Florida Supreme Court upholds conviction, death sentence of killer Delmer Smith

MANATEE -- The Florida Supreme Court has upheld the conviction and death sentence for killer Delmer Smith.

A jury convicted Smith on Aug. 2, 2012, of the first-degree murder of Kathleen Briles. Briles was beaten to death with her cast-iron antique sewing machine in her Terra Ceia home on Aug. 9, 2009.

With a unanimous recommendation from the jury, Circuit Judge Peter Dubensky sentenced Smith to death on May 28, 2013.

"After a thorough review of all the issues raised by Smith, and after our own independent review of the proportionality of Smith's sentence of death, we affirm Smith's conviction for first-degree murder and sentence of death," the justices wrote in their opinion filed Thursday.

Smith's appeal is based on claims that he was entitled to relief because the trial court made mistakes in denying his motion for judgment of acquittal, denying his motion for mistrial, in permitting one inmate to testify that he threatened a witness, denying a continuance, failed to find the murder heinous, atrocious or cruel, rejecting two proposed mitigating factors and that the state's death penalty scheme is unconstitutional.

Smith public defense attorney in the appeal, Howard "Rex" Dimmig, and the victim's husband, Dr. James Briles, did not return phone calls for comment.

In regard to Smith's motion for a judgement of acquittal, the Supreme Court concluded that the trial court did not make a mistake in its denial, and that the substantial evidence and lack of a reasonable hypothesis supported a guilty verdict

by the jury.

Smith's claim for a motion for a mistrial was based on a reference a detective made during the trial of an investigation in Sarasota. The Supreme Court ruled in agreement with the trial court that the detective did not imply that Smith was the focus of the investigation.

Smith is also serving a life-term prison sentence for the violent kidnapping of a woman and home invasion robbery in Sarasota about five months before the murder of Briles.

With regard to an inmate being allowed to testify that Smith had threatened a witness, the justices ruled it was relevant in establishing guilt and that it was up to the jury to determine the weight to give that evidence.

Smith's claim for his motion to continue on the eve of the trial, which was denied, was based on the defense wanting to acquire their own fingerprint expert to review the Briles' medical encyclopedia found in Smith's possession. The defense also amended the late request in order to secure a witness without any proffer as to what that testimony would provide.

"Based on this record, we hold that Smith has failed to show any abuse of discretion in the denial of the motion to continue or any specific prejudice as a result," the justices wrote. "As it pertains to the medical encyclopedia, based on a specific request from Smith's attorney, the fingerprint expert retained by the State reviewed every page within the book for fingerprints and Smith fails to allege how another examination of the book would have assisted his defense."

Smith argued in his appeal that Briles' murder was proven to be heinous, atrocious or cruel based on the medical examiner's testimony because she was lying face down when she was beaten so she could not see him, and that the first blow with the sewing machine could have left her unconscious.

"The testimony from trial ... supports the trial court's conclusion that the crime began when the victim was 'accosted' outside of her home and then 'incapacitated in her own home.' She was bound with duct tape with 'her hands ... together and bound behind her back, and her legs around the ankles also bound.' Duct tape also covered her mouth so that not only was she rendered completely helpless but she could not cry out. As she was not blindfolded, she was able to see the events transpire around her."

Smith's appeal also alleged that, during the penalty phase, the court failed to establish the felony murder was not committed while he was under the influence of an extreme mental or emotional disturbance and his ability to understand what he was doing was criminal. The Supreme Court ruled that these mitigators were not based on credible determinations.

The opinion also denies that the death penalty was unconstitutional in this case because Smith had prior violent felony convictions and the jury unanimously recommended the sentence of death.

The Supreme Court also weighed all the facts and factors in determining that the case found that the death penalty was proportional.

Smith is currently in custody at Florida State Prison in Raiford. No execution date has been set, and most inmates are on death row for many years before being executed.

Jessica De Leon, law enforcement reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7049. You can follow her on Twitter@JDeLeon1012.

This story was originally published July 11, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Florida Supreme Court upholds conviction, death sentence of killer Delmer Smith ."