Sexton v. State, 86132

• Decision Date: 17 July 1997
• Docket Number: No. 86132,86132
• Citation: 697 So.2d 833
• Parties: 22 Fla. L. Weekly S469 Eddie Lee SEXTON, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

Page 833

697 So.2d 833

22 Fla. L. Weekly S469

Eddie Lee SEXTON, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.

No. 86132.

Supreme Court of Florida.

July 17, 1997.

James Marion Moorman, Public Defender and Andrea Norgard, Assistant Public Defender, Tenth Judicial Circuit, Bartow, for Appellant.

Robert A. Butterworth, Attorney General and Carol M. Dittmar, Assistant Attorney General, Tampa, for Appellee.

PER CURIAM.

We have on appeal the judgment and sentence of the trial court imposing the death penalty upon Eddie Lee Sexton. We have jurisdiction. Art. V, § 3(b)(1), Fla. Const.

Sexton was convicted of first-degree murder for the death of Joel Good, the husband of Sexton's daughter Pixie. Good was strangled to death by Sexton's son Willie, who was named as a codefendant but later found incompetent to stand trial.

Sexton moved to Florida in 1993 with his family and the victim to avoid arrest and prevent authorities in Ohio from removing his children from the home. ¹ They originally stayed with Sexton's sister in Tampa but later moved to Hillsborough River State Park. While residing there, Sexton's infant grandchild, the son of Pixie and Joel, died under suspicious circumstances. ² Sexton had Willie and Joel bury the baby in the woods.

Joel, who was very upset over the death of the baby, wanted to go with Pixie and her two daughters back to Ohio. It was then she told Joel that Sexton was the father of her two girls. When Joel confronted Sexton with this information, Sexton told Joel that he would have to raise the children as his own and that he would not make it back to Ohio if he tried to go. Sexton told Pixie that he would report her for killing the baby if she left.

At some point, the family moved to Little Manatee State Park. Pixie testified to the following course of events. On the day of Joel's murder, Sexton, his wife, and the younger Sexton children left the campsite for a picnic. Sexton's daughter Sherry, Pixie, their respective children, Willie, and Joel stayed behind. Pixie saw Willie and Joel leave the camp site. She followed them into the woods, smoked with them, and then returned to the camper. Later, she heard Joel yell "Ed" (Sexton) and went back to the woods with Sherry, where they found Willie choking Joel with a rope. Willie instructed Pixie to go back to the camper. There she found Sexton, who had just returned from the picnic, and brought him back to where Willie and Joel were.

Pixie further testified that Joel was unconscious when Sexton arrived at the scene. Sexton kicked Joel's leg, and, upon seeing the leg move in response, told Willie to "finish him off." Sexton ordered Pixie to purchase a shovel and then he and Willie buried Joel's body while the others were instructed to get rid of Joel's belongings. Sexton told the family that Joel was supposed to have run off. Pixie said she heard Sexton tell his wife that night that he "had Willie do it." She had heard Sexton say Joel had to be "gotten rid of" on two other occasions. On one of those occasions (two weeks before the murder), Sexton had said Joel "had too much on him."

Sherry testified for the defense and gave a different version of events. According to Sherry, Pixie was involved with Willie in the assault on Joel and would not let Sherry go into the woods when she heard Joel yell for help. She also testified that Sexton was angry and upset with Willie and asked him why he had killed Joel. Willie responded that he was afraid Joel would tell about the baby's death. According to Sherry, Pixie said she was glad Joel was dead.

The jury recommended death by a vote of seven to five. The trial court found in aggravation (1) that Sexton was previously convicted of a prior violent felony (robbery); (2) that the murder was committed for the purpose of avoiding or preventing a lawful arrest; and (3) that the murder was committed in a cold, calculated, and premeditated manner without any pretense of legal or moral justification (CCP). ³ In mitigation, the trial court found that Sexton was under emotional strain due to the efforts of Ohio officials to take custody of his children; that he acted in a peculiar fashion at times; that he demonstrated some human qualities; that he played Santa Claus on at least one occasion and appeared to some as normal; and that letters from family members described Sexton as kind, respectful, and helpful. The trial court found that the evidence did not support the claim that Sexton was disabled and dependent on pain medication.

Finding that the aggravators outweighed the mitigators, the trial court sentenced Sexton to death.

Sexton raises four issues in this appeal. He first challenges the admission of testimony given by five of his children that he beat them, conducted "marriage" ceremonies with his daughters, had regular sex with them and fathered several of their children, encouraged his children to have sex with each other, made his sons compare their penis sizes and ridiculed them, practiced Satanism and engaged in other bizarre conduct, threatened his children if they discussed family matters with others, trained his children how to kill FBI agents, engaged in a standoff with police in Ohio shortly before coming to Florida, fled to Florida to prevent his children from being taken into custody, and directed the killing of his infant grandchild, who was Joel Good's son.

In support of his argument, Sexton contends that the trial court improperly admitted this evidence of collateral bad acts in violation of Williams v. State, 110 So.2d 654 (Fla.1959), which is codified in section 90.404(2)(a), Florida Statutes (1993). Saffor v. State, 660 So.2d 668, 670 (Fla.1995). Section 90.404(2)(a) provides:

Similar fact evidence of other crimes, wrongs, or acts is admissible when relevant to prove a material fact in issue, such as proof of motive, opportunity, intent, preparation, plan, knowledge, identity or absence of mistake or accident, but is inadmissible when the evidence is relevant solely to prove bad character or propensity.

The State counters that evidence of Sexton's collateral bad acts was not proffered and admitted as similar fact evidence under section 90.404(2)(a), but rather as "dissimilar fact" evidence under section 90.402, which simply states that all relevant evidence is admissible except as provided by law. Specifically, the State argued at trial that Sexton's prior bad acts were relevant to prove that Sexton had a motive to kill Joel Good; namely, that Joel Good knew that Sexton, who was on the run, was the father of his own grandchildren and was responsible at least in part for the death of Pixie and Joel's baby. The State also argued that evidence concerning Sexton's treatment of his children throughout the years was necessary to prove that Sexton controlled and directed every facet of Willie's life to such an extent that Willie would kill at his father's direction.

It is true that these collateral acts were not similar to the murder for which Sexton was tried in this case and therefore could not have been admitted under section 90.404(2)(a). See Garron v. State, 528 So.2d 353, 358-59 (Fla.1988). Indeed, the State did not proffer this evidence under section 90.404(2)(a). However, the fact that this evidence was not admissible under section 90.404(2)(a) does not mean that it was not admissible at all. As we stated in Williams, 110 So.2d at 659:

Our initial premise is the general canon of evidence that any fact relevant to prove a fact in issue is admissible into evidence unless its admissibility is precluded by some specific rule of exclusion. Viewing the problem at hand from this perspective, we begin by thinking in terms of a rule of admissibility as contrasted to a rule of exclusion.

Later, in Bryan v. State, 533 So.2d 744, 746 (Fla.1988), we explained:

Evidence of "other crimes" is not limited to other crimes with similar facts. So-called similar fact crimes are merely a special application of the general rule that all relevant evidence is...