Garrison v. State

213 So. 2d 369, 44 Ala. App. 463, 1968 Ala. App. LEXIS 492
CourtAlabama Court of Appeals
DecidedMarch 12, 1968
Docket2 Div. 171
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 213 So. 2d 369 (Garrison v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Alabama Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Garrison v. State, 213 So. 2d 369, 44 Ala. App. 463, 1968 Ala. App. LEXIS 492 (Ala. Ct. App. 1968).

Opinions

PRICE, Presiding Judge.

This appellant stands convicted of the offense of assault with intent to murder. His punishment was fixed at imprisonment for a term of seven years.

The state’s evidence tends to show that on January 2, 1966, at about 11:00 a. m., M. D. King, a highway patrolman, while on routine patrol, came upon a car that was stopped on the road. He stopped and helped the two Negro men there move the car to the edge of the roadway and stayed there while they were fixing a flat tire.

During this time a brown 1958 Chrysler came by at a “pretty high speed,” and the officer attempted to flag it down but it did not stop. He jumped in the patrol car and pursued the - Chrysler. It stopped a short distance away and he pulled the patrol car [465]*465in behind the Chrysler, stopped and turned on his red light. The defendant was driving the car and there was a woman with him named Hazel Harper Robinson.

Officer King asked defendant for his driver’s license and while he was getting it out of his billfold the Robinson woman said, “You know who this is, and you know damn well he’s got a driver’s license.”

After the defendant handed the driver’s license to him, Officer King asked him to open the trunk of his car. The woman said, “Shoot that S.O.B.” The driver and his companion appeared to be in a drunken condition.

The woman handed defendant a pistol and he took it. As defendant “came around” with the pistol in his direction, Officer King dropped the driver’s license in the Chrysler and ran around to the back of it. While doing so he noticed the back seat was out of the car and a rifle was lying on the floor board. As Officer King got in his car defendant appeared to be picking up the rifle.

The Chrysler then drove off and Officer King turned around and drove down the road. He then radioed Trooper Duck who was patrolling in the area to come to his assistance. Trooper Duck arrived shortly thereafter and Officer King got three shotgun shells from him to use in the shotgun King had in his car. Duck and King then separated and started looking for the Chrysler. While King was searching for the automobile he heard some shots. At about this time he saw the Chrysler sitting off the road up on a little hill. King said the shots were being fired in that area and the bullets were “whizzing” near him. King then called Duck to come to where he was. Before Duck got there the Chrysler came out of the woods behind a pulpwood truck and turned left toward Mississippi. King followed it, but not too closely. In a few minutes Duck caught up to King and King got in Duck’s car. They gave chase with the red light flashing. King testified he fired at the tires and the woman in the Chrysler returned the fire with a rifle. Shots were also coming from the driver’s side of the car. Defendant was driving. After the exchange of shots the Chrysler increased its speed and so did the patrol car. At times the speed of the patrol car exceeded 100 miles per hour. All of the shooting just described took place in Sumter County, Alabama.

The chase continued into Mississippi where the patrol car lost the Chrysler near Whynot, Mississippi. They proceeded to the intersection of highway 19 and turned around there and went back toward Why-not. They passed a house and shots rang out from the direction of the house. A general alarm had been put out and in a few minutes several Mississippi law enforcement officers arrived and defendant came out to his mailbox, with a pistol in his belt. The woman who was in the Chrysler with defendant was standing there with a rifle.

For the defendant, Otto Robinson a garage owner in the community where defendant lived testified that on the Tuesday prior to January 2, 1966, he had occasion to work on defendant’s 1958 Brown Chrysler. Hazel Robinson came to the garage with defendant and picked up some spent shells for a 22 rifle and put them in a small box, along with some spent 38 caliber shells on the front floorboard of defendant’s car. On January 2 ,1966, between 11:15 and 11:30 A. M., defendant and Hazel Robinson were again in his shop; that defendant arrived from the direction of Alabama and left headed back in the direction of Alabama. He saw no bullet holes in defendant’s automobile on either occasion.

James Sutter, a lifelong resident of the Whynot community, testified he was with the County Patrol of Lauderdale County, Mississippi; that he was familiar with all the roads in the area and had been driving over them for twenty years; that the road on which the shooting was alleged to have occurred was part gravel and part dirt and [466]*466was extremely curvy and dangerous; that a safe speed would not be more than 20 to 25 miles; that in his judgment the top speed that could be attained on that road would be 40 miles per hour.

Mrs. Charles Ivy testified she lived a mile west of defendant; that on January 2, 1966, two Alabama State Troopers came to her house and asked if she had seen defendant’s brown Chrysler pass her house, that they were chasing him. She told them where defendant lived. She did not hear any shots from the direction of defendant’s home pri- or to the arrival of the troopers.

Orange Ray testified he lived on the road in question in Sumter County; that between 11:00 and 12:00 noon on January 2, 1966, he saw defendant come down the highway in front of his house following a pulpwood truck driven by a Negro male; that defendant was driving at a slow rate of speed and he did not see any state trooper’s automobile behind him.

Louis Brooks testified he lived on the Liberty Church road; that on January 2, 1966, his car was stalled on this road and a truck was pushing his car; that he heard something like a backfire and defendant’s car passed him; that he heard several shots fired and he pulled to the side of the road. Bullets were flying everywhere and he lay down in the car. He saw the troopers fire one shot but didn’t see any shots fired by defendant or Hazel Robinson and saw no weapons in the car. This shooting took place in Mississippi.

Curtis Hill testified he lived in Toomasuba, Mississippi; that on January 2, 1966, while he, Robert Curry and Willie Cleve Hill were traveling along the Bronson Road in Sumter County, Alabama, they had a puncture on the right front tire of their automobile; that he pulled the car off on the side of the road and left his companions with the car while he started walking to his mother’s house to get another tire; that after he was about fifty yards down the road he saw Trooper King pull up behind his parked car and get out. Then he saw defendant come past his car and stop about 150 yards beyond it; that Trooper King went up to defendant’s car, then went back and got in the patrol car, turned back down the road at a normal rate of speed; that defendant first started on down the road in the direction in which he had been traveling. However, after a short distance he also turned around and started in the opposite direction at a normal speed. The witness did not see defendant with a weapon, but the closest he got to him was about fifty yards.

Ollis Garrison testified he lived at Toomasuba, Mississippi, on the Bronson Road; that about 11:30 on the morning of January 2, 1966, he saw defendant pass his house following a pulpwood truck traveling at about 20 miles per hour. A few minutes later he saw a patrol car come by, but he heard no shooting along the highway.

James Fuller testified he lived along the Liberty Church Road about three miles west of the Alabama-Mississippi line.

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Related

Garrison v. State
213 So. 2d 374 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1968)

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Bluebook (online)
213 So. 2d 369, 44 Ala. App. 463, 1968 Ala. App. LEXIS 492, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/garrison-v-state-alactapp-1968.