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Lugo v. State2/20/2003
al judge denied Lugo's motions for judgment of acquittal. The jury convicted Lugo of all thirty-nine criminal counts with which he was charged, and he was adjudicated guilty on all thirty-nine counts. Lugo's motion for new trial or, in the alternative, for arrest of judgment, was denied.
The State presented only victim impact evidence in the penalty phase. Lugo presented two witnesses on his behalf in the penalty phase: his mother, Carmen Lugo, and Santiago Gervacio, a long-time friend. Lugo's mother presented testimony concerning two isolated incidents in which Lugo had been mistreated by his father when he was a child as punishment for misbehavior. One incident involved corporal punishment with a clothes hanger. The other occurred when Lugo's father poured a bowl of spaghetti over Lugo's head when he refused to eat. Lugo's mother testified that on the whole, however, Lugo was raised in a loving home, that both she and his father loved him, and that he displayed love toward them both. Santiago Gervacio testified that Lugo was a passive person whom he had never seen commit a violent act. He also stated that Lugo showed great love toward his deceased sister's four children, and even adopted them. Gervacio added that Lugo showed love toward his parents.
The jury voted, eleven to one, to recommend that Lugo receive the death penalty for the murders of both Griga and Furton. The circuit judge accepted the jury's recommendation of death for each of the murders, sentenced Lugo to death for each of those offenses, and adjudicated him guilty on all thirty-nine counts of which he was convicted. The court ordered that all sentences were to run consecutively. In his sentencing order, the trial judge found five aggravating factors applicable to both murders: prior violent felonies (including the contemporaneous murder of the other victim, and the armed kidnaping, armed robbery, and attempted murder of Schiller); commission during the course of a kidnaping, for the purpose of avoiding arrest and for pecuniary gain; and cold, calculated, and premeditated (CCP). Additionally, the trial judge found that the heinous, atrocious, or cruel (HAC) aggravator applied to the Furton murder. The trial judge gave great weight to each of these aggravators. He also found no applicable statutory mitigators but five non-statutory mitigators existed, each of which was given little weight or very little weight. This direct appeal followed.
GUILT PHASE
Denial of Motion to Sever Criminal Charges
Lugo asserted before trial that he was entitled to have separate trials on the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization (RICO) counts, the Schiller counts, and the Griga-Furton counts. He contended 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. The trial judge denied Lugo's motion to sever the sets of counts from each other and to have separate trials. The only relief granted by the trial judge after a hearing on the motion was that Lugo would have a separate jury from co-defendants Doorbal and Mese.
Denial of a motion for severance of criminal charges is reviewed for abuse of discretion. See Crossley v. State, 596 So. 2d 447 (Fla. 1992). We have previously stated:
" he rules [of criminal procedure] do not warrant joinder or consolidation of criminal charges based on similar but separate episodes, separated in time, which are connected only by similar circumstances and the accused's alleged guilt in both or all instances." Courts may consider "the temporal and geographical association, the nature of the c
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 Florida DUI Attorneys
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