Damas v. State

260 So.3d 200

Mesac DAMAS, Appellant,

v.STATE of Florida, Appellee.

No. SC17-2062

Supreme Court of Florida.

December 28, 2018

Valarie Linnen, Atlantic Beach, Florida, for Appellant

Pamela Jo Bondi, Attorney General, Tallahassee, Florida, and Lisa Martin, Assistant Attorney General, Tampa, Florida, for Appellee

PER CURIAM.

This case is before the Court on appeal from a judgment of convictions of first-degree murder and six sentences of death. We have jurisdiction. See art. V, § 3(b)(1), Fla. Const. For the reasons discussed below, we affirm the convictions and sentences.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Overview

Appellant Mesac Damas (Damas) was indicted on six counts of first-degree premeditated murder for the killing of his wife, Guerline, and their five children in September 2009. The names and ages of the children were: Meshach (nine years old), Maven (six years old), Marven (five years old), Megan (three years old), and Morgan (nineteen months old). Damas killed the victims at their Naples home by cutting their throats. Damas admitted to a reporter from the Naples Daily News that he killed his wife and children, and he also gave three statements—two were given to a special agent of the United States Department of State Diplomatic Security Service and a third was given to members of the Collier County Sheriff's Office.¹ Miranda² warnings were provided to Damas before each statement and Damas waived his rights. Most of the facts with respect to the crimes were compiled from these statements.

During the trial court proceedings, Damas expressed a desire to represent himself. However, after a Faretta³ inquiry, the trial court denied the request. Damas pleaded guilty to the crimes and waived his right to a penalty-phase jury. He also waived his right to present evidence in mitigation. After allowing defense counsel to make a presentation pursuant to Koon v. Dugger , 619 So.2d 246 (Fla. 1993),⁴ the trial court imposed sentences of death for each of the murders.

Background, the Crimes, and the Confessions

Damas and Guerline dated for many years before they married in April 2006. Meshach, Maven, Marven, and Megan were born prior to the marriage, while Morgan was born after the marriage. According to Damas, he and Guerline began to argue after the marriage. He became jealous and suspected Guerline of having an affair. He visited her job and checked her cellular telephone. On January 2, 2009, during an argument about her purported unfaithfulness, Damas slapped Guerline while she was holding infant Morgan, and Guerline dropped the child on the floor. Guerline called the police, and Damas was arrested and charged with misdemeanor battery. He was given a bond, but was ordered to have no contact with Guerline as a condition of his release.⁵ Nonetheless, he sent her flowers almost every day. Further, he would use his key to enter the residence so that he could apologize to Guerline and see the children.

According to Damas, as time passed, Guerline became concerned because the Department of Children and Families (DCF) "got involved" as a result of the domestic violence incident and was "trying to take the kids away from her." Guerline changed the locks so that Damas could no longer enter the residence, but Damas would drive by after his restaurant shift ended at 3 a.m., using a friend's car so the police would not know he was violating the no-contact order. He would sit in the car, watching Guerline and thinking about the children. One day, when he "couldn't take it no more," he broke a window while Guerline was home and entered the residence to see the children. Guerline and the children eventually moved out of the residence where the domestic violence incident occurred and into the townhouse where the murders occurred.

The no-contact order was subsequently lifted and, toward the end of March 2009, Guerline allowed Damas to move in with her and the children.⁶ Damas pleaded no contest to the battery charge and was placed on twelve months' probation. Although Guerline allowed Damas to move in, she told him she did not forgive him and she planned to divorce him. Guerline informed Damas that her mother stated that if she ever took Damas back, she (the mother) would never speak to Guerline again. When Damas asked Guerline if she would leave him, she stated, "I don't know what I'm going to do. My mom [is] probably right ... like I told you before I'm going to leave you. I'm going to divorce you." Damas responded, "Baby let me tell you something.... If you ever say that again I will kill your mom. I will kill you. I will kill myself."⁷

On Wednesday, September 16, 2009, Guerline informed Damas that if he struck her again, she would make sure he spent the rest of his life in prison and he would never see the children again. Contemplating Guerline leaving him for someone else and not being allowed to see his children, Damas thought about killing himself and her:

[A]nd then that's when the devil start coming out of me. He was like, "Oh, why don't you just kill yourself? Kill her and then kill yourself" you know, "Let your parents, whatever, take care of the kids." But I was like, "But I love the kids and when I die how am I going to know if they [are] okay."

Also that day, a DCF employee visited and met with Guerline without Damas. Damas recounted to the special agent his belief that "[t]hey were setting me up for failure. [Guerline] was asking her how she can divorce me.... I was so pissed off ... the fact [that] she betrayed me like that." (fourth alteration in original). That night, Guerline informed Damas she would help him finish the probation classes, and then she would divorce him.

On the morning of Thursday, September 17, 2009, Damas followed Guerline to her job, leaving the children at home alone. Guerline and the store manager threatened to call the police, but Damas said, "If you call the cops they're going to arrest me, they're going to arrest you too because both of us left the kids alone at the house. They're going to take the kids away from us. I know you love the kids too, right?" Guerline returned home after working less than four hours. She asked Damas to sign some papers that had arrived in the mail. Before she left the townhouse to return to work, she stated she would not come home that evening because she feared Damas "might push me or whatever, beat ... me." Damas responded, "Baby, I'm not going to do anything to you. I love you. You know? It's okay.... It's alright. If I touch you I go to jail; you know."

Guerline returned to the townhouse that afternoon on her work break. A friend who was visiting Damas at the time witnessed an argument between the two before Damas left for his work shift, using the friend's vehicle rather than taking his own.⁸ The friend agreed to stay and watch the children because Guerline also left to return to work. At approximately 7 p.m., Guerline arrived home, and the friend remained to speak with her. During his shift, Damas complained of a headache and was allowed to leave early. He "clocked out" at 8:42 p.m. Damas informed the special agent that once he left the restaurant, he was considering various scenarios:

I said I would go and kill her and myself. But if I kill her[,] custody of the kids would go [to] her mom. So I wanted to kill her mom so my mom would have custody. I [was] talking to myself in my car. I said what if I kill my kids and myself? But what about her? She will marry again! What if I just kill her? But if they find me[,] they will take my kids away from me.

Around 9 p.m., Damas's friend observed his own vehicle drive past the townhouse, turn around, and leave. The friend entered Damas's Yukon and followed Damas, flashing the lights of the Yukon. When Damas stopped, the friend asked Damas what was wrong, and Damas replied that he thought Guerline was with another man. The friend and Damas swapped vehicles, and the friend observed Damas drive away. At approximately 10:30 p.m., Damas purchased duct tape, a filet knife, and chewing gum.

On Saturday, September 19, 2009, Guerline's family filed a missing person report with the Collier County Sheriff's Office and requested a welfare check for Guerline and the children. The family was concerned due to the history of domestic violence between Damas and Guerline and the children, and the fact that Guerline had not reported to work, which was out of character for her. The children also missed school on Friday. Officers met Guerline's family at the townhouse to conduct a welfare check, and the landlord unlocked the front door. Upon entry, the officers observed a red substance that appeared to be blood leaking from the closed door of a room under the stairway. Believing a violent crime had been committed and the suspect might still be present, the officers withdrew and requested backup.

Upon reentry by law enforcement, they opened the door under the stairs and found Guerline deceased, laying on the floor of a small bathroom with a large area of dried blood beneath the upper part of her body. Her head was covered with a black trash bag. Underneath the bag, her neck and mouth had been bound with duct tape. The upper half of her body was bound with so much duct tape that it was impossible to discern what she was wearing from the waist up. Her arms were behind her back and her wrists and hands, palms facing outward, were bound extensively with duct tape. Her legs were bound with duct tape from just above her knees to just above her ankles. Her torso and hands were also loosely wrapped in an electrical cord. Her throat had been cut through the duct tape.

Law enforcement proceeded to the second floor of the townhouse to check on the welfare of the children. In one bedroom, law enforcement found Meshach—the oldest child—deceased on the bed with his throat cut. The knife wounds nearly encircled his neck. The bed was broken. In another bedroom, law enforcement found the four remaining children deceased, also with their throats cut. The lacerations to...