Opinion ID: 2489132
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Patrick McCoombs

Text: In the first claim we address, Wyatt raises two issues: (1) newly discovered evidence shows that McCoombs' testimony on the stand was false and if the jury had been presented with this information, they would have acquitted him; and (2) the prosecutor violated Brady [7] and Giglio [8] by permitting McCoombs to testify that he was not given any benefit for his testimony and by failing to disclose that the prosecutor assisted McCoombs in obtaining mitigation of his federal sentence after Wyatt's trial was concluded, as well as providing other benefits that were not disclosed to the jury or Wyatt. For the following reasons, we affirm the postconviction court's denial of relief. During the Nydegger murder trial, McCoombs testified that he and Wyatt were housed next to each other at the Greenville County Jail in South Carolina before Wyatt was extradited to Florida. Wyatt admitted to killing Nydegger shortly after Wyatt had received a letter from codefendant Lovette. Wyatt ripped up the letter, saying, [W]ell, I'm not going to try to put my crimes on him, anyway, I killed the bitch. I'll live up to it, it's not like I'm going to put it on him. Later, Wyatt provided more details regarding the murder, telling McCoombs that he first met Nydegger when he was partying at a bar with Lovette. They were both drunk, and Wyatt took her out of the bar so they could have sex. However, once Wyatt got her in the car, he didn't want to have sex with her anymore, [he] just wanted to kill her. Wyatt told McCoombs either that he blew the top of her head off or blew her brains out. When McCoombs asked Wyatt why he killed the victim, Wyatt responded, I wanted to see her die. . . . [W]hy are you so upset about it, she ain't nothing but a bar fly, she ain't nobody, nobody cared about her. Wyatt told McCoombs that he dumped her body at Yeehaw Junction off of Route 60. Wyatt also told McCoombs that he kept two kinds of bullets, regular and hollow-tip, and asked McCoombs whether the State could use it as evidence if he shot a hollow-tip into somebody's brain. McCoombs testified that at the time he informed the Marshal's Office regarding his conversations with Wyatt, he had already pled guilty in his own case and had never been promised anything in exchange for his testimony. In raising the current postconviction claim, Wyatt asserts new evidence demonstrates that McCoombs fabricated his trial testimony and that this evidence would be admissible in a retrial to impeach McCoombs' original testimony. [9] In support, Wyatt presented evidence at the evidentiary hearing, including the following: the perpetuated testimony of inmates Scott Rollins and Dennis Morrison, both of whom testified that McCoombs allegedly admitted that he lied when he testified against Wyatt; the affidavit of inmate Emilio Bravo, who also claimed that McCoombs stated he lied at trial; [10] and McCoombs' evidentiary hearing testimony in which he denied that he intended to recant his trial testimony and explained why he wrote the recantation letter. Wyatt relies principally upon the perpetuated testimony of Rollins and Morrison. However, when Rollins testified, he could not recall many details regarding what McCoombs said. Morrison also testified, stating that McCoombs admitted that Wyatt did not confess to the murder and that McCoombs had received the information to which he testified at trial from the police. Morrison further stated that according to McCoombs, the police wanted Wyatt to talk about the location of a gun, which the police already possessed. During the evidentiary hearing, McCoombs testified and explicitly denied that he had lied at trial. The postconviction court reviewed all of the testimony and found that McCoombs' testimony at the evidentiary hearing was more credible than Rollins' and Morrison's testimony. Of particular importance to the postconviction court, McCoombs' trial testimony included statements that McCoombs would not have known about unless Wyatt had told him. This included the following: Wyatt had met Nydegger at a bar and went out to the car with her for fifteen minutes before they came back; he blew the top of her head off and dumped her body near Route 60 at Yeehaw Junction; and Wyatt said that she was just a barfly. The court noted that, based on the timing of when McCoombs and Wyatt were housed near each other, the only discovery document that Wyatt may have had at the time was the State's extradition affidavit, which did not contain the facts to which McCoombs testified at trial. Moreover, these facts had not been released to the media. The postconviction court explicitly found that McCoombs' evidentiary hearing testimony [was] more credible than the perpetuated testimonies of Rollins and Morrison, reasoning as follows: The court finds that the 2002 inmate statements (Rollins and Morrison) and the 2002 recantation letter . . . were unknown at the time of trial and could not have been discovered with due diligence. As to the second prong of the Jones standard, the court finds the inmate statements inconsistent with McCoombs' trial testimony that did not contain information about the firearms or their location. And the inmate statements are not otherwise relevant or credible because they do not address or refute any material fact contained in McCoombs' extensive trial testimony. . . . As a result, the court finds McCoombs' evidentiary hearing testimony more credible than the perpetuated testimonies of Rollins and Morrison. Consequently, even if admissible, the inmate statements would have no evidentiary or impeachment value. In evaluating the second prong of Jones for the recantation letter, the court finds that McCoombs did not recant his trial testimony but merely made veiled threats of recantation to call attention to harsh conditions of confinement eleven years after he was a government witness at Wyatt's trials. Further, the court finds no evidence that McCoombs lied at trial. Much of McCoombs' extensive trial testimony at both [Wyatt's Domino's Pizza murders trial and Nydegger's murder trial] is consistent with, and corroborated by, other trial testimony and evidence. . . . . In addition the court finds that Wyatt has not proven a source other than Wyatt for any facts testified to by McCoombs, or disproved any of the facts testified to by McCoombs. Consequently, the recantation letter is immaterial to the merits of the case, and lacks impeachment value when viewed as a complaint concerning conditions of confinement eleven years after Wyatt's trials. The postconviction court correctly analyzed this claim under Jones v. State, 709 So.2d 512, 521 (Fla.1998), which requires the defendant to meet the following two-pronged test: (1) the evidence `must have been unknown by the trial court, by the party, or by counsel at the time of trial, and it must appear that defendant or his counsel could not have known [of it] by the use of diligence'; and (2) the evidence must be of such nature that it would probably produce an acquittal on retrial. Id. (quoting Torres-Arboleda v. Dugger, 636 So.2d 1321, 1324-25 (Fla.1994)). Further, the court must `consider all newly discovered evidence which would be admissible' at trial and then evaluate the `weight of both the newly discovered evidence and the evidence which was introduced at the trial.' Id. (quoting Jones v. State, 591 So.2d 911, 916 (Fla.1991)). This Court does not second-guess the trial court's credibility determinations and factual findings to the extent they are supported by competent, substantial evidence. Melendez v. State, 718 So.2d 746, 747-48 (Fla. 1998). Here, the postconviction court denied relief, holding that McCoombs' testimony was more credible than the inmates' testimony, and that McCoombs' testimony was consistent with the record. The record provides competent, substantial evidence supporting the court's findings of fact. In fact, as it applies to this case, it is unclear whether the inmates' testimony concerning the gun could even apply to the Nydegger murder. In this case, Freddie Fox stole Wyatt's gun and sold it to a pawn shop. Thus, Morrison's statements that the police were requesting McCoombs to obtain certain statements from Wyatt to verify the location of the gun were inconsistent with the record, as the police knew Fox had stolen Wyatt's gun and pawned it. Accordingly, we deny relief on Wyatt's newly discovered evidence claim relating to McCoombs. Wyatt next alleges that the State violated Giglio because the State permitted McCoombs to testify falsely regarding whether McCoombs would receive various benefits in exchange for his testimony against Wyatt. Specifically, he asserts that because McCoombs testified against Wyatt, the State helped McCoombs obtain a reduction in McCoombs' federal sentence and that the prosecutor left the jury with the false impression that McCoombs' federal sentence was already fixed and failed to correct this false impression. In order to prove a Giglio violation, a defendant must show that (1) the prosecutor presented or failed to correct false testimony; (2) the prosecutor knew the testimony was false; and (3) the false evidence was material. Tompkins, 994 So.2d at 1091 (quoting Rhodes v. State, 986 So.2d 501, 508-09 (Fla.2008)). The evidence is considered material if there is any reasonable possibility that it could have affected the jury's verdict. Id. (quoting Rhodes, 986 So.2d at 509). In order to meet this standard, the State must prove that the false testimony was not material by demonstrating it was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. Id. (quoting Rhodes, 986 So.2d at 509). The postconviction court denied relief in an extensive order, relying on McCoombs' and prosecutor Morgan's testimony at the evidentiary hearing where both witnesses explicitly denied that they were aware that the state prosecutor had the ability to help McCoombs reduce his already imposed federal sentence and further denied that they had any agreement for sentence mitigation in exchange for McCoombs' trial testimony. As the court noted, Wyatt failed to present any evidence to refute this testimony. In fact, Wyatt acknowledges this, but asserts that the lack of a smoking gun is not the end of the inquiry and he challenges the postconviction court's findings on credibility. However, to support this claim, Wyatt relies solely on speculation. As this Court has repeatedly held, in reviewing such claims on appeal, we are bound by the trial court's credibility determinations and factual findings to the extent they are supported by competent, substantial evidence. Rodriguez v. State, 39 So.3d 275, 285 (Fla.2010) (quoting Jones v. State, 998 So.2d 573, 580 (Fla.2008)). Here, the postconviction court denied relief, finding that McCoombs' and Morgan's testimony was credible and that Wyatt failed to show that the State presented false testimony at the guilt or penalty phase. In judging the credibility of these witnesses, the court took careful note as to the fact that McCoombs' testimony was consistent with the facts established from the record and was consistent with Morgan's testimony, while the witnesses presented by Wyatt were not consistent with the record. The record provides competent, substantial evidence supporting the court's findings of fact. Accordingly, we deny relief. Finally, Wyatt alleges that the State violated Brady because the State failed to disclose that it had reached an agreement with McCoombs where McCoombs would receive various benefits in exchange for his testimony against Wyatt. In order to establish a Brady violation, the defendant must demonstrate that (1) favorable evidence, either exculpatory or impeaching, (2) was willfully or inadvertently suppressed by the State, and (3) because the evidence was material, the defendant was prejudiced. See Strickler v. Greene, 527 U.S. 263, 281-82, 119 S.Ct. 1936, 144 L.Ed.2d 286 (1999); see also Way v. State, 760 So.2d 903, 910 (Fla. 2000). To meet the materiality prong, the defendant must demonstrate a reasonable probability that, had the evidence been disclosed to the defense, the result of the proceeding would have been different. Way, 760 So.2d at 913 (quoting United States v. Bagley, 473 U.S. 667, 682, 105 S.Ct. 3375, 87 L.Ed.2d 481 (1985)). A reasonable probability is a probability sufficient to undermine this Court's confidence in the outcome. Id.; see also Strickler, 527 U.S. at 290, 119 S.Ct. 1936. This claim suffers from the same problems as the Giglio claimWyatt has completely failed to show any evidence that there was such an agreement between the State and McCoombs. Accordingly, the postconviction court denied relief based on the lack of evidence to support Wyatt's claim and its determinations that McCoombs and Morgan were credible during the evidentiary hearing. Because the record provides competent, substantial evidence supporting the court's findings of fact, we likewise deny relief on Wyatt's Brady claim. For the reasons addressed above, we deny relief on this claim because it is without merit. [11]