Roberts v. State
| Decision Date | 02 July 1987 |
| Docket Number | No. 68296,68296 |
| Citation | 510 So.2d 885,12 Fla. L. Weekly 325 |
| Parties | 12 Fla. L. Weekly 325 Rickey Bernard ROBERTS, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee. |
| Court | Florida Supreme Court |
Geoffrey C. Fleck, Sp. Asst. Public Defender of Ordonez, Friend & Fleck, Miami, for appellant.
Robert A. Butterworth, Atty. Gen. and Nancy C. Wear, Asst. Atty. Gen., Miami, for appellee.
Rickey Bernard Roberts appeals his convictions of first-degree murder, armed sexual battery and armed kidnapping and resulting sentences of death and imprisonment. We have jurisdiction, article V, section 3(b)(1), Florida Constitution, and affirm the convictions and sentences.
According to the state's key witness, Michelle Rimondi, during the early morning hours of June 4, 1984, she, the murder victim George Napoles, and Rimondi's friend Jammie Campbell were parked on the beach off the Rickenbacker Causeway near Key Biscayne drinking wine. While Campbell slept in the front passenger seat in Napoles' Omni, the appellant, Roberts, drove up to the Omni, got out of his car and asked Napoles and Rimondi what they were doing and for identification. Believing that Roberts was an undercover beach patrol officer, Napoles gave Roberts his driver's license. Roberts first frisked Napoles and then frisked Rimondi. When Roberts touched Rimondi on the breasts and thighs, Napoles became suspicious and asked Roberts for his identification. Roberts took Napoles to his car to get his identification. Once at the car, Roberts reached into the back seat and pulled out a baseball bat. Roberts then forcibly brought Napoles back to the Omni where he ordered Rimondi to face the interior of the Omni and not to turn around. Looking over her right arm, Rimondi saw Roberts repeatedly hit Napoles in the back of the head with the bat. Rimondi was unable to scream. Roberts then pushed Napoles' body towards the beach. Still holding the bat, he grabbed Rimondi and pulled her near the body and told her that if she did not take her clothes off she "was going to get it just like George or worse." When it appeared that someone might be coming, Roberts told Rimondi to get dressed and forced her into his car where he eventually raped her. Roberts then left the beach with Rimondi. Realizing that he had lost his wallet, Roberts returned to the beach with Rimondi, found the wallet and again left the scene. Roberts raped Rimondi a second time, before taking her to her sister's boyfriend's house where she was staying that weekend. Napoles' body was discovered on the beach later that morning.
Soon after the body was discovered, Rimondi informed the police that a black man wearing a shirt with the name "Rick" on the front had killed Napoles and raped her. After receiving a tip that Roberts was the "Rick" responsible for the murder, detectives questioned Roberts concerning the incident. Rimondi identified both Roberts and his car. Roberts initially denied having been on Key Biscayne in the past two months. However, after he was told his palm print was found on the roof of Napoles' Omni, Roberts admitted being on the Key during the early morning hours of June 4 but maintained that he had merely picked up Rimondi hitchhiking on the causeway. According to Roberts, who testified at the trial, Rimondi told him that she needed a ride home because her friends had passed out from drinking wine. Roberts claims that after Rimondi got into his car she asked him to return to her friend's car to get her purse. While Rimondi was getting her purse, Roberts claims to have leaned into the car to look at her friend on the front seat, placing his hand on the roof. According to Roberts after retrieving the purse, he then drove Rimondi home. Roberts claimed he never saw Napoles and never raped Rimondi.
Roberts was indicted for first-degree murder, armed sexual battery, armed kidnapping and two counts of armed robbery. He was found guilty of first-degree murder, armed sexual battery and armed kidnapping and not guilty of either robbery count. In connection with the armed sexual battery and armed kidnapping convictions, Roberts was sentenced to concurrent life sentences. In accordance with the jury's recommendation, the trial court imposed the death penalty finding four aggravating circumstances: (1) the defendant had been previously convicted of a violent felony, section 921.141(5)(b), Florida Statutes; (2) at the time of the commission of the capital felony the defendant was under a sentence of imprisonment, section 921.141(5)(a), Florida Statutes; (3) the capital felony was committed while the defendant was engaged in the commission of or the attempt to commit a sexual battery, section 921.141(5)(d), Florida Statutes; and (4) the capital felony was especially heinous, atrocious or cruel, section 921.141(5)(h), Florida Statutes. The trial judge found no mitigating circumstances.
Roberts first challenges the sufficiency of the evidence to support the first-degree murder conviction. He argues that the evidence is insufficient to establish that the killing was premeditated or that it occurred while he was "engaged" in the perpetration of a felony.
We reject Roberts' claim that the evidence in this case reflects an "irrational, spontaneous assault devoid of deliberation, reflection or preparation" rather than a fully formed purpose to kill. In rejecting a similar argument we recently noted in Wilson v. State, 493 So.2d 1019 (Fla.1986), that:
Premeditation is more than a mere intent to kill; it is a fully formed conscious purpose to kill. This purpose to kill may be formed a moment before the act but must exist for a sufficient length of time to permit reflection as to the nature of the act to be committed and the probable result of that act.... Whether or not the evidence shows a premeditated design to commit a murder is a question of fact for the jury which may be established by circumstantial evidence.
Id. at 1021 (citations omitted).
As in Wilson, the evidence in this case does not support the conclusion that the murder was the result of a "spontaneous, blind and unreasoning reaction" to the circumstances leading up to the murder. Compare Forehand v. State, 126 Fla. 464, 171 So. 241 (1936) (). When Napoles questioned Roberts' identity, Roberts took Napoles to his car, got the bat, walked Napoles back to the Omni, instructed Rimondi not to look and then repeatedly bludgeoned Napoles in the back of the head with the bat. This sequence of events alone evidences a fully formed conscious purpose to kill Napoles.
We also find that there was sufficient evidence upon which to base a felony murder conviction. Section 782.04(1)(a), Florida Statutes (1983) provides, in pertinent part:
The unlawful killing of a human being ... [w]hen committed by a person engaged in the perpetration of or in the attempt to perpetrate, any ... sexual battery ... is murder in the first degree.
Although as Roberts points out, it is clear from the record that the murder did not occur "during" the actual sexual battery on Rimondi, the murder of Napoles and subsequent sexual battery and kidnapping of Rimondi were part of the same criminal episode. See Jefferson v. State, 128 So.2d 132, 137 (Fla.1961) (); W.S.L. v. State, 470 So.2d 828 (Fla. 2d DCA 1985), quashed on other grounds, 485 So.2d 421 (Fla.1986) (). Pretending to be some type of law enforcement officer, Roberts approached what appeared to be either a lone female or a couple in a "lover's lane" area of a deserted beach. While frisking Rimondi, Roberts touched her breast and thighs, causing Napoles to become suspicious and to ask for identification. In response to this request, Roberts got the bat and beat Napoles until he appeared to be unconscious. He then grabbed Rimondi and attempted to rape her near the body. However, when it appeared that someone might be coming, Roberts instructed Rimondi to put her pants on and then immediately forced her into his car where he eventually raped her. The only logical inference to be drawn from this scenario is that Roberts killed Napoles in furtherance of his intent to rape Rimondi.
Although Roberts does not challenge the convictions for armed sexual battery and armed kidnapping, we also find that these convictions are adequately supported by the record.
Roberts' second point on appeal involves the trial court's failure to attend the jury's view of the tract of beach where the body was found. Roberts argues that the trial court's failure to attend the view, as mandated by section 918.05, Florida Statutes (1983), constituted a fundamental per se reversible error under this Court's decisions in McCollum v. State, 74 So.2d 74 (Fla.1954) and Dodd v. State, 209 So.2d 666 (Fla.1968).
Section 918.05, Florida Statutes provides:
View by jury.--When a court determines that it is proper for the jury to view a place where the offense may have been committed or other material events may have occurred, it may order the jury to be conducted in a body to the place, in custody of a proper officer. The court shall admonish the officer that no person, including the officer, shall be allowed to communicate with the jury about any subject connected with the trial. The jury shall be returned to the courtroom in accordance with the directions of the court. The judge and defendant, unless the defendant absents himself without permission of court, shall be present, and the prosecuting attorney and defense counsel may be present at the view.
(Emphasis added). In McCollum we held that since section 918.05 contain...
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