Burt v. City of Montgomery

598 So. 2d 5, 1991 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 2709, 1991 WL 291503
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Alabama
DecidedDecember 27, 1991
DocketCR 89-347
StatusPublished

This text of 598 So. 2d 5 (Burt v. City of Montgomery) 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
Burt v. City of Montgomery, 598 So. 2d 5, 1991 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 2709, 1991 WL 291503 (Ala. Ct. App. 1991).

Opinion

BOWEN, Judge.

Frederick Charles Burt, the appellant, was convicted in circuit court of two charges of assault in the third degree in violation of a municipal ordinance of the City of Montgomery, Alabama. He was given concurrent sentences of six months’ imprisonment in the county jail in each case. In addition, he was fined $100 in each case and was ordered to pay a total of $200 to the victims’ compensation fund. Restitution was ordered to be paid in the amounts of $1,523.95 and $377.95. The appellant raises three issues on this appeal from those convictions.

I.

The appellant argues that he was deprived of his right to due process pursuant to the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution because the municipal police failed to preserve evidence which was relevant and material to his defense.

The prosecution’s evidence tended to show that on December 24, 1987, the appellant assaulted Bertha McClain and Tillman Keith Davis. Ms. McClain testified that she did not have any kind of knife or weapon on her when she was assaulted by the appellant outside of her residence. R. 55. She stated that before she was assaulted and while the appellant was assaulting Mr. Davis, the appellant’s brother, Michael, came up on her front porch and “bust my screen door in and said, MF, I’m going to beat your brains out. So I ran in the kitchen and got a knife and I told him to come on.” R. 58. Ms. McClain described this knife as “a little kitchen knife, a little steak knife really” (R. 58), and later denied that the knife was a butcher knife. R. 79. She testified that she never took the knife outside her residence (R. 80), that she did not give the knife to the police and that they did not take it “downtown.” R. 79.

The appellant testified that he was placed in a police car and was taken to the police department.1 He testified: “While I was sitting up there, they brought the knife up. And when they brought the knife up, he was holding it showing me how large it was and talking about if somebody — .” R. 178-79. The appellant testified that he was not arrested and that he was released.

Montgomery Police Corporal R.G. Lock-ler testified as a defense witness that, although he was not an investigating officer, he went by the scene and talked to the appellant at police headquarters. He did not remember either victim having a knife. R. 87-88. He testified: “To the best of my memory, I don’t remember actually seeing [7]*7a knife, but for some reason I remember a little bit about a knife. Now, what exactly it was, I don’t remember. It just — And we don’t usually document anything on misdemeanor cases. And that’s what this one was. So I don’t have any documentation to that effect.... Just that there was a knife somewhere. And I don’t remember what that was involving.” R. 87.

The appellant was not charged at the time of the incident but was released. Ms. McClain swore out a complaint on December 29, 1987. Mr. Davis swore out a complaint on January 21, 1988. The record shows that the appellant was arrested on January 4, 1988.

Prior to trial, the appellant filed a motion for discovery which did not specifically request production of any knife. That motion was granted by the trial court. On May 29,1989, the appellant filed an unverified motion to dismiss alleging:

“3. At the time the incident occurred in this case, the Montgomery Police Department confiscated a knife from the alleged victim, Bertha McLain. This knife was last seen by the defendant at the original trial of this case in Montgomery Municipal Court.
“4. Defendant has issued a subpoena duces tecum to the Custodian of the Records of the evidence at the Montgomery Police Department for the knife referred to in paragraph three above. This knife is material evidence for defendant’s claim of self defense.
“5. Montgomery Police Department reports that the knife referred to above cannot be located.”

R. 328.

The appellant was tried on June 29,1989. On June 13, 1989, a hearing was held on the appellant’s motion to dismiss. At this hearing, the appellant maintained that “[t]he police officers on the scene gathered the knife and brought it to the police department and gave it to the detective, and the detective brought it into the interrogation room where they were and that was the last place they saw it.” Second Supplemental Record at 6. The trial court questioned defense counsel about whether the knife was ever in the custody of the police department. Second Supplemental Record at 5-6. The trial court denied the motion to dismiss, apparently on the basis that any loss of the knife would not prejudice the appellant.

In his brief on appeal, the appellant admits that he “cannot say that he has proof that the loss of the knife was a flagrant and deliberate act done in bad faith.” Appellant’s brief at 22. Other than the assertions of defense counsel based on what the appellant had told him and the appellant’s own testimony at trial, there is nothing to indicate that the knife was ever in the possession of the Montgomery Police Department or that it was presented in municipal court. Defense counsel represented to the trial court at the hearing on the motion to dismiss that he had not been able to locate any police officer or detective who had ever had possession of the knife.

In Arizona v. Youngblood, 488 U.S. 51, 58, 109 S.Ct. 333, 337, 102 L.Ed.2d 281 (1988), the United States Supreme Court held “that unless a criminal defendant can show bad faith on the part of the police, failure to preserve potentially useful evidence does not constitute a denial of due process of law.” See 2 W. LaFave and J. Israel, Criminal Procedure § 19.5(h) (Supp.1991); Lawson v. State, 557 So.2d 1311 (Ala.Cr.App.1989).

Where the circumstances amount to less than a destruction of evidence which was a flagrant and deliberate act done in bad faith with the intention of prejudicing the defense, “a conviction should not be overturned unless it can be concluded from a review of the record that the defendant’s case was in fact prejudiced by the omission of the nonpreserved evidence.” LaRue v. State, 478 So.2d 13, 16 (Ala.Cr.App.1985), quoting Adams v. State, 367 So.2d 635, 640 (Fla.App.), cert. denied, 376 So.2d 68 (Fla.1979). The crucial exculpatory value of the knife is found not in the production of the knife itself, but in the evidence that the knife was taken from one of the victims at the scene of the crime. At trial, in addition to the appellant, seven defense witnesses testified that the appellant was defending [8]*8himself when he struck Ms. McClain and that she was armed with a butcher knife. Under these circumstances, we find that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying the appellant’s motion to dismiss.

II.

The appellant argues that the trial court improperly refused to allow defense counsel to cross-examine the victim, Ms. McClain, about her reputation for carrying a knife. We disagree because there was no evidence that the appellant was aware of such reputation.

“If the evidence tends to show that the accused acted in self-defense, the accused is entitled to prove that the deceased was in the habit of carrying firearms or other deadly weapons or that he had the reputation of habitually being armed.

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Related

Arizona v. Youngblood
488 U.S. 51 (Supreme Court, 1989)
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Adams v. State
367 So. 2d 635 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1979)
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LaRue v. State
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Woco Pep Co. of Montgomery v. City of Montgomery
165 So. 214 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1925)
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Opinion of the Clerk, Supreme Court of Alabama
347 So. 2d 524 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1977)
Lawson v. State
557 So. 2d 1311 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, 1989)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
598 So. 2d 5, 1991 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 2709, 1991 WL 291503, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/burt-v-city-of-montgomery-alacrimapp-1991.