Ex-guard's trial teeters on legal question

Lawyers are researching the possibility that two similar charges of battery could result in double jeopardy.

By THOMAS C. TOBIN

© St. Petersburg Times, published October 18, 2000

STARKE -- Lawyers struck a potentially serious roadblock Tuesday in the trial of Montrez Lucas, the former state prison guard accused of battering inmate Frank Valdes the day before he died.

After two days spent straining to choose six impartial jurors from a community with extraordinarily close ties to the prison system, Circuit Judge Larry G. Turner spotted a problem with two of the three felony charges against Lucas.

Counts one and two -- aggravated battery and battery on an inmate -- are virtually identical, requiring prosecutors to prove the same elements to a jury. Among them is whether Lucas, 31, caused "great bodily harm" to Valdes.

The problem is the possibility that Lucas could be prosecuted and convicted twice for a single illegal act -- an outcome prohibited under double jeopardy laws.

Lucas, who is black, is accused of beating Valdes on July 16, 1999, at the Florida State Prison in Starke after Valdes uttered racial epithets at him and threatened to kill him.

Valdes, on death row for killing a prison guard, was handcuffed at the time. He died the next day after four other guards tried to forcibly remove him from his cell.

Charged with second-degree murder, the other guards are expected to stand trial in March. Their defense lawyer, Gloria Fletcher of Gainesville, has been monitoring jury selection in Lucas' case to gauge how difficult the process will be for her clients.

In an effort to proceed with Lucas' trial, Turner, as well as prosecutor Mark Moseley and Public Defender Johnny Kearns, faced an evening of legal research, hoping to resolve the issue by today.

If Turner decides to dismiss one of the battery charges, prosecutors could appeal, delaying the trial for months. And the jury that the lawyers worked so hard this week to empanel would be disbanded.

"It may impact whether this trial proceeds," Turner said. Instead of swearing in the jurors and having them sequestered as planned, the judge told them to go home and return this morning. The eight-member panel -- six jurors and two alternates -- was thus saved from a night at a motel with no television and only limited phone privileges.

Choosing them had been a challenge as lawyers tried to overcome the dynamics of a small community where the prison system is the leading employer.

Ten of the 20 finalists knew each other, and two were related: an elderly woman and her nephew. There were two sets of co-workers and two potential jurors with the last name Griffis, which also is the name of one of the four guards in the related murder case.

None of the six primary jurors are employed by the Florida Department of Corrections, although two have friends or relatives who are. Two are black and three are women. The group is composed of a construction manager, a steel worker, a food service worker for the Bradford County school district, an electrician and two employees of the state Department of Children and Families: an accountant and a social worker.

The third charge against Lucas -- coercing a fellow guard to falsify a report on the incident -- did not come into play Tuesday.

The regular aggravated battery charge carries a penalty of up to 15 years in the prison system that employed Lucas.

The battery against an inmate charge and the coercion charge both carry penalties of up to five years in prison.

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