Crowe v. State

171 So. 3d 681, 2014 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 104, 2014 WL 7236976
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Alabama
DecidedDecember 19, 2014
DocketCR-12-0742
StatusPublished

This text of 171 So. 3d 681 (Crowe 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
Crowe v. State, 171 So. 3d 681, 2014 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 104, 2014 WL 7236976 (Ala. Ct. App. 2014).

Opinion

JOINER, Judge.

Thomas Doyle Crowe was convicted of three counts of capital murder in connection with the murder of Marvin Allen Dai-ley.1 Specifically, Crowe was convicted of (1) the intentional murder of Dailey during the course of a robbery, see § 13A-5-40(a)(2), Ala.Code 1975; (2) the intentional murder of Dailey during the course of a burglary, see § 13A-5-40(a)(4), Ala.Code 1975; and (3) the intentional murder of Dailey during the course of an arson, see § 13A-5-40(a)(9), Ala.Code 1975. By a vote of 11-1, the jury recommended that Crowe be sentenced to death. The circuit court followed the jury’s recommendation and sentenced Crowe to death.

The circuit court, in its sentencing order, provided the following summary of the relevant facts of the underlying case:

“Sometime during the day of November 25, 2009, which was the day before Thanksgiving, the defendant, Thomas Crowe, and the codefendant, Toni Collins, were at the home of Mr. Marvin Dailey, the deceased. While at Mr. Dai-ley’s home they all went to the Mountain Top convenience store and purchased alcoholic beverages. They went back to Mr. Dailey’s home and consumed all or a part of the alcohol which had been purchased. Mr. Crowe and Ms. Collins left Mr. Dailey’s home during the afternoon or early evening. Later that same evening Mr. Crowe and Ms. Collins returned to Mr. Dailey’s home for a second time. While Mr. Crowe and Ms. Collins were at Mr. Dailey’s home, on this second occasion, Mr. Crowe started a fire in a bedroom. Mr. Dailey was struck in the head multiple times with a hammer and/or a hatchet type instrument. Ms. Collins and Mr. Crowe proceeded to take from Mr. Dailey’s home a television, some old watches or watch parts, and Mr. Dailey’s 1985 Chrysler Fifth Avenue automobile.
“Mr. Dailey’s home was consumed by fire. Mr. Dailey was found inside the home, and an autopsy showed that he had died from smoke and soot inhalation with a contributing factor being blunt impact trauma to the head. Mr. Dai-ley’s body was badly burned, and both legs from the thigh and below were completely consumed by the fire.
“After leaving Mr. Dailey’s home, Mr. Crowe and Ms. Collins returned to the [683]*683home of Jeff Link. Mr. Link is a first cousin to Mr. Crowe, and Mr. Crowe and Ms. Collins had been staying at Mr. Link’s home. Mr. Link testified that upon Mr. Crowe and Ms. Collins returning to his home sometime around midnight, that Mr. Crowe stated he had beat somebody up real bad. Mr. Link testified that Mr. Crowe and Ms. Collins returned to his house in two separate cars. One of the cars was Mr. Crowe’s white car and the other was Mr. Dailey’s gold car. Mr. Link testified that Mr. Crowe brought a television into the home and that Ms. Collins burned her clothes and Mr. Crowe’s clothes in a metal trash can outside the house. Ms. Collins testified that she threw the hammer type instrument into a pond adjacent to Mr. Link’s home.
“After being alerted to the fire and the discovery of Mr. Dailey’s body, the Blount County Sheriffs department began an investigation into the fire, Mr. Dailey’s death, and his missing automobile. On Thanksgiving Day or the day after, the Blount County Sheriffs office received information that Mr. Dailey’s car was at Mr. Link’s residence. On November 27, 2009, Blount County Sheriff Deputy Steve Fowler and another deputy arrived at Mr. Link’s home. Ms. Collins was at Mr; Link’s home at this time. Ms. Collins gave a statement to Deputy Fowler which implicated Mr. Crowe, but did not implicate herself. Mr. Dailey’s automobile was recovered at this time and taken to the Blount County Sheriffs department.
“Ms. Collins was subsequently arrested for the death of Mr. Dailey the following Monday. Thereafter, Ms. Collins spoke with Deputy Fowler a second time and gave another statement. A short time after giving the second statement Ms. Collins, while in custody, was taken to Mr. Link’s house. At this time Ms. Collins directed the officers to the area of the pond where she had thrown the hammer type instrument and to an area across the road where she had thrown the watches. Blount County Sheriff investigators recovered a masonry hammer from the pond and the watches or watch parts were recovered from an area that is across a public road from Mr. Link’s home. Mr. Dailey’s television was recovered from the sister of Mr. Link. Mr. Link testified that he had given the television to her because he thought it was stolen.
“Mr. Crowe was arrested shortly thereafter for the death of Mr. Dailey.”

(C. 375-83.)

Crowe raises a number of issues on appeal. One issue, however, is dispositive: Whether the circuit court erred when it instructed the jury that it could convict Crowe of capital murder if it found that Crowe “or another participant” intended to kill Dailey.2 (R. 1734; 1747-48.)

“It is well settled law that a trial court has broad discretion in formulating its instructions to the jury, so long as the instructions accurately state the law.” Hosch v. State, 155 So.3d 1048, 1078 (Ala.Crim.App.2013) (citing Broadnax v. State, 825 So.2d 134 (Ala.Crim.App.2000)). In Brown v. State, 72 So.3d 712, 715 (Ala.Crim.App.2010), this Court noted:

“‘Alabama appellate courts have repeatedly held that, to be convicted of [a] capital offense and sentenced to death, a defendant must have had a particularized intent to kill and the jury must have been charged on the requirement of specific intent to kill. E.g., Gamble v. State, 791 So.2d 409, 444 (Ala.Crim.App. [684]*6842000); Flowers v. State, 799 So.2d 966, 984 (Ala.Crim.App.1999); Duncan v. State, 827 So.2d 838, 848 (Ala.Crim.App. 1999).’ ”

(Quoting Ziegler v. State, 886 So.2d 127, 140 (Ala.Crim.App.2003).) Further,

“ ‘ “ ‘no defendant is guilty of a capital offense unless he had an intent to kill, and that intent to kill cannot be supplied by the felony murder doctrine. Beck v. State, 396 So.2d 645, 662 (Ala. March 6, 1981)’; Carnes, Alabama’s 1981 Capital Punishment Statute, 42 Ala. Law. 456, 468 (1981). See also E[n]mund v. Florida, 458 U.S. 782, 102 S.Ct. 3368, 73 L.Ed.2d 1140 (1982), but see Godbolt v. State, 429 So.2d 1131, 1134 (Ala.Cr.App. 1982), holding that E[n]mund is inapplicable to a defendant who does not receive the death penalty[.] However, a non-triggerman can be convicted of a capital offense if he was a knowing accomplice to the intentional killing itself. Ritter v. State, 375 So.2d 270 (Ala.1979). ‘[T]he accomplice liability doctrine may be used to convict a non-trigger man accomplice if but only if the defendant was an accomplice in the intentional killing as opposed to being an accomplice merely in the “underlying felony.” ’ Ex parte Raines, 429 So.2d 1111, 1112 (Ala. 1982), cert. denied, 460 U.S. 1103, 103 S.Ct. 1804, 76 L.Ed.2d 368 (1983).

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Related

Enmund v. Florida
458 U.S. 782 (Supreme Court, 1982)
Russaw v. State
572 So. 2d 1288 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, 1990)
Gamble v. State
791 So. 2d 409 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, 2000)
Godbolt v. State
429 So. 2d 1131 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, 1982)
Ex Parte Raines
429 So. 2d 1111 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1982)
Flowers v. State
799 So. 2d 966 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, 2000)
Broadnax v. State
825 So. 2d 134 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, 2000)
Goins v. State
521 So. 2d 97 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, 1987)
Rowell v. State
570 So. 2d 848 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, 1990)
Ex Parte Ritter
375 So. 2d 270 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1979)
Ziegler v. State
886 So. 2d 127 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, 2003)
Duncan v. State
827 So. 2d 838 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, 1999)
Lewis v. State
456 So. 2d 413 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, 1984)
Beck v. State
396 So. 2d 645 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1981)
Hosch v. State
155 So. 3d 1048 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, 2013)
Mark Dwyatt Brown v. State of Alabama.
72 So. 3d 712 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, 2010)
Stewart v. Florida
460 U.S. 1103 (Supreme Court, 1983)

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Bluebook (online)
171 So. 3d 681, 2014 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 104, 2014 WL 7236976, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/crowe-v-state-alacrimapp-2014.