Title: Shriner v. State
Citation: 386 So. 2d 525
Docket Number: 51749
State: Florida
Issuer: Florida Supreme Court
Date: May 22, 1980

386 So. 2d 525 (1980)
Carl Elson SHRINER, Appellant,
v.
STATE of Florida, Appellee.
No. 51749.

Supreme Court of Florida.
May 22, 1980.
Rehearing Denied August 27, 1980.
*527 Daniel T. O'Connell of O'Connell &amp; Hulslander, Gainesville, for appellant.
Jim Smith, Atty. Gen., and A.S. Johnston, Asst. Atty. Gen., Tallahassee, for appellee.
PER CURIAM.
Appellant, Carl Elson Shriner, was convicted of one count of murder in the first degree. The jury recommended and the trial judge imposed a sentence of death. Jurisdiction vests in this Court pursuant to article V, section 3(b)(1), Florida Constitution. We affirm the conviction and sentence.[1]
The following facts came to light at trial. At approximately 1:30 a.m. on Friday, October 22, 1977, two young women entered a Gainesville convenience store (Majik Market). Two other persons were in the store at that time, the store clerk, Judith Carter, and a male customer. The women made their purchases ahead of the male customer and departed. The man was in his midtwenties, of medium height, slender; he had a receding hairline, medium to dark brown collar-length hair, dark eyes, a mustache and a three-to-four-day-old beard.
At 6:15 a.m. the same morning, James Grills went into the Majik Market and discovered the dead body of Judith Carter. He summoned police who arrived at about 6:30 a.m. Gainesville police investigator Mason photographed the scene and recovered three projectiles from the store. Associate district medical examiner Clark later recovered two projectiles from the body.
Alachua County deputy sheriff Denson went on duty Saturday at 3:30 p.m., October 23, 1976, and received a be-on-lookout bulletin (BOLO) with a written description and two composite sketches attached. The description and sketches were based in part on information obtained from the two young women at the Majik Market and on an eyewitness account of an armed robbery which took place early Friday morning at an 8 Days Inn. At 4:00 p.m. that Saturday, deputy Denson stopped opposite a car at a stop sign. The passenger in the car matched the description in the BOLO. Denson stopped the car, advised the passenger of his Miranda[2] rights and asked him *528 some questions. After learning that the passenger had recently been released from prison, Denson took him into custody. The passenger was Carl Shriner.
Upon arrival at the Alachua County sheriff headquarters, detectives readvised appellant of his Miranda rights. Appellant signed in four separate places a form constituting an acknowledgment of understanding of Miranda rights, a waiver of the right to have an attorney present during questioning, a consent to be interviewed and a consent to make a statement. Shriner gave his local address as 1223 Northeast Eighteenth Avenue, where he and Carol Griffis lived at the home of John and Nancy Rapp. John Rapp was the driver of the car in which appellant was apprehended. Shriner had an Arizona driver's license bearing the name Carl Elson Shriner and the address 514 W. Buist, Phoenix, Arizona, and $338 in his wallet.
A gunman robbed the 8 Days Inn in Gainesville at about 3:00 a.m. Friday, October 22, 1976,[3] under the following circumstances. While waiting for the security guard to leave the immediate area, a man asked the clerk for a room and filled out a guest registration form. He robbed the clerk and took the form with him, but not before the clerk had removed two of the five copies. It was signed "Rob E. Williams, 514 W. Buist, Phoenix, Ariz." The motel clerk identified appellant as the culprit in a photo lineup and at trial.[4]
At the sheriff's office appellant signed a written consent to search the portion of the Rapp residence occupied by him. After John and Nancy Rapp consented in writing to a search of the remainder of their home, the police discovered a Smith and Wesson.38 caliber revolver hidden in a chair in the Rapp children's living room. FBI firearms identification expert Bollenbach took possession of the gun and the five projectiles found in the Majik Market and determined conclusively that the projectiles were fired from that gun.[5]
Appellant was taken to the Gainesville Police Department at 7:30 p.m., Saturday, October 23, 1976. He signed a waiver and consent form after being readvised of his Miranda rights. Numerous law enforcement officers and an assistant state attorney participated in the ensuing interrogation, which continued from 9:00 p.m. until 2:45 a.m. the following morning. Appellant first offered to Sergeant Blitch a number of inconsistent accounts of his knowledge of the murder and confessed only to the 8 Days Inn robbery. At approximately 1:00 a.m. Sunday, October 24, 1976, during questioning by assistant state attorney Nilon and with Blitch out of the room, Shriner made some equivocal statements evincing an apparent desire to terminate questioning about the 8 Days Inn robbery.[6] Nilon proceeded to other subjects and the interrogation continued. At 2:00 a.m., with Sergeant Blitch present, appellant confessed to the murder of Judith Carter.
Appellant presents a plethora of issues for our consideration, several of which do not merit discussion. His first colorable contention is that his arrest was illegal because of a lack of probable cause. We disagree. A law enforcement officer has probable cause to arrest if he has reasonable grounds to believe that the person arrested has committed a felony. State v. Outten, 206 So. 2d 392, 397 (Fla. 1968). The facts constituting probable cause need not meet the standard of conclusiveness and probability required of the circumstantial facts upon which a conviction must be based. Id. Here, the sketches attached to the police BOLO bore a striking resemblance to appellant, thus furnishing deputy Denson with reasonable grounds to believe that appellant had committed the robberies.
Of considerably greater difficulty is whether, although otherwise voluntary, Shriner's confession must be suppressed because *529 of his claim that the police persisted in questioning him after he indicated an unwillingness to answer questions on a particular subject. Appellant relies upon the following language in Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 473-74, 86 S. Ct. 1602, 1627-1628, 16 L.Ed.2d 694:
Miranda required exclusion of any statements stemming from custodial interrogation unless the prosecution demonstrated compliance with its specific prophylactic safeguards.[7] If law enforcement officers fail to give the specified warnings before interrogation or fail to follow the Miranda guidelines during interrogation, the statement thus derived may be suppressed, even though otherwise "wholly voluntary." Michigan v. Mosley, 423 U.S. 96, 96 S. Ct. 321, 46 L. Ed. 2d 313 (1975); Michigan v. Tucker, 417 U.S. 433, 94 S. Ct. 2357, 41 L. Ed. 2d 182 (1974).
In Michigan v. Mosley, police questioning was held proper even though the accused had earlier indicated his desire to remain silent. The Supreme Court rejected a strict rule which would totally preclude all further custodial interrogation.[8] At the same time it observed that to construe Miranda to require only a pause in questioning, with a resumption of interrogation after only a momentary respite, would effectively undermine the will of the accused:
423 U.S.  at 102-04, 96 S. Ct.  at 326 (Footnotes omitted).
Turning to the facts here, it appears that during interrogation by assistant state attorney James Nilon, Shriner indicated a desire to stop talking about the 8 Days Inn robbery. At the hearing on the motion to suppress Nilon described the episode in this way:
TH 100-101.
TH 107-108.
At trial Mr. Nilon offered this account:
BY MR. KEARNS:
TT 720-722.
TT 727-28.
Appellant testified in his own behalf at the motion to suppress but made no mention of any desire to terminate questioning.
We are satisfied that, based on Mr. Nilon's testimony and the absence of rebuttal evidence to the contrary, the trial judge correctly concluded that appellant wanted to terminate questioning only insofar as it related to the 8 Days Inn robbery. We are similarly satisfied that Mr. Nilon respected appellant's partial exercise of his Miranda privilege and restricted further questioning to other areas. Given this posture, the police did not run afoul of Miranda and Mosley by continuing the interrogation:
United States v. Vasquez, 476 F.2d 730, 732-33 (5th Cir.1973); accord, Smith v. United States, 505 F.2d 824 (6th Cir.1974); United States v. Matthews, 417 F. Supp. 813 (E.D.Pa.), aff'd., 547 F.2d 1165 (3d Cir.1976), cert. denied, 429 U.S. 1111, 97 S. Ct. 1148, 51 L. Ed. 2d 565 (1977).
Hence, appellant's confession was properly admitted at trial.
Appellant next asserts error in the admission of evidence relating to the 8 Days Inn robbery. He properly cites Williams v. State, 117 So. 2d 473 (Fla. 1960), for the proposition that evidence of other crimes is inadmissible if offered solely for the purpose of showing bad character or propensity. However, Williams does permit evidence of other crimes
Ashley v. State, 265 So. 2d 685, 693 (Fla. 1972).
Relevancy is the test; if the proffered evidence is relevant for any purpose other than to show bad character or propensity, it should be admitted. Id.
We concur in the trial judge's ruling that evidence of the 8 Days Inn robbery was admissible to prove identity. The following facts adduced at trial make apparent the relevancy of this evidence: (1) police found a .38 caliber gun and cartridges *533 in appellant's residence;[10] (2) ballistics expert Bollenbach identified the gun found in appellant's residence as the murder weapon;[11] (3) at 3:00 a.m., only ninety minutes after Judith Carter's murder, a man robbed the 8 Days Inn. The hotel clerk identified appellant as the culprit and testified that the gun used in the robbery closely resembled the murder weapon.[12] Thus, the evidence of the 8 Days Inn robbery, if believed by the jury, places the murder weapon in the hands of appellant within ninety minutes of Judith Carter's demise. Such evidence is clearly probative of the murderer's identity.
The remaining issues involve the sentencing phase of the trial. Appellant's constitutional attack on the death penalty has been thoroughly canvassed in prior decisions and found groundless. Proffitt v. Florida, 428 U.S. 242, 96 S. Ct. 2960, 49 L. Ed. 2d 913 (1976); Alford v. State, 307 So. 2d 433 (Fla. 1975), cert. denied, 428 U.S. 912, 96 S. Ct. 3227, 49 L. Ed. 2d 1221 (1976); State v. Dixon, 283 So. 2d 1 (Fla. 1973), cert. denied, 416 U.S. 943, 94 S. Ct. 1950, 40 L. Ed. 2d 295 (1974). Equally meritless is the contention that it was error to exclude the testimony of a priest who had witnessed an execution by electrocution. While it is settled that an advisory jury and trial judge may consider evidence of mitigating factors beyond those enumerated in section 921.141(6), Florida Statutes (1977),[13] the evidence must be relevant to the sentencing inquiry. We do not believe that a descriptive account of an electrocution would aid the jury or judge in their effort to apply section 921.141 fairly and correctly. Indeed, such evidence would more likely serve to distort and obfuscate the sentencing process.
Appellant contends finally that his death sentence is fatally defective because the judge considered nonstatutory aggravating circumstances. The relevant portions of the judge's findings are as follows:
As a preliminary matter, the record is replete with evidence to support the judge's finding of aggravating circumstances numbered two and four.[14] The record also supports the finding of no mitigating circumstances. It is not clear, however, whether the judge considered appellant's disciplinary record as an aggravating circumstance. Even if we assume that the disciplinary problem was so treated, the error was harmless. We have here two valid aggravating circumstances counterbalanced by no mitigating circumstances. Since death is presumed in this situation,[15] improper consideration of a nonstatutory factor does not render the sentence invalid:
Elledge v. State, 346 So. 2d 998, 1002-03 (Fla. 1977) (emphasis in original).
Accordingly, the judgment of guilt and the sentence of death are affirmed.
It is so ordered.
ENGLAND, C.J., and ADKINS, BOYD, OVERTON, SUNDBERG and ALDERMAN, JJ., concur.
[1]  References to specific pages in the record will be designated as follows: record on appeal, R; supplemental record on appeal, SR; Trial transcript, TT; red-bound transcript of 2/3/77 hearing, TH.
[2]  Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S. Ct. 1602, 16 L. Ed. 2d 694 (1966).
[3]  TT 641.
[4]  TT 651, 655.
[5]  TT 636.
[6]  The facts surrounding this episode will be fully explored later in this opinion.
[7]  United States v. Charlton, 565 F.2d 86, 89 (6th Cir.1977), cert. denied, 434 U.S. 1070, 98 S. Ct. 1253, 55 L. Ed. 2d 773 (1978).
[8]  Id.
[9]  We also concur with the Circuit Court's footnote # 2 to the above statement, 476 F.2d at 733:

We certainly do not intimate approval of any practice by which a suspect's express desire to remain silent as to some specific activity is aborted by the subterfuge of questioning which is designed or intended to indirectly gain information about those matters which he has indicated he wishes not to discuss. However, this record is bare of any perfidious police practices. And considering the lack of contradictory evidence in Shriner's testimony at the motion to suppress, we would be irresponsible to overturn the trial judge's finding of voluntariness. See Cooper v. State, 336 So. 2d 1133 (Fla. 1976), cert. denied, 431 U.S. 925, 97 S. Ct. 2200, 53 L. Ed. 2d 239 (1977).
[10]  TT 611.
[11]  TT 636.
[12]  TT 641-56.
[13]  See Lockett v. Ohio, 438 U.S. 586, 98 S. Ct. 2954, 57 L. Ed. 2d 973 (1978); Proffitt v. Florida, supra; Spinkellink v. Wainwright, 578 F.2d 582 (5th Cir.1978), cert. denied, 440 U.S. 976, 99 S. Ct. 1548, 59 L. Ed. 2d 796 (1979).
[14]  § 921.141(5)(b) and (d), Fla. Stat. (1977).
[15]  "When one or more of the aggravating circumstances is found, death is presumed to be the proper sentence unless it or they are overridden by one or more of the mitigating circumstances... ." State v. Dixon, 283 So. 2d  at 9.