Opinion ID: 1930681
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Puiatti's Guilt Phase

Text: Puiatti challenges his conviction by asserting that the trial court erred in: (1) failing to sever his trial from Glock's; (2) excluding from the trial stage prospective jurors opposed to the death penalty; (3) failing to suppress Puiatti's post-arrest statements; (4) allowing the prosecutor to advise the jury that it could presume premeditation from Puiatti's involvement in a felony murder; and (5) allowing the prosecutor's comments to the jury which characterized Puiatti as an animal and described the offense charged to Puiatti as probably any woman's nightmare. We find no merit in any of the points. Puiatti's points (4) and (5) require no discussion. Contrary to his assertion in point (3), we find that there was probable cause to make Puiatti's arrest. With regard to point (2), we have previously held that excluding prospective jurors opposed to the death penalty is not error. Kennedy v. Wainwright, 483 So.2d 424 (Fla. 1986); Caruthers v. State, 465 So.2d 496 (Fla. 1985); Copeland v. State, 457 So.2d 1012 (Fla. 1984), cert. denied, 471 U.S. 1030, 105 S.Ct. 2051, 85 L.Ed.2d 324 (1985); Sims v. State, 444 So.2d 922 (Fla. 1983), cert. denied, 467 U.S. 1246, 104 S.Ct. 3525, 82 L.Ed.2d 832 (1984). See also Sullivan v. Wainwright, 464 U.S. 109, 104 S.Ct. 450, 78 L.Ed.2d 210 (1983); In re Shriner, 735 F.2d 1236 (11th Cir.1984); Smith v. Balkcom, 660 F.2d 573 (5th Cir.1981), cert. denied, 459 U.S. 882, 103 S.Ct. 181, 74 L.Ed.2d 148 (1982). We do find that point (1), the severance issue, deserves discussion. Puiatti contends that the trial court's failure to grant a severance denied his right to confrontation of Glock as to those portions of Glock's initial confession which implicated Puiatti. Puiatti relies on Bruton v. United States, 391 U.S. 123, 88 S.Ct. 1620, 20 L.Ed.2d 476 (1968), in which the United States Supreme Court held that the admission of the codefendant's confession had deprived the defendant of his rights under the confrontation clause of the sixth amendment. We find that Bruton is not applicable under the facts of this cause, concluding that Parker v. Randolph, 442 U.S. 62, 99 S.Ct. 2132, 60 L.Ed.2d 713 (1979), controls this case. In Parker, the United States Supreme Court held that Bruton does not require reversal of a defendant's conviction when the defendant himself has confessed and his confession `interlocks' with and supports the confession of his codefendant. Id. at 64, 99 S.Ct. at 2135. Confessions interlock when the salient facts against the first defendant that appear in the confession of the second defendant also appear in the confession of the first, and vice versa. United States v. Kroesser, 731 F.2d 1509, 1518 (11th Cir.1984); Brownlee v. State, 478 So.2d 467 (Fla. 4th DCA 1985); Damon v. State, 397 So.2d 1224 (Fla. 3d DCA 1981). These cases establish that interlocking confessions need not be identical statements; it is sufficient if the confessions are substantially consistent on the major elements of the crime involved. In this case, Puiatti and Glock offered interlocking confessions. The initial individual confessions contained only slight inconsistencies, and each set forth sufficient evidence on the charged crimes to sustain the confessor's conviction. The fact that Glock's initial confession might have been exculpatory toward Puiatti concerning some details does not render its admission harmful when Puiatti's own confession clearly shows him guilty of the crime with which he is charged. See United States ex rel. Ortiz v. Fritz, 476 F.2d 37 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 414 U.S. 1075, 94 S.Ct. 591, 38 L.Ed.2d 482 (1973); O'Callaghan v. State, 429 So.2d 691 (Fla. 1983); McCray v. State, 416 So.2d 804 (Fla. 1982). Further, the subsequent joint confession, admitted without objection by Puiatti, reconciled the minor discrepancies of the individual confessions by Puiatti and Glock. We conclude that the trial court correctly denied Puiatti's motion for severance during the guilt phase of the trial. We emphasize that the inconsistencies between Puiatti's and Glock's initial confessions do not affect their guilt in the charged crimes since both admit they shot the victim. Each appellant is guilty of all the acts of the other in perpetrating the common criminal act.