Opinion ID: 2487462
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 11

Heading: Undisclosed Federal Sentence Reduction Agreement

Text: Wyatt also contends that the State violated Brady by failing to disclose evidence of an agreement it made with McCoombs that in exchange for testifying, McCoombs would receive mitigation of his federal sentence. Wyatt further alleges that McCoombs' testimony at trial that he was not receiving any benefit was false, and, by failing to correct this testimony, the State violated Giglio. The postconviction court denied these interrelated claims, finding that Wyatt presented no evidence to refute the testimony of McCoombs and State prosecutor David Morgan that at the time of the Wyatt trials in 1991, an agreement for sentence mitigation did not exist. A review of the record supports the postconviction court's findings, and we affirm the court's denial of these claims. At the time of Wyatt's trial on the Domino's murder counts in 1991, McCoombs was serving a federal sentence for his role in a South Carolina armed bank robbery. When called as a State witness, McCoombs testified that neither the State nor the federal government promised him anything in exchange for his testimony. McCoombs specifically stated that because he was in federal, and not State, custody, he did not believe any type of assistance from Florida officials would be possible and that his federal sentence was fixed pursuant to federal guidelines. Moreover, McCoombs never asked the State for a reduction in the sentence he was currently serving. On redirect, McCoombs reiterated that he had nothing to gain by testifying, was not promised anything in exchange for testifying, that his sentence had not been altered, and only noted that he was supposed to be placed in the witness protection program within the federal prison system. Likewise, at the evidentiary hearing, prosecutor Morgan testified that McCoombs had never requested anything in return for his testimony except for protection because he was concerned that Wyatt would use inside contacts to get at him. Morgan only promised McCoombs that he would do his best to ensure that authorities were made aware that McCoombs should be properly protected. On February 12, 1992, prosecutor Morgan wrote a letter to federal authorities stating that McCoombs had assisted the State in Wyatt's cases and recommending sentence mitigation for McCoombs. However, this was not based on any prior agreement. An Assistant United States Attorney in South Carolina subsequently filed a motion for a reduction in McCoombs' federal sentence based on this letter. The federal court ultimately granted the motion and reduced McCoombs' sentence by around twenty months. The first prong of Brady requires Wyatt to demonstrate that the State possessed evidence favorable to the accused because it was either exculpatory or impeaching. Allen v. State, 854 So.2d 1255, 1259 (Fla. 2003). While this Court has previously held that evidence that a witness is receiving a benefit in exchange for testifying could be subject to a Brady challenge, see Guzman, 868 So.2d at 508-09, and Morgan did testify that he sent a letter to federal authorities recommending sentence mitigation, there was no evidence that a deal was in fact made, as the postconviction court correctly found. Wyatt asserts that the lack of a smoking gun document evidencing such an agreement is not dispositive of this claim. However, there is no record evidence that the prosecutor's post-trial letter to the federal government demonstrated proof of a pretrial agreement of assistance in exchange for McCoombs' trial testimony. Wyatt has failed to meet his burden of showing there was, in fact, an agreement and thus the existence of evidence to withhold, and we therefore deny his Brady claim. See, e.g., Davis v. State, 928 So.2d 1089, 1115-16 (Fla.2005) (rejecting defendant's Brady claim that State suppressed information regarding a deal that State witness would receive gain time for his sentence in exchange for testifying because even though State did in fact write a letter on witness's behalf, there was no evidence that an agreement between the witness and the State was made). Wyatt's Giglio claim suffers from the same problem. Giglio requires Wyatt to demonstrate that the prosecutor presented or failed to correct false testimony. Green, 975 So.2d at 1106. Because the record is devoid of evidence to support his contention that Morgan's letter or post-trial assistance rendered McCoombs' trial testimony false or misleading in any way, Wyatt has failed to demonstrate that he is entitled to relief under Giglio. See, e.g., Jones v. State, 998 So.2d 573, 580 (Fla. 2008) (denying defendant's Giglio claim because ample evidence in the record supported the trial court's finding that no promise of leniency in exchange for favorable testimony between the State and a key trial witness existed, and that, therefore, witness's testimony denying that any promise had been made was not false). [17]