Davis v. State

207 So.3d 142 (2016)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

D entered the Headley Insurance Agency with the intent to commit robbery. Yvonne Bustamante and Juanita Luciano were working. At the time, Luciano was twenty-four weeks pregnant. D locked the front door and placed duct tape over the lens of a security camera. D demanded money from the women, and they refused to comply. D forced them to open the company's safe and cash box, which contained about $900. During the course of the robbery, D bound the women with duct tape, poured gasoline on them, and set them on fire. At 3:35 p.m., one of the women activated the office's panic alarm, which sent a signal to the alarm company. Bustamante and Luciano escaped the burning building and ran in separate directions seeking help. Bustamante eventually ran to the parking lot and Luciano ran to a nearby restaurant, Havana Nights. As Bustamante tried to escape, D shot her in her left hand. People, Fran Murray, Brandon Greisman, and Carlos Ortiz, were on the scene before emergency personnel arrived and became eyewitnesses to the aftermath of the robbery. Evelyn Anderson was a Headley customer who arrived at Headley while the robbery was in progress. All saw the burning women. Greisman saw D walking towards them, and he originally thought that D was coming to help the distressed woman. Greisman made eye contact with D, who pulled a gun out of the cooler that he was carrying and pointed it at Greisman. D shot him in the face, hitting him in the nose. The gunshot caused profuse bleeding and removed the tip of Greisman's nose. The witnesses saw skin rolling off of bodies of the women and could smell the burnt skin and flesh. Lt. Elrod arrived and observed Bustamante's severe burns covering eighty percent of her body. At trial, Lt. Elrod testified: 'I knew she was going to die, so I tried to get information from her on who did it to her.' 'I asked her who did it to her. And she told me it was D. And then I asked her, how she knew him. And she said that she knows him and that he was a] prior client of theirs in the Insurance Company.' Bustamante explained that D tried to rob them, and when they did not give him money, he threw gasoline on them and set them on fire. When they tried to run, D continued to throw gasoline on them. Lt. Elrod located Luciano inside of the Havana Nights restaurant. When he walked inside the restaurant, he saw Luciano, who was 'obviously pregnant,' sitting down. Lt. Elrod characterized Luciano's burn injuries as even worse than Bustamante's. Lt. Elrod went outside and told emergency personnel that another victim needed help who was in even worse condition than Bustamante. He then began dispatching the name 'Leon Davis' to law enforcement and conducting routine duties at the crime scene. Medics arrived and heard Lt. Elrod get answers to his questions about who did it. The women were airlifted to the Orlando Regional Medical Center for treatment in the burn unit. Luciano underwent an emergency caesarean section, during which she gave birth to her son, Michael Bustamante, Jr. Detectives went to the hospital in hopes of interviewing Bustamante and Luciano, the severity of their injuries prevented the detectives from ever meeting with them. Michael lived for three days after his emergency delivery. Bustamante lived for five days, and Luciano lived for three weeks. Bustamante suffered burns that covered eighty to ninety percent of her body. Luciano suffered burns that covered about ninety percent of her body. Additionally, the autopsy of Bustamante revealed bullet fragments from the gunshot to her left hand, although the gunshot was not a cause of her death. A manhunt began for D and D turned himself in. D was later tried for three counts of first-degree murder (Bustamante, Luciano, and baby Michael), one count of attempted first-degree murder (Greisman), one count of armed robbery, and one count of first-degree arson. D was convicted and sentenced to death twice. D appealed. On appeal, in part, D raised the issue whether the trial court erred when it admitted the statements of victim Bustamante to Lt. Elrod as a dying declaration.