Robards v. State

• Decision Date: 25 April 2013
• Docket Number: No. SC11–425.,SC11–425.
• Citation: 112 So.3d 1256
• Parties: Richard Todd ROBARDS, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

112 So.3d 1256

Richard Todd ROBARDS, Appellant,

v.STATE of Florida, Appellee.

No. SC11–425.

Supreme Court of Florida.

April 25, 2013.

James Marion Moorman, Public Defender and Steve L. Bolotin, Assistant Public Defender, Bartow, FL, for Appellant.

Pamela Jo Bondi, Attorney General, Tallahassee, FL and Stephen D. Ake, Assistant Attorney General, Tampa, FL, for Appellee.

PER CURIAM.

This case is before the Court on appeal from two judgments of conviction of first-degree murder and two sentences of death. We have jurisdiction. Seeart. V, § 3(b)(1), Fla. Const. Richard Robards was convicted in Pinellas County of the 2006 murders of Clearwater residents Lindaand Frank Deluca and he now pursues the direct appeal of his convictions and sentences which are subject to automatic review by this Court. For the reasons explained below, we affirm the trial court's judgments of conviction and sentences of death. We first set forth the facts of this case and we then address Robards' claims on direct appeal. We conclude by evaluating the sufficiency of the evidence used to convict Robards and the proportionality of the death sentences that Robards received for murdering the Delucas.

STATEMENT OF FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Around mid-morning on August 2, 2006, the Delucas' friend, John Baird, arrived at their home to visit Frank Deluca as the two planned just days earlier. Although both of the Delucas' cars were at the home, no one answered the door, so Baird let himself in, thinking that Frank Deluca simply did not hear him knock on the door. Once inside, Baird noticed that the inside of the home was blackened and scorched and he saw a gas can in the foyer. Although he did not see an active fire, he noticed about two inches of ash on the floor and saw a melted smoke alarm. Baird called out to see if anyone would respond and did not receive an answer. He walked toward the back of the home to the office and noticed a comforter on the floor and Frank Deluca lying next to it. Baird lifted the comforter and saw Linda Deluca lying underneath it. After trying unsuccessfully to get a response from either of the Delucas, Baird went to a nearby school and contacted the school resource officer, who then contacted emergency dispatch.

Around noon that day, various city and county emergency units responded to the Delucas' home. Extensive fire damage was observed inside the home, and it was determined that a fire occurred there but that it snuffed itself out due to a lack of oxygen. Because heat was radiating from the home and the air quality inside the home was compromised, paramedics and law enforcement officers coordinated a plan of action for processing the scene. Two deceased victims, one male and one female, were found inside the home. The bodies of both victims bore evidence of heat exposure as well as trauma to the neck and the chest, and both victims were declared dead as the result of unsurvivable trauma. Both deaths were ruled homicides and the associate medical examiner confirmed that both victims suffered multiple sharp force injuries. No signs of forced entry were found at the home.

An arson investigation revealed that the fire was the result of arson and was set by a person who used a flammable fluid as an accelerant. The arson investigator determined that the fire started in the hallway that led to the office where the bodies were found, and he observed a trail of clothes and towels down the length of the hallway. Additionally, burnt newspapers and towels were found near the area where the bodies were found. The investigator concluded that the victims were inside the home when the fire was set; an accelerant detection dog alerted to sources of flammable fluid at the beginning and the end of the clothing/towel trail in the hallway and on the bodies of both victims.

Outside the home, two vehicles registered to Linda Deluca were found in the driveway sheltered underneath a carport. Gouge or scrape marks that ran down the length of the driveway between the two vehicles led investigators to believe that an item had been removed from the home and then moved down the driveway, and they soon learned that a safe was missing from the Delucas' home.

Investigators concluded that the murders and the fire occurred on or between July 31 and August 1. The timeline was based in part on information provided by an eyewitness who saw smoke coming from the Delucas' chimney late in the afternoon on August 1. Moreover, the Delucas' August 2 issue of the St. Petersburg Times was never retrieved from the front of their home and was found at the foot of the driveway near where the gouge marks ended.

The investigation and the search for possible suspects quickly focused on Richard Robards, who was once the Delucas' personal trainer. Robards became a suspect in the murders after investigators learned that he knew the Delucas and that his fingerprints were identified on a crumpled piece of newspaper that was found in the Delucas' southeast bedroom. The piece of newspaper, which was not destroyed in the fire, was from the July 31 issue of the St. Petersburg Times and contained three of Robards' latent fingerprints. Further investigation of Robards' activities before, around the time of, and after the murders yielded additional evidence that linked Robards to a role in the Delucas' deaths, the theft of items from the Delucas' home, and the arson at their home.

In the weeks leading up to the murders, Robards told a number of witnesses that he owned or had access to a safe with a substantial amount of money in it. Several weeks before the murders, Robards asked his friend Shane Harper to help him steal a safe from the Delucas' home by serving as the getaway driver, but Harper refused.

During the month before the murders, July 2006, Robards was an inmate in the Pinellas County Jail. While he was in jail, he met another inmate named Robert Kenney. Kenney overheard Robards telling a criminal defense attorney that he had funds in a safe that could be used to pay for the attorney's services. Robards later told the attorney that he could not get into the safe because he lost the combination. Also while in jail, Robards called a bail bondsman and told him that he had a $40,000 bond and money in a safe that he could access within twenty-four hours of release. Robards would not tell the bondsman where the safe was located.

After Robards was released from jail, he maintained contact with Kenney, who was at that time living with his girlfriend Jessica Ridpath in her home. Robards told Ridpath that he had $50,000 in a safe and that he was planning to place a down payment on a townhome near where she and Kenney lived.

Around 10 a.m. on August 1, Robards came to Ridpath's home to see Kenney. Robards was acting nervously. He washed his shoes in the kitchen sink and Kenney saw him carrying Ridpath's gasoline can. Robards asked Kenney if he could borrow a pair of Kenney's shoes as well as Kenney's Ford Explorer so that he could move some personal belongings. Kenney agreed to these requests. Robards also asked Kenney to keep a duffel bag that contained marijuana but Kenney refused to do so. After Kenney gave Robards the keys to the Explorer, Robards left alone.

At 11:23 a.m., Robards rented a utility dolly from a U–Haul store and provided his driver's license and credit card to secure the rental. Robards returned to Ridpath's home a couple of hours after borrowing the Explorer and asked Kenney to help him move a safe. Kenney went with Robards and noticed a red dolly in the back seat of the Explorer. Robards drove to the Delucas' neighborhood and first drove around it before going to their home. When they arrived, Kenney noticed that someone had already tried to move the safe down the driveway. When he realized that vehicles were parked in the driveway, he asked Robards why the people at the home could not help him move the safe. Robards replied that he was involved in an argument with them and he just wanted to get his belongings and leave.

Robards and Kenney tried to put the safe into the Explorer, but the safe was too large. Robards pushed the safe back underneath the carport between the vehicles, and the two men left in search of equipment that was durable enough to move the safe. At 2:28 p.m., Robards rented a trailer from Nations Rent. After an adapter was added to the Explorer, the Explorer was equipped to haul the trailer and the safe.

Again, Robards drove around the Delucas' neighborhood instead of directly to their home. When Robards and Kenney arrived at the home, they placed the safe onto the trailer and drove off. Kenney was unaware at the time that Robards intended to store the safe in Ridpath's garage. After driving for a short time, Robards stopped and put a tarp on top of the safe. Robards then convinced Kenney to let him hide the safe in Ridpath's garage.

Ridpath arrived home that evening after getting off of work at 5:15 p.m. and noticed that Robards' car was there, but Kenney's Explorer was not. Robards and Kenney arrived about thirty minutes later and without Ridpath's knowledge, they placed the safe in the garage. Robards wiped the safe clean and made sure that it was not in plain view in the garage. Before leaving, Robards asked Ridpath for some air freshener because his car smelled “musty.” He used it briefly and then left.

The evidence that implicated Robards also revealed that at the time of the murders, Robards was renting two storage units at a storage facility in Largo, Florida. Surveillance conducted there identified a vehicle linked to Robards coming and going from the storage facility in the days just after the murders. Although he had not accessed the units since May 24, 2006, in the days following the murders, Robards accessed his storage units on August 2, 4, and 5, 2006. After learning that a safe was taken from the Delucas' home, law enforcement obtained a search warrant for Robards' storage units. The Delucas' safe...