Barton v. State

326 So. 2d 695, 57 Ala. App. 167, 1975 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 1257
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Alabama
DecidedNovember 18, 1975
Docket4 Div. 376
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 326 So. 2d 695 (Barton v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Barton v. State, 326 So. 2d 695, 57 Ala. App. 167, 1975 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 1257 (Ala. Ct. App. 1975).

Opinions

CATES, Presiding Judge.

This case originated under an indictment in Covington County which was transferred to Pike for trial.

The appeal is from an involunatry manslaughter conviction, which came from a jury’s verdict which also fixed a fine of $500.00 and carried a sentence of twelve months imprisonment in the county jail. On the defendant’s failure to pay the fine and costs or confess judgment therefor, the court additionally sentenced Barton to serve 145 days for the fine and 135 days for the costs of $403.85.

I

On the night of Friday, April 19, 1974, about 8:30 or 9:00 p. m., K. M. Lassiter, a highway patrolman, stopped Kay Lord on US 331 north of Opp. She had been going south driving 61 mph in a 55 mph zone. Officer Lassiter, after giving her a warning ticket, was preparing to get back in his patrol car when a pickup truck sideswiped Miss Lord’s MG, the patrol car, and struck Lassiter. Lassiter was dead when he was brought to the hospital in Opp.

The investigators for the Department of Public Safety and “criminalists” from the Toxicologist’s office collected broken chrome strips and other debris from the two sideswiped cars.

The State produced as a witness Billy Joe Coon, employed by a contractor engaged in work at a nursing home on the north side of Opp. At the job site was a trailer used as the job office. It had a refrigerator which on the afternoon of April 19 had a stock of beer. The appellant drove up in his Chevrolet pickup truck. Also there was “Slick” Dority who was tending the trailer that weekend for the general contractor.

Barton brought and unloaded some equipment to be used later by his crew— he being the masonry subcontractor.

Coon and Barton engaged in target practice and all three men drank beer, then about dark they went to the Red Wagon. There, according to Coon, each bought a round of beer and then went back to the nursing home. There Barton got in his truck and drove off. Coon saw no one else in the vehicle; he thought it was 8:35 or 8:40 p. m.

The next morning Barton’s father brought the truck in to the Sheriff’s office. It had been badly torn up on the left front side. The appellant rode into Andalusia with his father.

J. B. Pemberton, an investigator with the Department of Public Safety, took appellant to an upstairs office in the court house. He administered the Miranda warnings to Barton. The State — though contradicted by the defense — made sufficient showing of voluntariness to support the trial’s judge’s ruling that Barton’s statement could go to the jury.

We quote in part from Officer Pemberton’s testimony relating his interrogation of the appellant:

“And got off at about 4:00 P.M. I stayed around the nursing home and was working on a fork lift. With me was a man whose last name is Coon, white male about thirty [169]*169to thirty-two who lives in Opp, Alabama.
“Q. Said he was with a man named Coon about 30 to 32 years old ?
“A. Lived in Opp, Alabama.
“Q. All right.
“A. And a white male who is about fifty and he goes by the name of Slick who I think lives in Anniston, but stays in a trailer which belongs to O. V. Industries and is located there at the nursing home. We were all drinking beer, Bud and Schlitz, and I dranked a lot and I was drunk.
******
“Q. Continue please?
“A. We decided to leave and they told me I couldn’t drive for I was too drunk. I had dranked several beers before I started drinking with them. I had went out to Donaldson’s Grocery and bought a 6 pack of Schlitz about 2:30 P.M.
“Q. What time was that ?
“A. Two thirty P.M.
“Q. And that’s talking about the day before on the 19th ?
“A. Friday the 19th. And dranked this before quitting time. I had also dranked some that morning that I had bought at the same place.
******
“Q. Please continue.
“A. We left the nursing home in Coon’s car, about a ’66 Chevrolet, grey, with Coon driving and we went somewhere where there was loud music and dancing. I drank several beers and some mixed drinks while there. It was dark when we went there, but I don’t know what time it was. I was too drunk to recognize anyone there that I knew. I don’t even remember leaving this place. I don’t even remember being in the pickup truck at all last night. It was left at the nursing home when we went to this joint or dance hall. I got off stool to dance and hit the floor and I don’t remember anything from there until about 10:15 A.M. this morning. My mother called. The telephone was what woke me up. I was at my home in bed. I answered telephone and it was my mother, Beatrice Barton, who lives nearby. She called to find out how my father-in-law, Tom Rawls, was. We talked about this for about five minutes. Mother asked me had I heard the news and I said, no, and she said you remember that patrolman that kept you from bleeding to death last year. I said, yes. She said somebody run him down last night. I said, ‘Oh, good Lord,’ and asked her if they had found out who done it. She said, no, they got a statewide search out looking for him. This was the first time I heard anything about the patrolman and remarked to her that it looks like you can’t even walk out into your back yard now without getting run over or shot by black panthers or some revolutionist of some kind. Then I went back and lay down and went to sleep. In a little bit I heard someone driving up, because my dog barked and it was my daddy, Fletcher Barton. I got up when he came into the house and went into the kitchen where he was. We discussed a fence and the problem we had regarding said fence. We walked out back and got a pack of cigarettes out of the right side of my truck. When I walked around I saw the truck was bent up on the left side and I said, ‘Oh, my God, somebody has tore my truck up again. Then I stood there and looked at the truck and could see what looked like blood. I remembered then what my mother had said about the trooper being run down and she told me that they had said over the radio that they had a hub cap and a head lamp. That’s when I noticed both of my hub caps on the driver’s side were gone. I said to daddy that this might be the truck that they are looking for because the hub caps missing and mother told me that the pickup was a late model that they were looking for. I told daddy I was going to carry the pickup down to the sheriff’s office. Daddy said no you can’t drive, but I’ll drive you down there. I was still in kind of bad shape. We left and [170]*170came to sheriff’s office and met Glenn Chambers, a deputy, and asked him to go look at the pickup and see' if he could tell me if that was the one involved in that last night of running Mr. Lassiter down. After looking the truck over Deputy Chambers said I am not positive, but I think it is. He looked the truck over and said it looked like where his (Lassiter) head hit the windshield. I said well, good Lord, let’s get something straight. If I was on that pickup and I done it I want to know it. We came back inside the sheriff’s office. This was about 12 noon.

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Related

Baxter v. State
360 So. 2d 64 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, 1978)
Barton v. State
326 So. 2d 699 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1976)

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Bluebook (online)
326 So. 2d 695, 57 Ala. App. 167, 1975 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 1257, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/barton-v-state-alacrimapp-1975.