Lynch v. State

254 So.3d 312

Richard E. LYNCH, Appellant,

v.STATE of Florida, Appellee.

No. SC17-2235

Supreme Court of Florida.

September 20, 2018

Maria DeLiberato, Capital Collateral Regional Counsel, Lisa Marie Bort, Maria Christine Perinetti, and Raheela Ahmed, Assistant Capital Collateral Regional Counsel, Middle Region, Temple Terrace, Florida, for Appellant

Pamela Jo Bondi, Attorney General, Tallahassee, Florida, and Donna M. Perry, Assistant Attorney General, West Palm Beach, Florida, for Appellee

PER CURIAM.

This case is before the Court on appeal from an order denying a motion to vacate two sentences of death under Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.851. Because the order concerns postconviction relief from two sentences of death, this Court has jurisdiction under article V, section 3(b)(1) of the Florida Constitution.

FACTS AND BACKGROUND

Richard E. Lynch pled guilty to two counts of first-degree premeditated murder, one count of armed burglary of a dwelling, and one count of kidnapping, all of which stemmed from events that occurred on March 5, 1999, and resulted in the deaths of Roseanna Morgan and her thirteen-year-old daughter, Leah Caday. Lynch v. State (Lynch I ), 841 So.2d 362, 365-66 (Fla. 2003). The United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit most concisely detailed the facts surrounding the murders:

Lynch murdered Morgan and Caday on March 5, 1999, because he could not accept Morgan's decision to end their extramarital affair. SeeLynch [I , 841 So.2d at 366]. The affair had lasted from August 1998 until February 1999. Id. While it was underway, although Lynch was unemployed and relied on his wife for financial support, he obtained three credit cards that were used to make more than $6,000 worth of purchases for Morgan. SeeLynch v. State [ ( Lynch II ) ], 2 So.3d 47, 66 (Fla. 2008). She ended the affair on February 9, 1999 after her husband returned from Saudi Arabia where he had been working as a military contractor. SeeLynch [I ], 841 So.2d at 374. While Morgan moved on, Lynch did not. He began stalking Morgan, hanging around her apartment complex, showing up at her job, following her on her way home from work, and calling her apartment. Morgan's husband confronted Lynch several times and told him to leave her alone, but it did no good. Lynch persisted.

On March 3, 1999, about three weeks after Morgan had ended the affair, Lynch wrote a letter to his wife declaring his intention to kill Morgan and then himself. Seeid. at 366, 368. In that letter he asked his wife to send Morgan's parents copies of the letters and cards Morgan had written to him, as well as nude pictures of Morgan that he had taken. Id. at 366. He wrote that "I want them to have a sense of why it happened, some decent closure, a reason and understanding. ... I want them to know what she did, the pain she caused, that it was not just a random act of violence." Lynch [II ], 2 So.3d at 64 (emphasis omitted). Lynch went on in the letter about the debts that had been run up on the credit cards, his fear that Morgan would not pay him back for any of the purchases, and the pain that she had caused him by ending their affair. After describing in explicit and unnecessary detail the various sexual acts he and Morgan had engaged in and how much he had enjoyed them, on the last page of the letter Lynch apologized to his wife "for all the pain, suffering, expense, embarrassment and hardship I will cause and give to you," but concluded that Morgan "must pay the price." Lynch left the letter in his garage.

Two days later, on March 5, he packed three pistols and ammunition into a black bag and drove to Morgan's apartment. See id. at 59. He parked his car down the street and around the corner from the apartment complex so that Morgan and her daughter Caday would not see it when they arrived at the complex. Id. ; Lynch [I ], 841 So.2d at 367 n.3. Lynch grabbed the bag with the three pistols and ammunition from the trunk of his car, walked to the complex, and picked an inconspicuous spot to wait for Morgan to return. SeeLynch [II ], 2 So.3d at 76.

Caday got home first. See id. Lynch talked the thirteen-year-old into letting him inside by telling her that he wanted to speak with her mother. Seeid. at 62. Once inside the apartment, he pulled one of the pistols from the black bag and held Caday at gunpoint for thirty or forty minutes while waiting for Morgan to arrive. See Lynch [I ], 841 So.2d at 366. All the while, the young girl was "terrified." Id. She asked Lynch "why he was doing this to her." Id.

When Morgan finally returned home, Lynch met her at the door with a pistol in his hand. SeeLynch [II ], 2 So.3d at 59. Sensing what Lynch was going to do, Morgan refused to come inside. They had a heated discussion, which ended when Lynch fired seven shots. Seeid. at 58, 70. Three of the shots hit Morgan in the legs. Seeid. at 53, 69-70. One hit her eye and tore through her neck. Seeid. at 69-70. She fell to the floor in the hallway outside her apartment, bleeding and screaming for help. SeeLynch [I ], 841 So.2d at 366, 371. Lynch walked outside the apartment into the hallway where Morgan lay, and the door closed behind him. He dragged Morgan's bleeding body by her wrist back to the door, where he knocked and told Morgan's daughter to "Hurry up, open the door, your mom is hurt." Id. at 367. When Caday opened the door, Lynch dragged her mother inside, closing the door behind him. Id.

Inside the apartment, Lynch pulled a second pistol from his bag, and several minutes after he had first shot Morgan he killed her in front of her daughter by firing a single, execution-style shot to her head. Seeid. at 370-73 ; Lynch [II ], 2 So.3d at 69. He then called his wife at their home, Lynch [I ], 841 So.2d at 366, and told her he was "sorry for what I'm going to do." During that phone call, Lynch's wife could hear Caday screaming hysterically in the background. Seeid. at 369. After Lynch hung up, he killed the young girl by shooting her in the back. Seeid. at 366.

Lynch then called his wife again. Id. He told her that he had accidentally shot Caday and told her that he had left a letter in the garage. See id. When that call ended, Mrs. Lynch dialed 911. She told the operator about Lynch's phone calls and asked for the police to investigate. She then began to look for the letter. Her sister Juliette, whom Mrs. Lynch had paged after Lynch's first phone call, arrived at the home and joined in the search. Mrs. Lynch found the letter and started to read it but was interrupted when her husband called a third time. Both she and Juliette talked to him, begging him not to kill himself. See id. While Juliette was speaking with Lynch, Mrs. Lynch used her cell phone to call 911 again. She told the operator about the murder-suicide letter she had just found and that Lynch was willing to turn himself in. After that 911 call ended and Lynch had ended his call to Mrs. Lynch, she returned to reading the letter he had left. Before she could finish reading it, several police officers arrived at her home. SeeLynch [II ], 2 So.3d at 68. One officer, after confirming that she was Mrs. Lynch, asked her for the letter. See id. She did not want to hand it over until she had finished reading it, but the officer kept asking and she gave him the letter.

While Mrs. Lynch was talking with the officers, Lynch himself called 911. SeeLynch [I ], 841 So.2d at 370. He talked with the 911 operator for the next thirty or forty minutes. SeeLynch [II ], 2 So.3d at 57-58. By the time that call began, two officers were at Morgan's apartment responding to the neighbors' reports of shots fired. The officers attempted to enter the apartment, but quickly retreated when Lynch fired a shot at them. SeeLynch [I ], 841 So.2d at 366. Eventually, the SWAT team arrived, there were negotiations, and Lynch gave himself up. Before he did that, Lynch told the 911 operator that he had killed two people, that he had shot Morgan to "put her out of her misery," and that he had fired at the two police officers who tried to enter the apartment. Id.

Lynch v. Sec'y, Fla. Dep't of Corrs. (Lynch IV ), 776 F.3d 1209, 1212-14 (11th Cir. 2015). Lynch's trial counsel, in considering the abundance of evidence available against Lynch, recommended that he waive a penalty phase jury because a jury would be more emotional and unsympathetic to mitigation presented for the murder of a child than a seasoned trial judge would be. Id. at 1214. Accordingly, Lynch waived his right to a penalty phase jury. Id. at 1215.¹

The testimony elicited during the penalty phase regarding the events of March 5, 1999, included a tape of a telephone call that appellant made to the "911" emergency assistance service while still in the apartment where the murders occurred. On that tape, Lynch is heard admitting to the 911 operator that he shot two people at 534 Rosecliff Circle. He said he initially traveled to the apartment only to attempt to have Morgan pay a credit card debt, but resorted to shooting her in the leg and in the back of the head. He told the 911 operator that he had three handguns with him and that he shot Morgan in the back of the head to "put her out of her misery." Appellant also admitted to firing at the police when they first arrived on the scene.

As to Caday, appellant informed the 911 operator that he had held Caday at gunpoint while waiting for Morgan to return home. He related that she was terrified during the process prior to the shootings and asked him why he was doing this to her. Appellant admitted that he shot Caday, and said "the gun just went off into her back and she's slumped over. And she was still breathing for awhile and that's it." Appellant told the operator he planned to kill himself.

During the course of these events on March 5, 1999, appellant telephoned his wife three times from the apartment. His wife testified that during the first call she could hear a woman screaming in the background. Appellant's wife further

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