Opinion ID: 1684614
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Instruction Upon and Finding of CCP Aggravating Factor

Text: The trial court instructed the jury on the CCP aggravating factor and found that factor was established. Smith claims that the trial court erred on both points. We disagree. As we stated in Ford v. State, 802 So.2d 1121 (Fla.2001): A trial court may give a requested jury instruction on an aggravating circumstance if the evidence adduced at trial is legally sufficient to support a finding of that aggravating circumstance. A trial court's ruling on an aggravating circumstance is a mixed question of law and fact and will be sustained on review as long as the court applied the right rule of law and its ruling is supported by competent substantial evidence in the record. Id. at 1133 (footnote omitted). Smith does not contest that the trial court applied the right rule of law. Rather, he contends that there was not competent, substantial evidence to support the element of CCP that requires a careful plan or prearranged design to kill, Rogers v. State, 511 So.2d 526, 533 (Fla.1987), and that CCP is founded upon circumstantial evidence which is not inconsistent with a reasonable hypothesis that there was no CCP. However, in its detailed sentencing order, the trial court set forth the evidence supporting each of the elements of CCP, including that Smith had a careful plan or prearranged design to kill. Our reading of the record demonstrates that there was competent, substantial evidence to support this element consistent with our case law. Smith, in advance of arriving at Loucks' home, had procured and brought with him a handgun. Upon his arrival, Smith said, We're here to do business. When leaving Loucks' home, Smith got into the front passenger seat of the two-door car, which contained Butterfield and Brittingham armed in the back and Tuttle and Crawford sitting between them. Smith traded guns with Pearce during a trip of several miles at night into a rural, unlighted area, stating that he needed to trade guns because the one he was carrying would jam. When Pearce stopped the vehicle on the shoulder of the road in darkness, Smith got out of the car. Pearce told Tuttle to exit the car and said to Smith, Pop him in the f___ing jaw, to which Smith replied, F that. Immediately thereafter, Smith shot Tuttle in the back of the head. When Smith got back in the car, Pearce asked him, Is he dead?, to which Smith replied, Yeah, he's dead. I shot him in the head with a f___ing .40. Pearce then drove the car 200 yards and stopped again. Crawford was made to get out through the passenger-side door, and Smith shot him in the back. Crawford dropped to the ground, and Smith fired a second shot into him. Clearly, regarding this shooting of Crawford, there was sufficient evidence to support CCP. Indeed, this case is analogous to Walls v. State, 641 So.2d 381 (Fla. 1994), in which this Court found, in respect to there being evidence of a careful plan or prearranged design to commit murder before the fatal incident, that CCP was supported in the shooting of a second victim: Walls left his first victim, weapon in hand, then returned to the place where he had left Peterson bound and gagged, then taunted and abused her before shooting her to death. At the point where Walls left [the first victim's] body, he obviously had formed a prearranged design to kill Peterson, a conclusion only reinforced by the time it took for him to kill her.... Id. at 388; see also Asay v. State, 580 So.2d 610, 613 (Fla.1991) (finding sufficient evidence for CCP and concluding decision to kill was not impulsive where defendant shot second victim twenty minutes after shooting first victim); Alston v. State, 723 So.2d 148 (Fla.1998) (finding no error in finding CCP where defendant had opportunity to leave the crime scene and not commit the murder but, rather, acted out the plan he conceived during the period in which the events occurred). We therefore find no error in giving the CCP instruction or in finding the CCP aggravating factor in this case.