Garzarek v. State

153 So. 3d 840, 2013 WL 5506695, 2013 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 79
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Alabama
DecidedOctober 4, 2013
DocketCR-12-0278
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 153 So. 3d 840 (Garzarek 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
Garzarek v. State, 153 So. 3d 840, 2013 WL 5506695, 2013 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 79 (Ala. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

KELLUM, Judge.

The appellant, Joshua Allen Garzarek, was convicted of arson in the second degree, a violation of § 13A-7-42, Ala.Code 1975. The circuit court sentenced Garza-rek to 15 years’ imprisonment. The circuit court ordered Garzarek to pay a $1,000 fine, $100 to the crime victims compensation fund, $11,926.76 in restitution, and court costs. Garzarek filed a timely motion for a new trial. Following a hearing, the circuit court denied Garzarek’s motion. This appeal followed.

Garzarek does not challenge the sufficiency of the evidence on appeal. Therefore, a brief recitation of the facts is all that is necessary in this case. The evidence established that Kalie Hyatt and Garzarek were involved in a romantic relationship from approximately 2008 to 2010. During their relationship, Hyatt reported several incidents of domestic violence to police. Hyatt testified that she first telephoned the police in April 2009 when Gar-zarek hit her and blackened her eye. In May 2009, Garzarek followed Hyatt to a local gasoline service station and hit Hyatt following an argument. Garzarek then brandished a gun when confronted by Hyatt’s friends. In January 2010, Garza-rek pushed Hyatt against a wall, hit her in the throat with a cellular telephone, and punched Hyatt repeatedly in her ribs. Following the January 2010 incident, Hyatt ended her relationship with Garza-rek.

When Hyatt moved out of the house she had been sharing with Garzarek and into another house, Garzarek broke into Hyatt’s house and damaged and stole her belongings. Hyatt testified that shortly after she ended the relationship, Garzarek made repeated threats to her life and [844]*844drove by Hyatt’s residence multiple times each day. Hyatt testified that when she confronted Garzarek about his behavior, he admitted that he broke into Hyatt’s home. In March 2010, a tire on Hyatt’s vehicle was slashed. Garzarek subsequently admitted that he slashed Hyatt’s tire and offered to pay to replace the tire. In April 2011, Garzarek repeatedly telephoned Hyatt for no reason and on one occasion sent her a text message stating “Time is on my side.” (R. 1335.)

In the spring of 2010, Hyatt began working as a bartender at the Poplar Head Bar & Grill (“the bar”). After Hyatt began working at the bar, Garzarek came to the bar on several occasions and harassed Hyatt. During one of those occasions, Shay Davis, a co-owner of the bar, ordered Garzarek to leave and banned Garzarek from returning to the establishment. Shortly thereafter, the electrical-power meter to the bar was cut. Davis, along with Jeff Baxter who was another co-owner in the bar at the time, went outside and found that the whole meter had been removed from the building and thrown into a nearby dumpster. Immediately following the power outage at the bar, B.J. Alverson, an employee of a laundromat located in the same shopping complex as the bar, observed a white male with close-cut hair near the dumpster area. The male was walking quickly away from the businesses and to a nearby residential area.

On July 15, 2010, at approximately 6:00 a.m., Gregory McCollough was driving to work when he saw smoke coming out of the area beside the laundromat and near the bar. McCollough smelled burning wood. McCollough stopped his vehicle, determined that the smoke was coming from the bar, and telephoned Emergency 911. Firefighters arrived and observed a hole in one of the glass panes in the rear window of the bar with smoke coming out of it.

After the fire was extinguished, Jon Thomas, a crime-scene technician certified in fire investigation, made an initial walk-through of the scene. The fire had been in the kitchen area. Thomas testified that he smelled what appeared to be gasoline inside the kitchen of the bar. Thomas determined that the point of origin of the fire was in the center of the floor in the kitchen where he found pieces of a green, plastic bottle. Testing conducted by the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences revealed the presence of gasoline on the pieces. Investigators also determined that the wiring for the cable and telephone located outside the bar had been recently cut.

The morning following the fire at the bar, Hyatt received several text messages from Garzarek — one of which told her to turn on the news. Hyatt suspected Garza-rek started the fire at the. bar and met with Garzarek outside his apartment while Hyatt concealed a digital recorder to record her conversation with Garzarek. During the conversation, Garzarek told Hyatt: ‘Tour friends, family and you are going to get it. The bar was only the beginning. I am going to burn your friend’s houses, businesses and I hope this time someone gets killed. Everyone is going to get it.” (C. 300.) Hyatt recorded the conversation and turned the recorded conversation over to the police.

Garzarek testified on his own behalf at trial and denied starting the fire. Garza-rek stated that he had camped outside at his father’s house until approximately 7:00 a.m. the morning of the fire.

I.

Garzarek first contends that the circuit court abused its discretion when it allowed the substitution of Hyatt as the victim at trial and referred to her as the [845]*845complaining witness before the jury, thus turning an arson trial into a domestic-violence trial. Garzarek argues that the victims of the arson are, in fact, the owners of the bar, two of whom were present at trial, and that “[allowing [Hyatt] to sit at the prosecutor’s table and to be introduced as the ‘complaining witness’ prejudiced Garzarek by making an impersonal bar personable and emotional based on the domestic violence.” (Garzarek’s brief, p. 36.)

At the outset, we note that Garza-rek argues for the first time on appeal that the circuit court erred when it referred to Hyatt as the “complaining witness” during voir dire. “ ‘Review on appeal is restricted to questions and issues properly and timely raised at trial.’” Ex parte Coulliette, 857 So.2d 793, 794 (Ala.2003) (citing Newsome v. State, 570 So.2d 703, 717 (Ala.Crim.App.1989)). “‘An issue raised for the first time on appeal is not subject to appellate review because it has not been properly preserved and presented.’” Id. at 794 (citing Pate v. State, 601 So.2d 210, 213 (Ala.Crim.App.1992)). Because Garza-rek did not argue before the circuit court the propriety of the circuit court’s reference to Hyatt as the complaining witness, the issue is not properly before us for review.

Regarding Garzarek’s contention that the circuit court improperly substituted Hyatt as the victim at trial, the Alabama Crime Victims’ Court Attendance Act, §§ 15-14-50 to -57, Ala.Code 1975, permits a victim or a victim’s representative to be present in the courtroom and to be seated at the prosecution table. See Smith v. State, 838 So.2d 413, 470 (Ala. Crim.App.2002). Parties may request the exclusion of certain witnesses at trial but may not exclude “an officer or employee of a party which is not a natural person designated as its representative by its attorney.” Rule 615, Ala. R. Evid. The Advisory Committee’s Notes to Rule 615 explain that “[t]his person is to be an officer or employee of the party.” “ ‘The decision whether to exclude persons from the courtroom during trial is a matter left entirely to the trial court’s discretion.’ ” Smith, 838 So.2d at 470 (quoting Taylor v. State, 808 So.2d 1148, 1200 (Ala.Crim.App.2000)) (internal citations omitted).

In the instant case, Garzarek contends that the victim of the arson was the bar. It is undisputed that Hyatt worked at the bar at the time of the fire.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
153 So. 3d 840, 2013 WL 5506695, 2013 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 79, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/garzarek-v-state-alacrimapp-2013.