Preston v. State

• Decision Date: 19 January 1984
• Docket Number: No. 61475,61475
• Citation: 444 So.2d 939
• Parties: Robert A. PRESTON, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

Page 939

444 So.2d 939

Robert A. PRESTON, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.

No. 61475.

Supreme Court of Florida.

Jan. 19, 1984.

Rehearing Denied Feb. 27, 1984.

Joan H. Bickerstaff, Melbourne, Florida, for appellant.

Jim Smith, Atty. Gen., Tallahassee, and Sean Daly, Asst. Atty. Gen., Daytona Beach, for appellee.

ADKINS, Justice.

This is an appeal from a judgment of the Eighteenth Judicial Circuit, Seminole County. The court adjudicated the appellant, Robert Anthony Preston, guilty on counts of premeditated murder, felony murder committed in the course of a robbery, felony murder committed during the course of a kidnapping, robbery, and kidnapping. The appellant was sentenced, following the jury's recommendation, to death on the premeditated murder count. We have jurisdiction. Art. V, § 3(b)(1), Fla. Const. We affirm the conviction and the sentence.

The evidence at trial established the following facts. Early in the afternoon on January 9, 1978, the nude and mutilated body of Earline Walker was discovered in an open field in Seminole County by a detective of the Altamonte Springs Police Department. The victim's body had sustained multiple stab wounds and lacerations resulting in near decapitation.

Earline Walker was employed as a night clerk at a convenience store and had been discovered missing from the store at approximately 3:30 A.M. when an officer of the Altamonte Springs Police Department made his regular patrol. The officer also found that the sum of $574.41 was missing from the store.

The appellant, Preston, was arrested on the following day on an unrelated charge. While he was in the custody of the Seminole County Sheriff, a deputy recovered a light brown pubic hair from Preston's belt buckle. Police also found a jacket of Preston's and several detached food stamp coupons in Preston's bedroom at his mother's house the day after his arrest during a search conducted after the police had received Preston's mother's consent. Comparison of the serial numbers on the food stamps recovered from the wastebasket in Preston's bedroom with those on two coupon booklets turned over to the police by an employee of the convenience store showed four matching coupons. In addition, fracture pattern analysis confirmed the coupons had been used at the convenience store to make purchases several days before the murder. No latent fingerprints were obtained from these sources.

Analysis revealed that the pubic hair recovered from Preston's belt and another discovered on his jacket could have originated from the victim. Blood samples taken from the victim and Preston were compared with two stains found on Preston's jacket. The stains proved to be of the same blood type and same enzyme group as those of the victim. In processing the victim's automobile, which had been found abandoned on the day of the murder, several usable latent fingerprints were obtained. One was identified as being Preston's.

Prior to trial, the appellant challenged the admissibility of the evidence obtained from his bedroom. The trial court granted the motion to suppress. The state filed an interlocutory appeal in the Fourth District Court of Appeal, which transferred that case to this Court. We declined jurisdiction and remanded the cause to the Fifth District Court of Appeal for a decision. State v. Preston, 376 So.2d 3 (Fla.1979). In State v. Preston, 387 So.2d 495 (Fla. 5th DCA 1980), the district court reversed the trial court's order suppressing the evidence. The court specifically held that Preston's mother had the authority to give consent to the search. Id. at 497. Accordingly, the fruits of the search were received in evidence at appellant's trial following a second suppression hearing and over defense objection.

As his first point on appeal, Preston contends that valid consent had not been given by his mother to search his room and, therefore, introduction of the jacket and the food stamp coupons at trial was improper. The state contends that the Fifth District's decision on this issue is the "law of the case" and thus, is no longer open for consideration by this Court.

We do recognize the general rule that all points of law which have been adjudicated become the "law of the case." Greene v. Massey, 384 So.2d 24, 28 (Fla.1980). However, an appellate court does have the power to reconsider and correct erroneous rulings notwithstanding that such rulings have become the law of the case. Strazzula v. Hendrick, 177 So.2d 1, 4 (Fla.1965). Reconsideration is warranted only in exceptional circumstances and where reliance on the previous decision would result in manifest injustice. When the Fourth District transferred the interlocutory appeal in this case to this Court, we stated that interlocutory appeals under article V, section 3(b)(3) of the constitution are confined to orders "passing on a matter" which on final judgment would be appealable to this Court. State v. Preston, 376 So.2d 3, 4 (Fla.1979). We noted that routine interlocutory orders, such as the suppression order at issue here, could be appealable to this Court if a conviction is had and a death sentence imposed. Id. For these reasons, we declined jurisdiction to hear the appeal at that time. We now find that we do have jurisdiction of this cause and that reconsideration of the suppression issue is proper. Section 921.141(4), Florida Statutes (1981), mandates automatic and full review of a judgment of conviction resulting in imposition of the death penalty. This Court has determined that the statute requires that "[i]n capital cases, the court shall review the evidence to determine if the interest of justice requires a new trial." Fla.R.App.P. 9.140(f). The interest of justice, substantive due process requirements and Florida's constitutional and statutory scheme of death penalty review jurisdiction support our decision to review this issue.

We now turn to the merits on this point. The first prong of appellant's argument is that the Fifth District Court of Appeal erred in finding that Preston's mother had sufficient joint access and dominion over her son's room to authorize its search. Appellant relies on three cases to support this contention. First, he argues that United States v. Matlock, 415 U.S. 164, 94 S.Ct. 988, 39 L.Ed.2d 242 (1974), and this Court's decision in Silva v. State, 344 So.2d 559, 562 (Fla.1977), hold that when a third party gives permission to search they must possess common authority over or other sufficient relationship to the premises or effects sought to be inspected to justify a warrantless search. This common authority is decided on the basis of the following criteria: 1) the individual's reasonable expectation of privacy in the area; 2) whether others generally had access to the area; and/or 3) whether the objects searched were the personal effects of the individual unavailable to consent. 344 So.2d at 563. In addition, appellant relies on People v. Nunn, 55 Ill.2d 344, 304 N.E.2d 81 (1973), cert. denied, 416 U.S. 904, 94 S.Ct. 1608, 40 L.Ed.2d 108 (1974), for the proposition that mere access to premises to clean is insufficient access upon which to find authority to consent to its search. Appellant maintains that since Preston's mother only had access to her son's room for cleaning purposes she lacks the requisite authority to consent.

The district court utilized the standard enunciated in Matlock. The Court's opinion stated:

The mother here had access for purposes of doing laundry. The jacket, an article of clothing, was left out in the open. The food stamps were found in a wastebasket, another area over which the mother had access. In addition, there is no reasonable expectation of privacy in regard to articles thrown into the garbage or abandoned. This was not a closet or a bureau drawer, and we respectfully disagree with the trial court. We hold, based on all of the facts and circumstances in the record before us, that the mother did have equal access to the areas where these particular articles were found.

387 So.2d at 497 (citations omitted). The Fifth District Court of Appeal's reasoning clearly comports with the criteria we established in Silva. People v. Nunn can be distinguished from the instant case. In Nunn, the Illinois Supreme Court invalidated the search of a son's room because, even though his mother had access to the room to clean it, the son had locked the door when he left before the search and had told his mother not to let anyone enter. The court found it apparent from the precautions taken that the son believed the locked room would not be entered. 304 N.E.2d at 86. No such precautions or other exhibition of expectation of privacy by Preston in those articles which were left out in the open in his room are apparent from the facts established here. Preston was obviously aware of his mother's access to the particular items seized here as well as anything within the regular scope of her cleaning activities. Thus, we agree with the district court of appeal's conclusion that he had no reasonable expectation of privacy in those items.

The second prong of appellant's argument is that Mrs. Preston did not voluntarily consent to the search. Appellant states in his brief that there is a strong suggestion in the record that Mrs. Preston's consent was the product of mere acquiesance or submission to authority. We find no basis for this contention. Whether a consent to search was in fact voluntarily given is a question of fact to be determined from the totality of all the circumstances. Schneckloth v. Bustamonte, 412 U.S. 218, 227, 93 S.Ct. 2041, 2047, 36 L.Ed.2d 854 (1973); Chesnut v. State, 404 So.2d 1064, 1065 (Fla.1981). We find the record was sufficient for the trial court to conclude that Mrs. Preston's consent was voluntary.

Finally, appellant argues that his mother's consent was conditioned upon her being present during the search and that, therefore, it could not be conducted until after five o'clock in the...