State v. Rambaran, No. 3D06-2400 (Fla. App. 10/31/2007), 3D06-2400.
| Decision Date | 31 October 2007 |
| Docket Number | No. 3D06-2400.,3D06-2400. |
| Parties | The State of Florida, Petitioner, v. Richard Rambaran and Danny Pierre-Louis, Respondents. |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
Appeal from the A Writ of Certiorari to the Circuit Court for Miami-Dade County, Lower Tribunal No. F01-36170 A, B, William Thomas, Judge.
Bill McCollum, Attorney General; Katherine Fernandez Rundle, State Attorney, and Christine E. Zahralban, Assistant State Attorney, for petitioner.
Charles G. White, for respondent Rambaran; Sidney P. Smith, for respondent Pierre-Louis.
Before SUAREZ and ROTHENBERG, JJ., and FLETCHER, Senior Judge.
The State seeks certiorari review of two orders issued by the trial court granting motions filed by Richard Rambaran ("Rambaran") and Danny Pierre-Louis ("Pierre-Louis") (or collectively "the defendants"), to sever counts 4 and 5 of the indictment, and to exclude the evidence pertaining to those counts, which the State sought to introduce either as charged crimes or as collateral crimes evidence. Because we conclude that the trial court departed from the essential requirements of the law in excluding this evidence and that the exclusion of this evidence will result in irreparable harm, we grant the State's petition with instructions to the trial court to allow counts 4 and 5 of the indictment to be tried with the other counts pled.
Leeah Thurston ("Leeah"), who was approximately sixteen years of age, became romantically involved with her neighbor, Rambaran, and gave birth to their son in 1999.
Two years after the birth of their child, Leeah decided to terminate her relationship with Rambaran, and on May 15, 2001, she agreed to meet with him at the hotel room where he was living at the time to discuss his visitation with their son. After briefly discussing their son, Rambaran told Leeah that he wanted to resume their relationship, and when she refused, Rambaran trapped her in the room, choked her, threatened her with a knife, threatened to kill her and himself, and shoved a towel into her mouth when she attempted to scream. After Rambaran released Leeah, she called the police, and Rambaran was arrested. He posted bond and was released, and the trial court issued a stay-away order.
Despite the stay-away order, Leeah and Rambaran unsuccessfully attempted a reconciliation. In mid-October, 2001, Rambaran told Leeah that he would not allow her to leave him. They argued, and Rambaran shoved Leeah across the room into a bureau. When he realized what he had done, Rambaran apologized and allowed Leeah to leave. After this incident, Leeah refused to see Rambaran again.
November 3, 2001-Count 6 of the Indictment (burglary with an assault and/or a battery on Leeah)
On November 2, 2001, Leeah, who was a nursing student and who had worked the evening shift at Mt. Sinai Medical Center, returned home and began studying. Rambaran called Leeah and asked to see her. Leeah told him she was going to go out to get something to eat and that she would not be home. When Leeah returned with her food at approximately 3:55 a.m. the next morning and opened the door of her car, Rambaran stepped in front of her door, blocking her exit, and demanded that she tell him where she had been. When Leeah tried to exit her car, Rambaran pushed her back inside, grabbed her head between his hands, and tried to snap her head sideways. When Leeah tried to reach the car horn Rambaran pushed her down onto the passenger seat, punched her in the eye, pulled out a kitchen knife, and held it to her neck while screaming that she was cheating on him.
At first, Leeah tried to calm Rambaran down. When she was unable to do so, she tried to hit him with a bottle, but she missed. With the knife pointed to her neck, Leeah asked Rambaran why he was doing this to her. Rambaran responded that he wanted Leeah to go home with him. Leeah, whose eyelid was torn, and whose mouth and face were swollen and bleeding, agreed to go with him, but she requested that he let her go inside her house to clean up first. Once inside, Leeah ran to her mother's room and called 911. Rambaran stood outside her home demanding that she open her window. Leeah refused, and Rambaran left before the police arrived. Leeah was treated for her injuries, received five sutures to her eyelid, and a BOLO was issued for Rambaran's arrest.
November 26, 2001-Counts 4 and 5 (attempted murder of Shay Williams and Kim Lowery)
Rambaran remained at large for three weeks. During this time, Leeah saw him parked across the street from her house two or three times and he approached her twice as she was leaving the house with other people. Although Leeah alerted the police several times, Rambaran eluded the police.
At approximately 9:00 p.m. on November 26, 2001, Shay Williams and Kim Lowery were in Leeah's car in the drive-through lane of a fast food restaurant when Pierre-Louis, who was driving a red Mitsubishi Eclipse rental car, blocked the car Shay Williams and Kim Lowery were in. Rambaran, who was in the car with Pierre-Louis, exited the rental car, approached Shay Williams, and demanded that Shay Williams "give it up," claiming that the car belonged to him. When Shay Williams refused, Rambaran threatened to kill him. Both Shay Williams and Kim Lowery saw a gun on the front seat of the rental car Rambaran and Pierre-Louis arrived in. Kim Lowery called for help, and when Rambaran and Pierre-Louis saw the police drive past the group, they got back into their rental car and drove off. As Shay Williams and Kim Lowery drove north on N.W. 27th Avenue, Pierre-Louis pulled alongside Williams and Lowery, Rambaran held up a firearm, and he told Shay Williams to get out of the car. In fear for his life, Shay Williams braked fast into a u-turn and sped off towards a police substation with Pierre-Louis in hot pursuit and Rambaran firing at them. One projectile penetrated the vehicle and passed over Kim Lowery's head, who had crawled into the back seat during the chase. When Shay Williams pulled into the police substation, Pierre-Louis and Rambaran terminated the chase and disappeared. Within two hours of this incident, Rambaran and Pierre-Louis exchanged the red Eclipse for a white Toyota at a car rental agency.
November 27, 2001-Counts 1, 2, and 3 (murder of Latoya Johnson, attempted murder of Leeah, and burglary with an assault and/or a battery)
Shay Williams called Leeah at work and told her what had happened. Leeah, who had already sent her baby out of town, was afraid that Rambaran would see her and Williams together and, therefore, asked a friend to pick her up from work. When Leeah approached her house, she spotted a white car parked nearby. Because Leeah believed Rambaran was in the car, she became frightened and asked her friend to drive past the house and to continue driving around for a couple of hours. At approximately midnight, Leeah called her house and spoke to her cousin Latoya and asked her to check to see whether Rambaran was in the vicinity. Although Latoya could not assure Leeah that Rambaran was not in the vicinity, Leeah decided to return home. Shortly after her arrival, Rambaran called Leeah and asked her if her boyfriend had told her that Rambaran had shot at him earlier. When Leeah denied that Williams was her boyfriend, Rambaran told Leeah he would "catch them" and "bury them both." He told Leeah that he was going to kill her and her whole family and put "all of y'all in body bags."
At approximately 2:00 a.m., Rambaran called Leeah again and asked her where she was staying in the house. Leeah refused to tell him and hung up the phone. At approximately 4:00 a.m., Leeah heard Latoya screaming. Latoya was in the room next to where Leeah was sleeping. When Leeah went to Latoya's room she found Rambaran straddling Latoya in her bed pressing a pillow against her head as she struggled.
Leeah ran back to her room, locked the door, and called 911. The operator kept Leeah on the line until the police arrived. Leeah heard someone pick up the phone, listen, and then drop the phone.
Latoya sustained six major stab wounds to her head, upper body, neck, and throat, with one wound penetrating through the back of her neck and into her arm. By the time the police arrived, Latoya was unresponsive and Rambaran was gone. Latoya died shortly thereafter from her wounds.
Rambaran fled the scene with Pierre-Louis, who was waiting near Leeah's house in the white Toyota rental car, which they later exchanged for a Mistubishi Lancer at the rental agency. Rambaran and Pierre-Louis were subsequently arrested and Rambaran's blood was found on the passenger side of the white Toyota used during the homicide, attempted murder, and burglary with an assault and/or a battery on November 27.
The defendants moved to sever counts 4 and 5, which are the attempted murders of Shay Williams and Kim Lowery on November 26, 2001. In response, the State objected to the severance of these charges, and the State moved to introduce the evidence of the attempted murders as collateral crimes evidence if the trial court granted the defendants' motion to sever counts 4 and 5. The State argued that the events that occurred on the evening of November 26 were inextricably intertwined with the burglary and attack upon Leeah with a kitchen knife on November 3. The State also argued that the events that occurred on November 26 were inextricably intertwined with the murder of Latoya, attempted murder of Leeah, and burglary that occurred during the early hours of November 27, only a few hours later. The trial court granted the defendants' motion to sever counts 4 and 5 and denied the State's motion to admit the evidence as collateral crimes evidence.
Although a trial court's order granting severance is generally not reviewable by certiorari...
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