Ellerbee v. State, 87 So. 3d 730

Ellerbee convicted by jury in 2006 of first-degree murder and related felonies (burglary with assault/battery, grand theft of firearm, animal cruelty, grand theft of a motor vehicle) in Dellarco homicide in Okeechobee County; defense conceded culpability but argued accidental shooting; jury recommended death 11–1 and trial court imposed it after a Spencer hearing.
Guilt phase evidence tied Ellerbee to the scene via DNA on cigarette butts, a bank thumbprint, video and banking records; Ellerbee confessed at arrest and gave a detailed statement.
Penalty phase included evidence of aggravators (felony probation, burglary/pecuniary gain, cold, calculated, and premeditated) and various mitigators; the court weighed them and imposed death with three statutory aggravators (merged/weighty) and minimal mitigators.
Ellerbee appeals on multiple fronts including ineffective assistance of trial counsel on direct appeal, CCP sufficiency, proportionality, Dellarco’s vulnerability, cross-examination of a defense expert, statutory mitigators, suppression ruling, and Ring-based challenges to Florida’s capital sentencing scheme; the Florida Supreme Court affirms the convictions and death sentence.
The court independently reviews sufficiency of the evidence and upholds the conviction and death sentence as supported by competent, substantial evidence.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Ineffective assistance of trial counsel on direct appeal	Ellerbee claims counsel's strategy to argue accidental shooting and failure to challenge felony-murder was ineffective	Ellerbee argues trial counsel failed to robustly contest the felony-murder theory	Denied; issue not cognizable on direct appeal except in rare face-of-record cases; denied without prejudice.
Sufficiency of CCP evidence	CCP was based on circumstantial evidence and improper to rely on the confession	CCP proven by direct evidence including Ellerbee’s confession and planning	Affirmed; sufficient direct evidence supported CCP finding.
Proportionality of the death penalty	Death sentence not proportionate given lack of clarity in shooting circumstances and mitigation	Aggravators and minimal mitigation make death warranted	Affirmed; death sentence proportional under Florida precedent (Blake comparison; most aggravated/least mitigated).
Delllarco’s particular vulnerability instruction	Instruction based on Dellarco's age/disability was improper	Evidence supported vulnerability finding guiding instruction	Denied; evidence supported instruction and no error in giving it.
Challenges to Florida’s capital sentencing scheme (Ring-related)	Ring requires jury to find aggravators; current scheme unconstitutional	Jury unanimously found aggravators; Ring not implicated; scheme constitutional	Denied; Ring does not apply where jury findings support aggravators; scheme constitutional.

Ring v. Arizona, 536 U.S. 584 (U.S. 2002) (Sixth Amendment right limits judge-only aggravator findings)
Baker v. State, 71 So.3d 802 (Fla. 2011) (Review of aggravator findings requires right rule and substantial evidence)
Willacy v. State, 696 So.2d 693 (Fla.1997) (Standard for reviewing aggravators; court may rely on reliability of defendant statements)
Blake v. State, 972 So.2d 839 (Fla.2007) (Proportionality with heavy aggravators; CCP not always required for proportionality)
Terry v. State, 668 So.2d 954 (Fla.1996) (Proportionality framework for death penalty under Florida law)
DiGuilio v. State, 491 So.2d 1129 (Fla.1986) (Harmless error analysis in capital sentencing)