Hamilton v. State

358 So. 2d 766, 1977 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 1533
Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama·Decided October 4, 1977·No. 3 Div. 721·Published·Cited by 3 cases

Opinion

HARRIS, Judge.

Appellant was convicted of murder in the first degree and sentenced to life imprisonment in the penitentiary. In the presence of retained counsel at arraignment he pleaded not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity. After conviction he gave notice of appeal and requested a free transcript. He was determined to be indigent and was furnished a free transcript. One of appellant’s counsel was appointed to represent him on appeal.

The evidence in this ease is in sharp conflict. Only a jury could unscramble the conflicting testimony and arrive at a verdict.

On Sunday, April 25, 1976, appellant shot the deceased while the deceased was in his car parked in front of 234 Mildred Street, in the City and County of Montgomery, Alabama. This address was the home of appellant’s mother.

On the afternoon of April 25, 1976, the wife of the deceased went to 234 Mildred Street and saw her husband’s car parked there. She was taken there in a car driven by a cousin. She knocked on the door and asked if her husband was there and was informed that he was inside. She entered the house and talked to her husband for ten or fifteen minutes. During this period he pulled $30.00 out of his pocket and gave it [767]*767to her. He then took out his wallet and showed her that he had $150.00 left. According to the wife her husband had seven $20.00 bills and two $5.00 bills. She left her husband at this Mildred Street address and she saw him again that same afternoon at a local hospital. He had sustained two gunshot wounds to his head. He died in the hospital and the next time she saw him he was in a casket at a funeral home. She was shown two photographs of her husband taken at the funeral home and she identified them as her husband. They were introduced into evidence over appellant’s objections.

She further testified that present in the house when she was there were appellant, his mother (Clara Mae Porter), A1 Peterson, Eddie Holt, Jim Clark, Debora Harris, her husband, and several others whom she did not know. She stated that appellant and his mother were playing the piano and the others were sitting on the sofa drinking and playing cards.

Police Officer George Roger Owens of the Montgomery Police Department was the first officer to arrive at the scene to investigate the shooting. He stated that he arrived at approximately 3 o’clock in the afternoon and found a black male in a Buick automobile slumped over the front seat and that his arms were dangling to the rear seat of the four-door car. He said the trunk of his body was still under the steering wheel and his right foot was right over the gas pedal but a little higher than the gas pedal. He said that his left foot was twisted around a little further. He found a small Barlow knife in the back floorboard of the automobile. He identified this knife and it was introduced into evidence.

Officer Owens further testified that the paramedics arrived and he removed the billfold from the shot man as they were putting him on a stretcher to transport him to the hospital. There was no money in the billfold but he found a cheek stub on the right side of the car where the right door would have opened that had the name of the deceased, Aaron Davenport, on it.

The officer talked to people around the car and on the porch and could not get any information as to what had occurred. Everyone there said they did not see anything and did not know anything. While the officer was trying to get some information appellant came walking up Mildred Street, and at this time he was not a suspect. The investigation had not focused on appellant, but appellant started to make a statement.

At this point a voir dire hearing was had out of the presence and hearing of the jury at the request of appellant’s counsel. The officer testified in answer to counsel’s questions that he had talked to appellant’s mother and sister there at the house and several other people there at the scene and they would not tell him anything. They said they didn’t see anything. He stated that he then saw appellant walking up to him and he spoke to appellant.

From the record:

“Q. Do you know him?
“A. Yes, sir.
“Q. You also knew that he had a record?
“A. Well, yes, sir. I knew he was in the County Jail at the time.
“Q. What did you say to him?
“A. I asked him if he could help me. I couldn’t get any information from any of the people there at the house.
“Q. And what did he say back to you?
“A. He said he would tell me one truth if I would tell him one.
“Q. Tell him one what?
“A. He said, ‘If you will tell me a truth, I’ll tell you one.’
“Q. And then what did he say?
“A. I said, ‘That’s fair enough.’ He asked me if there was a knife in the automobile, and I told him that there was. And he said, ‘Well, I shot him.’
“Q. Let me ask you about the knife; was it open when you found it?
“A. Yes, sir, it was.”

Back before the jury the State proved the substance of the above quotation.

Clara Mae Porter was called as a witness for the State. She testified that appellant was her son and that she had known the [768]*768deceased five or six months. She said that the deceased came to her home on the day he was shot around 3 or 4 o’clock in the afternoon and he came with A1 Peterson, Eddie Holt and her son. She stated that her mother, daughter, Arthur Billingsly, Jim Clark and George Paul McGee were present when the others arrived. She stated that they were sitting around having fun, drinking and playing cards. She said the deceased was drinking and appellant had a beer. She stated that all of them were drinking but she was paying strict attention to her son because she “knew that he was already in trouble. That’s- why I was paying attention to him.”

Counsel for appellant' objected at this time to the question, “Oh, he was already in trouble . . . ” but the objection was overruled by the Court saying, “That’s part of the res gestae, as I understand it.” There was further mention of the fact that appellant was already in trouble, but the Court sustained appellant’s objection.

Counsel for the prosecution asked appellant’s mother if he was living with her on April 25, 1976, and she replied that he was not. Then she was asked where he was living at that time and she replied, “He was living at the County Jail at-that time.” Appellant’s counsel then moved for a mistrial and the motion was overruled.

This witness further testified that the wife of the deceased came to her home and had a conversation with him and the deceased gave her some money but she didn’t know how much he gave her, and she didn’t know if he had any more money left after giving his wife some money. She stated that, after the wife of the deceased left her house with the money he had given her that the deceased sat on the sofa between A1 Peterson and her son. The deceased dozed off and slept for fifteen or twenty minutes and while he was asleep her son got up and went to the back room to the bathroom.

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Hamilton v. State, 358 So. 2d 766, 1977 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 1533 (Ala. Ct. App. 1977).

358 So. 2d 766 (Hamilton v. State) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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