DC# 120190
DOB: 01/11/58
Eleventh Judicial Circuit, Dade
County, Case #91-33268
Sentencing Judge: The Honorable
Joseph P. Farina
Attorney, Criminal Trial:
Theodore G. Mastos – Private
Attorney, Direct Appeal: John H.
Lipinski – Special Appointed Public Defender
Attorney, Collateral Appeals:
Pro Se
Date of Offense: 09/16/91
Date of Sentence: 02/19/93
Circumstances of Offense:
Frederick Cummings-El was
convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of his former girlfriend
Kathy Good.
Frederick Cummings-El and Kathy
Good had dated and lived together for several months before the
relationship ended. Cummings-El continued to harass Good, and after he
assaulted her at a neighbor’s house, she secured a restraining order
against him. Cummings-El continually made verbal threats towards Good,
stating, “Kathy, I am going to kill you. Kathy, I am going to kill you”
and “I love her. If I can’t have her, nobody can have her.”
In the early morning of
09/16/91, Cummings-El broke into the Good residence. He entered Good’s
room and stabbed her numerous times while she lay sleeping.
Good’s
eight-year-old son, who was sleeping next to her, awoke to the sound of
his mother’s screams and saw Cummings-El “punching” her. Good’s
twenty-year-old nephew was asleep on the floor of her bedroom and
reported seeing Cummings-El leaving the scene.
As he was fleeing,
Good’s mother confronted Cummings-El in the corridor, and he pushed her
to the ground in his escape. Good, wounded and bleeding, stumbled from
her bedroom and fell into her mother’s arms, saying “Fred, Fred.”
Medical examiners concluded that
Good died from the numerous stab wounds she endured. Her lungs filled
with fluid, and she essentially drowned in her own blood. She remained
conscious for several minutes following the attack and reportedly kept
asking what was taking the emergency medical personnel so long.
Frederick Cummings-El was
apprehended and charged with First-Degree Murder and Armed Robbery. He
was convicted and sentenced to death.
*****
Trial Summary:
09/16/91 Defendant
arrested.
03/17/92 Defendant
indicted on the following:
Count I: First-Degree
Murder
Count II: Armed Robbery
01/29/93 The jury found
the defendant guilty on all counts.
02/03/93 Upon
advisory sentencing, the jury, by an 8 to 4 majority, voted for the
death penalty.
02/19/93 The defendant was sentenced as
followed:
Count I:
First-Degree Murder – Death
Count II:
Armed Robbery – 22 years
*****
Case Information:
Cummings-El filed a Direct
Appeal in the Florida Supreme Court on 09/13/93. In that appeal, he
argued that the trial court erred in applying the heinous, atrocious and
cruel (HAC) aggravating factor and the cold, calculated and premeditated
(CCP) aggravating factor. The Florida Supreme Court found no merit to
these claims and affirmed the convictions and sentence of death on
09/26/96.
Cummings-El next filed a
Petition for Writ of Certiorari in the United States Supreme Court,
which was denied on 06/16/97.
He then filed a Motion to Vacate
Judgment and Sentence (3.850) in the State Circuit Court, which was
denied on 06/14/01. Cummings-El steadfastly filed an appeal of that
decision in the Florida Supreme Court, which was affirmed on 10/09/03.
On 10/26/01, the defendant filed
a Pro Se Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus in the Florida Supreme
Court. That petition was dismissed without prejudice on 12/18/01 to be
filed in the appropriate manner. Cummings-el again filed a Petition for
Writ of Habeas Corpus on 08/09/02, which was denied on 10/09/03.
Cummings-el filed a Petition for
Writ of Habeas Corpus in the United States District Court, which is
currently pending.
FloridaCapitalCases.state.fl.us
