So.3d 781

Christopher J. Anderson, Atlantic Beach, Florida, and Jeffrey D. Deen, Regional Counsel, Fifth District, Altamonte Springs, FL, for Appellant.

Bill McCollum, Attorney General, Tallahassee, Florida, Kenneth S. Nunnelley, Senior Assistant Attorney General, and Barbara C. Davis, Assistant Attorney General, Daytona Beach, FL, for Appellee.

PER CURIAM.

Renaldo D. McGirth appeals his conviction of first-degree murder and sentence of death. We have jurisdiction. See Art. V, § (3)(b)(1), Fla. Const. For reasons set forth below, we affirm McGirth's convictions and death sentence.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Overview

Renaldo McGirth was convicted of the 2006 first-degree murder of Diana Miller.

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McGirth, who was eighteen years old at the time of the murder, was also convicted of the contemporaneous attempted first-degree murder with a firearm of Diana's husband, James Miller, robbery with a firearm of James and Diana Miller, and fleeing to elude a law enforcement officer operating a marked patrol vehicle. After the penalty phase proceeding, the jury recommended that McGirth be sentenced to death for the murder of Diana by a vote of eleven to one. We first discuss the factual and procedural history of the case. We then address the guilt phase and penalty phase issues raised by McGirth.

The Guilt Phase

The evidence at trial established that James and Diana Miller ("the Millers"), both in their sixties and married for forty-two years, lived in The Villages, a gated retirement community situated in Marion County, Florida. Their daughter, Sheila Miller, who was in her late thirties at the time, was residing with them while she recovered from injuries sustained in an automobile accident that left her confined to a wheelchair.¹

McGirth, a prior acquaintance of Sheila, Jarrord Roberts, and Theodore Houston, Jr., visited Sheila at the Miller home on the afternoon of July 21, 2006.² Sheila greeted McGirth with an embrace at the front door, after which the three men followed her inside the residence. James Miller saw the three men enter his home and observed Sheila embracing one of them. He excused himself as it was near noon and he had to shower for a haircut appointment scheduled for 1:00 p.m. that day. Thereafter, McGirth, who had entered the home with a black backpack, set the bag down on the floor and the three men joined Sheila in the living room for some conversation. After some discussion, Sheila, McGirth, and Houston went into Sheila's bedroom, while Roberts remained in the living room with Diana. Once in the bedroom, McGirth pointed a small, silver gun in Sheila's direction and instructed Houston to tape Sheila's mouth and bind her wrists with duct tape that had been purchased at a Dollar General store on the way to the Miller residence. Diana was then called into Sheila's bedroom where McGirth pushed her onto the bed. Sheila told Diana to give McGirth all of her money. Diana responded that she only had seventy dollars and explained that she did not keep that kind of money at the house. McGirth, in turn, insisted she had money because she lived in The Villages. After agreeing to get the money, Diana raised her hands in the air and was making her way toward the bedroom door to retrieve money when McGirth stood in front of the bedroom door and shot her once in the chest, causing her to fall on Sheila's bed. McGirth then instructed Houston to pick up the shell casing from the floor and wipe down any objects the men had touched to remove fingerprints. As she bled on Sheila's bed, Diana whispered to McGirth, "Please call 911; you just shot me in the heart." However, her pleas for help were ignored.

At some point, Roberts collected wallets and car keys belonging to the Millers and

48 So.3d 783

handed them to McGirth. In the meantime, James had just finished his shower when he was grabbed by the arm and dragged to Sheila's bedroom where he was forced to lie on the floor while one of the men pinned his head with a foot. After the men obtained the couple's credit cards and a personal identification number, Diana, still conscious, was taken to the computer room in an unsuccessful attempt to purchase cell phones online. A few minutes later Diana was able to crawl back into Sheila's bedroom.

McGirth and Houston removed Sheila from the home and Roberts placed her in the Millers' van. As Roberts and Sheila remained in the van, McGirth and Houston returned to the home. Soon thereafter, as Houston was leaving the house with some items, McGirth shot James and Diana in the backs of their heads as they lay on the bedroom floor. James survived the gunshot wound and was able to climb out of the bedroom window and summon the assistance of a neighbor.

McGirth, Roberts, and Sheila left in the Millers' van, while Houston followed in the silver Ford in which the men arrived. Following McGirth's orders, Sheila withdrew $500 from an automated teller machine (ATM) nearby and gave the money to McGirth, who subsequently divided the money into thirds. The four then drove to a K-Mart store in Belleview where McGirth and Sheila attempted to locate a particular type of cell phone. A few minutes later the men left the silver Ford in the K-Mart parking lot and took Sheila in the van to a mall in Gainesville. At the mall, efforts to withdraw money from various ATMs and purchase items from stores failed.

At the Miller residence, law enforcement officers secured the scene and issued a BOLO ("be on the lookout") alert for a red van occupied by three black males and a possible kidnap victim. A police officer spotted the van at a convenience store in Ocala where McGirth was observed getting out and leaving the passengers in the vehicle. When McGirth returned and drove the vehicle out of the parking lot, the police officer activated his siren and lights which prompted McGirth to pull over. As the officer approached the vehicle, one of the men in the van told McGirth to "just shoot the cop." McGirth responded that he had it handled. When the officer ordered the driver to shut the van off, McGirth sped away. A high-speed chase in excess of 100 miles per hour ensued. As he drove the vehicle while being pursued by the police, McGirth handed the gun to Houston and ordered him to shoot Sheila because she could identify them. Houston, however, did not do so. The police ultimately used stop sticks to slow the van and then disabled it by employing the PIT maneuver, ³ which caused the van to roll several times. Sheila was found inside the van, and Houston was attempting to pull himself from underneath the van when police took him into custody. McGirth and Roberts were able to get out of the van and fled in opposite directions, but were apprehended and taken into custody shortly thereafter.

The police found bloody, folded money totaling $259 in McGirth's pocket, and his fingerprints were identified on two paper items from James's wallet.

Testimony was presented on the gunshot wounds inflicted on Diana. Dr. Julia Martin, the medical examiner, opined that the gunshot wound to the head would have rendered Diana immediately unconscious and dead soon thereafter, but that the wound to her chest would not. Dr. Martin

48 So.3d 784

concluded that Diana died as a result of the gunshot wound to her head.

The jury found McGirth guilty of first-degree murder of Diana Miller, attempted first-degree murder of James Miller, robbery with a firearm, and fleeing to elude law enforcement,⁴ and the case proceeded to the penalty phase.

The Penalty Phase

During the penalty phase, the State presented victim impact testimony from four witnesses who described Diana Miller as funny, playful, caring, a good friend, and an accommodating person who enjoyed traveling with her husband and friends and playing golf and softball. Their testimony revealed that Diana's softball team made tributes in her name and dedicated its fall season to her. A memorial service was held for Diana and, after a silent prayer, the team released balloons in the air in her honor. The softball team also placed Diana's retired team jersey along with her photograph and a medal she won in softball in a shadow box and brought it to softball games. A group of women in her community placed a quarter-page advertisement in a newspaper in memory of Diana, which expressed how much she was missed.

The State also presented evidence from Dr. Martin, the medical examiner, who estimated that anywhere from fifteen to thirty minutes passed between Diana's chest wound and head wound. She also testified that there was nothing in her examination which would lead her to conclude that Diana lost consciousness as a result of the chest wound before the infliction of the head wound. The medical examiner explained that as a result of her chest wound, Diana would have experienced pain, difficulty in breathing, and anxiety.

The defense presented mitigation testimony from McGirth's family members and pastor. The evidence showed that McGirth had a difficult time growing up because he did not know his biological father and had poor male role models throughout his life.

At the conclusion of the penalty phase, the jury recommended by a vote of eleven to one that McGirth be sentenced to death for the murder of Diana Miller. After conducting a Spencer hearing,⁵ the trial court entered its sentencing order in which it found five aggravators: (1) the murder was cold, calculated, and premeditated (CCP), to which it assigned great weight; (2) the murder was heinous, atrocious, or cruel (HAC), to which it assigned great weight; (3) McGirth had a prior violent felony, based on McGirth's contemporaneous conviction for the attempted first-degree murder of James Miller, to which it assigned great weight; (4) McGirth engaged in the commission of a robbery at the time of the murder, to which it assigned great weight;...