The Commission on Capital Cases updates this information regularly

The Commission on Capital Cases updates this information regularly. This information; however, is subject to change and may not reflect the latest status of an inmate’s case and should not be relied upon for statistical or legal purposes.

MERCK, Jr., Troy (W/M)

AKA: Billy Joe Melton or Hillbilly

DC# 118167

DOB: 01/09/72

Sixth Judicial Circuit, Pinellas County Case# 91-16659

Sentencing Judge: The Honorable Claire K. Luten

Resentencing Judge (I): The Honorable Nelly N. Khoutzam

Resentencing Judge (II): The Honorable Brandt C. Downey, III

Attorneys, Trial: Frederick S. Zinober & James A. Martin – Private

Attorneys, Direct Appeal: William Bennett, Richard Watts & Michael Schwartzberg – Private

Attorney, Resentencing (I): Steven L. Bolotin – Assistant Public Defender

Attorney, Resentencing (II): John C. Fisher – Public Defender

Attorneys, Collateral Appeals: Bill Jennings, Richard Kiley, James V. Viggiano, & Ali Shakoor – CCRC-M; Paul Helm – Assistant Public Defender

Date of Offense: 10/11/91

Date of Sentence: 12/10/93

Date of Resentence (I): 09/12/97

Date of Resentence (II): 08/06/04

Circumstances of Offense:

On 09/07/93, Troy Merck, Jr. was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death.

On the night of 10/10/91, Merck and his companion, Neil Thomas, who came from North Carolina to Florida, attended a bar in Pinellas County. The bar closed at 2:00 a.m. and several of the patrons remained in the bar’s parking lot. Several of the patrons and witnesses, including Merck and Thomas, had consumed a substantial amount of alcohol during the evening, while at the bar.

In the parking lot, Merck and his companion were leaning on a parked car with multiple occupants inside. One of the occupants of the car asked them to not lean on the car.

Merck and his companion sarcastically apologized. James Anthony Newton approached the car and engaged in a conversation with the occupants in the car. Merck made a snide remark to Newton, after overhearing an occupant of the car, Katherine Sullivan (who had been drinking and was an off-duty bartender at the bar), congratulating Newton on his birthday. Newton told Merck to mind his own business, and Merck attempted to provoke a fight, which Newton refused.

Merck walked over to his car, unlocked his passenger-side door, took off his shirt, and threw his shirt in the back seat. Merck approached Newton once again and began punching him in the back. Sullivan testified that she saw a glint of light from some sort of blade and saw blood spots on Newton’s back. Sullivan testified that she ran back into the bar and told bouncers to call 911. At the trial, Sullivan described the person who stabbed Newton as a man wearing khaki pants. She stated that it was Merck, not Thomas, who made snide remarks and goaded Newton to fight. James Carter, the chief security for the nightclub, ran out to the parking lot after Sullivan reported the stabbing. He saw a car pulling out of the parking lot and was able to get the license plate number. Another coworker was assisting Newton, who was moving and coughing up blood. According to medical examiners, Newton died from multiple stab wounds, but the main fatal wound was to the neck.

At trial, Thomas acknowledged that he had eight or nine felony convictions and claimed to have changed his life since then. According to Thomas, he and Merck met just a few weeks before the incident at a bar in Ocala and became friends. On the night of the incident, Thomas stated that he had been drinking heavily, as was Merck. Thomas admitted he was trying to provoke Newton into a fight, but was not getting a response out of him. Merck became very agitated with Newton and began beating Newton from behind, throwing punches. Thomas did not recall giving Merck the keys to his car, but remembered warning Newton to leave before the situation escalated.

As the fight carried on for the next 15-20 seconds, Thomas stated that his attention shifted away from the fight to the entire parking lot. As Thomas shifted his attention back to the fight, he noticed Newton bent over the hood of a blue car and his shirt appeared rather wet. Merck demanded to Thomas that it was time to leave and he agreed. Thomas stated that he noticed Merck holding his hand stiffly by his leg as if concealing something; he had not seen a knife, but was starting to have suspicion.

Thomas drove away from the parking lot and asked Merck if he stabbed Newton. Merck admitted the stabbing, while holding a bloody knife in the air, and said that if he did not kill him, he would find him at the hospital and “finish the job.” Thomas stated that Merck threatened to kill his grandmother if he said anything. The two men drove into an apartment complex to change the license tag of the car. Afterwards, they went to a Burger King and then a bowling alley where they shot pool for 20 minutes. They left their car at the Burger King, after spotting a police cruiser, and took a taxi back to their hotel room. Thomas stated that Merck was demonstrating the stabbing repeatedly as if he was bragging about it.

The next morning, the two men went to retrieve their car, but it was missing. When they called their girlfriends from North Carolina, the police were there. Their girlfriends eventually drove down and met the two men at their hotel. The police tracked them to the hotel after Thomas called his grandmother. Deputy Charles Vaughn testified that when Merck and Thomas’ abandoned vehicle was discovered, a license plate and a knife were found inside the vehicle. Merck was taken into custody by the lead investigator of the case, Detective Thomas Nestor, who took the eyewitness statement from Sullivan on the night of the incident.

Codefendant Information:

Neil Thomas was not charged as an accessory to the murder of Newton. There is also no evidence that Thomas has a prior incarceration history.

Prior Incarceration History in the State of Florida:

Prior Prison History:
Offense Date	Offense	Sentence Date	County	Case No.	Prison Sentence Length
03/15/1989	ROBB. GUN/DEADLY WPN	10/09/1989	MARION	8900786	4Y 0M 0D
03/23/1989	ROBB. GUN/DEADLY WPN	10/31/1989	LAKE	8900383	6Y 0M 0D
03/23/1989	ROBB.GUN/DEADLY WPN	10/31/1989	LAKE	8900384	6Y 0M 0D
03/23/1989	ROBB. GUN/DEADLY WPN	10/31/1989	LAKE	8900385	6Y 0M 0D
06/25/1989	ESCAPE	10/31/1989	LAKE	8900933	6Y 0M 0D
03/02/1989	ROBB. WPN-NOT DEADLY	03/28/1990	PASCO	8901617	5Y 0M 0D

Prior Community Supervision History:
Offense Date	Offense	Sentence Date	County	Case No.	Community Supervision Length
03/15/1989	ROBB.GUN/DEADLY WPN	10/09/1989	MARION	8900786	1Y 0M 0D

Trial Summary:

11/14/91 Indicted as follows:

Count I: First-Degree Murder

11/06/92 Trial ended in mistrial because the jury was unable to reach a verdict

09/07/93 During the second trial, the jury returned guilty verdicts on all counts of the indictment

09/14/93 Jury recommended death by a vote of 9-3

12/10/93 Sentenced as follows:

Count I: First-Degree Murder – Death

07/15/97 Resentencing (II) trial commenced

07/18/97 Jury recommended death by a vote of 12-0

09/12/97 Trial judge imposed death sentence

08/06/04 Trial court resentenced (III) Merck to death by a jury vote of 9-3

Appeal Summary:

Florida Supreme Court – Direct Appeal

FSC# 83,063

664 So. 2d 939

01/21/94 Appeal filed

10/12/95 FSC affirmed conviction and remanded for resentencing

10/23/95 Motion for rehearing filed

12/22/95 Rehearing denied

01/24/96 Mandate issued

Florida Supreme Court – Direct Appeal (Resentencing I)

FSC# 91,581

763 So. 2d 295

10/13/97 Appeal filed

07/13/00 FSC vacated death sentence and ordered a complete new penalty-phase proceeding before a jury

07/24/00 Motion for rehearing filed

10/10/00 Rehearing denied

11/13/00 Mandate issued

Florida Supreme Court – Direct Appeal (Resentencing II)

FSC# 04-1902

975 So.2d 1054

09/27/04 Appeal filed

12/06/07 FSC affirmed death sentence

12/21/07 Motion for Rehearing filed

02/11/08 Motion for Rehearing denied

02/27/08 Mandate issued

United States Supreme Court – Petition for Writ of Certiorari

USSC# 07-10853

129 S.Ct. 73

05/09/08 Petition filed

10/06/08 Petition denied

State Circuit Court – 3.850 Motion

CC# 91-16659

09/02/09 Motion filed

08/27/10 Motion denied

09/14/10 Motion for Rehearing filed

10/05/10 Motion stricken

Florida Supreme Court – 3.850 Appeal

FSC# 10-1830

(Pending)

09/17/10 Appeal filed

Factors Contributing to the Delay in Imposition of Sentence:

Merck has undergone three direct appeals, the second and third being an appeal to be resentenced. Two direct appeals remanded the case for resentencing.

Case Information:

On 01/21/94, Merck filed a Direct Appeal to the Florida Supreme Court. He raised five issues. First, Merck claimed that the trial court erred in imposing the death sentence. Second, he argued that the death sentence is invalid because the jury heard and the trial judge considered highly prejudicial testimony not relating to any statutory aggravating circumstance. Third, Merck contended the trial court erred in denying his motion for mistrial based upon a State witness’ reference to the first trial of this case. Fourth, he claimed that his conviction must be vacated as a result of the State’s bad-faith failure to preserve potentially exculpatory evidence. Finally, Merck claimed the trial court erred in giving the jury an unconstitutionally vague and overbroad instruction on the “especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel” aggravating factor. On 10/12/95, the Court affirmed Merck’s conviction and remanded for resentencing.

On 10/13/97, Merck filed a Direct Appeal for resentencing to the Florida Supreme Court. On 07/13/00, the Court affirmed the conviction but reversed the death sentence based on the finding that juvenile adjudication as to a North Carolina shooting incident was not a “conviction” within the meaning of the statute making prior conviction of a violent felony an aggravating factor and that the trial court’s finding of the aggravator was harmful error. The Court ordered a complete new penalty-phase proceeding before a jury.

On 09/27/04, Merck filed another Direct Appeal for resentencing to the Florida Supreme Court. In an opinion entered on 12/06/07, the Florida Supreme Court affirmed Merck’s death sentence. On 12/21/07, Merck filed a Motion for Rehearing in the Florida Supreme Court which was denied on 02/11/08. The Court issued a mandate on 02/27/08.

On 05/09/08, Merck filed a Petition for Writ of Certiorari in the United States Supreme Court. This petition was denied on 10/06/08.

Merck filed a 3.850 Motion on 09/02/09 to the Circuit Court on 09/02/09. The motion was denied on 08/27/10. A Motion for Rehearing was filed on 09/14/10, and it was stricken on 10/05/10.

Merck filed a 3.850 Appeal in the Florida Supreme Court on 09/17/10. This case is currently pending.

Institutional Adjustment:

DATE DAYS VIOLATION LOCATION

-------- ---- ---------------- -------------------

05/26/87 15 POSS OF UNAUTH BEV. FLORIDA STATE PRISON

02/01/88 45 ASSAULTS OR ATTEMPT FLORIDA STATE PRISON

12/12/93 0 POSS OF CONTRABAND UNION C. I.

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Report Date: 11/24/04 NRC

Updated: 10/06/10 EMJ