SC02-860 James Guzman v. State of Florida

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State: Florida

Docket No: SC02-860

Case Date: 03/04/2004

Preview:Supreme Court of Florida
_________________________ Nos. SC02-860 & SC02-2131 _________________________

JAMES GUZMAN, Appellant, vs. STATE OF FLORIDA, Appellee. _________________________

JAMES GUZMAN, Petitioner, vs. STATE OF FLORIDA, Respondent. REVISED OPINION [November 20, 2003] PER CURIAM. James Guzman appeals an order of the circuit court denying his motion for postconviction relief under Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850. Guzman also files a petition for a writ of habeas corpus. We have jurisdiction under article

V, section 3(b)(1) and (9) of the Florida Constitution. For the following reasons, we affirm the circuit court's order as to most of the issues presented in Guzman's rule 3.850 motion, but we remand this case to the circuit court for a ruling on Guzman's Giglio1 claim as discussed below. We deny Guzman's petition for a writ of habeas corpus. BACKGROUND On August 12, 1991, David Colvin's body was found lying face down on the bed in the motel room where he lived. Colvin had been stabbed nineteen times. A samurai sword that belonged to Colvin was propped up in a light fixture above his bed; however, no blood or fingerprints were found on the samurai sword. The medical examiner determined that Colvin died between 3 p.m. and midnight on August 10. After Colvin's body was found, police officers interviewed other residents of the motel where Colvin had lived. About a week before the murder, Guzman and Martha Cronin, a prostitute and a crack cocaine addict, had begun living together at the motel. The police interviewed both Guzman and Cronin. Each denied having any information about Colvin's murder. On August 16, 1991, the State published in two local newspapers a reward offer of $500 for information 1. Giglio v. United States, 405 U.S. 150 (1972).
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about the case. The police investigation failed to lead to an arrest until November 23, 1991, when Cronin was arrested on prostitution charges. Cronin volunteered to testify about Colvin's murder in exchange for a deal in her own case. Cronin then told the police that Guzman had confessed to her that he killed Colvin. The police took Cronin to a motel and paid for her room. Cronin used the room for prostitution and used crack cocaine; then she left the motel. The police later rearrested Cronin. On January 3, 1992, the police paid Cronin $500 by money order delivered to the Volusia County jail. The police detective who arranged the payment could not recall when she first discussed the reward money with Cronin. Guzman was arrested on December 13, 1991. In January 1992, a grand jury indicted Guzman for the armed robbery and murder of David Colvin. Following a jury trial in September 1992, Guzman was convicted as charged and sentenced to death. On direct appeal, this Court reversed and remanded for a new trial, holding that Guzman's right to a fair trial was violated because his public defender had a conflict of interest in representing both Guzman and a witness against Guzman. Guzman v. State, 644 So. 2d 996, 1000 (Fla. 1994). On retrial in December 1996, Guzman waived his right to a jury in both the guilt and penalty phases. The waiver was at the instance of Guzman and was
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contrary to the advice of his counsel. Guzman signed a written waiver. Both the trial court and Guzman's counsel questioned Guzman to ensure that Guzman's waiver was knowing, voluntary, and intelligent. At trial, the medical examiner testified that the weapon used to kill Colvin was a single-edged knife or knife-like object with a slightly curved, heavy blade. The medical examiner could not identify the murder weapon used, but he said that Colvin's samurai sword could have inflicted some of Colvin's wounds and that a survival knife like one owned by Guzman2 could have inflicted other wounds. Guzman's fingerprints were on the telephone in Colvin's room. There were blood stains on other parts of the phone, but Guzman's fingerprints on the phone were not bloody. Blood and saliva samples were taken from Guzman, but nothing was matched to anything found in Colvin's room. No other physical evidence connected Guzman to the murder. Guzman testified at trial that on the day before the murder, Guzman helped Colvin move from one room to another in the motel. Guzman said that he used the phone in Colvin's room at that time and again on the morning of August 10. Cronin confirmed that Guzman telephoned her from Colvin's room.

2. At the time of Guzman's arrest for Colvin's murder on December 13, 1991, Guzman had a survival knife in his possession.
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On the morning of August 10, Guzman and Colvin left the motel in Colvin's car. They drank beer at a bar, then went to the International House of Pancakes to eat breakfast. Guzman testified that he and Colvin returned to the motel at about noon. Guzman said that he gave Colvin's car and room keys back to Colvin and returned to his own room, where Cronin was getting ready to go to work as a prostitute. Cronin left the room at around noon. Guzman testified that at about 3 p.m., Cronin returned to the room accompanied by Curtis Wallace. Guzman said that Wallace gave him a diamond ring, asking Guzman to trade the ring for crack cocaine. It is undisputed that on August 10, at around 4 p.m. or 5 p.m., Guzman took the ring, which had belonged to Colvin, to a drug dealer named Leroy Gadson. Guzman sold the ring to Gadson for drugs and cash. Guzman testified that he then returned to the room and gave Wallace some of the drugs. Cronin's testimony at trial contradicted Guzman's. Cronin said that on the morning of August 10 Guzman told her that he was going to drive Colvin to the bank. Cronin stated that Guzman returned to their room at about 11 a.m. and showed her Colvin's car keys and room keys, saying he was going to help Colvin move to another room in the motel. Cronin said she left the room at about 11 a.m. to work as a prostitute, and returned at about 2:30 p.m. She said that at about 3
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p.m. Guzman came back to their room, looking upset and carrying a garbage bag that contained white rags. Cronin said that Guzman told her he killed Colvin. She said Guzman told her that Colvin woke up while Guzman was in the process of robbing him, so Guzman hit Colvin in the head and then stabbed him with the samurai sword. Cronin said that Guzman showed her a ring and some cash he had taken from Colvin. Cronin identified the ring at trial. Cronin said that Guzman told her before the murder that Colvin would be easy to rob because he was always drunk and usually had money. Cronin testified that Guzman had said in a separate conversation that if he ever robbed anyone he would kill them, and that Guzman was holding his survival knife when he said this. Cronin said that when she was arrested for prostitution in November 1991, she offered to tell the arresting officers who killed Colvin. However, Cronin denied that she received any deal for her testimony against Guzman. She said she was taken to a motel room for protection, but that she used the room for prostitution and continued to use crack cocaine, so she got no deal from the State. The detective who paid the $500 to Cronin also testified at trial, stating that Cronin received no deal for her testimony against Guzman. Guzman's counsel attempted to impeach Cronin by bringing out that she was a prostitute and a drug addict, that she testified against Guzman while she
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faced charges of prostitution, and that she was angry at Guzman because he was involved with other women. Guzman's counsel also presented the testimony of Carmelo Garcia, who said Cronin told him in February of 1992 that Guzman had not killed anyone and that Cronin admitted she had lied to the police because she had been arrested. Paul Rogers, a jailhouse informant, corroborated Cronin's testimony against Guzman. Rogers and Guzman shared a jail cell during the spring of 1992. At trial, Rogers testified that Guzman said that he robbed and killed Colvin. Rogers testified that Guzman told him that he used Colvin's key to enter Colvin's room, and that Colvin woke up while Guzman was robbing him. Rogers said that Guzman told him that he hit Colvin in the head with a samurai sword and stabbed him ten or eleven times. Rogers said Guzman confessed that he took Colvin's ring and some cash, cleaned up the sword, and put everything in the dumpster. Guzman's counsel attempted to impeach Rogers by asking if Rogers had read Guzman's trial papers, which Guzman kept in the cell they shared, but Rogers denied reading Guzman's papers. Rogers also denied learning of the case by reading the newspaper. Rogers admitted that after he initially told police that Guzman confessed to him, Rogers had signed an affidavit saying he knew nothing about Colvin's murder and indicating that he would not testify against Guzman.
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Following the presentation of this evidence at a bench trial, the trial court convicted Guzman of armed robbery and first-degree murder, and imposed the death penalty. In its sentencing order, the court found five aggravating factors, including that the murder was committed in a cold, calculated, and premeditated manner (CCP).3 The court found no statutory mitigating factors. As nonstatutory mitigation, the court found that Guzman's alcohol and drug dependency was entitled to little weight. On direct appeal from his second trial, Guzman raised eight issues.4 This Court held that the evidence did not support the CCP aggravator, but affirmed Guzman's convictions and death sentence. Guzman v. State, 721 So. 2d 1155 (Fla. 1998). The United States Supreme Court denied certiorari. Guzman v. Florida, 526 U.S. 1102 (1999).

3. The five aggravating factors found by the trial court were: (1) Guzman was previously convicted of a violent felony; (2) the murder was committed in the course of a robbery; (3) the murder was committed for the purpose of avoiding arrest; (4) the murder was committed in a cold, calculated, and premeditated manner (CCP); and (5) the murder was especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel (HAC). 4. Guzman contended that the trial judge erred by (1) improperly denying his motion for mistrial; (2) convicting him in the absence of substantial and competent evidence of guilt; (3) failing to dismiss the case due to double jeopardy; (4) improperly ruling on "various issues"; (5) imposing a disproportionate death sentence; (6) improperly finding the HAC aggravator; (7) improperly finding the "avoiding arrest" aggravator; and (8) improperly finding the CCP aggravator.
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Guzman filed a rule 3.850 motion for postconviction relief on March 27, 2000, and an amended motion on November 30, 2000, raising eleven claims.5 During the pendency of his 3.850 motion, Guzman filed a motion for DNA testing of a clump of hair recovered from the back of Colvin's thigh at the murder scene.6 The State filed a response stating that the hair evidence had been destroyed in November 1992. Guzman amended his 3.850 motion to add three claims related to the destruction of the hair evidence.7 The postconviction court, which was the

5. The eleven claims Guzman presented to the trial court in his 3.850 motion were: (1) his conviction and sentence on retrial violate double jeopardy as well as protections against prosecutorial misconduct and ineffective assistance of counsel; (2) ineffective assistance of counsel in the guilt phase in failing to present evidence, cross-examine witnesses, and use experts; (3) ineffective assistance of counsel in the penalty phase in failing to adequately investigate and present mitigating evidence, and in failing to adequately challenge the State's case; (4) failure of the mental health expert to conduct a competent evaluation; (5) violation of due process rights in the State's withholding material exculpatory evidence or failing to correct material false testimony; (6) prosecutorial misconduct in presenting misleading evidence and improper argument; (7) Florida's capital sentencing statute is unconstitutional; (8) execution by electrocution is cruel and unusual punishment; (9) execution by lethal injection is cruel and unusual punishment; (10) defendant may be incompetent at the time of execution; and (11) the cumulative effect of the errors deprived defendant of a fundamentally fair trial. 6. Florida's DNA statute, section 925.11, Florida Statutes (2002), was enacted effective October 1, 2001, giving Guzman the right to this testing. 7. The three claims Guzman added were: (12) the State's bad faith destruction of exculpatory evidence violated Guzman's due process rights; (13) the State committed a violation of Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83 (1963), by
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same court that convicted and sentenced Guzman, held an evidentiary hearing on Guzman's 3.850 motion and denied relief. Guzman appeals the postconviction court's denial of his rule 3.850 motion, and contemporaneously petitions this Court for a writ of habeas corpus. RULE 3.850 APPEAL Guzman asserts that the circuit court erred in denying four claims: (1) the State committed a Giglio violation by permitting false testimony at trial denying that State witness Martha Cronin was paid for her testimony against Guzman; (2) the State committed a Brady violation by failing to disclose to the defense the State's $500 payment to Cronin; (3) the State destroyed potentially exculpatory DNA evidence

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