Williams v. State

• Decision Date: 23 May 1962
• Docket Number: No. 31505,31505
• Citation: 143 So.2d 484
• Parties: James A. WILLIAMS, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

Page 484

143 So.2d 484

James A. WILLIAMS, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.

No. 31505.

Supreme Court of Florida.

May 23, 1962.

On Rehearing July 25, 1962.

Paul Lake, Tampa, for appellant.

Richard W. Ervin, Atty. Gen., and James G. Mahorner, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellee.

PER CURIAM.

July 16, 1958, the grand jury of Pinellas County filed an indictment in the circuit court charging James A. Williams with murder in the first degree in that, on the 26th day of April, 1958, he did unlawfully and with a premeditated design, shoot and kill Herman Kaplan with a deadly weapon, to wit, a pistol. November 14, 1960, the said James A. Williams came on for trial and on November 16, the jury returned a verdict of guilty of merder in the first degree without recommendation to merecy. Motion for new trial was seasonably made and overruled. December 7, 1960, the court adjudged the defendant guilty of murder in the first degree and sentenced him to be electrocuted. From the said judgment and sentence this appeal is prosecuted.

Appellant has urged eight questions as grounds for reversal, but we think they may be compressed into four questions as follows: (1) Is the evidence sufficient to support the verdict? (2) Did evidence relating to the crime at the Blue Grass Market May 24, 1958, 28 days after the crime at the H & K Market for which appellant was tried, exceed the bounds of relevancy as pointed out in Williams v. State, discussed later? (3) Did the trial court's demeanor towards defendant and his counsel We explore the second question first. Did the evidence relating to the crime at the Blue Grass Market, May 24, 1958, 28 days after the crime at the H & K Market for which appellant was being tried, exceed the bounds of relevancy?

during the trial, militate against defendant's receiving a fair and impartial trial? (4) Did the trial court commit error in permitting the jury to receive and carry with them to the jury room various forms of verdicts which had not been submitted to counsel for defendant?

In Williams v. State, Fla., 117 So.2d 473, appellant secured a reversal of a conviction for the identical offense for which he now seeks a second reversal. In said case we reiterated the rule governing the admission of evidence of other crimes in the trial of criminal cases which had been previously set forth in Williams v. State, Fla.1959, 110 So.2d 654. The above opinions stand for the proposition that evidence of any facts relevant to a material fact in issue, except where the sole relevancy is character or propensity of the accused, is admissible unless precluded by some specific exception or rule of exclusion. Relevant evidence will not be excluded merely because it relates to similar facts which point to the commission of a separate crime. Thus, for example, this court held that evidence pointing to the commission of another crime is admissible if it casts light upon the character of the crime under investigation by showing motive, intent, absence of mistake, common scheme, identity or a system or general pattern of criminality so that the evidence of the prior or subsequent offense would have a relevant or a material bearing on some essential aspect of the offense being tried.

In Williams v. State, supra, we further held that inasmuch as evidence of the later crime was admissible only because of its relevancy to the identity of the accused, the murder weapon and the similarity of pattern in the two robberies, the state went too far in its introduction of testimony about the later crime because the details of that testimony transcended the bounds of relevancy to the charge being tried, and made the later offense a feature instead of an indident of the offense being tried. The effect of such excessive testimony relating to the subsequent offense was to convert the development of facts relevant to the main issue of the guilt or innocence of the accused into an assault on his character in spite of the fact that defendant's character is insulated from attack unless he introduces the subject.

The unrelated crime about which relevant evidence is proffered was that committed at the Blue Grass Market in St. Petersburg 28 days after the crime at the H & K Market in which Herman Daplan was killed and for which defendant was tried. Under the rule as here stated, only such evidence of the crime at the Blue Grass Market as is relevant to show or which tends to show that defendant was present and participated in both the Blue Grass Market crime and the crime at the H & K Market, that he used the same pistol in the perpetration of both crimes, and that both followed a similar pattern is admissible. One witness testified that he saw a 'tall, dark, stout man' running away from the H & K Market soon after Kaplan was killed. Defendant did not answer to this description. There is no other direct evidence in this record that places defendant at or near the H & K Market when Kaplan was killed. We will give consideration to the weapon alleged to have been used in both crimes and the analysis of the spent bullets and cartridges by the ballistic expert later.

The indictment and trial of defendant was for the first degree murder of Herman Kaplan at the H & K Market. Most of the evidence has to do with an expose of the robbery and shooting at the Blue Grass Market. Many objects, such as pictures, bottles, pistols etc., were permitted to be introduced in evidence that Officers who conducted the investigations of the murder of Kaplan at the H & K Market and the subsequent robbery and shooting at the Blue Grass Market recovered various bullets and cartridge casings which were sent to the F.B.I. laboratory in Washington for examination by firearms experts. Five bullets were recovered in or near the body of Kaplan. Five cartridge casings were recovered in the H & K Market within a short distance of the place where Kaplan's body was discovered. One bullet was recovered from the body of Smith at the Blue Grass Market, and two other bullets were recovered in the Blue Grass Market near the place where Smith was shot. Two cartridge casings were recovered in the Blue Grass Market. All of said bullets and cartridge casings were examined by Marion E. Williams, a special agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation for twenty years, who was assigned to the F.B.I. laboratory in Washington. His duties were to examine firearms and give evidence as to his findings. The .25 caliber automatice pistol recovered from the trunk of the car in which the appellant was seen driving in Tampa, Florida, was also examined by Williams. At appellant's trial, Williams testified that his examination of all said bullets disclosed that each and every one of them were fired from the said .25 caliber automatic pistol. This examination consisted of comparing test-fired bullets from said .25 caliber pistol with the eight bullets recovered with the aid of an instrument known as a comparison-microscope. The microscopic examination of the bullets so testified about by Williams showed that those found at the H & K Market and those found at the Blue Grass Market had the same rifling markings produced on the bullet by the riflings of said .25 caliber pistol barrel. Williams also compared test-fired...