C.L.M. v. State

531 So. 2d 699, 1988 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 548, 1988 WL 79180
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Alabama
DecidedJune 28, 1988
Docket5 Div. 372
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 531 So. 2d 699 (C.L.M. 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
C.L.M. v. State, 531 So. 2d 699, 1988 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 548, 1988 WL 79180 (Ala. Ct. App. 1988).

Opinion

TYSON, Judge.

On May 21, 1987, a delinquency petition was filed in the Juvenile Court of Chambers County charging that C.L.M., Jr. “did intentionally damage a building of Lisa Johnson and Debbie Stokes, by starting or maintaining a fire or causing an explosion, in violation of Section 13A-7-42 [arson in the second degree] of the Code of Alabama, against the peace and dignity of the State of Alabama.” (R. 906) Following a hearing on this petition, the trial judge found this appellant to be a juvenile delinquent and committed him to the Alabama Department of Youth Services. The appellant now appeals to this court, pursuant to Rule 28(a), A.R.J.P.

On May 12, 1987, Lisa Johnson and Debra Jean Stokes were co-owners of a home, located at Route 1, Box 533, Lot 150 in the Forrester Subdivision in Cusseta, Alabama. Both Johnson and Stokes were teachers. Johnson taught at Smiths Station High School and Stokes taught at Langdale Elementary School. On the morning of May 12, 1987, Johnson was the last one to leave home. She left for school at 6:50 a.m. (central time). All the windows and doors to the house were locked when Johnson left the house. Stokes’s and Johnson’s two dogs were left in the garage.

At approximately 1:30 p.m. that day, Johnson and Stokes were notified at school that their house was on fire. When they arrived home, they found their house had burned and was 80 percent destroyed. Johnson and Stokes lost everything in their house.

Johnson testified that she knew the appellant because he was a student at Smiths Station High School. He had been Johnson’s aide and had been a student in her Model United Nations class. Johnson stated that the appellant was a good student but she removed him from the Model United Nations class and dismissed him as her aide on April 6, 1987, because of discipline problems.

Johnson also testified that she had a business known as Back Door Ceramics which she operated from a shed in her back yard prior to the fire. She stated that the appellant knew about this business and the fact that it was located at her home.

Peggy and Earl Hamil testified that they lived behind Johnson’s and Stokes’s house on May 12, 1987. At approximately 10:00 on that morning, the Hamils were driving to their home from the post office when they saw a green Ford LTD with a white top coming from a pulpwood road that runs between their house and Stokes’s and Johnson’s house. They noticed the car because the pulpwood road is never used. The Hamils were unable to see who was in the LTD.

At approximately 12:45 that afternoon Samuel “Skéet” Freeman came to their house and told them that Stokes’s and Johnson’s house was on fire. The Hamils alerted the fire department about the fire.

On the morning of May 13, 1987, the Hamils were walking on the pulpwood road when they noticed some tire tracks. They found an automobile tag nearby and gave it to Stokes.

[701]*701At approximately 1:00 p.m. on the day in question, the Lee-Chambers Volunteer Fire Department and the East Alabama Fire Department responded to the fire at Johnson’s and Stokes’s house. It took the firefighters approximately thirty minutes to get the fire under control.

Elmer James Smith, Jr. testified that he is a mail carrier in Cusseta and his route includes the Forrester subdivision. Johnson’s and Stokes’s house was on his route.

Smith stated that about a week prior to the fire, he was stopped along his route in the Forrester subdivision by this appellant. The appellant asked Smith if he knew where Back Door Ceramics was located. Smith told the appellant to follow him and he would show the appellant where it was. Smith stopped just past Johnson’s and Stokes’s house and told the appellant that Back Door Ceramics was located in the two story house he had just passed. The appellant asked if it was the house with the van parked in front and Smith replied that it was. Stokes owned a van and she had missed school on May 8, 1987. Her van was at her house that day.

At approximately 12:30 p.m. on May 12, 1987, Smith was leaving the Forrester subdivision on Forrester Road (which runs in front of Stokes’s and Johnson’s house) when he noticed Stokes’s and Johnson’s house on fire. As Smith got to the end of Forrester Road, he saw the appellant coming into the Forrester subdivision. Smith stopped the appellant and told him to call the fire department because Back Door Ceramics was on fire. The appellant drove on towards Johnson’s and Stokes’s house. Smith stated he thought the appellant was driving a green car.

“Skeet” Freeman testified that he lives on Forrester Road, about 200-300 yards from where Johnson’s and Stokes’s house was located. At around 12:30 p.m. on May 12, 1987, Freeman went outside to get his mail. Once outside, Freeman noticed black smoke coming from Johnson’s and Stokes’s house. As Freeman walked towards the house, a green and white Ford LTD drove by him. Taby Weston took Freeman to the Hamils’s house so the fire department could be alerted. Freeman did not have a telephone.

Freeman and Weston then returned to the burning house. Freeman went around to the back of the house and found the sliding glass door open. He yelled to see if anyone was inside the house and then let two dogs out of the garage.

Mike Boyd, an investigator for the Chambers County Sheriff’s Department, testified that on May 13, 1987, he received an Alabama automobile dealer’s tag from Stokes. After running a registration check on the tag, Boyd went to A & T Motors in Phenix City, Alabama, on May 14,1987. The owner of A & T Motors is this appellant’s father.

Boyd talked to the appellant’s father about the automobile tag. The appellant’s father admitted the tag belonged to him and said the appellant told him the tag had been stolen off his 1977 green and white Ford LTD while it was parked at Smiths Station High School.

Boyd told the appellant’s father that he wanted to talk to the appellant. The appellant’s father said his son was at school. When Boyd told the appellant’s father that his son was not at school, the appellant’s father made a phone call and the appellant arrived shortly in a 1977 green and white Ford LTD. This vehicle did not have a tag. The appellant’s father refused to allow Boyd to inspect the inside of this LTD.

Boyd also conducted an investigation at the scene of the fire. He testified that the most heavily damaged part of the house was the bottom of the staircase just inside the front door. Boyd said a forced entry had been made through the rear kitchen window. The window frame had been pushed inward and several screws which held one of the window panes in place had been removed. Part of the window frame was found underneath the window lying in a flower bed. The frame did not appear to be damaged by the fire.

Byron Pigg, the Fire Chief for the East Alabama Fire Department, Henry Davis and John Robinson, of the State Fire Marshall’s office, conducted an investigation to [702]*702determine the point of origin and the cause of the fire in question. The three men concluded that the fire originated at the bottom of the stairway. In determining the cause of the fire, the three men considered whether the fire was 1) a result of an act. of God, 2) accidental, or 3) intentionally set. An act of God was ruled out as the cause of this fire. The three concluded that the fire was not accidental because there was no electrical wiring near the point of origin.

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Related

Scott v. State
163 So. 3d 389 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, 2012)
Sheffield v. State
87 So. 3d 607 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, 2010)
McCostlin v. State
594 So. 2d 214 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, 1991)

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Bluebook (online)
531 So. 2d 699, 1988 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 548, 1988 WL 79180, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/clm-v-state-alacrimapp-1988.