Curtis Dale Brooks v. State of Alabama.

76 So. 3d 275, 2011 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 21, 2011 WL 1088718
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Alabama
DecidedMarch 25, 2011
DocketCR-09-1826
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 76 So. 3d 275 (Curtis Dale Brooks v. State of Alabama.) 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
Curtis Dale Brooks v. State of Alabama., 76 So. 3d 275, 2011 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 21, 2011 WL 1088718 (Ala. Ct. App. 2011).

Opinion

WELCH, Presiding Judge.

A Randolph County grand jury returned a three-count indictment against Curtis Dale Brooks on February 17, 2009, charging him with three counts of first-degree robbery. § 13A-8-41, Ala.Code 1975. Count 1 charged that, while Brooks was engaged in the theft of currency belonging to Mildred Freeman, he was armed with a pistol and used force or threatened the use of force against Freeman or another person with the intent to overcome her resistance or to compel her acquiescence. Count 2 charged that, while Brooks was engaged in the theft of currency belonging to Tony White, he was armed with a pistol and used force or threatened the use of force against White or another person with *277 the intent to overcome his resistance or to compel his acquiescence. Count 3 charged that, while Brooks was engaged in the theft of currency belonging to Ann’s Flowers and Gifts retail flower shop, he was armed with a pistol and used force or threatened the use of force against Tony White and/or Mildred Freeman, employees of the flower shop, or another person with the intent to overcome his resistance or to compel his acquiescence. Brooks was tried before a jury and was convicted on all counts. Brooks filed a motion for a judgment of acquittal or for a new trial, arguing that the evidence was insufficient to support a finding of guilty beyond a reasonable doubt and that the verdicts were contrary to the great weight of the evidence. The trial court denied the motion. The trial court sentenced Brooks, a habitual felony offender, to 85 years’ imprisonment; 1 the court also ordered Brooks to pay a victim’s compensation assessment, court costs, attorney fees, and restitution. This appeal follows.

Investigator James Bailey testified that he was employed with the Roanoke Police Department and that he responded to a report of a robbery on June 28, 2008, at Ann’s Flowers and Gifts, a retail flower shop. He interviewed witnesses Tony White, Mildred Freeman, and Ann Napier. He obtained a description of the robber, who fled the scene on foot, so patrol officers could be on the lookout for him. The robber was described as a dark-complected black male, approximately 5 feet 10 inches tall, with a noticeable dental overbite. Bailey testified that White had waited on the man when he came into the shop, so he had the best opportunity to observe the robber’s physical characteristics. Bailey showed White a photographic lineup with six men who matched the suspect’s physical description. Brooks’s photograph was not in the lineup. White was unable to identify the robber from those photographs.

Bailey then presented White with photographs of every black male the police department had arrested previously; he estimated there were between 300 and 500 photographs. Brooks’s photograph was not among those photographs. White was unable to identify the robber from those photographs. Bailey said that he was notified later — while he was on vacation — that White had identified Brooks at a grocery store in the area.

Bailey testified that he processed the crime scene for fingerprints but that he found no prints of value. He searched outside the building for evidence, such as clothing, and he found nothing.

Bailey testified that he interviewed Brooks on July 14, 2008. Brooks told him that he had not been in Roanoke on the day of the robbery. He said that he had been working with his boss, Luke Gun-nells, and another man in Lee County, and that he had later spent time with one of his girlfriends, Zanetta Hicks, at her hairdresser’s shop. Bailey testified that he spoke to Gunnells, both of Brooks’s girlfriends, and Hicks’s hairdresser, and none of the witnesses could corroborate anything Brooks had told him.

Investigator Jonathan Caldwell testified that he was employed by the Roanoke Police Department and that he investigated the robbery while Bailey was on vacation. He said that he showed White additional photographic lineups to see if he recognized the robber, but White did not. Brooks’s photograph was not in any of *278 those lineups. Caldwell said that he was notified that White had seen the robber again, at a grocery store in Lanett, on July 10, 2008. Caldwell and Roanoke Police Chief Adam Melton interviewed Brooks at the police department. Brooks stated that on the day of the robbery, he had been working with Luke Gunnells in Dadeville all day and that he did not go to Roanoke that day. Brooks’s vehicle and a residence where he was staying were searched on July 10, but no evidence connected to the robbery was recovered.

Caldwell testified that the prosecutor obtained Brooks’s cellular-telephone records for the date of the robbery and that none of the records indicated that Brooks had made any calls in the Roanoke area on that date. Caldwell also testified that there was no cellular-transmission tower in Roanoke. The call records indicated that Brooks had been in the Lanett area on June 28. The closest cell-phone tower to Roanoke was located in LaFayette, Caldwell said, and he estimated that LaFayette was located 20-30 minutes by automobile from Roanoke. Caldwell was unable to determine the time zone used in the cellular-telephone records, so he could not determine the times when Brooks’s calls were made on the date of the robbery. Caldwell said it was possible that Brooks was in Roanoke at the time the robbery was committed.

Defense counsel asked Caldwell whether he had spoken with Mildred Freeman, Ann Napier, and Malcolm Rowland, witnesses who had been inside the shop or had seen the robber, and whether they had identified Brooks from a photographic lineup. Caldwell said that Freeman and Napier were not sure of an identification and that Rowland had identified Brooks from the lineup.

Chief Melton testified about his participation in the investigation of the robbery and of Brooks’s arrest after White saw him in Lanett. Melton testified that he spoke with Brooks’s employer, Luke Gunnells, on two occasions. Gunnells first stated that Brooks had been with him on the date of the robbery, but he telephoned later and told investigators that his information had been incorrect and that Brooks had not been with him on that date.

Robyn 2 Barnes testified that she is a hairdresser in Lanett and that Zanetta Hicks had been a client of hers. Barnes testified that she kept records of her clients and that she showed the record book to the police when they came to her shop in June or July 2008. The book showed that Barnes had last styled Hicks’s hair on May 17, 2008.

Tony White testified that he worked full-time at a Kroger grocery store in Lanett, and that he worked part-time at Ann’s Flowers and Gifts. Ann Napier, the owner, is his mother-in-law, he said. White testified that on the morning of June 28, 2008, he was working in the shop with Napier when a black man he identified as Brooks came into the store. He was wearing blue jeans and a white t-shirt. White and Napier assisted Brooks, who said he wanted to buy a picture frame like the one his grandmother had previously purchased in the shop. White testified that he spent more than five minutes with Brooks while Brooks looked at picture frames. He noticed that Brooks had an overbite and crooked teeth.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
76 So. 3d 275, 2011 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 21, 2011 WL 1088718, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/curtis-dale-brooks-v-state-of-alabama-alacrimapp-2011.