Rolling v. State

Decision Date20 March 1997
Docket NumberNo. 83638,83638
Citation695 So.2d 278
Parties22 Fla. L. Weekly S141, 22 Fla. L. Weekly S347 Danny Harold ROLLING, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.
CourtFlorida Supreme Court

Nancy A. Daniels, Public Defender; and Nada M. Carey, David A. Davis, Paula S. Saunders and Michael Wasserman, Assistant Public Defenders, Tallahassee, for Appellant.

Robert A. Butterworth, Attorney General, and Carolyn Snurkowski, Assistant Attorney General, Tallahassee, for Appellee.

REVISED OPINION

PER CURIAM.

Danny Harold Rolling, a prisoner under sentence of death, pled guilty to the murders of five college students--Sonya Larson, Christina Powell, Christa Hoyt, Manual Taboada and Tracy Paules--and other related charges. He now appeals the trial court's imposition of five death sentences after adjudicating him guilty of each of the murders and holding a penalty phase proceeding pursuant to section 921.141(1), Florida Statutes (1995). We have jurisdiction under article V, section 3(b)(1), of the Florida Constitution. For the reasons expressed below, we affirm the imposition of the death sentences.

FACTS OF THE CASE

The record reflects that in the early morning hours of August 24, 1990, Danny Rolling, armed with both an automatic pistol and a Marine Corps K-Bar knife, broke through the rear door of an apartment shared by college students Sonya Larson and Christina Powell. Upon entering the apartment, Rolling observed Christina Powell asleep on the downstairs couch. He stood over her briefly, but did not awaken her.

Rolling then crept upstairs where he found Sonya Larson asleep in her bedroom. After pausing to decide with which young woman he desired to have sexual relations, he attacked Ms. Larson as she lay in her bed, stabbing her first in the upper chest area.

He then placed a double strip of duct tape over her mouth to muffle her cries and continued to stab her as she unsuccessfully attempted to fend off his blows. During the attack, she was stabbed on her arms and received a slashing blow to her left thigh. Ms. Larson maintained consciousness for less than a minute and died as a direct result of the stab wounds inflicted by Rolling.

After killing Ms. Larson, Rolling returned to the downstairs of the apartment where Ms. Powell remained asleep. He pressed a double strip of tape over her mouth and taped her hands behind her back. Rolling cut off her clothing and undergarments with the K-Bar knife and sexually battered Ms. Powell, threatening her with the knife. Thereafter, Rolling forced her to lie facedown on the floor near the couch and stabbed her five times in the back, causing her death. Rolling posed the bodies of the victims and left the apartment.

Approximately forty-two hours later, during the evening hours of Saturday, August 25, Rolling broke into the apartment of college student Christa Hoyt, located about two miles away from the first crime scene, by prying open the sliding glass door with a screwdriver. Armed with the same automatic pistol and K-Bar knife, Rolling waited in the living room for the arrival of Ms. Hoyt, a young woman into whose bedroom he had peeked a few days earlier. When Ms. Hoyt eventually returned home at about 11 a.m., Rolling surprised her from behind, placing her in a choke-hold and subduing her after a brief struggle. He taped her mouth and her hands and then led her into her bedroom where, after cutting and tearing off her clothing and undergarments, he forced her onto her bed, threatened her with his knife, and sexually battered her. Rolling subsequently turned Ms. Hoyt facedown in her bed and stabbed her through the back, rupturing her aorta and killing her. Just as he had done with his first two victims, Rolling posed the body of his third victim and left the apartment.

A little over a day later, at approximately 3 a.m. on August 27, Rolling entered a third apartment, occupied by roommates and college students Tracy Paules and Manuel Taboada. Again, Rolling broke into the apartment by prying open the double-glass sliding door with the same screwdriver he used to enter Ms. Hoyt's apartment. Armed with the same pistol and knife, Rolling crept into one of the bedrooms where he found Manny Taboada asleep. Rolling attacked Taboada, stabbing him in the solar plexus and penetrating his thoracic vertebra. Taboada was awakened by the blow and struggled to fight off his assailant. Rolling repeatedly stabbed him on the arms, hands, chest, legs and face and eventually killed him.

Hearing the commotion caused by the struggle, Tracy Paules approached Taboada's bedroom and, catching a glimpse of Rolling, fled to her room where she attempted to lock her door. Rolling, who was covered with Taboada's blood, followed Ms. Paules and broke through her bedroom door. Rolling subdued her, taped her mouth and her hands, and cut or tore off her t-shirt. He sexually battered her and threatened her with his knife before turning her over on the bed and killing her with three stabbing blows to her back. Finally, Rolling cleaned and posed the body of Tracy Paules and left the apartment.

PROCEDURAL POSTURE

This case originated in the Eighth Judicial Circuit Court in and for Alachua County. On November 15, 1991, the grand jury of Alachua County indicted appellant, Danny Rolling, for these serial murders. He was charged with five counts of first-degree murder, three counts of sexual battery, and three counts of armed burglary of a dwelling with a battery. On June 9, 1992, Rolling entered a plea of not guilty on all counts. Subsequently, on February 15, 1994, the day set for trial, Rolling changed his plea to guilty on all counts. The trial court accepted Rolling's plea after reviewing with him the factual basis for it and adjudicated him guilty on all counts.

A penalty phase proceeding was held, and the jury recommended that Rolling be sentenced to death for each murder by a vote of twelve to zero. The trial court followed the jury's advisory recommendation and sentenced Rolling to death for each homicide Rolling raises six claims of error on appeal: (1) the trial court abused its discretion in denying his motion for a change of venue and thereby violated his Sixth Amendment right to be fairly tried by an impartial jury because pervasive and prejudicial pretrial publicity so infected the Gainesville and Alachua County community that seating an impartial jury there was patently impossible; (2) the trial court erred in denying Rolling's motion to suppress his statements which were obtained in violation of his Sixth Amendment right to counsel; (3) the trial court erred in denying Rolling's motion to sever and conduct three separate sentencing proceedings; (4) the trial court erred in denying Rolling's motion to suppress physical evidence seized from his tent because the warrantless search and seizure violated his reasonable expectation of privacy under the Fourth Amendment; (5) the trial court erred in finding as an aggravating circumstance that the homicide of Sonya Larson was especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel; and finally (6) the trial court erred by giving an invalid and unconstitutional jury instruction on the heinous, atrocious, or cruel aggravating circumstance. We now address each issue in turn.

finding four aggravating circumstances applicable to each homicide: (1) Rolling had been previously convicted of a violent felony; (2) each murder was cold, calculated, and premeditated; (3) each murder was heinous, atrocious, or cruel; (4) each murder was committed while Rolling was engaged in the commission of a burglary or sexual battery. The trial court found as statutory mitigating factors that (1) Rolling had the emotional age of a fifteen-year-old; and (2) Rolling committed the crimes while under the influence of extreme mental or emotional disturbance. As for nonstatutory mitigators, the trial court found: (1) Rolling came from a dysfunctional family where he suffered physical and mental abuse during his childhood, and this background contributed to his mental condition at the time of the offenses; (2) Rolling cooperated with law enforcement officers by confessing and entering a guilty plea on all counts, thereby saving the criminal justice system time and expense; (3) Rolling felt remorse for his actions; (4) Rolling's family has a history of mental illness; and (5) Rolling's ability to conform his conduct to the requirements of law was impaired because of his mental illness. 1

CHANGE OF VENUE

Rolling and his defense counsel made a deliberate and strategic choice not to file a motion for a change of venue at any time during the three years Rolling awaited trial for these offenses because they believed he could be fairly tried by an impartial jury in Gainesville. Instead, contrary to the dictate of Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.240(c), which requires that a change of venue motion be filed no less than ten days before trial, 2 Rolling waited until the sixth day of jury selection to request a change of venue for the first time, when defense counsel admitted to the court: "I have to swallow my pride and admit that I was incorrect in my original opinion that this case could be fairly tried here." 3 The trial court subsequently denied the motion after a hearing.

Rolling now argues on appeal that the trial court erred in denying his motion for a change of venue because the record shows the pretrial publicity in this case during the three and a half years between the time the murders occurred in August 1990 and Rolling's guilty plea in February 1994 was so pervasive and prejudicial that this Court must presume as a matter of law that the venire, as well as the actual members of the jury, were biased against him. Rolling points also to the responses of certain prospective and actual jurors during voir dire as To the contrary, the State, while candidly acknowledging that this case generated massive pretrial publicity, maintains that the three and...

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