Opinion ID: 1920952
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 17

Heading: Motion to Sever Counts of the Indictment

Text: Doorbal next contends that his appellate counsel was ineffective because counsel failed to challenge the denial of a motion to sever the counts of the indictment. During trial, Doorbal asserted that the law required the RICO offenses to be severed. According to Doorbal, joinder of the offenses would be proper only if they were connected in a significant way. Under the current claim, Doorbal contends that there is no similarity between the Griga/Furton and Schiller counts. Doorbal claims that had the counts been severed, there is a reasonable probability that he would have been acquitted of either the murder counts or the Schiller counts, the latter of which were found by the trial court to be aggravating factors in the imposition of the death penalty. This claim is without merit. During the direct appeal of codefendant Daniel Lugo, Lugo asserted that the trial court erred when it denied the severance of the Schiller, Griga/Furton, and RICO counts. See Lugo, 845 So.2d at 92. Lugo contended before the trial court that a single trial on all the counts would result in spillover prejudice to the extent that jurors would not be able to make individual determinations of guilt or innocence regarding each criminal charge. Id. On direct appeal, this Court denied relief on this claim in a thorough analysis: On the facts before us, we are not prepared to determine that the trial judge erred in his conclusion that the RICO charges provided a relevant relationship between the Schiller and Griga-Furton counts, thereby justifying a single trial on all charges filed against Lugo. This conclusion reflects the requirement that there be a meaningful relationship among charges that are tried together. . . . [T]he instant case involves charges of racketeering that link criminal incidents which might appear upon initial inspection to be temporally unrelated because they occurred within a six-month span. The racketeering charges provide the significant way in which the Schiller counts, the Griga-Furton counts, and Lugo's alleged racketeering activity were linked. . . . . We also disagree with Lugo's contention that the racketeering activities were not related in an episodic sense. The unfortunate racketeering activity in which Lugo and others participated began with the abduction, extortion, and attempted murder of Marc Schiller, continued with the incident involving the planned abduction and extortion of Winston Lee, and reached its tragic pinnacle in the events related to the abduction and terror-filled murders of Frank Griga and Krisztina Furton. The careful planning that surrounded each of these incidents, along with the manner of execution, obviates the conclusion that they were entirely random, disconnected events. With regard to the abduction and subsequent crimes against Schiller, as well as the abduction and subsequent crimes against Griga and Furton, the record indicates that at least one plot was aborted before an actual abduction took place. Each plot involved intricate planning and the assignment of specific duties to each participant, including Lugo. . . . Lugo and Doorbal also visited Griga's Golden Beach home before the abduction of Griga and Furton occurred. During the last visit before the abduction occurred, Lugo and Doorbal each had a concealed firearm. Testimony from Sabina Petrescu, Lugo's girlfriend, indicated that Doorbal was very upset when Lugo did not follow through on the plan to kidnap Griga and Furton during this particular visit, but was later placated by Lugo with the knowledge that they would execute the abduction later that evening. While Griga and Furton were held hostage, both were subdued with Rompun, which Lugo and Doorbal had procured for that specific purpose. Furton was also subdued with handcuffs and tape, as was Schiller. Furthermore, it is important to note that in the intervening months between the Schiller and Griga-Furton abductions, Lugo directed the surveillance of Winston Lee's townhome, with the goal of abducting Lee and obtaining his assets. This type of activity over a six-month period does not have the characteristics of impulsive, sporadic behavior. The nature of these crimes removes them from the category of being merely similar to each other, and requires that they be placed in the category of connected acts or transactions. Fla. R.Crim. P. 3.150(a). We further note that if separate trials on the Schiller and Griga-Furton counts had been held, evidence of the abduction, extortion, and attempted murder of Schiller would have been admissible in Lugo's trial for the abduction, attempted extortion, and murders of Griga and Furton, and vice versa. This evidence would have been admissible in separate trials to establish the existence of an ongoing, common scheme to target wealthy victims, as well as to establish the entire context within which Lugo's criminal activity occurred. Therefore, due to the common scheme that is related to both the Schiller and Griga-Furton counts, Lugo has failed to demonstrate that a severance was necessary for a fair determination of his guilt or innocence. Id. at 94-96 (citations and footnotes omitted) (quoting Bundy v. State, 455 So.2d 330, 345 (Fla.1984)). Appellate counsel cannot be ineffective for the failure to raise a meritless issue on appeal, see Lawrence, 831 So.2d at 135, and the claim raised by Doorbal was previously considered and rejected by this Court in the direct appeal of codefendant Lugo. See Lugo, 845 So.2d at 93-97. Moreover, even though Doorbal contends that he was merely a follower in these crimes, we rejected the claim that the trial court erred in failing to find as a nonstatutory mitigator that Doorbal was acting under extreme duress or was under the substantial domination of another. See Doorbal, 837 So.2d at 960 n. 47. [14] Therefore, counsel was not ineffective for failing to raise this claim on appeal.