DC #087429
DOB: 11/12/58
Nineteenth Judicial
Circuit, Martin County, Case #82-9546-CF
(Trial venue changed to Sixth Judicial Circuit)
Sentencing Judge: The Honorable L.B. Vocelle
Judge, Resentencing I: The Honorable Thomas J. Walsh Jr.
Judge, Resentencing II: The Honorable C. Pfeiffer Trowbridge
Trial Attorney: Karen Steger – Private
Attorney, Direct Appeal: Wayne R. McDonough – Private
Attorney, Resentencing I: Jeffrey H. Garland – Private
Attorney, Direct Appeal II: Jeffrey H. Garland – Private
Attorney, Resentencing II: Jeffrey H. Garland – Private
Attorney, Direct Appeal III: Jeffrey H. Garland – Private
Attorney, Collateral Appeals: Mary Bonner – Registry
Date of Offense:
04/27/82
Date of
Sentence: 12/10/82
Date of Resentence
I: 06/25/93
Date of Resentence
II: 02/21/97
Circumstance of Offense:
During an armed robbery,
the defendant, Alphonso Cave, and three accomplices kidnapped the
victim, 18-year-old Frances Julia Slater. One of the men later stabbed
her, another fired a fatal shot into her head.
On the evening of April
26, 1982, Cave, along with John Bush, J.B. Parker and Terry Wayne
Johnson, left Fort Pierce, Florida, and drove to Stuart, Florida.
They arrived in Stuart at approximately 11 p.m. that evening.
Around 3 a.m. on April
27, the four pulled up to a convenience store in Stuart. Cave and two
of the men entered the store where Cave held a gun on Slater and
demanded the store’s cash. After taking the cash, the men abducted
Slater, placing her in the back seat of the car.
They drove to a rural
area where she was removed from the car by the four men. One of the men
then stabbed her and, when she fell, another fired a single lethal shot
into the back of her head.
The men then departed
the scene for Fort Pierce but were stopped by police approximately one
hour later because of a broken taillight. They were released at that
time but later apprehended when the car and its occupants were linked to
the convenience store crime.
Codefendant Status:
John Bush was convicted
of First-Degree Murder, Robbery with a Firearm and Kidnapping, and in
1982 was sentenced to death for the murder conviction. He was executed
in 1996.
J.B. Parker was
convicted of First-Degree Murder, Robbery with a Firearm and Kidnapping,
and in 1982 was sentenced to death for the murder conviction. After 11
appeals, he was resentenced to death in 2000.
Terry
Wayne Johnson was convicted in 1993 of First-Degree Murder and
Kidnapping. He is serving life sentences for each of the convictions.
Trial
Summary:
12/08/82 As
charged in the indictment, the defendant was adjudicated as followed:
Count I: First-Degree
Murder – guilty
Count II: Robbery with a Firearm – guilty
Count III: Kidnapping – guilty
12/09/82 Upon
advisory sentencing, the trial jury recommended the death penalty for
the murder conviction by a 7 to 5 vote.
12/10/82 The
defendant was sentenced as followed:
Count I: First-Degree
Murder – Death
Count II: Robbery with a Firearm – Life Imprisonment
Count III: Kidnapping – Life Imprisonment
Resentencing I Summary:
05/07/93 The
jury recommended the death penalty by a 10 to 2 vote.
06/25/93
Defendant was resentenced to death.
Resentencing II Summary:
11/22/96 The
jury recommended the death penalty by an 11 to 1 vote.
02/21/97
Defendant was resentenced to death.
Warrant:
04/27/88 Death
warrant signed by Governor Martinez.
07/07/88
Scheduled execution date.
07/05/88 United
States District Court, Middle District, granted stay of execution.
Clemency:
12/07/87 Hearing
held (denied).
Factors Contributing to
the Delay in the Imposition of the Sentence:
Cave being resentenced to death twice is
the chief cause of delay in this case. The resentencing essentially
started the appeals process over each time. More than eight years
passed from the time the U.S. District Court vacated the first death
sentence in 1990 to the Florida Supreme Court’s affirmation of the trial
court’s third sentence in 1998. Also noteworthy are two years of
inactivity between the denial of the defendant’s first petition to the
U.S. Supreme Court for a writ of certiorari in 1996 and the filing of
his 3.850 Motion in 1988.
Case information:
Cave filed a direct appeal
with the Florida Supreme Court in 1983. The court affirmed the trial
court’s conviction and sentence in 1985. The defendant then petitioned
the United States Supreme Court for a writ of certiorari the same year.
The court denied the petition in 1986.
Governor Martinez signed a death warrant on Cave in April 1988 that
quickly prompted two appeals. The defendant in May 1988 filed a 3.850
motion with the trial court that the court quickly denied a few weeks
later. The Florida Supreme affirmed the trial court’s decision in
July. Cave then petitioned the U.S. District Court, Middle District,
for a writ of habeas corpus. The court held that Cave received
ineffective assistance of counsel at the guilt and penalty phases of his
trial, but prejudice occurred only during the sentencing phase.
Specifically, Cave contended that his counsel did not understand that
emphasizing Cave's admission of guilt in the robbery, which resulted in
the victim's death, would lead to a conviction for first degree murder
under Florida's felony murder statute, regardless of the fact that Cave
did not shoot Slater. Further, Cave contended that his attorney was so
convinced that she would win an acquittal for her client that she failed
to prepare for the sentencing hearing. The district court agreed.
Accordingly, two days before his scheduled execution date in July, the
court granted a stay of execution, vacated the sentence and remanded.
The state in 1990 appealed
the federal court’s order to the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of
Appeals. The appeals court affirmed the order in 1992.
The trial court
resentenced Cave to death in 1993 and the defendant again appealed the
decision to the Florida Supreme Court. The court found that a
procedural error occurred in the circuit court’s disposition of Cave’s
motion for disqualification of the resentencing judge. Specifically,
the court held that the judge, by passing on the truth of the facts
alleged and adjudicating the question of his disqualification, failed to
follow the procedural process outlined in rule 2.160 of the Florida
Rules of Judicial Administration.
The Florida Supreme Court
in 1995 vacated the sentence remanded the case back to the trial court
for resentencing.
The defendant again
petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court for a writ of certiorari in 1996,
which the court denied the following year.
The trial court sentenced
Cave to death a third time in 1997. The defendant filed his third
direct appeal with the Florida Supreme Court, which affirmed the
decision in 1998.
In 1999, Cave petitioned
the U.S. Supreme Court for a writ of certiorari. The court denied the
petition the same year.
Cave
in 2000 filed a 3.851 Motion with the trial court, which was denied
on 11/18/02. On 01/21/03, Cave filed an appeal of that decision in
the Florida Supreme Court, which was affirmed on 01/27/05.
Cave filed a Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus with the
U.S. District Court, Southern District, on 04/29/05 that is pending.
Floridacapitalcases.state.fl.us
