Peterson v. State, SC16–289

• Decision Date: 06 July 2017
• Docket Number: No. SC16–1279,No. SC16–289,SC16–289,SC16–1279
• Citation: 221 So.3d 571
• Parties: Robert Earl PETERSON, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee. Robert Earl Peterson, Petitioner, v. Julie L. Jones, etc., Respondent.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

221 So.3d 571

Robert Earl PETERSON, Appellant,

v.STATE of Florida, Appellee.

Robert Earl Peterson, Petitioner,

v.Julie L. Jones, etc., Respondent.

No. SC16–289

No. SC16–1279

Supreme Court of Florida.

[July 6, 2017]

Frank Tassone and Casey Woolsey of Tassone & Dreicer, LLC, Jacksonville, Florida, for Appellant/Petitioner

Pamela Jo Bondi, Attorney General, and Jennifer L. Keegan, Assistant Attorney General, Tallahassee, Florida, for Appellee/Respondent

PER CURIAM.

Robert Earl Peterson appeals an order of the circuit court denying his motion to vacate his conviction of first-degree murder and sentence of death filed under Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.851 and 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 affirm the postconviction court's order denying postconviction relief as to the guilt phase and also deny Peterson's separate habeas petition. However, because Peterson's jury recommended death by a vote of seven to five and his sentence became final in 2012, see Peterson v. State , 94 So.3d 514, 523 (Fla.), cert. denied , 568 U.S. 1071, 133 S.Ct. 793, 184 L.Ed.2d 586 (2012), Peterson is entitled to a new penalty phase under Hurst v. State (Hurst ), 202 So.3d 40 (Fla. 2016), cert. denied , No. 16–998, ––– U.S. ––––, 137 S.Ct. 2161, 198 L.Ed.2d 246 (U.S. May 22, 2017). See Mosley v. State , 209 So.3d 1248, 1283 (Fla. 2016).

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Peterson was convicted of first-degree murder and evidence tampering, and was sentenced to death for the first-degree murder of his 64-year-old stepfather, Roy Andrews, after Peterson's jury recommended death by a vote of seven to five. Peterson , 94 So.3d at 519, 523. The facts of Peterson's crime are set forth in this Court's opinion affirming his conviction and sentences on direct appeal:

Peterson, who was 41 at the time of the crime, had been living at home with his mother and his stepfather. Andrews had been Peterson's stepfather since Peterson was fifteen. Shortly before the murder, Peterson's mother, at the urging of Andrews, told Peterson he had to move out. Also at Andrews' insistence, Peterson's mother stopped providing Peterson with money. Andrews was beaten and shot twice in Jacksonville, Florida, with his body left in the Greenlawn Cemetery very close to where Peterson's ex-girlfriend was buried.

Guilt Phase Evidence

The State first presented evidence to establish that about a month before the murder, Peterson told several people that he was going to kill Andrews. In early July 2005, Peterson talked to Becky Price, his second cousin, and told her that Andrews had "kicked him out" and told his mother not to give him more money. Peterson informed Price that he was going to kill Andrews. About two weeks later, after his mother refused to give him money again based on Andrews' direction, Peterson told Price a second time that he was going to kill Andrews. While the statements scared her, Price did not take him seriously and did not warn anyone. At the beginning of July, Peterson told his aunt that Andrews called his mother fat and that this made him "want to jump across the table and beat him to death."

On August 7, 2005, Peterson was staying at a hotel, the Masters Inn, with his girlfriend, Clara Keene. At 6:01 a.m. on August 8, the security cameras at his hotel showed Peterson leaving his room wearing jeans, shoes, a jacket, and a dark hat with a design on it.

At the time of the murder, Andrews was a counselor at a local drug clinic, Jacksonville Metro Treatment Center, and generally worked from 5:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. On August 8, 2005, Andrews arrived at 4:45 a.m. but left early at 9:30 a.m. Between 9 and 10 that morning, two people who worked close to Greenlawn Cemetery heard two loud pops that sounded like gun fire and then saw an older green pick-up truck with faded paint and big tires [N.1] leaving the cemetery very quickly.

[N.1] Peterson's girlfriend, Keene, had a truck that matched this description. On the night before the murder, she had given Peterson the keys to the truck and left it at the work place of Peterson's brother, since she and Peterson went to the hotel together in his vehicle. She never saw her truck after that evening.

Andrews' body was found shortly after his murder. He was lying on the ground in a pool of blood, relatively close to the grave of Peterson's ex-girlfriend who had died about a year earlier. Near the body, law enforcement found a dark "Bike Week" baseball cap, which matched the hat that Peterson wore when he left the hotel room that morning. Andrews' truck was nearby, with the keys in the truck, the passenger door opened, and the hood of the truck released but not fully opened. Andrews' wallet was still in his pocket, and he had a considerable amount of money in his pocket. Andrews had been beaten around the head and shot in the head twice.

Around 10:30 a.m. that same day, Peterson called Keene at the hotel and asked her to let him into their room because he forgot his key. The video surveillance cameras showed Keene opening the door for Peterson. In the video, Peterson was dressed in different clothes from those he had worn when he left the hotel a few hours earlier: he was wearing a different shirt and not wearing an undershirt, shoes, or his hat. According to Keene, Peterson was upset and told her they needed to go to his mother's house.

A few days after the murder, the police arrested one of Peterson's acquaintances, Jimmie Jackson, for driving on a suspended license. While Jackson was in custody, he agreed to call Peterson to ask about the murder. During their initial conversations, Peterson made a number of incriminating statements, implying that he had killed Andrews as he had planned. Jackson set up a meeting with Peterson, agreeing to meet him in a parking lot. Peterson drove up in his vehicle at the designated time and then entered Jackson's truck, which the police had wired.

During their conversation, Peterson admitted to killing Andrews and provided numerous details about the crime, including that he killed Andrews in broad daylight at 9:45 in the morning. Peterson explained that he killed Andrews because Andrews crossed the line by slapping his mother and calling her names. He then told Jackson that his mother knew about it because he and his mother were close and his mother was "contracting it." Peterson informed Jackson that even though the police took his red truck, he was not in that vehicle during the crime. He bragged that the vehicle he did use was "crushed and gone" on the same day as the crime. He then described the murder in detail, explaining that he was walking down Emerson Road, as though his truck had broken down, and Andrews picked him up and took him to the cemetery. Peterson described the crime as follows:

PETERSON: No, I busted his ass with brass knuckles. I tried to beat him to death so's I could take him somewhere else.

[JACKSON]: Oh, oh, oh, oh.

PETERSON: The bitch wouldn't fucking—I done broke his jaw, knocked all his teeth out, his eye ball hanging out his fucking head, the bitch wouldn't go out, so I had to go pop pop and haul ass. By that time, I'm covered from head to toe—

[JACKSON]: Blood.

PETERSON: So I hauled ass out way out to the west—

[JACKSON]: Yeah.

PETERSON: Hauled ass out to the fucking—got brain matter, the whole fucking nine yards. I went out to fucking Baldwin, stripped down, took a shower, scrubbed myself with a brush, got dressed, come back, still hit the cameras ....

....

PETERSON: Set all my clothes, all my clothes, the vehicle I was driving, and the gun, you'll never find it. I don't give a fuck who you are. You can be Inspector [Clouseau], you ain't finding this shit. Drove back, and the man that I was working for says I was there from 9:00 to 11:00 and from 11:00 to 12:00. I eat lunch and from 12:00 to 1:00. I was sitting at my mama's house when they came and informed us he got killed.

Peterson next discussed his former girlfriend, who was buried in Greenlawn Cemetery, telling Jackson that Andrews "landed on her grave." Peterson also admitted that he made mistakes regarding some aspects of the plan because during the crime, there was a struggle and Peterson lost his hat and left some fingerprints in the truck. [N.2] He planned to explain this evidence by saying that he left his fingerprints when he was with Andrews the night before and Andrews had a nose bleed.

[N.2] The police were unable to obtain any usable fingerprints from the truck.

Dr. Jesse Giles, the medical examiner, testified that Andrews had a significant number of blunt force injuries spread over his head and neck that were consistent with brass knuckles and that occurred shortly before the time of death. Andrews' cause of death was two contact gunshot wounds

, where the gun was pressed against the victim's head. One gunshot wound was at Andrews' left temple. The other wound entered over Andrews' right ear, and the bone fragments from this wound severed the brain stem, which was fatal.

After the State rested, Peterson testified in his defense, denying that he killed Andrews. Peterson testified that he had visited Bike Week one time, and while there, he bought about four Bike Week hats. According to Peterson, on the day before the murder, he went to his mother's house to buy lottery tickets for her and saw Andrews sitting in his truck. Andrews had a trickle of blood coming from his nose, so Peterson helped wipe it away. He then left and bought the tickets as he planned to do. When he brought the tickets back to his mother's house, he noticed the interior light of the truck was on, so he reached into Andrews' truck and turned off the light, knocking off his hat. He did not reach down to retrieve his hat because he was in a hurry to return to his hotel room with his girlfriend.

Peterson further testified that on the day that Andrews was killed, he got up at 5:30 that morning and wore a jacket because it was very cold...