Torrez v. State
| Decision Date | 22 April 2020 |
| Docket Number | No. 4D18-1277,4D18-1277 |
| Citation | 294 So.3d 390 |
| Parties | Cid TORREZ, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee. |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
Carey Haughwout, Public Defender, and Tatjana Ostapoff, Assistant Public Defender, West Palm Beach, for appellant.
Ashley Moody, Attorney General, Tallahassee, and Rachael Kaiman, Assistant Attorney General, West Palm Beach, for appellee.
Cid Lenin Torrez appeals his conviction and sentence for second-degree murder. He raises four issues on appeal, but only two merit discussion: (1) whether the trial court erred in admitting the cadaver dog evidence; and (2) whether the trial court erred in failing to make an independent finding of Torrez's competency to be sentenced.
Torrez was married to the victim, his wife Vilet Patricia Torrez ("Vilet"). In September 2011, Torrez moved out of the family home after a domestic incident in which he was violent towards Vilet. Although Torrez and Vilet were still married, they lived separately from that time on; Vilet stayed in the family home with the children and Torrez moved to an apartment.
Surveillance from a security camera showed Vilet in her vehicle entering the gate of her neighborhood in the early morning hours on the day of her disappearance. A neighbor's video surveillance camera also confirmed that Vilet's vehicle was on the street at that time. This was the last time that Vilet was seen or heard from. Records of Vilet's cell phone showed that her last phone calls were made at the same time that morning to Torrez's cellphone. Days later, Torrez called 911 to report Vilet missing. Law enforcement determined that Vilet neither conducted any financial activity, nor travelled after that date. Crime scene technicians found numerous blood stains on the staircase, the wall next to the staircase, and the light switch in the children's bedroom inside Vilet's home. The DNA profiles obtained from the sampled blood from the residence had a mixture of two individuals: Vilet and Torrez.
Because of the presence of blood stains in the home, and the suspicion they were dealing with a possible homicide, authorities decided to use a human remains detection dog or cadaver dog in their search. The detection dog named Canine Jewel, handled by Officer Gregory Strickland of the City of Miramar Police Department, was solely and extensively trained and certified to recognize the odor of human remains. The dog alerted several times to a grassy area by the home's front door and showed behavior consistent with detecting the odor of human remains.
The investigation into Vilet's disappearance proceeded over several months. Almost five months after their initial canvas of the suspected crime scene and surrounding area, Officer Strickland and Jewel were asked to help again. This time they deployed in the rear parking lot of a police station where there were several vehicles, including one owned by Torrez. Officer Strickland slightly opened the doors and trunks of the vehicles and Jewel again showed a behavioral change next to the rear door of Torrez's car consistent with an alert to the odor of human remains. When Jewel came to the car's trunk, she nudged it open further and jumped inside. Jewel sniffed between the floor of the trunk and the back seat and went into her trained final response, which tells the handler that she was as close as possible to the trained odor of human remains. Jewel also gave a trained final response to the odor of human remains in the backseat of the car.
Officer Strickland removed the carpet that covered the spare tire and tire jack inside the trunk. After he did, Jewel again jumped into the trunk, put her nose down in the wheel well where the spare tire would be, and gave an immediate trained final response as an alert to the odor of human remains.
Another search was done by Detective Juliana Martinez who worked as a full-time detective and part-time canine handler with the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office ("PBCSO"). Det. Martinez and Canine Piper assisted with a search of Torrez's vehicle independently of the search that Officer Strickland and Jewel performed. Piper also alerted, or exhibited a change in behavior, to the outside rear door of the vehicle and came to a final response at the seam of the rear door. Piper exhibited the same change in behavior at the trunk and gave another final response when she sniffed the seam of the trunk.
To this date, Vilet's body has not been located. However, the abovementioned evidence, in conjunction with other evidence adduced during the investigation, led authorities to charge Torrez for the alleged murder of his wife.
Before trial, Torrez moved to exclude any testimony of, and any evidence related to, the dogs and their handlers. He claimed the evidence did not meet the standard for admissibility of scientific evidence. The court held an evidentiary hearing and heard testimony from several witnesses.
Officer Strickland testified at the pretrial hearing regarding his qualifications as well as the training, certification and reliability of Jewel. He testified that he was a detective with the Miramar Police Department and had been a canine handler for the City of Miramar since 2006. At the end of 2006 or beginning of 2007 he was assigned canine "Jewel." Jewel came from California Task Force 6. She began her training with the Federal Emergency Management Association ("FEMA") and was shipped to Florida and issued to him. Jewel's target odor was human remains. He and Jewel went through a canine search specialist course which consisted of 400-500 hours of extensive training. They continued this regimen as in-the-field training and weekly-maintenance training. They were certified in 2007 in human remains detection after approximately a year of training. He conducted weekly-maintenance training with Jewel at a minimum of sixteen hours per month and applied for recertification once a year. Jewel was certified by the North American Police Working Dog Association ("NAPWDA") from 2007 through 2012. She always obtained certification. Officer Strickland recalled only one incident throughout this time when Jewel gave the final response in the absence of any human remains. This occurred when she was deployed in Texas after Hurricane Ike in December 2008 to identify human remains. Jewel gave a final response to an area of debris and after a search of that area was conducted the only thing located was a bucket of shrimp. However, human remains were recovered near that area several days later. Nevertheless, Officer Strickland attributed this initial false positive alert to the long and tedious hours they had been working and that Jewel wanted to play a little bit. Because of this response Jewel was remediated immediately and she would no longer show a trained final response to the odor of shrimp. There had been no other issues with Jewel since December of 2008. The training records for Jewel for 2012 were received in evidence as were Jewel's certifications from 2007 to 2012, and certifications from the NAPWDA. Those certifications required that Jewel find at least eleven of twelve "hides," which is approximately a ninety-one percent accuracy rate. Jewel has alerted to full decomposed bodies and has also alerted to skeletal remains. The longest period Officer Strickland was aware of Jewel alerting to the odor of human remains after the remains were removed was a week.
The court also heard testimony from Det. Martinez of the PBCSO. Det. Martinez testified she was a detective and part-time canine handler assigned to Canine Piper for nine years. The PBCSO purchased Piper, a black Labrador, from a company in California where she had been imprinted on the odor of human remains. Det. Martinez flew to California and attended a two-week handler course with Piper and then came back to Florida and attended a four-month academy with the PBCSO. After the academy, Piper was certified in detecting the scent of human remains. Piper was trained at least twice a month. Piper's 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012 training records and certifications were received in evidence. Det. Martinez testified that in the nine years she had Piper, Piper never failed to be certified. Det. Martinez also testified about how the Miramar Police Department contacted her to assist in a search of a parking lot behind the Miramar substation in August 2012. Det. Martinez described that when Piper detects the odor of human remains, she snaps her head, sometimes closes her mouth, sniffs certain areas, slows down and then sits as a final response.
The court also heard testimony from Nick Barbera, a trainer and handler for the PBCSO canine unit. He has been a handler for twenty years and a trainer for almost fifteen years. The PBCSO has forty-eight canines, two of which are human remains detection dogs. Barbera trains with Det. Martinez and Piper at least twice a month. He testified that in his experience, Piper is a reliable human remains detection dog. Barbera described the training he did with Piper, using human blood, tissue, placenta, bone and teeth. The PBCSO trains with their dogs outdoors eighty to ninety percent of the time. Like Det. Martinez, Barbera also described how Piper responds when she detects the odor of human remains. He stated that Piper snaps her head, slows down, and has respiratory changes. Barbera had seen Piper change behavior in response to animal odors but said that she would not alert and might only show interest.
The trial court also heard testimony from Dr. Kenneth Furton, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at Florida International University. He is also the Provost, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at the university. He has been a professor since 1988. His curriculum vitae was received in evidence. Dr. Furton has studied the chemicals that dogs use to...
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...that the jury ought to accord the .04 test result, it had no significance to the evidence's admissibility . Cf. Torrez v. State , 294 So. 3d 390, 403 (Fla. 4th DCA 2020) (finding cadaver dog expert testimony sufficiently reliable and noting that "[c]hallenges to an expert's measurements, me......
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...the sentence, order that a new competency evaluation be conducted, and hold a hearing on the new evaluation. See Torrez v. State, 294 So. 3d 390, 406 (Fla. 4th DCA 2020).JUDGMENT AFFIRMED. REMANDED for Further Proceedings. SASSO and NARDELLA, JJ., ...
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