Opinion ID: 77561
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Testimony of Stewart's Trial Defense Team

Text: 39 Stewart also presented the testimony of his trial counsel, Rex Barbas, and penalty phase investigator, Arturo Sonny Fernandez. From 1975 to 1979, Barbas worked at the state attorney's office in Florida, where he prosecuted first-degree murder cases, including three death penalty cases. After leaving the state attorney's office, Barbas defended at least ten death penalty cases in private practice, and Stewart was the only client to receive the death penalty. After Stewart's conviction, Barbas became a judge in the Circuit Court of Hillsborough County, Florida. 40 In preparing Stewart's defense, Barbas hired Mr. Fernandez and his wife, Diane Fernandez, both licensed investigators, to find potential mitigation witnesses and assist in interviewing witnesses. Barbas stated that Mr. and Mrs. Fernandez handled the most first-degree murder investigations in Hillsborough County, Florida. Barbas also relied on Mr. Scarpo as his primary contact to provide names of witnesses due to his role as Stewart's guardian. 15 Barbas also testified that while Stewart did not show emotion when he spoke, Barbas believed that he had a communicative relationship with his client. 16 41 Barbas described in great detail his strategy during the penalty phase of trial. 17 Barbas personally interviewed every defense witness who testified during the penalty phase in advance of trial: Mr. Scarpo, Hayward, Dr. Afield, Engle, LaRue, Medlin, and Joanne Scarpo. Based on these interviews, Barbas testified that his penalty phase strategy was to convince the jury that the childhood abuse suffered by Stewart before age five, combined with the series of tragic revelations about his family members at age thirteen, triggered his psychological disorders. Barbas was aware of Stewart's suicide attempts in jail prior to trial. Barbas stated that he may have had Stewart's jail suicide records, 18 but he did not present this information at the penalty phase because he believed that the suicide attempts had no bearing on Stewart's criminal intent. Barbas noted, however, that Dr. Afield was aware of at least a couple of Stewart's suicide attempts and testified in the penalty phase that these suicide attempts indicated Stewart's severe disturbance. 42 Barbas testified that he had no awareness of any mistreatment by Mr. Scarpo and that Stewart's stepsisters, grandparents, and aunt never mentioned any abuse by Mr. Scarpo. 19 This testimony was wholly consistent with the testimony of Stewart's family members, who admitted they never told Barbas about Mr. Scarpo's alleged abuse. Additionally, Barbas testified that Stewart never told him about Mr. Scarpo's alleged abuse and never contradicted Mr. Scarpo's account of Stewart's happy childhood in the Scarpo household. When asked, [b]ased on what [Stewart] told, did you have any . . . reason to believe that Mr. Scarpo had abused Kenny Stewart, Barbas responded, [j]ust the opposite. 43 Barbas acknowledged that if he would have had information about Mr. Scarpo's abuse of Stewart, he would have presented this information at the penalty phase and considered it important to buttress and give great sympathy to Stewart. 44 Stewart's 3.850 counsel questioned Barbas about an unsigned, undated note found in Barbas's original case file that described Mr. Scarpo's beatings of Stewart. Barbas denied any memory of this note and testified that the handwriting did not match any of his investigators' handwriting. Barbas could not explain the note's presence in his attorney file, but he considered the possibility that Stewart wrote the note, though the note refers to Stewart in the third-person. 45 Barbas also described the information that he provided to Dr. Afield for his psychiatric evaluation of Stewart. Barbas provided Dr. Afield with information gleaned from his investigators' interviews and from his own interactions with Stewart. In particular, Barbas described the murder incident and informed Dr. Afield that Stewart drank heavily on the day of Harris's murder. Barbas also noted that Dr. Afield was present in the courtroom during Mr. Scarpo's penalty phase testimony and testified that Dr. Afield based his testimony in part on Mr. Scarpo's account. As noted earlier, Dr. Afield also conducted psychological and neurological testing, reviewed Stewart's medical records and other documents, and consulted with other doctors who had examined Stewart. Barbas conceded that if he had information about Mr. Scarpo's alleged abuse, he would have presented this information to Dr. Afield so the psychiatrist could have made a complete assessment of Stewart's childhood, even if the information ultimately would not have changed Dr. Afield's diagnosis. 46 Stewart next called Mr. Fernandez, Barbas's lead investigator in the penalty phase of Stewart's trial. Mr. Fernandez was a criminal investigator in the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office for twelve years prior to forming a private investigative firm with his wife in 1980. Mr. Fernandez suffered a massive heart attack just prior to Stewart's trial, which forced him to hand over the remainder of the investigation to his wife. 47 Mr. Fernandez discussed the extent of his knowledge about Mr. Scarpo's alleged abuse of Stewart. Mr. Fernandez testified that he interviewed Joyce Engle a month before trial, and his interview notes reveal that Engle was told by Brown, Stewart's aunt, about Mr. Scarpo's abuse of Stewart. Mr. Fernandez confirmed that he made a note to call Brown to question her about the alleged abuse, but he could not recall if he contacted Brown. 48 Mr. Fernandez's investigative file contained the same unsigned, undated note describing Mr. Scarpo's abuse that was present in Barbas's case file. Mr. Fernandez did not recall the note or its contents or recognize the handwriting. 49 Mr. Fernandez also testified that Stewart's stepsisters did not mention Mr. Scarpo's alleged abuse. He conceded that this information would have helped in the penalty phase. Stewart's stepsisters thus talked to both Barbas and Mr. Fernandez prior to trial, and neither stepsister mentioned Mr. Scarpo's abuse to either Barbas or Mr. Fernandez. According to Mr. Fernandez's notes, both of Stewart's stepsisters, Medlin and Arnold, indicated that they did not want to testify in Stewart's trial due to work obligations. As noted earlier, Medlin's deposition was read to the jury in the penalty phase.