Opinion ID: 1795830
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Penalty-Phase Evidence

Text: As we mentioned earlier, four of Sochor's family members testified at the penalty phase: his parents, Charles and Rose Sochor; his brother, Gary Sochor; and his sister, Kathy Cooper. Their testimony revealed the following facts about Sochor: he was one of ten children; his father singled him out for repeated and brutal beatings; his mother also beat him; when he was four years old, he fell while running with a tin horn in his mouth and the tin horn went through the roof of his mouth; for a period of time when his father had been demoted at work, Sochor gave the family his paychecks; his parents noticed that he changed after he was discharged from the army  specifically, he became violent, especially when under the influence of alcohol; at one point, his parents thought he needed psychiatric help and were able to get him involuntarily committed to a hospital, but he was quickly released when the hospital told the family that although he needed psychiatric help, he was not severe enough to be kept there; and he attempted to commit suicide. Sochor's father, Charles, recounted a time when he had come home from work to learn that Sochor's mother, Rose, had lost her temper and beat Denn[is], then banged his head against the wall. Charles testified that he too would to lose his temper and beat the children, with Denny always getting the worst of it. He told the jury of the head injury suffered by Sochor when he was four years old: Sochor had fallen while running with a tin horn in his mouth, and the horn went through the roof of his mouth, opening a hole that you could see right into his head. Charles also told the jury that he began to notice changes in Sochor after he was released from the army, saying that he was violent, especially when alcohol was involved. He was completely out of control. Charles testified that he and Rose realized at this point that Sochor needed mental help, and he told the jury about their attempt to get him institutionalized. After they convinced a judge to commit him to a mental hospital, Sochor was released after less than a week, on the condition that he would report once a week. Sochor was upset that his parents had him committed to the hospital, so he left home. Sochor's father testified that he had not seen or spoken to Sochor since that incident, with the exception of one phone call he received from Sochor in which Sochor told him that he had attempted to commit suicide. Sochor's mother told the jury that Sochor had a difficult childhood and that she was an abusive mother. She testified that Sochor had a lot of hostility and problems as he got older and things became worse after he was discharged from the army, especially when he drank alcohol. She discussed the time she and Sochor's father tried to get Sochor mental help, telling the jury that the counselors told [them] that he definitely needed psychiatric help, but was not severe enough to be kept there. Sochor's brother, Gary, testified that Sochor was beaten a lot as a child, that he took the brunt of their father's beatings, and that their father used to beat them with a big belt. Sochor's sister, Kathy Cooper, gave the most in-depth and descriptive penalty-phase testimony about the beatings suffered by Sochor as a child. She told the jury that Sochor had a pretty rough life and that most of their parents' frustrations were taken out on Sochor. She described their father as a former boxer who was very strong, knew how to hit, and had a very quick and violent temper. She told the jury that there were times when the other children would have to pull their father off Sochor. She testified that their father would go into a rage and would trap Sochor in a corner and hit him over and over  in the face, arms, and the rest of his body  resulting in Sochor constantly [having] his lips split open, black eyes, [and] bruises all over his body. She described an incident where their father grabbed Sochor's hair and kept banging his head against the wall. She told the jury that their mother watched this happen and did nothing to stop it. Like her parents, Kathy testified that the family tried to get mental help for Sochor but the psychiatric hospital told them that he wasn't bad enough to where he needed help. Sochor's trial counsel also introduced the reports of three mental health experts who had evaluated Sochor and testified during the guilt phase: Dr. Zager, a psychiatrist; Dr. Ceros-Livingston, a clinical psychologist; and Dr. Castillo, a psychiatrist. [13] As mentioned previously, counsel did not provide any background materials to these experts; their evaluations were based solely on information gathered from their clinical interviews with Sochor. Nor did counsel instruct the experts to conduct their evaluations with an eye towards developing evidence of mitigating circumstances; rather, their evaluations were done for the purpose of determining Sochor's competency to stand trial and his sanity at the time of the crime. They all testified that Sochor was competent to stand trial and was sane at the time of the crime. However, their testimony went beyond merely answering these questions, and counsel referred to their testimony and their reports in his penalty-phase closing argument. Dr. Zager interviewed Sochor, during which he observed Sochor and gathered his history, which Dr. Zager defined as emotional and psychiatric problems, present legal circumstances, medical history, history of drug or alcohol use, educational history, family history, childhood experiences, and relationship history. Dr. Zager also conducted a mental status examination, which consisted of his observations not only of what Sochor said to him, but also how he said it, his stream of thought, and his orientation and awareness of present circumstances. In his guilt-phase testimony, Dr. Zager told the jury the following facts about Sochor: he had a history of drug and alcohol problems and a history of alcoholic blackouts; he claimed to have had an alcoholic blackout the night of the murder; he reported having suffered two concussions and having fallen off a horse and hitting his head as a child; and he believed his mother physically abused him as a child. Dr. Zager also told the jury that after Sochor was arrested, he was prescribed Lithium, a psychotropic medication that Dr. Zager described as a moodstabilizing drug, and Sinequan, which he described as an antidepressant. Dr. Zager told the jury that Sochor appeared to manifest evidence of a longstanding problem of drug and alcohol abuse and of a conduct disorder, socialized, aggressive type as a child. He suspected that Sochor suffered from antisocial personality disorder, and he believed Sochor was a much more aggressive, potentially very violent, individual under the influence of intoxicants. He believed that Sochor acted impulsively and with impaired judgment while under the influence of alcohol. Although he did not believe Sochor met the requirements for involuntary hospitalization under the Baker Act, see §§ 394.451-.4789, Fla. Stat. (2003), he did believe that Sochor was extremely dangerous to the public. Dr. Ceros-Livingston also evaluated Sochor and testified during the guilt phase. She told the jury that Sochor reported a long-term history of drug and alcohol abuse, starting at a very young age; that Sochor reported that the United States Army, upon discharging him, recommended that he get psychiatric care; and that Sochor reported that he had attempted to commit suicide by drowning. Dr. Ceros-Livingston also administered two psychological tests: the Carlson Psychological Survey (CPS) and the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI). She testified that results of the CPS revealed a profile similar to those obtained from people who have alcohol and drug abuse as a major characteristic; it also matched the profile of a person with a quick temper which might result in impulsive and destructive behavior. She testified that the profile obtained from the MMPI was invalid (fake-bad), which means that the person is trying to make [himself] look psychopathological. Based on the fake-bad MMPI profile, and noting that Sochor had recounted some things that had happened in his feelings and what he allegedly said around the alleged crime, Dr. Ceros-Livingston testified that Sochor possibly was malingering. Finally, Dr. Castillo testified for the State at the guilt phase. Like Dr. Zager, Dr. Castillo told the jury that Sochor was being medicated with Lithium, which he described to the jury as a medicine used mostly to treat manic depressive illness. He described manic depressive illness as a mood- and behavior-affecting condition. However, Dr. Castillo also told the jury that he did not believe that Sochor suffered from manic depressive illness. Nor did he believe that Sochor had blacked out on the night of the murder. He believed that Sochor was suffering from a type of selective amnesia. Like Dr. Zager, Dr. Castillo concluded that Sochor suffered from antisocial personality disorder.