Mordenti v. State, No. SC02-1159 | SC02-2643.

Decision Date16 December 2004
Docket Number No. SC02-1159 | SC02-2643.
Citation894 So.2d 161
PartiesMichael MORDENTI, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee. Michael Mordenti, Petitioner, v. James V. Crosby, Jr., Respondent.
CourtFlorida Supreme Court

Martin J. McClain of McClain and McDermott, Wilton Manors, FL and Heidi Brewer, Tallahassee, FL, for Appellant/Petitioner.

Charles J. Crist, Jr., Attorney General, Tallahassee, FL and Robert J. Landry, Assistant Attorney General, Tampa, FL, for Appellee/Respondent.

PER CURIAM.

Michael Mordenti appeals the denial of his motion for postconviction relief filed pursuant to Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850. Mordenti also petitions this Court for a writ of habeas corpus. We have jurisdiction. See art. V, § 3(b)(1), (9), Fla. Const. For the reasons explained below, we reverse the trial court's order denying Mordenti's postconviction motion and remand to the trial court for a new trial.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Mordenti was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder and the first-degree murder of Thelma Royston. The jury, by a vote of eleven to one, recommended the death penalty. Following that recommendation, the trial court sentenced Mordenti to thirty years in prison on the conspiracy to commit murder charge and imposed a sentence of death for the first-degree murder charge. The facts pertaining to the murder of Thelma Royston were fully detailed in our direct appeal opinion:

This case involves the murder of Thelma Royston. The victim's husband, Larry Royston (Royston), allegedly hired Mordenti to commit the murder. Royston and Mordenti were charged with the victim's murder after Royston's cellular phone records led detectives to Mordenti's former wife, Gail Mordenti, who subsequently confessed that she had acted as the contact person between Mordenti and Royston. After Royston and Mordenti were charged, Royston committed suicide. Consequently, his version of the events at issue was not available. At trial, Mordenti's defense was that he was some place else when the murder occurred.
Testimony at trial revealed the following details regarding the murder. The victim, Thelma Royston, lived with her mother and her husband. On the night of the murder, Royston told the victim that the lights were off in the barn. Because the Roystons' horse business required the barn lights to be left on until 10:00 or 11:00 each night, the victim and her mother went outside to turn on the lights. When they went outside, they noticed an unidentified man off in the distance. The victim went to talk to him and called back to her mother that the man was there to discuss a horse Royston had for sale. The victim's mother went back inside to tell Royston that the man was there, but when her dog began barking she went back out to investigate. Upon doing so, she discovered the victim's body in the barn. The victim had suffered multiple gunshot and stab wounds. Because it was night and the man had been so far off in the distance, the victim's mother was unable to furnish a description of him to the police.
Because the victim suffered multiple gunshot and stab wounds, the medical examiner was unable to determine from which wounds the victim had died or whether she had died instantaneously. However, there were no defensive wounds and no indication that anything had been taken or that the victim had been sexually assaulted.
Additional testimony revealed that the victim and Royston had been contemplating divorce, but that Royston thought the victim was asking for too much money. A former girlfriend of Royston's testified that Royston had asked her to kill his wife by either shooting or stabbing her to make it look like a burglary, but the former girlfriend had refused. Mordenti's former wife, Gail Mordenti, testified that Royston asked her if she knew of anyone who would "get rid of his wife" for $10,000. Gail Mordenti stated that she subsequently asked Mordenti if he knew of anyone who would kill Royston's wife and he responded: "Oh, hell, for that kind of money, I'll probably do it myself." Gail Mordenti explained that she acted as the middle person between Royston and Mordenti by conveying information about the best time and place for the murder and by supplying a photograph of the victim and a map of the ranch.
Gail Mordenti further testified that, when she first approached Mordenti about murdering the victim, he informed her that it would be impossible to commit the murder as Royston wanted and that he would not do it. However, Royston continued to insist to Gail Mordenti that he wanted the murder committed. Gail Mordenti finally placed Royston directly in touch with Mordenti. Royston's cellular phone records reflected that he made a thirteen-minute telephone call to Mordenti's number on the day of the murder. After the murder, Gail Mordenti delivered payments totaling $17,000 from Royston to Mordenti. According to her, the amount had risen from $10,000 to $17,000 because Mordenti had to get rid of a car. Mordenti gave Gail Mordenti between $5,000 and $6,000 of the $17,000 over time to help her pay her bills. Additionally, Gail Mordenti testified that Mordenti described the murder to her, stating that the victim "put up quite a fight" and that he "shot her in the head with a .22." He also told Gail Mordenti that the victim had a lot of jewelry on and that he felt really bad that he couldn't take it. She also testified that Mordenti had a number of guns that he kept as "throw away" pieces and that she knew he was associated with some "shady" people. (A cellmate of Mordenti's also testified that Mordenti told him he was "in the mob.")1 For her testimony, Gail Mordenti was offered complete immunity.
No physical evidence was produced linking Mordenti to the crime, and Gail Mordenti was the only witness who was able to place him at the scene of the murder. However, her testimony was consistent with what police knew about the murder and some of her testimony matched information about the murder that had not been made public.
In his defense, Mordenti produced three witnesses who stated that he had attended an automobile auction on the night of the murder. Mordenti was a used car dealer and frequently attended auctions where he purchased cars for resale. The prosecution, however, was able to point to a number of inconsistencies in the witnesses' testimony. Additionally, one of the three witnesses was one of Mordenti's girlfriends, and the other two witnesses had testified only after being contacted by the girlfriend over a year after the murder and after being reminded by the girlfriend that the night of the murder was the same night Mordenti had attended the auction.
On these facts, the jury found the defendant guilty of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.

Mordenti v. State, 630 So.2d 1080, 1082-83 (Fla.1994).

In sentencing Mordenti to death, the trial judge found two aggravating circumstances — that the murder had been committed for financial gain and was cold, calculated, and premeditated. See id. at 1083. In mitigation, the trial judge found the following factors: (1) Mordenti was fifty at the time of the crime; (2) Mordenti had no significant history of prior criminal activity; (3) Mordenti's father died while Mordenti was young and he was abandoned by his mother; (4) Mordenti was a good stepson to his stepparents; (5) Mordenti supported the woman who lived with him and her two children; (6) Mordenti was a thoughtful friend and employer and was fair in business dealings; (7) Mordenti received an honorable discharge from the Coast Guard; and (8) Mordenti behaved appropriately in court during the trial. See id.

On direct appeal, this Court affirmed Mordenti's convictions and sentences. See id. at 1082. On September 2, 1995, Mordenti filed a motion for postconviction relief in the trial court. See Mordenti v. State, 711 So.2d 30, 31 (Fla.1998)

. On September 30, 1996, the trial court issued an order summarily denying Mordenti's postconviction motion without holding an evidentiary hearing and without providing Mordenti's counsel an opportunity to be heard. See id. at 31. This Court reversed the summary denial of Mordenti's postconviction motion and directed the trial court to hold a Huff2 hearing. See id. at 33. On October 19, 2000, the trial court held a Huff hearing, where it granted an evidentiary hearing on four claims and denied the remaining claims.

After the evidentiary hearing, the trial court denied relief on the four remaining claims. Mordenti now appeals the trial court's denial of postconviction relief, presenting the following claims for review: (1) whether the lower court erred in denying his claims that the State committed Giglio3 violations; (2) whether the lower court erred in denying his claims that the State committed Brady4 violations; (3) whether guilt phase counsel was ineffective;5 (4) whether the trial court erred in permitting the testimony of Senior Legal Assistant with the Attorney General's Office, Paula Montlary, who was a former employee of trial defense counsel Richard Watts; (5) whether counsel at the penalty and sentencing phase was ineffective;6 and (6) whether the trial court erred in summarily denying five claims presented in his postconviction motion.7 We conclude that the resolution of claim (2) is dispositive. Moreover, our conclusion to remand this case for a new trial is supported by our cumulative analysis, which addresses several of Mordenti's purported Brady and Giglio violations. Accordingly, claims (3), (4), (5), and (6), as well as Mordenti's habeas claims, are rendered moot in light of this opinion. See Clark v. State, 690 So.2d 1280, 1282 n. 4 (Fla.1997)

.

DISCUSSION

Mordenti was convicted primarily on the testimony of one woman, Gail Mordenti Milligan. No physical evidence was produced linking Mordenti to the murder, and Gail was the only witness who was able to place Mordenti at the scene of the murder. There...

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