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Thread: Thomas Eugene Bevel - Florida Death Row

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    Thomas Eugene Bevel - Florida Death Row




    Summary of Offense:

    Thomas Bevel was convicted and sentenced to death for the February 29, 2004 murder of Garrick Stringfield and his son Phillip Sims. Bevel was also sentenced to life imprisonment for the attempted first-degree murder of Feletta Smith. Bevel and Stringfield were roommates and close friends. Stringfield frequently referred to Bevel as “nephew” or “Tom Tom” and Bevel frequently referred to Stringfield as “Unc.”

    On the evening of February 28, 2004, Sojourner Parker dropped off her 13-year-old son, Phillip Sims, at the home of his father, Garrick Stringfield. Parker noticed Stringfield’s car was not in the driveway when she arrived at the house, but was not concerned because Bevel answered the door and let her son inside. Around 9:00 pm, Stringfield arrived at his house with Feletta Smith, a woman both Stringfield and Bevel knew from their childhood. Bevel and Sims were playing video games in the living room. Smith and Stringfield joined them.

    Stringfield and Smith then went into Stringfield’s bedroom to watch television. Stringfield showed Smith an AK-47 rifle that he kept under his bed. Smith was frightened by the gun, so Stringfield handed the gun to Bevel who removed it from the room. Bevel then drove Stringfield’s car to a BP gas station where he picked up his girlfriend, Rohnicka Dumas, and returned with her to the house. Stringfield and Bevel then went into the back yard. When they came back inside the house, Stringfield was carrying a small handgun, and Bevel was carrying the AK-47 rifle Stringfield handed to him earlier that evening.

    Stringfield and Smith went into Stringfield’s bedroom, and Bevel and Dumas went into the bedroom across the hall. Smith testified that she was in the bedroom with Stringfield when she heard Bevel saying “Unc, open the door!” She testified that Stringfield opened the door and Bevel immediately shot Stringfield in the head. Bevel then shot Smith several times. Smith became quiet and pretended to be dead. Bevel then went into the living room and shot Sims twice: one shot grazed his arm and chest and one shot went directly into his face. Rohnika Dumas testified that she was in a bedroom near to the bedroom where Stringfield and Smith were located. She testified that she heard gunshots and a female screaming and hollering.

    Bevel then came into the room with a rifle, got Dumas to leave the room, and they both got into Stringfield’s car. Dumas testified that, as they were driving away, Bevel said that he didn’t mean to kill the boy. Dumas also testified that she initially told the police that she did not know Bevel was a suspect in the murders until she saw his picture on television. Smith called 911 using Stringfield’s cell phone. She was taken to the hospital where she remained for nearly a month. She testified that her left hip and right femur were broken, and she was shot in the back twice. She also testified that, when she first talked to the police, she told them the shooters were two males wearing masks. She testified that she said that at first because she was scared and did not want to get involved.

    Dr. Jessie Giles, who performed the autopsy of Sims, testified that Sims died as a result of massive trauma due to a gunshot wound to the head. Dr. Aurelian Nicolaescu, who performed the autopsy of Stringfield, testified that Stringfield died as a result of a gunshot wound to the head. Both doctors testified that the bodies of Sims and Stringfield exhibited stippling injuries, which are indicative of being shot at close to intermediate range. Bevel was questioned on March 27, 2004 by detectives from the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Department. Bevel was questioned on two occasions over a 24-hour period. Bevel gave the detectives four different versions of the events but eventually confessed to the murders. However, Bevel’s confession contradicted the testimony given by Smith and Dumas. Bevel claimed he and Stringfield had been fighting about money. He claimed, on the night of the murder, their fight escalated until Stringfield was pointing a handgun at Bevel and Bevel had picked up the AK-47 rifle. Stringfield then went into his bedroom. Bevel then heard what he believed was Stringfield loading the handgun. Bevel moved towards the room and shot Stringfield when he reached the door. Bevel told the detectives that the gun went off several times, but he did not mean to shoot Smith.

    Bevel was sentenced to death in Duval County on October 21, 2005.

  2. #2
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Factors Contributing to the Delay in Imposition of Sentence:

    There have been no unreasonable delays in the imposition of Bevel’s sentence at this time.

    Case Information:

    On 12/07/05, Bevel raised the following issues in a direct appeal: jury selection, admission of irrelevant evidence, weight given to mitigating and aggravating factors, disproportionate nature of death sentence, Bevel’s mental age, and the constitutionality of the death penalty. The appeal was denied by the Florida Supreme Court on 3/20/08 and a mandate was issued on 06/09/08.

    On 02/05/09, Bevel filed a 3.850 Motion in the state circuit court and amended the motion on 08/17/09. This motion is pending.

  3. #3
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    Case of Death Row inmate in Atlantic Beach father and son's murders returns to Supreme Court

    It’s been a decade since Thomas Bevel was convicted and sentenced to death for the murders of a 13-year-old Atlantic Beach boy and his father. But next month the Jacksonville man’s case will return to the Florida Supreme Court with a debate on whether his original lawyers did an incompetent job defending him.

    Bevel, 33, is arguing that he deserves a new sentencing phase because his original lawyers didn’t start preparing for the death-penalty phase of his trial less than two weeks before his murder trial began. His current attorneys also argue that his trial lawyers were unaware of the American Bar Association guidelines for defending someone facing the death penalty.

    The nonprofit Florida Capital Resource Center, which assists indigent criminal defendants facing the death penalty, and the Death Penalty Clinic at Florida International University have filed a supporting brief in the case arguing that Bevel’s death sentence should be thrown out.

    Bevel was convicted in 2005 of two counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder in the 2004 shooting deaths of Phillip Sims, a 13-year-old Mayport Middle School student, and Sims’ father, Garrick Stringfield. He also was convicted of wounding a woman who was visiting Stringfield and then “played dead” after Bevel shot her.

    Bevel roomed with Stringfield on Colchester Road, and Sims was visiting for the weekend. The jury that convicted him recommended Bevel get the death sentence by an 8-4 vote for the murder of Stringfield and unanimously recommended death for the murder of Sims.

    In court documents, attorney Rick Sichta, who now represents Bevel, argues that Richard Selinger, Bevel’s attorney during his death-penalty phase, had never seen the American Bar Association’s 2003 guidelines for what is reasonable during death-penalty cases. The appeal also argues that Selinger didn’t hire a mitigation specialist or investigator to help with the trial and didn’t begin his mitigation work until 12 days before Bevel’s trial began, rather than months in advance.

    As a result, Selinger was not aware of numerous mitigation evidence that could have been introduced at trial. That includes the possibility that Bevel suffers from brain damage, had been sexually abused and done illegal drugs at a young age, and lived in one of the worst parts of Jacksonville where drug dealers often targeted young children and made them sell drugs.

    “In spending less than 20 hours total investigating Bevel’s mitigation, and starting the mitigation investigation at the ‘11th hour,’ trial counsel proved ineffective assistance of counsel under the prevailing professional norms at the time,” Sichta said in court filings. Therefore, the jury was unable to factor Bevel’s difficult upbringing into their deliberations before recommending death, Sichta said.

    PROSECUTORS: IT DIDN’T MATTER

    The office of Attorney General Pam Bondi, which is representing the state on appeal, argues that Bevel’s trial lawyers were not incompetent and that Bevel’s actions in killing Stringfield and Sims would have led to the death penalty no matter what his lawyers did.

    “Bevel murdered two people and attempted to murder a third,” Assistant Attorney General Patrick Delaney said in court filings. “One of the victims, Sims, was a 13-year-old boy who was playing video games. Bevel’s stated reason for killing Sims was witness elimination.”

    Prosecutors also argue that lawyers with the Jacksonville-area Public Defender’s Office who represented Bevel originally already had done mitigation work before they had to withdraw from the case. Selinger used that mitigation work, Delaney said.

    This argument was made previously to the trial judge, L. Page Haddock, who refused to set aside the conviction. In doing so, Haddock referred to mitigation specialists as a “burgeoning cottage industry of former paralegals or social workers who are ardent death-penalty opponents who declare themselves to be ‘mitigation experts’ and demand exorbitant fees from the judicial system for doing work that any competent paralegal or investigator could do for one-third of the cost.”

    Haddock also said lawyers were not bound by the American Bar Association guidelines and didn’t have to follow them.

    Stephen Harper, a clinical professor at the Death Penalty Clinic and a law professor at Florida International University, said the clinic chose to get involved in Bevel’s appeal because of Haddock’s ruling.

    “We thought it was necessary to inform the court that mitigation specialists are essential to death-penalty cases,” Harper said, adding that he didn’t appreciate Haddock saying the American Bar Association guidelines didn’t matter when they’re a valuable guide to helping lawyers navigate capital cases.

    Supreme Court justices will hear oral arguments in the case June 4.

    http://jacksonville.com/news/crime/2...urders-returns

  4. #4
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Florida Supreme Court appears unsure how to proceed with Jacksonville death-penalty case

    The Jacksonville attorneys who represented Thomas Bevel when he was convicted and sentenced to death for the murders of a 13-year-old boy and his father did an inadequate job defending him. The Florida Supreme Court made that abundantly clear Thursday.

    But that doesn’t necessarily mean Bevel is getting off Death Row. Oral arguments in Bevel’s appeal concluded Thursday morning with the Supreme Court justices appearing uncertain about what they would do next.

    Multiple justices even broached the idea of keeping Bevel on Death Row for the murder of 13-year-old Phillips Sims while throwing out his death sentence for the murder of Sims’ father, Garrick Stringfield.

    “I don’t think we’ve ever done that,” said Justice Barbara Pariente of the option of throwing out one death sentence while keeping someone on Death Row for a different murder.

    Bevel, 33, is arguing that he deserves a new sentencing phase because his original lawyers didn’t start preparing for the death-penalty phase of his trial in enough time. His current attorneys also argue that his trial lawyers were unaware of the American Bar Association guidelines for defending someone facing the death penalty and never hired a mitigation specialist to assist in Bevel’s defense.

    Bevel was convicted in 2005 of two counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder in the 2004 shooting of Sims, a Mayport Middle School student, and Stringfield. He also was convicted of wounding a woman who was visiting Stringfield and then pretended to be dead after she was shot.

    Bevel roomed with Stringfield on Colchester Road, and Sims was visiting for the weekend. The jury that convicted him recommended Bevel get the death sentence by an 8-4 vote for the murder of Stringfield and unanimously recommended death for the murder of Sims.

    Attorney Rick Sichta, who is representing Bevel on appeal, said Bevel’s original lawyers failed to properly argue that he had brain damage, was sexually abused, used drugs at a young age and had been repeatedly beaten and abused by Stringfield before the shooting.

    Attorney Richard Selinger, who handled the death-penalty portion of Bevel’s case, spent less than 20 hours investigating the mitigation in the case when he should have spent months, Sichta said.

    Justices appeared to agree with Sichta. When Assistant Attorney General Patrick Delaney got up and started arguing that the original lawyers did a competent job, Pariente told him he was better off arguing that the quality of the defense didn’t matter.

    Justices gave indications they were resistant to the idea that a better defense would have kept Bevel off Death Row for the murder of Sims.

    “He killed a 13-year-old boy who was playing video games at the time,” Pariente said.

    It’s hard to imagine any mitigation evidence would prevent the death penalty from being imposed for that, she said.

    Bevel shot and killed Stringfield first before killing Sims. He later told police that he killed Sims because he was a witness.

    Bevel’s current lawyers originally asked the trial judge, L. Page Haddock, to throw out the death sentence following a hearing. Haddock refused to set aside the conviction and in his denial referred to mitigation specialists as a “burgeoning cottage industry of former paralegals or social workers who are ardent death-penalty opponents who declare themselves to be ‘mitigation experts’ and demand exorbitant fees from the judicial system for doing work that any competent paralegal or investigator could do for one-third of the cost.”

    Sichta asked Haddock to recuse himself from the case after that denial was issued. Haddock refused to remove himself, and on Thursday Sichta asked the Supreme Court to order Haddock removed from any resentencing if the case was sent back to Jacksonville.

    Pariente said she was bothered by Haddock’s order because mitigation experts do important and necessary work on these cases. She also expressed concern because Haddock’s order refusing to throw out Bevel’s conviction didn’t address the claims of bad lawyering during the original trial.

    The Supreme Court did not say when it would issue a ruling in the case, but it usually takes months for the court to rule on one of these appeals.

    Bevel did not attend Thursday’s appeal and will remain on Death Row until a ruling is made.

    http://jacksonville.com/news/crime/2...sonville-death
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  5. #5
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    Jacksonville man convicted of killing father and son has death sentence reversed because of ineffective attorneys

    By Andrew Pantazi
    The Florida Times-Union

    A Jacksonville man convicted of killing a drug dealer and the dealer’s 13-year-old son had his death sentence overturned Thursday when the Florida Supreme Court ruled that Thomas Bevel’s attorneys were ineffective.

    Bevel was convicted in the 2004 shooting deaths of Garrick Stringfield, who Bevel and others said was dealing drugs with Bevel, as well as the death of Stringfield’s 13-year-old son, Phillip Sims. Sims was playing video games when he was shot and killed. Bevel was also convicted of wounding a woman visiting Stringfield who “played dead” after Bevel shot her.

    The Florida Supreme Court ruled in a 4-3 decision that Bevel’s death sentence was unconstitutional because he received such inadequate representation from his attorneys during the sentencing phase of the trial.

    Refik Eler, the former chief assistant public defender who led that office’s death penalty attorneys until former Public Defender Matt Shirk was voted out of office, handled the guilt phase, while defense attorney Richard Selinger handled the sentencing.

    This was only Selinger’s second death penalty case, and he later testified that he had a “very busy” workload while representing Bevel. He said he didn’t begin his mitigation investigation until 12 days before trial, spending about 16 hours on mitigation investigation. Eler couldn’t be reached, but Selinger said that he was glad Bevel’s death sentence was reversed.

    ”I am pleased to know he will probably not be getting the death penalty, but beyond that I will not comment since I haven’t yet read the opinion.”

    More than in other cases, death-penalty attorneys are expected to focus on what’s called mitigation, reasons a defendant shouldn’t be executed. The American Bar Association says death penalty defenses should include a mitigation specialist, a mitigation investigator, a mental-health expert and two attorneys, one focused only on the guilt-innocence phase of the trial and another focused only on the penalty phase.

    In this case, Eler and Selinger didn’t hire a mitigation specialist. That was just one of the reasons Rick Sichta, Bevel’s new attorney, argued Eler and Selinger provided ineffective counsel.

    Former Circuit Judge Lawrence Haddock rejected that argument initially, writing that “This Court should not and will not codify or institutionalize the burgeoning cottage industry of former paralegals or social workers who are ardent death penalty opponents who declare themselves to be ‘mitigation experts’ and demand exorbitant fees from the judicial system for doing work that any competent paralegal or investigator could do for one-third of the cost.”

    But the Florida Supreme Court accepted Sichta’s argument that if Eler and Selinger had hired a mitigation investigator, they would’ve uncovered evidence of Bevel’s brain damage, childhood sexual abuse and neglect, his improvement during the time he had a stable home, evidence of physical and emotional abuse he suffered at the hands of Stringfield, evidence of Bevel’s past alcohol and drug abuse and evidence of his mental disorders.

    “There is little doubt that the quality and depth of the postconviction evidence painted a more complete and troubling picture of Bevel’s background than was presented to the jury and the trial court,” the opinion said, specifically citing Sara Flynn, the mitigation specialist who worked for Sichta. This opinion, Sichta said, vindicated his stance that death-penalty attorneys should hire mitigation specialists.

    Sichta said defense attorneys are expected to put in at least 1,000 hours into mitigation investigation for death penalty cases. “To me, this was one of the saddest cases I’ve seen when we actually dove into the investigation,” he said. “There was no chance for Mr. Bevel.”

    This was Sichta’s fifth death penalty case in three months that had its sentence overturned. Gerald Murray, Donald Banks, Michael Jackson and Luther Douglas all had their death sentences overturned.

    This, he said, “proves my point that this act of trying to put people to death does more harm than good. When are the victims ever going to see closure when the cases keep coming back for resentencings because we keep on getting it wrong?

    “It’s unbelievably difficult to apply the death penalty non-arbitrarily, uniformly, accurately across the board,” he said. “You have more cases coming back than getting on death row. Does it really make sense to do all this stuff over again when you have a death penalty case getting reversed weekly? I don’t know.”

    The State Attorney’s Office will decide if it wants to seek the death sentence again in those cases or if it will settle for life sentences. If the State Attorney’s Office does seek death sentences and win, the defendants will get to appeal again.

    http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2...tence-reversed

  6. #6
    Moderator Bobsicles's Avatar
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    December 15, 2021

    Bevel Resentenced to Death for 2004 Killings of 13-Year-Old Boy, Man

    State Attorney Melissa Nelson announces that a jury unanimously recommended two death sentences for Thomas Bevel, who was previously found guilty of two counts of First-Degree Murder in the killing of 13-year-old Phillip Sims and Garrick Strickland in 2004. Bevel was also found guilty of Attempted First-Degree Murder and Possession of a Firearm by a Convicted Felon. The case was returned to the Circuit Court level for a new penalty phase after a ruling by the Florida Supreme Court. A Spencer hearing is scheduled before the Honorable Adrian Soud on Jan. 7, 2022.

    On Feb. 29, 2004, Bevel was inside of a Brentwood-area home when he fatally shot 30-year-old Stringfield in his bedroom, then fired several shots at Feletta Smith, who was with him. After shooting the couple, Bevel then went into the living room of the home and fired two shots at 13-year-old Phillip Sims, who was on the couch playing video games. Bevel shot Sims to eliminate him as a witness before he fled the home. Smith feigned death and was able to identify Bevel by name as the person who shot Stringfield, Sims, and her. A warrant was issued, and Bevel was arrested.

    The case was investigated by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office and prosecuted by Assistant State Attorneys Bernie de la Rionda and Chief Assistant L.E. Hutton.

    https://www.sao4th.com/bevel-resentenced/
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  7. #7
    Moderator Bobsicles's Avatar
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    Oral arguments in Bevel’s direct appeal are scheduled for April 5, 2023.

    https://supremecourt.flcourts.gov/Ne...2023-Summaries
    Thank you for the adventure - Axol

    Tried so hard and got so far, but in the end it doesn’t even matter - Linkin Park

    Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever. - Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt

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  8. #8
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mastro Titta's Avatar
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    Death sentence UPHELD by the Florida Supreme Court on direct appeal.

    https://supremecourt.flcourts.gov/co...C2022-0210.pdf

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