Crow. v. State

195 So. 3d 346, 2015 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 89, 2015 WL 6443143
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Alabama
DecidedOctober 23, 2015
DocketCR-13-1659
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 195 So. 3d 346 (Crow. 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
Crow. v. State, 195 So. 3d 346, 2015 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 89, 2015 WL 6443143 (Ala. Ct. App. 2015).

Opinions

BURKE, Judge.

Tenia M. Crow pleaded guilty to child abuse, a violation of § 26-15-3, Ala.Code 1975. Crow was sentenced to imprisonment in the Alabama Department of Corrections for one year and one day, but the sentence was split, and she was ordered to serve six months in the county jail followed by supervised probation.

Crow preserved for appellate review the issue of whether the trial court erroneously ruled, following a pretrial evidentiary hearing, that the seven-year-old victim, T.T., who was living with Crow, but who was not her biological child, would be deemed an unavailable witness for purposes of admitting T.T.’s out-of-court statements at-trial because Crow allegedly had her sister, Tracy Gaddis, remove T.T. from the jurisdiction'of the court before trial. See, §§ .15-25-31 and 15-25-32, Ala. Code 1975. (CR. 213, R. 82.). The circuit court’s pretrial ruling would allow T.T.’s school nurse, his school guidance counsel- or, and his Department of Human .Resources caseworker to testify regarding T.T.’s statements to them during their investigation of his alleged physical abuse.

Sections 15-25-31 and 15-25-32(2)a.2, Ala.Code 1975, allow for the admission of out-of-court statements from a child less than 12 years old when the defendant or someone acting on the defendant’s behalf has intentionally removed the. child from the court’s jurisdiction. See § 15-25-32(2)a.2 (“[A] child is unavailable if the defendant or someone acting on behalf of the defendant intentionally removes the child from the jurisdiction of the court.”).

“The sufficiency of proof for establishing the predicate of unavailability is left to sound discretion of the trial court.” Johnson v. State, 623 So.2d 444, 447-48 (Ala.Crim.App.1993); Matkins v. State, 521 So.2d 1040, 1042 (Ala.Crim.App.1987)(“ ‘The sufficiency of the proof of the predicate of unavailability of an absent witness is addressed to the sound discretion of the trial judge.’ ” (quoting Napier v. State, 377 So.2d 1135, 1138 (Ala.Crim.App.1979)). A trial court’s ruling on whether' a witness is unavailable to testify is given great deference and will be reversed only if there was an abuse of discretion. See, e.g., Flowers v. State, 799 So.2d 966, 980 (Ala.Crim.App.1999). Moreover, “[i]n an ore tenus proceeding, it is the duty of the trial court to resolve- conflict in testimony and render judgment accordingly.” Mester v. State, 755 So.2d 66, 74 (Ala.Crim.App.1999) (citations and quotations omit[348]*348ted). “Where the trial court resolves a factual issue on conflicting evidence, the reviewing court may not reverse it if there is any credible evidence to support the judgment.” Id. at 74.

At the pretrial hearing conducted on the State’s motion to have T.T. declared an unavailable witness, a generous amount of testimony was elicited regarding who had legal custody or care of T.T. and regarding Gaddis’s knowledge of her responsibility to assure that T.T. attended court. However, regardless of custody or what instructions Gaddis allegedly received regarding T.T.’s attending court, the State’s burden was to prove that Crow had Gaddis remove T.T. from the circuit court’s jurisdiction.

The following facts were presented at the pretrial hearing regarding Crow’s alleged intentional removal of T.T. from the circuit court’s jurisdiction.

Elizabeth Dawson investigates alleged child-abuse cases for the Elmore County Department of Human Resources (“DHR”). She became involved in T.T.’s case on February 15, 2013, when she was contacted by T.T.’s school to investigate bruising on T.T. Following the accusations that Crow had whipped T.T., DHR placed T.T. with Crow’s sister, Gaddis, as part of a DHR authorized “safety plan.” (R. 16.)

Dawson testified that DHR did not “authorize[ ] Ms. Gaddis to let the child leave the State because he might be summoned to court.” (R. 14.) According to Dawson, Gaddis “knew.that if [T.T.] was expected to go to the court hearing that [Gaddis] would need to take him.” (R. 14-15.) Dawson testified that she informed Gaddis

“that if the child were to be required to come to court that she would be responsible for getting him there ... because it is our understanding that the child was in her care at that point so it was her responsibility to make sure that, you know, he came to anything that he was required to come to at that time.”

(R. 13.) Dawson learned in January 2014 that T.T. was in Texas and was not coming back to Alabama.

“[Gaddis] had advised- [Dawson] that [Gaddis] had taken [T.T.] over the Christmas holidays to Texas to stay with her brother and there was no intentions of him coming back. [Dawson] had advised [Gaddis] that [Gaddis] knew that, you know, court was coming up and that he was supposed to be there. [Gaddis] advised that she had no idea that he was supposed to be at court in January.”

(R. 15.)

Tyler Delashaw is a police investigator with the City of Millbrook. He testified and the record discloses, that on February 15, 2013, Crow gave a videotaped statement to the police in which she stated that she had whipped T.T. with a belt. At some point during Crow’s interview, she was left alone in the interview room. The video recording remained on. The video recording captured Crow making a telephone call to her sister, Gaddis. The video recording was played in open court. On direct examination Officer Delashaw testified that what he heard on the video recording was Crow saying to Gaddis, “I’ve got to get rid of [T.T.], got to get [T.T.] .out of here.” (R. 24, 25.) Officer Delashaw testified that T.T. was taken to Texas after this telephone call.

On cross-examination, Officer Delashaw stated that he did not know when T.T. was taken to Texas; he just knew he had been taken to Texas. The video recording was played again for Officer Delashaw. Officer Delashaw then testified that upon listening to the video recording again, what he heard on the videotape was “[Crow] staffing Gaddis] had to get [T.T.] out of here.” (R. 26.) He then asserted “You know, we weren’t sure what that meant,” [349]*349but “[Crow] said [Gaddis] had to get him out of here.” (R. 26.) Defense counsel challenged Officer Delashaw, stating that counsel “did not hear that. If it is in there, I would like it on the Record. If it is not, I would like that on the Record.” (R. 26.) The trial court did not respond, but the State asserted that the video recording would be provided for the court “to look at.” (R. 27.) Upon continued questioning by the defense, Officer Dela-shaw acknowledged that the video recording did not disclose any instructions from Crow to take T.T. to Texas. Officer Dela-shaw conceded that he did not hear Crow “in this recording ever , direct Ms. Gaddis to do anything with [T.T.] ”. (R. 27.) Defense counsel again asserted to the trial court that counsel did not hear on the video recording “[Crow] stat[ing Gaddis] had to get [T.T.] out of here” as Officer Delashaw had claimed he discerned from the video recording. (R. 26.) Counsel requested a transcript of the recording or, in the alternátive, more time to review the recording “because that is not what was said” on the recording. (R. 28.) The trial court did not respond to counsel’s request but instead told the State to call its next witness.

Gaddis testified that Crow, Gaddis, and T.T.’s father are siblings. T.T.’s father was in prison in Texas when the child-abuse charges were brought against Crow.

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195 So. 3d 346, 2015 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 89, 2015 WL 6443143, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/crow-v-state-alacrimapp-2015.