Case Name: Leonardo FRANQUI, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee
Court: Florida Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Florida
Decision Date: 1997-07-03
Citations: 699 So. 2d 1332
Docket Number: No. 84701
Parties: Leonardo FRANQUI, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.
Judges: OVERTON, SHAW, GRIMES and WELLS, JJ., concur.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 699
Pages: 1332–1343

Head Matter:
Leonardo FRANQUI, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.
No. 84701.
Supreme Court of Florida.
July 3, 1997.
Rehearing Denied Oct. 7, 1997.
Eric M. Cohen, Miami, for Appellant.
Robert A. Butterworth, Attorney General and Randall Sutton, Assistant Attorney General, Miami, for Appellee.

Opinion:
PER CURIAM.
We have on appeal the judgment and sentence of the trial court imposing the death penalty upon Leonardo Franqui. We have jurisdiction. Art. V, § 3(b)(1), Fla. Const. We affirm Franqui's convictions. However, because we find a violation of appellant's Sixth Amendment constitutional right to confront his accusers, we reverse his death sentence and remand for a new sentencing proceeding before a jury.
FACTS
The defendant, Leonardo Franqui, along with codefendants Pablo San Martin, Ricardo Gonzalez, Fernando Fernandez, and Pablo Abreu were charged with first-degree murder of a law enforcement officer, armed robbery with a firearm, aggravated assault, unlawful possession of a firearm while engaged in a criminal offense, grand theft third degree, and burglary. Franqui, Gonzalez, and San Martin were tried together before a jury in May, 1994.
The record reflects that the Kislak National Bank in North Miami, Florida, was robbed by four gunmen on January 3, 1992. The perpetrators made their getaway in two stolen grey Chevrolet Caprice ears after taking a cash box from one of the drive-in tellers. During the robbery, Police Officer Steven Bauer was shot and killed. Shortly after the robbery, the vehicles were found abandoned two blocks west of the bank.
Approximately two weeks later, codefend-ant Gonzalez was stopped by police after leaving his residence on January 18, 1992. He subsequently made unrecorded and recorded confessions in which he told police that Franqui had planned the robbery, involved the other participants and himself in the scheme, and chosen the location and date for the crime. He said that Franqui had procured the two stolen Chevys, driven one of the cars, and supplied him with the gun he used during the robbery. He further stated that Franqui was the first shooter and shot at the victim three or four times, while he had shot only once. Gonzalez indicated that he shot low and believed he had only wounded the victim in the leg. Gonzalez consented to a search of his apartment which revealed $1200 of the stolen money in his bedroom closet. He was subsequently reinterviewed by police and, among other things, described how Franqui had shouted at the victim not to move before shooting him.
Franqui was also questioned by police on January 18, 1992, in a series of unrecorded and recorded sessions. During his preinter-view, Franqui initially denied any involvement in the Kislak Bank robbery, but when confronted with the fact that his accomplices were in custody and had implicated him, he ultimately confessed. Franqui stated that Fernandez had hatched the idea for the robbery after talking to a black male, and he had accompanied the two men to the bank a week before the robbery actually took place. He maintained that the black male friend of Fernandez had suggested the use of the two stolen cars but denied any involvement in the thefts of the vehicles. According to Franqui, San Martin, Fernandez and Abreu had stolen the vehicles. Franqui did admit to police that he and Gonzalez were armed during the episode, but stated that it was Gonzalez — and not himself — who yelled at the victim to "freeze" when they saw him pulling out his gun. Franqui denied firing the first shot and maintained that he fired only one shot later.
At trial, over the objection of Franqui, the confessions of codefendants San Martin and Gonzalez were introduced without deletion of their references to Franqui, upon the trial court's finding that their confessions "interlocked" with Franqui's own confession. In addition, an eyewitness identified Franqui as the driver of one of the Chevrolets leaving the bank after the robbery, and his fingerprints were found on the outside of one of the vehicles. Ballistics evidence demonstrated that codefendant Ricardo Gonzalez had fired the fatal shot from his .38 revolver, hitting the victim in the neck, and that Fran-qui had shot the victim in the leg with his .9 mm handgun.
Franqui was convicted on all counts, and after a penalty phase trial the jury recommended death by a vote of nine to three. The trial court followed the jury's recommendation and sentenced Franqui to death. Franqui presents the following claims on appeal: (1) that the trial court erred in denying Franqui's peremptory challenges of jurors Diaz and Andani; (2) that the trial court abused its discretion in granting the State's peremptory challenge of juror Pascual because the State's reasons for striking this juror were not gender neutral; (3) that the trial court erred in denying Franqui's motion for severance based upon the introduction of nontestifying codefendant Gonzalez's confession at their joint trial; (4) that the trial court erred in admitting the prosecutor's comments to the jury concerning the victim's personality and character; and (5) that the trial court erred in sentencing Franqui to death.
We find claim 2 to be procedurally barred under Joiner v. State, 618 So.2d 174 (Fla.1993), because defense counsel failed to properly renew his objection to juror Pascual before accepting the jury and allowing it be sworn. See Joiner, 618 So.2d at 176 n. 2 (requiring strict construction of rules of preservation because otherwise, the defense "could proceed to trial before a jury he un-qualifiedly accepted, knowing that in the event of an unfavorable verdict, he would hold a trump card entitling him to a new trial"). Similarly, we find claim 4, dealing with the prosecutor's allegedly improper comments appealing to jurors' sympathy also to be procedurally barred because it was not properly preserved for review. We also decline to address the merits of claim 5 because these sentencing issues are rendered moot by our decision here to remand for a new penalty phase trial. We address the remaining claims below.
JURY SELECTION
Franqui first contends that the trial court erred in denying his exercise of a peremptory challenge to excuse prospective juror Diaz from the jury. The initial colloquy on the issue was as follows:
MS. BRILL: Wait a minute, Judge, are they striking Aurelio Diaz? State would challenge that strike.
THE COURT: On Aurelio Diaz, let me hear your reasons. Mr. Diaz [the defense counsel], your grounds?
MR. DIAZ: I don't like him.
THE COURT: Okay, that, in that case I will have to disallow that being the reason, I will have to disallow your strike. As it is not a race neutral reason.
We have consistently held that trial courts have broad discretion in determining the pro priety of the exercise of peremptory challenges. Curtis v. State, 685 So.2d 1234 (Fla.1996); Files v. State, 613 So.2d 1301 (Fla.1992). We conclude that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in striking Franqui's peremptory challenge.
We cannot agree with the dissenting-opinion that the State's objection was insufficient to permit the trial court to make inquiry with respect to whether juror Diaz was being challenged for nonracial reasons. In support of their position, the dissenters rely on Windom v. State, 656 So.2d 432 (Fla.), cert. denied, — U.S. -, 116 S.Ct. 571, 133 L.Ed.2d 495 (1995), and Melbourne v. State, 679 So.2d 759 (Fla.1996), both of which stated that a party objecting to the other side's use of a peremptory challenge on racial grounds must show that the person being challenged is a member of a distinct racial group.
Our holding in Windom was that there was not a sufficient objection to reverse the trial court for not requiring the challenging party to provide race-neutral reasons for the challenge. Thus, the rationale of Windom would be pertinent if the trial court in the instant case had declined to inquire into the racial basis for the challenge. Here, however, the trial court clearly understood that the objection to the challenge of a venireperson in Dade County, who was born and raised in Havana, Cuba, and whose name was Aurelio Diaz, was being made on racial grounds. This is especially true because there was never any contention made to the trial court that prospective juror Diaz was not a member of a cognizable minority or that there should not be a Neil inquiry. Moreover, we have encouraged trial judges to err on the side of holding a Neil inquiry. State v. Slappy, 522 So.2d 18 (Fla.1988). See Curtis (upholding denial of peremptory challenge in face of contention that objecting party had failed to make a prima facie showing of discrimination). The facts of Melbourne are equally inapposite. In that case, the objection to the challenge was clearly made on racial grounds, but the objecting party failed to preserve the issue for review because the objection was not renewed before the jury was sworn.
Standing alone, defense counsel's statement, "I don't like him," may appear to be a race-neutral reason. However, the trial court was obligated to evaluate the credibility of this statement in the full context in which this statement was made. The present record reveals that juror Diaz was questioned extensively by the court, the State, and defense counsel. The questioning takes place over nearly a half-dozen pages of transcript and yields no obvious reason for disqualification. When defense counsel, as an afterthought, later made an attempt to justify the challenge with other reasons, it was the trial court's responsibility to evaluate these reasons to determine whether they were credible! As we explained in Melbourne, "the trial court's decision turns primarily on an assessment of credibility and will be affirmed on appeal unless clearly erroneous." 679 So.2d at 764-65. This trial court's determination to strike the challenge of prospective juror Diaz was not clearly erroneous.
ADMISSION OF CODEFENDANT'S STATEMENTS AGAINST FRANQUI
Franqui also asserts that the trial court erred by permitting the confession of his eodefendant Ricardo Gonzalez to be admitted against him in their joint trial and by denying his motion to sever his trial from that of his codefendant. In Franqui v. State, 699 So.2d 1312 (Fla.1997), we discussed in detail the law applicable to the admissibility of a codefendant's confession. In this case, there is no question that Gonzalez's confession interlocked with Franqui's confession in many respects and was substantially incriminating to Franqui. Moreover, we cannot say that the totality of the circumstances under which Gonzalez made his confession demonstrated the particularized guarantee of trustworthiness sufficient to overcome the presumption of unreliability that attaches to accomplices' hearsay confessions which implicate the defendant.
Thus, the admission of Gonzalez's confession was error. However, with respect to guilt, we conclude that the error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. Not only did Franqui confess to participating in the robbery, he also admitted shooting the victim. He does not contest the legality of his confession in this appeal. In addition, a bullet recovered from the victim came from Franqui's gun, and an eyewitness identified Franqui as the driver of one of the stolen cars leaving the scene of the crime. Finally, Franqui's fingerprints were also found on one of the stolen vehicles used to commit the crime. Thus, we conclude that there is no reasonable possibility that the erroneous admission of Gonzalez's confession contributed to Franqui's conviction for felony murder.
PENALTY
We agree, however, that Franqui's sentence must be reversed. In Gonzalez's confession he went into great detail in characterizing Franqui as the leader of the robbery plan, and this confession easily could have prejudiced Franqui in the penalty phase deliberations. Accordingly, we affirm Fran-qui's convictions but remand for a new penalty phase proceeding consistent with this opinion.
It is so ordered.
OVERTON, SHAW, GRIMES and WELLS, JJ., concur.
ANSTEAD, J., concurs in part and dissents in part with an opinion, in which KOGAN, C.J., concurs.
HARDING, J., dissents with an opinion, in which KOGAN, C.J., and ANSTEAD, J., concur.
. One count of aggravated assault and the unlawful possession of a firearm while engaged in a criminal offense were nol prossed by the State after its opening statement.
. San Martin also made a confession to police, in which he stated that the robbery was planned by a black friend of the codefendant Fernandez and that the planning occurred at Fernandez's apartment. San Martin admitted that he had grabbed the money tray during the robbery but could not say who carried guns or did the shooting.
. In this case, defense counsel accepted the jury panel "subject to our previous objection," but then allowed the trial court to define his objection as limited to jurors "Diaz, Andani and Weaver." At no time did defense counsel renew his objection to juror Pascual or otherwise disabuse the trial court of the notion that his objection to the jury was not limited to the three jurors specifically identified by the court.
. First, as Franqui concedes, the allegedly inflammatory comments made during the state's opening statement received no objection and therefore are unpreserved. Castor v. State, 365 So.2d 701 (Fla.1978). Similarly, we decline to address the alleged prosecutorial misconduct in relation to bank teller Hadley's testimony because it too failed to receive a sufficient objection. See Ferguson v. State, 417 So.2d 639, 641 (Fla.1982) (holding that objections must be made with sufficient specificity to apprise trial court of potential error and preserve point for appellate review). Finally, the potential error in allowing Ms. Chin-Watson, another bank teller whom the victim in this case was escorting when he was shot, to testify about her friendship with Officer Bauer was objected to at trial. Nevertheless, we find that Chin-Watson's brief statement, even if improper, was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. See Stein v. State, 632 So.2d 1361, 1367 (Fla.1994) (finding brief humanizing comments do not constitute grounds for reversal).
. In State v. Neil, 457 So.2d 481 (Fla.1984), we first authorized trial courts to make inquiry into whether peremptory challenges were being exercised for racial reasons.
. We also reject Franqui's contention that the trial court erred in refusing to permit him to challenge prospective juror Ondani.