Thomas v. State, 84256

• Decision Date: 20 March 1997
• Docket Number: No. 84256,84256
• Citation: 693 So.2d 951
• Parties: 22 Fla. L. Weekly S149 William Gregory THOMAS, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

Page 951

693 So.2d 951

22 Fla. L. Weekly S149

William Gregory THOMAS, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.

No. 84256.

Supreme Court of Florida.

March 20, 1997.

Rehearing Denied May 15, 1997.

Nancy Daniels, Public Defender, Second Judicial Circuit, Tallahassee, and Steven L. Seliger of Garcia and Seliger, Quincy, for Appellant.

Robert A. Butterworth, Attorney General, and Curtis M. French, Assistant Attorney General, Tallahassee, for Appellee.

PER CURIAM.

We have on appeal the judgment and sentence of the trial court imposing the death penalty on William Gregory Thomas. We have jurisdiction. Art. V, § 3(b)(1), Fla. Const. We affirm.

Thomas planned the kidnapping and murder of his wife, Rachel, in order to avoid paying his part of a settlement agreement in their pending divorce. Thomas and a friend, Douglas Schraud, went to Rachel's house, September 12, 1991, the day before a substantial payment was due, and Thomas beat, bound, and gagged Rachel. When Rachel tried to escape by hopping outside, Thomas knocked her to the ground and dragged her back inside by her hair. He then put her in the trunk of her car and drove off. She was never seen again.

Thomas was charged with first-degree murder, burglary and kidnapping. The State presented numerous witnesses to whom he had made incriminating statements. Thomas presented no evidence during the guilt phase and was found guilty on all counts. During the penalty phase, several witnesses testified on his behalf and Thomas himself took the stand. The jury recommended death by a vote of eleven to one, and the judge imposed a sentence of death based on five aggravating circumstances and no mitigating circumstances. ¹ Thomas appeals, raising nine issues. ²

Thomas first claims that the State failed to prove the corpus delicti of the crime. We disagree. This Court recently explained the theory underlying corpus delicti:

The phrase "corpus delicti" refers to proof independent of a confession that the crime charged was in fact committed. In order to prove corpus delicti in a homicide case, the state must establish: (1) the fact of death; (2) the criminal agency of another person as the cause thereof; and (3) the identity of the deceased person. Regarding the second element--the criminal agency of another--the proof need not show that the defendant committed the crime.

To admit a defendant's confession, the state must prove the corpus delicti either by direct or circumstantial evidence. It is enough if the evidence tends to show that the crime was committed; proof beyond a reasonable doubt is not mandatory. To support a conviction, however, the corpus delicti must be established beyond a reasonable doubt.

Meyers v. State, No. 85,617, slip op. at 2, --- So.2d ----, ---- (Fla. Mar. 13, 1997) (citations and footnote omitted).

In the present case, the State's evidence showed the following. Douglas Schraud was present when Thomas beat, bound and abducted Rachel in the trunk of her car. Later that day, Thomas met a friend at the Roosevelt Mall and the friend saw him park and abandon Rachel's car after wiping it down with a towel. Thomas's palm print was found on the hood of the car. Rachel has not been seen or heard from since. It was uncharacteristic of Rachel to miss appointments or to leave behind her family and son--she had never even stayed out all night before. She not only missed a planned evening with a friend, she left behind her gym bag, purse, driver's license, a photograph of her son, twenty dollars in cash she had obtained only an hour before she disappeared, all her clothes, and the $750 she had in her bank account. Moreover, she disappeared the day before payday. She had given coworkers no indication she was unhappy in her job, and had never expressed to her family any desire to leave or get away from it all. Although Rachel was a neat person and kept her home immaculate, after her disappearance her garage door was left standing wide open and the door into the house from the garage was left unlocked. There were signs of a struggle in the foyer, as well as blood on the baseboard and on the vent. Blankets were missing from the garage. Witnesses testified that Thomas wore tennis shoes the evening of the murder and there was a tennis shoe print on the floor of the garage. When asked by police, however, Thomas denied owning any tennis shoes, and the next day he collected all his tennis shoes and threw them away.

Based on the foregoing, we conclude that the State introduced sufficient evidence to prove the corpus delicti of the murder and to lay the predicate for admission of Thomas's inculpatory statements. See Meyers, slip op. at 2-3, at ---- - ----. We note that Thomas made many inculpatory statements and admissions. ³ The State introduced sufficient evidence to show that Rachel is dead and Thomas killed her. See generally Sochor v. State, 619 So.2d 285 (Fla.), cert. denied, 510 U.S. 1025, 114 S.Ct. 638, 126 L.Ed.2d 596 (1993). We find no error.

Thomas next claims that the trial court failed to address mitigating evidence in its sentencing order. We agree. This Court stated in Campbell v. State, 571 So.2d 415 (Fla.1990), that a sentencing court must "expressly evaluate in its written order each mitigating circumstance proposed by the defendant to determine whether it is supported by the evidence and whether, in the case of nonstatutory factors, it is truly of a mitigating nature." Id. at 419.

In the present case, Thomas presented several witnesses in mitigation. Ronald Haylett testified that Thomas was a good worker for Publix who showed up every day and did not cause trouble. Dorothy Locke said Thomas is a "delightful young man," who is "very loving" and good with her children. And Nancy Cabese, who met Thomas in prison, stated that she had "seen a lot of good in him." The trial court...