Steven Matthew Wolf v. State of Florida

Summary

The court affirmed Wolf’s convictions and death sentence, rejecting challenges to venue, jury selection, hearsay, penalty-phase arguments, the mercy instruction, the HAC aggravator, the indictment, cumulative error, and the sufficiency of the evidence. The court held that the evidence supported a reasonable inference that the crimes occurred in Monroe County, that the challenged jurors were properly seated or excused, that the challenged testimony was admitted for a nonhearsay purpose, and that any penalty-phase errors were not fundamental. The court also concluded that competent, substantial evidence supported the HAC finding and the murder conviction under both premeditation and felony-murder theories.