Opinion ID: 1822394
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Sufficiency of Evidence on HAC Aggravator

Text: Johnson argues that the evidence is insufficient to support the trial court's determination that the murder was especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel (HAC). We find no error. Aggravating circumstances require proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Hernandez-Alberto v. State, 889 So.2d 721, 733 (Fla.2004). When a defendant asserts that the evidence is insufficient to support an aggravator, this Court reviews the record to determine whether the trial court applied the right rule of law for the aggravator, and, if so, whether competent, substantial evidence supports its finding. Willacy v. State, 696 So.2d 693, 695 (Fla. 1997). In concluding that the murder was HAC, the trial court relied on the medical examiner's testimony that the murder was committed by both manual and ligature strangulation, and that a strangulation victim starts to lose consciousness within fifteen to twenty seconds of the start of the attack. The court also found: The evidence shows in this case that Richard used a bear hug to carry Tammy into the house against her will and he later pulled her from behind into his bedroom before her death. There was a painful cut to her head before she died, and she was struck about the head before her death with sufficient force to cause bruising. There is evidence she knew she was about to be killed because she asked to see her children. Richard Johnson made the statement that it was harder to break her neck than he thought. Richard told his best friend the morning after the murder that Tammy was the most annoying woman he had ever met. The jury found Richard guilty of Sexual Battery Using Great Force. The Court finds beyond a reasonable doubt that the State has proven this aggravating circumstance, and that Tammy Hagin experienced extreme terror, agony, and pain before her death. Her murder was unnecessarily torturous, conscienceless, and pitiless. The trial court applied the correct rule of law in finding that this aggravator exists when a conscious victim is strangled. This Court has consistently upheld the HAC aggravator for strangulation of a conscious victim. See Huggins v. State, 889 So.2d 743, 770 (Fla.2004); Conde, 860 So.2d at 955; Barnhill v. State, 834 So.2d 836, 849-50 (Fla.2002). Competent, substantial evidence supports the trial court's determination that Hagin was conscious when strangled. Although intoxicated, she was clearly conscious and alert when Johnson pulled her into his bedroom. As in Huggins, in which this Court upheld the HAC aggravator for a strangulation murder, there is no evidence that the victim was unconscious when she was strangled. In fact, the evidence is to the contrary. During the guilt phase, the State introduced Johnson's pretrial statement that Hagin stated as she was being strangled that she wanted to see her children, which not only demonstrates that she was conscious but constitutes direct evidence of foreknowledge of death, which is one of the hallmarks of HAC. See Barnhill, 834 So.2d at 850 (Because strangulation of a conscious victim involves foreknowledge and the extreme anxiety of impending death, death by strangulation constitutes prima facie evidence of HAC.). Accordingly, the trial court did not err in finding that the murder was especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel.