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Eighteenth
Judicial Circuit, Seminole County Case # 98-3341
Sentencing Judge: The Honorable Kenneth Lester Jr.
Attorney, Trial: Steven Lawrence – Special Public Defender
Attorney, Direct Appeal: Robert Strain & David Gemmer – CCRC-M
Date of Offense:
07/21/98
Date of
Sentence: 09/19/03
Circumstances of Offense:
On July 22,
1998, Shirley Razor went to visit her daughter, Robin Razor, who lived
in a trailer lot in Geneva. Robin Razor lived there with Danny Privett
and their two daughters. Shirley Razor went to the lot to help with
renovating two mobile home trailers.
When Shirely
arrived, she saw Privett lying on the ground outside one of the trailers
next to a jug of moonshine. Since Privett was often drunk and passed
out, Shirley thought nothing of it and went inside to have lunch.
After finishing
her lunch, Shirley went outside and took a closer look at Privett and
discovered he was dead and had a hole in his head. Shirley then looked
into one of the other trailers and saw her daughter and 11-year-old
granddaughter, Christina Razor, both dead inside.
Privett died
from blunt force trauma to the head from a broken concrete block.
Privett had no defensive wounds and was thought to have not seen the
attacker coming at him. Evidence showed he was standing outside
urinating when he was hit from behind.
Inside the
trailer, Robin was found lying on the floor while Christina was in a
seated position on the couch. Robin had stab wounds to her neck and
torso, multiple blows to the head, a broken neck and defensive wounds on
her arms and hands.
The associate
Orange County medical examiner testified that Robin had several shallow
slash marks that indicated her attacker was trying to hurt or torment
her without immediately killing her.
Christina died
from a stab wound to her sternum and also had contusions to her left eye
and mouth. When Christina’s body was discovered, his underwear were
found off her body across the room, however, there was no evidence of
sexual assault.
Razor and
Privett’s other daughter, Danielle, had spent the night at a friends’
house on the evening the murders took place.
She helped
police investigators with solving the crime. She provided evidence of
people who had disputes with the family and had ill feelings toward
them. Although Danielle did not name Michael Reynolds as a possible
suspect, he soon became one.
Reynolds lived
on the same road as the victims and had gone to the local hospital the
morning after the murders with a lacerated finger and sprained ankle
that he supposedly received from an accident unrelated to the murders.
Reynolds had a
previous dispute with Privett over a trailer frame that was given to
Privett that Reynolds had wanted for himself. The dispute, however, was
resolved and the two seemed to get along fine afterwards.
Several pieces
of evidence (cuttings from the victims’ couch, bedding and clothing and
cuttings and sweepings of Reynolds’ car) were not submitted for forensic
testing. These pieces of evidence could possibly exonerate Reynolds or
implicate him further. The footprints found at the murder scene did not
match Reynolds’.
The results of
the DNA testing of the blood samples found on the victims compared to
Reynolds were inconclusive. Blood samples found on the victims’
clothing, bed linen and other household items were a positive match to
Reynolds.
Hairs were retrieved from the bloody hands of Robin
Razor. The hairs did not match Reynolds, and they were never compared
to any other possible suspect.
Additional Information:
Several mitigating
factors were presented during trial, which included: Reynolds had a
mentally and physically abusive father although he had a loving
relationship with his mother and cared for his wheelchair-bound sister
while growing up.
Reynolds
has also served time in prisons in Arizona, for shooting two people, and
in Texas, for robbing a man at knifepoint.
Trial Summary:
08/25/98
Indicted as follows:
Count I:
First-Degree Murder (Danny Ray Privett)
Count II:
First-Degree Murder (Robin Razor)
Count III:
First-Degree Murder (Christine Razor)
Count IV:
Armed Burglary
05/07/03 Jury
returned guilty verdicts on counts II through IV and guilty of
second-degree murder of Privett.
05/09/03
Jury recommended death by a vote of 12-0.
09/19/03
Sentenced as follows:
Count I:
Second-Degree Murder – Life
Count II:
First-Degree Murder – Death
Count III:
First-Degree Murder – Death
Count
IV: Armed Burglary – Life
Case Information:
On 10/27/03, Reynolds
filed a direct appeal to the Florida Supreme Court. Reynolds raised
many issues in the appeal including: error by the trial court for
excluding the entire sworn statement of an unavailable witness, the
circumstantial evidence was insufficient to overcome reasonable doubt
and convict the charges of murder, and the court refused to permit
Reynolds to waive his right to a sentencing jury recommendation.
Reynolds also argued that error occurred in the court allowing the
presentation of testimony regarding Reynolds’ prior violent crimes.
Reynolds contended that Florida’s capital sentencing scheme and penalty
phase jury instructions unconstitutionally shift the burden of proof to
the defendant, and that error occurred in refusing to consider residual
doubt as a nonstautory mitigating circumstance to Reynolds’ guilt. It
was also contended that the death sentence was impermissibly imposed,
since the court included improper aggravating circumstances, excluded
existing mitigating circumstances, and failed to properly find the
aggravating circumstances thus rendering the death sentence
unconstitutional. Also, comparison to other capital cases revealed that
the only appropriate sentence is life. Reynolds’s final argument is
that the Florida death penalty procedure violated the Sixth and
Fourteenth Amendments under Ring v. Arizona.
On
05/18/06, the Florida Supreme Court affirmed the convictions and
sentences.
On 10/10/06, Reynolds filed a Petition for Writ of
Certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court that was denied on 01/08/07.
Floridacapitalcases.state.fl.us |
