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Supreme Court of Florida




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No. SC06-1868


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WILLIAM FRANK DAVIS,


Appellant,



vs.




STATE OF FLORIDA,


Appellee.



[December 18, 2008]



PER CURIAM.



We have on appeal a judgment of conviction of William Frank Davis for two counts of first-degree murder and two sentences of death for the fatal stabbing of his neighbor, Alice Jean Albin, and her sixteen-year-old daughter, Loretta Ann Wren, in August 2003. We have jurisdiction. See art. V, § 3(b)(1), Fla. Const.


For the reasons that follow, we affirm the convictions and sentences.





I. FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY




The evidence presented at the trial of appellant William Frank Davis revealed the following. On behalf of the State, Detective Gary Stucki, a homicide detective with the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office (JSO), testified that he interviewed

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Davis on August 21, 2003. Detective Stucki testified that Davis told him that Davis knew the victims, Albin and Wren, because he had previously had a relationship with Albin's other daughter Amy Ware. Davis and the victims lived in the same trailer community. Detective Stucki testified that initially Davis told him and Detective Mark Romano of the JSO that Davis twice visited with Albin and Wren late in the evening of August 20, 2003, or early in the morning of August 21, 2003. Davis told the officers that while he was at the victims' home the second time, a white male in his late thirties entered the home and attacked Albin and Wren. Davis claimed to have fought with the white male before escaping the trailer. Upon further questioning, Davis repeated a substantially similar story. Later, when asked if he was "going to tell the truth," Davis responded by asking for a recorder. Detective Stucki retrieved a tape recorder, and Davis told a different story explaining the stabbings. Detective David Meacham, also a homicide detective with the JSO, videotaped this statement. The videotape was played for the jury.


In the videotaped statement, Davis admitted to killing Albin and Wren, apologized for lying, and explained that "it's like it's a different me with a knife."


He stated that he was sorry and that he knew what he did was wrong but could not explain why he killed the women. After a break, Davis gave the detectives a more detailed account of the attack. Davis explained that he walked several blocks to







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the victims' trailer carrying a "sauté" knife and knocked on their door, which Wren answered. While holding the knife where she could not see it, Davis briefly questioned Wren about her sister. Davis stabbed Wren and forced his way inside.


He chased Wren into the trailer, continuing to stab her. The sauté knife broke while Davis was stabbing Wren, so he acquired another knife. When Albin entered the kitchen area, Davis "just went to her next." Davis acquired a third knife after the second knife broke while he was stabbing Albin. Albin's young grandson lived with the victims and was in the trailer at the time of the attack, but was not harmed by Davis.


Davis admitted that after stabbing the victims, he tried to wash his hands, tried to clean some of the blood from the kitchen floor, covered the victim's bodies, and locked the front door as he left. Davis explained that he took some of the bloodied knives home and buried them outside his trailer and put his shoes and some of the clothes he wore during the attack in the woods near his home. He stated that because he had been injured during the attack, he used a flashlight to see whether he had left a trail of blood outside his trailer. Detective Stucki asked Davis why he killed Albin and Wren. Davis did not provide a reason or motive.


Detective Stucki also asked when Davis decided to commit the homicides, but Davis's response was inaudible. When asked if he knew what he was going to do







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when he walked to the victims' trailer, Davis responded, "I didn't know if I was going to do it."



After the videotaped interview, Detective Stucki asked Davis more questions. Detective Stucki testified that during that interview, Davis stated that he went to the victims' trailer between midnight and 1 a.m. and that he wore extra clothing because he knew he was going to get his clothes bloody and wanted to be able to change inside the trailer.


James Armstrong, one of Davis's roommates at the time of the murders, testified about his knowledge of Davis's behavior during the evening of August 20, 2003, and the early morning of August 21, 2003. He testified that Davis arrived home around 6 or 7 p.m. that evening and "[s]eemed like he was in a good mood."


Armstrong heard Davis leave later that evening, and when he returned, Armstrong heard Davis "rustling around in" the silverware drawer before leaving again.


When Davis returned the next time, he asked Armstrong if he could borrow a flashlight and then left yet again. When Davis returned for the final time that evening, he made a "beeline" for his bedroom and took a shower.


Larry A. Denton of the Biology Section of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) testified as an expert in serology DNA and population statistics. He testified as follows about DNA testing performed in this case. A mixture of DNA was found on a knife recovered from the victims' kitchen floor.








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The major contributor to that DNA was Davis. DNA matching Albin was found on blue jeans recovered from a bag in the woods near Davis's home. A mixture of DNA was present on a knife blade found in the pocket of khaki shorts recovered from Davis's home, of which Wren was the major contributor. Maria Concepcion Bio Puro, a crime laboratory analyst in FDLE's Biology Section, assisted in analyzing the physical evidence collected in this case and testified as an expert about population statistics. Puro found DNA matching Davis on a light switch plate from the victims' trailer. Heather Velez, who worked for FDLE in 2003, testified that a fracture match analysis on two pieces of knife blade, one piece recovered from the victims' kitchen sink and the other from the pocket of khaki shorts known to belong to Davis, showed that the pieces were once a single knife.


William Davis was the only witness to testify for the defense. Davis testified that when he committed the homicides, he had no control over his physical body and that he could only see and hear, not feel or think. When asked why he went to the victims' home, Davis answered, "I had no physical control over what I was doing." Davis testified that he remembered "seeing [himself] sit down on their patio" before knocking on the victims' door, but he stated that he could not explain what he was feeling as he sat on the patio. He estimated that he sat there for "a minute." Davis testified that he heard a voice say, "I dare you to do it," after which he knocked on the door. When asked why he went toward Wren with the







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knife, Davis answered, "Because I was possessed by a force, an evil one." Davis testified that he did not know why he went to the victims' trailer rather than another trailer, he had never thought about killing the victims before it happened, and he did not feel any animosity toward the victims before that night.


Davis stated that when he woke the next morning, he "just had a memory of a dream" and saw visions of blood on a wall and a little boy. He testified that he was reminded of what had happened by "[t]he knives that was laying on the hamper [and] the cut on my hand." Davis convinced his roommate Armstrong to go with him to the victims' trailer by telling Armstrong the story that an ex- boyfriend of one of the women had attacked Davis and the women the night before. After Davis and Armstrong went to the trailer and discovered the bodies, Armstrong contacted law enforcement and told Davis to go home. Davis explained that it was at this time that he buried the knives outside of his trailer under some tires and poured gasoline on the tires to prevent dogs from digging there.


On May 10, 2006, by special verdict forms, the jury found Davis guilty of each count of first-degree murder under the theory of premeditated murder and under the theory of felony murder.


The trial court conducted a penalty phase during which the State and the defense presented evidence. The defense presented three mental health experts, several lay witnesses, and Davis. Psychologist Dr. Harry Krop testified for the







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defense as an expert witness in the field of forensic clinical psychology and neuropsychology. Dr. Krop opined that Davis did not suffer from any major mental illness, although he had suffered from depression, attention deficit disorder (ADD), and a specific learning disability. Dr. Krop's testing indicated that Davis had an IQ of 85 and suffered from significant frontal lobe deficits. Dr. Krop explained that "individuals with frontal lobe [deficits] often don't make the right choices and it's not because they choose to do the wrong thing, but because they just don't have the full capacity to think through all the options and then make the right decision." Dr. Krop testified that Davis had a mental age of around sixteen.

Regarding the murders, Dr. Krop testified that when he first met with Davis in September 2003, Davis used phrases like "it was like a dream" or "like watching himself in a movie." Dr. Krop opined that what Davis was describing was a phenomenon known as disassociation. He explained that "[w]hen somebody is engaged in something out of character, something that's awful, one of the ways that [the psyche] deals with that is to sort of separate the person from what he or she is doing." Dr. Krop testified that he believed that Davis was in a dissociated state at the time of the murders, but he "was not buying that [Davis] did not have control at the time." While he considered Davis to be impulsive, Dr. Krop testified that "it's hard to say whether this [crime] was impulsive or not." He added that while a "person's judgment could be affected by frontal lobe [deficits] typically a
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