Palmer v. State

Dexter Palmer was found guilty of six counts of malice murder and, although the State sought the death penalty, the jury returned sentences of life imprisonment without parole. He appeals from the judgments of conviction and sentences entered by the trial court on the jury’s verdicts. 1

1. The bodies of all six victims were found in a single residence, and each had been shot or stabbed or both. The killings were apparently drug-related, as crack cocaine was being processed on the premises. After the murders, Palmer was in possession of a large sum of money and intimated that he had several kilos of cocaine at his disposal. The State’s theory was that Palmer, acting in concert with Patrick Williams, killed the victims. In support of that hypothesis, the prosecution proved that those two were together shortly before and then soon after the murders took place. Later the same evening, appellant shot and killed Williams and then set fire to the automobile containing the co-conspirator’s body. Leaving the scene of this additional murder, Palmer disposed of two guns and a knife. Ballistic testing connected both of these guns to the six murders, and one of them to the subsequent killing of Williams. After concealing the weapons, appellant hid bloody articles of clothing in his aunt’s home. The blood proved to be from a number of the victims. One of the items which he left at his aunt’s house was a torn right-hand glove. On this glove was a mixture of Palmer’s blood and the blood of several of the victims. At the time of appellant’s arrest, he had a laceration on his right hand in a location corresponding to the cut on the bloody glove. He asserted an alibi defense.