Head v. State

392 So. 2d 860, 1980 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 1361
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Alabama
DecidedOctober 7, 1980
Docket6 Div. 981
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 392 So. 2d 860 (Head 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
Head v. State, 392 So. 2d 860, 1980 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 1361 (Ala. Ct. App. 1980).

Opinion

DeCARLO, Judge.

Brenda Sue Head was indicted by the Jefferson County Grand Jury for first degree murder of her husband, Roy Anthony Head. At arraignment, with retained counsel present, she pleaded not guilty. After a jury trial, she was found guilty of second degree murder. Later, she was sentenced to ten years imprisonment in the penitentiary-

The evidence at the trial showed that the deceased’s natural mother saw her son ap[861]*861proximately two days prior to his death. She testified that she later saw his body at the Davenport Smith Funeral Home. Further, she said that her son had been raised by his godmother, Mrs. Margaret Moore Head, from the time he was one year old.

During cross-examination, the witness stated that her son carried a gun in his car.

Margaret L. Head testified that her adopted son, the deceased, owned a 1976 Regal Buick and lived at 901 Goldwire Way, S. W., in Birmingham, with his wife, the appellant. According to the witness, her son had been married to the appellant, a student at Jefferson State College, for about one year.

On June 1,1978, at about 5:15 p. m., Mrs. Head had met her daughter-in-law, who insisted that the witness have dinner with the appellant and her mother. According to Mrs. Head, this was the first time she had been invited to dine away from home with the appellant; however, the witness had eaten with the appellant on Sundays on a number of occasions.

About an hour after they had returned home, Mrs. Head received a telephone call from the appellant. She sounded excited and told Mrs. Head that there was blood “and something white all over the utility room.” At that time, Mrs. Head asked the appellant if she saw the deceased or his automobile. The appellant responded that she did not. Mrs. Head instructed her daughter-in-law to stay there until she arrived and to call the detectives. Before Mrs. Head could leave her house, the appellant appeared and the two drove to the appellant’s house. After arriving, Mrs. Head saw “blood and brains all over the utility room.” At that point, Mrs. Head called the police. When the police arrived they talked to Mrs. Head and the appellant.

During cross-examination, Mrs. Head testified that her son was found on the Tuesday of the week after June 1, 1978.

Officer L. E. Strickland, an evidence technician for the Birmingham Police Department, responded to a call and went to the nineteen hundred block of 9th Avenue North on June 6, 1978. When he arrived, he saw a 1977 Buick Regal, bearing a ’78 tag numbered ABE-687, which was parked in a metered parking area. Although other officers were there, the car and the trunk were still locked. When the lock was pried off the trunk, a body, wrapped in a light colored blanket, was discovered. The body was in a deteriorated state, and photographs were made at that time. A .25 caliber automatic pistol and a Jefferson State ID card belonging to Windrell Floyd were found in the car.

Strickland testified that, on either June 6, 1978, or June 8, 1978, he had gone to 901 Goldwire Way and had made an examination of the utility room. He said that he found “minute reddish stains” on the back of the dryer and the washing machine, but the identity of the stains was never determined.

J. M. Glass, chief of medical investigation for Jefferson County Coroner Medical Examiners’ Office, testified that, on June 6, 1978, he had assisted in the performance of an autopsy on the deceased. According to Glass, the body was in a state of advanced decomposition and contained five gunshot wounds, four in the head and one in the chest. Three of the gunshot wounds to the head could have caused Roy Head’s death. Glass removed the projectiles from the body and turned them over to the Department of Forensic Sciences.

Lauden Yates, firearms identification expert with the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences, testified that he received five spent projectiles which had been removed from the deceased’s body. These were identified as .22 caliber projectiles of unknown origin.

Detective Sergeant William T. Gaut of the Birmingham Police Department’s homicide division was in charge of investigating the death of Roy Anthony Head. Gaut was present when the body of the deceased was recovered from the automobile.

During the trial, an extensive voir dire examination was held out of the presence of the jury. The examination concerned a statement made by the appellant to Ser[862]*862geant Gaut. The testimony at that voir dire hearing indicated that Gaut’s investigation was focused on someone other than the appellant at the time she blurted out an incriminating statement. Sergeant Gaut’s testimony indicated that, after talking to her at her home and in his office approximately fifteen times, he had never considered her a suspect.

The issue during the voir dire hearing was whether a statement she made, which was later recorded and transcribed, was in fact voluntary. The defense attorney argued that the inducement held out to the appellant was, in essence, an offer of protection to her. She had stated to Sergeant Gaut and Sergeant Wallace that she was afraid. At the conclusion of the testimony on voir dire, the court ruled that, under the circumstances, a motion to suppress would not be granted.

After the voir dire examination, Sergeant Gaut testified that he had gone to the appellant’s home on June 6, 1978. At that time, he observed the utility room “and in an area between the washer and dryer there was substantial amount of bloodstains, both on the floor and on clothing laying there in the floor.” On the morning of June 13, 1978, Gaut and his partner, Sergeant Wallace, visited the appellant at her home. That same day, Gaut returned to the appellant’s home and had a conversation with her. Before the conversation, appellant was not a suspect and had not been advised of her constitutional rights. During the conversation, the appellant made a statement indicating that she and Windrell Floyd, whose “ID” had been found in the deceased’s automobile, were the guilty parties in the homicide. Gaut immediately stopped the conversation, advised the appellant of her constitutional rights and carried her to the police station. In the detectives’ room at the police station, he again advised her of her constitutional rights, then made a recording of her statement, which was later transcribed. In that statement, the appellant said that the deceased had threatened to kill her many times and that she had told her friend, Windrell Floyd, about the threats. She stated that she had also told her mother, her aunt, and a friend named Toni, about the threats. At the suggestion of her aunt, she had talked to an attorney, Drayton James, and had told him “everything.”

The appellant said in the statement, that, about three weeks prior to the homicide, she had discussed with Windrell Floyed, at Jefferson State, the idea of killing the deceased. They developed a plan which was to be carried out on a Thursday afternoon when her husband arrived home.

On the day the deceased was reported missing, Floyd went to the appellant’s home. The appellant allowed Floyd to enter the house. Her mother, who lived there, had no knowledge of Floyd’s visit. The appellant then left the house with her mother, leaving Floyd alone, and they went to the deceased’s mother’s home. Floyd waited in the house for the deceased to arrive home. Floyd intended to talk with Head about why he wanted to kill the appellant. According to the appellant, Floyd had to shoot the deceased because he had attacked Floyd.

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Related

Hyde v. State
950 So. 2d 344 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, 2006)
Kennedy v. State
472 So. 2d 1092 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, 1984)

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Bluebook (online)
392 So. 2d 860, 1980 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 1361, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/head-v-state-alacrimapp-1980.