Supreme Court of Florida ____________ No. SC20-1422 ____________ GRANVILLE RITCHIE, Appellant, vs. STATE OF FLORIDA, Appellee. June 9, 2022 PER CURIAM. Granville Ritchie appeals his convictions and sentences, including his judgment of conviction of first-degree murder and his sentence of death. We have jurisdiction, see art. V, § 3(b)(1), Fla. Const., and for the reasons below affirm Ritchie’s convictions and sentences. BACKGROUND Ritchie sexually battered and strangled to death the nine-year- old child victim in this case, F.W., who had been left in Ritchie’s care by a friend of the child’s family. Ritchie then dumped the victim’s body in the water off of the Courtney Campbell Causeway and fabricated a story about her disappearance. The victim’s body was found washed up against the shoreline the day after she had been left alone with Ritchie, and Ritchie was later arrested and indicted on three counts of alleged crimes against the victim: (1) first-degree murder; (2) sexual battery of a victim less than twelve years of age by a defendant over the age of eighteen; and (3) aggravated child abuse. Ritchie’s jury found him guilty as charged on all three counts. As to first-degree murder, the jury found that the killing was both premeditated murder and felony murder. Although Ritchie does not concede guilt, he concedes in his initial brief that the evidence presented at trial is legally sufficient to support all three of his convictions. The trial court summarized that evidence in its sentencing order as follows: On May 16, 2014, [Ritchie] and Eboni Wiley picked up the child-victim, [F.W.], from her home in Tampa. Ms. Wiley was a friend of the victim’s family, and she and [Ritchie] had recently become involved in a romantic relationship. After retrieving the victim from her home, [Ritchie] drove Ms. Wiley and the victim to a fast food drive-through, to get food for the child-victim, and then to his mother’s apartment in Temple Terrace [where Ritchie also lived]. Upon arrival, [Ritchie] provided Ms. Wiley with “Molly,” a drug similar in its effects to Ecstasy. After a short time at the apartment, [Ritchie] sent Ms. -2- Wiley from the apartment to procure marijuana for him. Ms. Wiley initially attempted to take the victim with her to make the purchase of marijuana. However, [Ritchie] intervened and instructed Ms. Wiley to leave the child- victim with him at the apartment because Ms. Wiley had no driver’s license and would have drugs in the car. Ms. Wiley relented and agreed to leave young [F.W.] alone and in [Ritchie’s] care. While alone with [F.W.], [Ritchie] brutally attacked her, stripped her of her clothing, and sexually battered her. During the sexual battery, [Ritchie] violently inflicted blunt force injury to the victim’s head and body and caused several injuries, both external and internal, to her genitals by forcefully penetrating the child-victim’s vagina with his penis. In the course of the attack, [Ritchie] manually strangled the child-victim with such force that he caused extensive injuries to her neck, including damage to the deep …
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