Opinion ID: 2649574
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Plea and Sentencing Hearing

Text: During the hearing, the state court placed Pace under oath and inquired about his decision to plead guilty and the rights he was giving up. Pace indicated 3 Case: 12-15414 Date Filed: 01/16/2014 Page: 4 of 18 that he had consulted with his attorney and that he was freely and voluntarily pleading guilty to the four charged counts. As for the factual basis for the plea, the prosecutor stated that, on August 16, 1997, Pace broke into Joice Massa’s home, damaging the door, pointed a gun at Monti Andrews, and attempted to kill Massa by shooting her “approximately seven or eight times” while she lay on the floor. The night before the shooting, Pace saw Massa at a local bar and there was a confrontation. The next day, Massa was at home with Andrews watching television. Pace and Massa’s two children were also present. At this point in the prosecutor’s statement, Pace’s defense counsel objected “to this being outside the factual basis of the charges here.” When the prosecutor indicated that there were more facts, the state court asked whether sentencing would occur “right now or are we going to set it off?” Defense counsel stated, “We are prepared.” The prosecutor continued reciting the factual basis for the plea, asserting that the two children were inside the home and that Pace broke through the door of the home, chased Massa into the kitchen where she was on the ground, and then shot her “at least eight times.” The prosecutor stated that “[t]he children at some point were very close by according to Ms. Massa’s testimony to me. They were in danger of also getting hit as well.” 4 Case: 12-15414 Date Filed: 01/16/2014 Page: 5 of 18 The state court asked Massa how she was doing physically. Massa, who was not under oath, responded that she was doing better, but that her recovery was taking a long time. Massa introduced her two children, mother, and stepfather. The state court asked defense counsel whether Pace wished to say anything. Defense counsel responded that: (1) Pace had never denied his guilt; (2) Pace had shown remorse by writing a letter apologizing to Massa and his children; and (3) the state had offered 14 years, followed by ten years of probation. Defense counsel asked for a sentence at the low end of the guidelines range. Pace addressed the court and apologized to Massa and his children. Pace stated that he had a drinking problem and would not have committed the offenses if he had not been drinking. The state court asked Massa if there was anything she wanted to say. Massa, who was still not under oath, stated that her two children watched Pace shoot her and that William, her son, was standing close behind her. As to her injuries, Massa could not feel anything on her right side or use her hand. While hospitalized, Massa had chest tubes because Pace shot her lung twice. The doctors had to “cut meat away from [her] hand” twice each day to allow “the hole to grow back together” and had to “unpack [her] stomach and repack it back together because they couldn’t sew it shut.” Massa returned to the doctor once every two months to have shrapnel removed, and the doctors removed “bullet number eight” last October. Massa still had shrapnel in her side and hip, where a bullet hit her back, 5 Case: 12-15414 Date Filed: 01/16/2014 Page: 6 of 18 and she still had a bullet in her collar bone. Massa still had problems with her leg and went to therapy. Massa also stated that when she was shot, her son “was close enough that he was able to get under my head and hold my head and then he pulled my fingers together and he kept patting me on the back telling me it will be all right,” and “[a]bout the last four shots he was” right behind Massa. Massa stated that, although Pace blamed his offenses on the alcohol, “[h]e was just as mean sober as he was when he drank and it never ended. That’s why I left him.” At no time during Massa’s statements did Pace’s attorney object and ask that she be sworn. Massa’s mother, Betty Humphrey, made an unsworn statement to the court. Humphrey witnessed Pace abuse Massa and their children for years. Humphrey said that Pace had shortened Massa’s life, that half of Massa’s insides were missing, that Massa was “scared for her life,” and that her children were traumatized by the incident. Massa’s stepfather, E.W. Humphrey, made an unsworn statement that Massa was going to die at an early age because of her injuries. Defense counsel did not object to the Humphreys’ statements or ask that they be sworn. The prosecutor asked the court to “depart upward” and impose a thirty-year sentence because: (1) one of Massa’s children was close to Massa when Pace shot her, which created a substantial risk of death or great bodily harm to the child; (2) 6 Case: 12-15414 Date Filed: 01/16/2014 Page: 7 of 18 Massa “was shot while on the ground in a helpless position at least eight times,” which showed she suffered extraordinary physical and emotional trauma or permanent physical injury and was treated with particular cruelty; (3) Massa was shot in the presence of her child; and (4) the offense involved multiple victims and multiple incidents per victim. In response, defense counsel acknowledged that Massa’s injuries were very serious, but argued that the severity of her injuries was already reflected in the guidelines calculations. Defense counsel disputed the prosecutor’s facts, including the number of shots Pace fired, whether Pace chased Massa through the house, whether Pace continued to fire after Massa lay on the floor, and whether the children were present. Defense counsel stated that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement reports refuted that eight shots were fired. Rather, Massa had suffered from shrapnel injuries. Defense counsel explained that “[t]here was a bone of contention” about who was present during the shooting “and that’s why the depositions should have been taken.” But, defense counsel stated that he “decided not to do certain things to upset this family further . . . .” The state court stated that during plea negotiations about a plea to a 14-year sentence, the state court had not known the facts. Having now heard the facts, the 7 Case: 12-15414 Date Filed: 01/16/2014 Page: 8 of 18 state court was not inclined to stay within the guidelines and expressly offered to let Pace withdraw his guilty plea, as follows: Based on what I now know, sir, I cannot assure you or your attorney that I will stay within the guidelines. And I think you need to know that so if you want to withdraw your plea and go to trial, you have that right. I want you to understand that if I sentence you to 30 years, you can’t say, woe, wait a minute. You also need to know that if I reject it that we are going to go to trial and depositions will be taken and we will have a trial date. The state court recessed to allow Pace to consult with his attorney. When the state court reconvened, Pace stated that he wanted to plead guilty, but asserted that this was the first time he had ever hurt someone. The state court responded, “It sounds to me like you’ve been giving her a hard time for a long time, Mr. Pace.” Defense counsel stated that he wanted to address this and other factual issues. The state court indicated that defense counsel could “say anything [he] want[ed] to say,” but that the court thought a twenty-year sentence was “the fair resolution in this case” because Pace pulled the trigger with the intent to kill the victim. The state court explained that “the fact is he pulled the trigger” was “inexcusable. And he kept -- your intentions were to kill her that night, Mr. Pace. You just didn’t succeed. Your intentions were to kill her, but you didn’t.” The state court concluded, “Again, I’ll hear whatever he wants to say. But understand that’s my intentions right now. He may say something and I may give him 30 years.” 8 Case: 12-15414 Date Filed: 01/16/2014 Page: 9 of 18 Defense counsel responded that the court had only “heard one side of the facts” and that he wanted to “round out the facts for the court.” Defense counsel represented that based on police reports, Pace entered the home through a door to the bedroom where Andrews was watching television. Andrews said “please don’t kill me,” and Pace ignored him, walked by him and entered into the living room. Massa heard Andrews say “don’t shoot, turned and saw Mr. Pace and got shot.” Defense counsel disputed Massa’s claim that Pace chased her through the home. Defense counsel stated, “I want the court to understand that there are two sides. We’re not denying the shooting. But there’s two sides to this picture here.” Counsel explained that Pace spent the previous night with Massa, had been in and out of the home several times that day, and had become enraged when he saw Massa with Andrews. Counsel reiterated that Pace was extremely intoxicated at the time of the shooting. Counsel clarified that Pace was not disputing his guilty plea, that he was “here to take his medicine,” and that “these are the arguments that would have been made to the jury.” Defense counsel argued that in her deposition, Massa said she was in the bathroom when she heard “a bang of the door” as Pace entered the bedroom, and that she was shot as she came around the corner. Defense counsel acknowledged that “we had some discrepancy as to who was present there” during the shooting. Defense counsel stated that, although he had decided not to take further depositions 9 Case: 12-15414 Date Filed: 01/16/2014 Page: 10 of 18 (presumably of the children) to resolve the dispute, he had “real problems” with Massa’s hearing statement in light of her above deposition testimony. Defense counsel reiterated his request for the 14-year guidelines sentence originally offered in November 1999. In response, the prosecutor stated that he was part of the original plea negotiations, and his recollection was that Pace rejected the state’s 14-year offer because he wanted a ten-year plea deal. The prosecutor did not challenge what defense counsel said and admitted that Massa spent the night with Pace the night before the shooting. The prosecutor contended that Massa did so because she felt threatened by him. At this point, the state court found that there was a factual basis for the plea and adjudicated Pace guilty of all four counts. The state court stated that it would have rejected the 14-year plea deal once it had heard the factual basis for the guilty plea and thus Pace was not harmed by his defense counsel’s representation. Although the prosecutor requested thirty years, the state court sentenced Pace to a twenty-year prison term on Counts 1 and 2, a five-year prison term on Count 3, and time served on Count 4, each sentence to run concurrently. In a written list of reasons for departing from the sentencing guidelines, the state court noted four aggravating factors: (1) the “[o]ffense created substantial risk of death or great bodily harm to many persons or to one or more small children”; 10 Case: 12-15414 Date Filed: 01/16/2014 Page: 11 of 18 (2) the “[v]ictim suffered extraordinary physical or emotional trauma or permanent physical injury, or was treated with particular cruelty”; (3) the [v]ictim was physically attacked by the defendant in the presence of one or more members of the victim’s family”; and (4) the “[o]ffense involved multiple victims or multiple incidents per victim.” B. 2000 Direct Appeal in State Court In 2000, Pace appealed his state convictions and sentences. On appeal, Pace argued that the trial court abused its discretion in imposing a sentence above the sentencing guidelines and that the state had not presented sufficient evidence to support the upward departure. As to the aggravating factors, Pace argued that: (1) the only evidence supporting the first and third factors—the risk of harm to one or more small children and the attack in the presence of Massa’s family—was Massa’s unsworn testimony; (2) the state presented no evidence to support the second factor as to the extent of Massa’s injuries or emotional trauma; and (3) the fourth factor, relating to the number of victims or incidents, applied only to economic crimes. In response, the government argued that: (1) Pace “failed to preserve” for appeal the issue of Massa’s unsworn testimony by objecting to it during the plea and sentencing hearing; (2) the appellate court should not substitute its judgment for that of the trial court’s with respect to Massa’s credibility and the weight to be 11 Case: 12-15414 Date Filed: 01/16/2014 Page: 12 of 18 given her testimony; (3) Massa’s statements supported the trial court’s first three aggravating factors; and (4) the admitted invalidity of the fourth factor was harmless because, under Florida law, only one valid reason is needed to support a departure sentence. In 2001, the state appellate court affirmed Pace’s convictions and sentences. See Pace v. State, 804 So. 2d 1256 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 2001) (unpublished table decision).