Opinion ID: 1133754
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Waiver of Severance of Counts

Text: Pardo asserted below that trial counsel was ineffective in waiving a severance of the various murder, robbery, and weapons counts into two or more trials. Relying on the testimony of trial counsel during the evidentiary hearing, the trial court concluded that counsel acted reasonably when he opted to seek an acquittal on the defense of insanity in a single trial rather than attempt to win acquittal in each of a series of trials. In his appeal of the denial of relief on this claim, Pardo asserts that trial counsel's actual reason for forgoing severance was financial: counsel could not afford to represent Pardo in numerous trials on what he had been paid. In support of this contention, Pardo points to an unfiled motion to withdraw claiming financial hardship taken from counsel's files. Pardo also asserts that trial counsel did not testify that [t]he jury would be more likely to believe an insanity defense, given the number of victims, as the trial court found. The State responds that trial counsel's strategy was reasonable under the circumstances, that the trial court recognized at the time of trial that the strategy was sound, and that the defense expert who testified for Pardo at trial supported the view that trying the nine murder counts together buttressed the prospects of success on the insanity defense. [S]trategic decisions do not constitute ineffective assistance of counsel if alternative courses have been considered and rejected and counsel's decision was reasonable under the norms of professional conduct. Occhicone v. State, 768 So.2d 1037, 1048 (Fla.2000). In opting to try all of the counts against his client in a single proceeding, defense counsel made a reasonable strategic decision involving an informed choice among alternatives. The record reflects that at the point when counsel moved to try the counts together, Pardo's trial had been severed from that of codefendant Garcia, and counts IX through XIII involving the Musa and Quintero murders were severed from the other counts against Pardo. However, during jury selection for the first trial on six of the murders, trial counsel changed his position and agreed that counts IX through XIII, as well as the counts involving the murder of Michael Millot charged in a separate indictment, should also be included. The trial court granted the motion, observing that in view of his defense, he feels, obviously, and I can see why, it [is] best to try his client on all counts. Later, in response to the State's expression of concern that Pardo may not have agreed with counsel's decision, the trial judge noted that he had seen counsel consult with Pardo. Guralnick confirmed that he had consulted with Pardo. In his testimony at the postconviction evidentiary hearing, trial counsel Guralnick explained his rationale for agreeing to a single trial on all counts: All of the separate counts of murder that had been filed against him, if I had tried each of them individually, I mean, his chances of winning every single one of them with the evidence that they had, you would have had a better shot at winning the lottery. So it was my opinion that with an insanity defense, if they're all joined in one case, that if the jury believed that he was insane, then he was a total winner. The trial court instructed the jury that [a] person is considered insane when he has a mental infirmity or disease or defect and because of this condition, he did not know what he was doing or its consequences or although he knew what he was doing or the consequences, he did not know it was wrong. Dr. Marquit's testimony supported the defense's insanity theory on the rationale that Pardo did not think it was wrong to kill those he considered to be drug dealers. Counsel reasonably could have concluded that the large number of victims demonstrated the sincerity of this belief and thus the credibility of the insanity defense. Pardo's own testimony reinforced the decision to try all of the murder counts together to support the insanity defense. He proudly acknowledged killing all nine victims and opined that his acts were not murders because his victims were drug-dealing parasites rather than human beings. In the postconviction evidentiary hearing, trial counsel stated that although he had advised Pardo not to testify, he came to believe it might have been a good move because Pardo sounded crazier than a bed bug. Apart from the unfiled motion to withdraw, there is no support in the record for the allegation that counsel tried all the counts together for financial reasons. As the State points out, fifteen months elapsed between the date of the unfiled motion to withdraw and counsel's decision to seek a single trial on all counts. Asked at the evidentiary hearing whether something had changed in the interim, counsel stated that it had, but did not elaborate. Although the trial record does not reveal a ruling on the pretrial motion for appointment as a special assistant public defender filed by Guralnick, several motions for expenses in the record reflect that Pardo had been declared indigent for purposes of costs. The suggestion of an ulterior motive for trial counsel's strategy is without adequate record support. Accordingly, Pardo has not demonstrated deficient performance under the Strickland standard. Further, there is no indication of prejudice sufficient to overturn the verdicts for any of the five murderous episodes. This Court's decisions in the direct appeals by Pardo and Garcia establish that the counts were severable. See Garcia, 568 So.2d at 899-901 (reversing conviction for failure to sever trials by episode); Pardo, 563 So.2d at 80 (noting that each episode of killing was singular, discrete, and only tenuously related, if at all, to the other episodes). However, even in the event of severance, Pardo has not shown a reasonable probability, sufficient to undermine confidence in the outcome, of a different result in any of the severed trials. Even without Pardo's jury confession, the physical and testimonial evidence against Pardo was strong, as trial counsel acknowledged in the evidentiary hearing when he stated that he went with the insanity defense because of the overwhelming evidence of guilt and compared the prospect of acquittal to winning the lottery. Having failed to satisfy either prong of a meritorious ineffective assistance claim, Pardo is not entitled to relief on his assertion that trial counsel failed to perform as the counsel guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment. We affirm the trial court's denial of relief on this claim.