Opinion ID: 2751111
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Location of the Victims at the Crime Scene

Text: ¶77. Flowers contends that the prosecutor incorrectly described the location of the victims at the crime scene. The prosecutor stated during closing argument that Sam Jones discovered “all four victims basically laying in a pile, in a group right at the front counter in Tardy Furniture Store.” The evidence presented at trial, however, showed that three of the victims were lying a few feet apart from one another, while the fourth victim was a considerable distance away. Flowers argues that the prosecutor’s statement was prejudicial because it aided in undercutting the theory that the murders were committed by more than one person. Essentially, Flowers claims that the idea of four victims “piled together” aligns with a oneperson crime, whereas victims spread across a larger area paints the picture of a two-man 47 crime. The State admits that the “lying in a pile” statement was incorrect, but the State points out that three of the four victims were lying close to one another. The State asserts that the statement did not prejudice Flowers. As previously mentioned, Flowers did not present the “two-man crime” theory to the jury. And Flowers does not claim that the prosecutor’s statement prejudiced him in any other way. Applying the plain error doctrine, the statement may have been an error, but we cannot say that it resulted in a manifest miscarriage of justice or resulted in an unfair trial. See Conners, 92 So. 3d at 682 (¶ 15).