Herring v. State

540 So. 2d 795, 1988 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 676, 1988 WL 132793
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Alabama
DecidedOctober 28, 1988
Docket3 Div. 975
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 540 So. 2d 795 (Herring 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
Herring v. State, 540 So. 2d 795, 1988 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 676, 1988 WL 132793 (Ala. Ct. App. 1988).

Opinion

TYSON, Judge.

William Grady Herring was indicted for the reckless murder of Richard Lee Wor-ley, in violation of § 13A-6-2(a)(2), Code of Alabama 1975. The jury found the appellant “guilty of the lesser included offense of manslaughter.” The appellant was sentenced to thirty years’ imprisonment in the penitentiary.

On the evening of September 6, 1987, Denise Black Ramos saw Terry Quates at the Spider Web in Georgiana, Alabama. Ramos testified that she and Quates left the Spider Web together in her car. At some point, Ramos’s car ran into a ditch and Quates attacked her and tried to rape her.

The next day, September 7, Ramos called the appellant, who is her brother-in-law, to help her get her car out of the ditch. At this time, she told the appellant what had happened the previous night and told him to bring a gun because she wanted Quates hurt. The appellant and Ramos’s brother, Keith Black, came and removed Ramos’s car from the ditch. The appellant, in Ramos’s car, followed Ramos and Black in the appellant’s truck. At some point, Ramos [797]*797went into a Super Foods and told Linda Brooks that they “were going to get Terry Quates.” The appellant, Ramos and Black then drove by Quates’s house in Chapman, Alabama. Ramos pointed out the house to Black and the appellant. Black then got out of the appellant’s truck with his shotgun and some shells. He gave them to the appellant and Black got into Ramos’s car with the appellant. Ramos then went home in the appellant’s truck.

Clarence Cartwright testified that he, the appellant, and Black drove past Quates’s house at approximately 7:00-7:30 on the night of September 7, 1987, and parked about 100 yards away from the house. The three got out of the car and walked toward Quates’s house with a shotgun. As they were walking, they heard some dogs barking. Cartwright then went back to the car and began driving towards Quates’s house. Cartwright soon heard two shots and saw Black running towards the car. Black got in the car followed by the appellant who was observed holding a shotgun twenty to thirty seconds later. The three then drove to Greenville, Alabama, where Black threw the gun out in front of the appellant’s trailer. On the way to Green-ville, the appellant stated that he had fired a shot at the house.

Black testified that he, the appellant and Cartwright went and parked near the home of Quates on the night in question. Before they reached the house on foot, Cartwright returned to the car. As Black and the appellant approached Quates’s house, they could see into the house because the lights were on inside. At this point, Black gave his shotgun to the appellant and the appellant told Black to return to the car. As Black was returning to the car, he heard two shots. He and the appellant then got into the car and they went back to Green-ville where they threw the gun out of the vehicle beside this appellant’s house.

Black later retrieved the gun and gave it to Teddy Mauch to clean.

Mauch testified that two officers picked up the gun that Black gave him at his house.

Essie Mae Griggers testified that she lives approximately 100 yards from Quates’s house. On the night in question, she heard dogs barking and then heard two shots. Quates then came to her door and her nephew, Eddie Skipper, went with Quates to his house.

Skipper testified that, when he went inside Quates’s house, he saw Richard Wor-ley lying on the floor bleeding from his head and neck. Skipper did not detect any signs of life. He called the police and an ambulance.

Terry Quates testified that, during the afternoon of September 7, 1988, he saw a truck stop outside his house. When he went outside to see who it was, the truck took off. That evening, Richard Worley came over to his house. At some point, Worley and Quates were sitting on the floor near a window. Worley had his back to the open front window. Quates heard a dog barking and looked outside but he saw nothing. He went back inside the house and, several minutes later, Quates heard a shot and saw Worley fall to the floor. Quates then went for help.

Jimmy Hartin, the owner of Hartin Ambulance Service, went to Quates’s house on the night in question and found Worley lying on the floor. Worley died while Har-tin was attending him. An autopsy revealed that Worley received thirteen projectile injuries to the left side of his head and chest. He died as a result of these injuries. Several pellets were removed from Wor-ley’s body and were turned over to the Department of Forensic Sciences.

An investigation was conducted on Quates’s house on the night in question. A three-inch spent Magnum buckshot hull and a live round were found approximately forty feet from Quates’s house. Investigators determined that the shotgun was fired from behind a bush outside Quates’s house. There were thirty-seven holes in the window screen. This indicates that two shots were fired because a three-inch Magnum shell only contains twenty-four pellets.

The police also recovered a shotgun from Mauch. The gun had the initials K.B. carved on the stock. The shotgun, the [798]*798spent shell, the live round and the pellets removed from Worley’s body were turned over to Lonnie Harden for examination.

Harden is a firearms and toolmark examiner for the Department of Forensic Sciences. He determined that the spent shell had been fired through the shotgun retrieved from Mauch. This shell was identified as a three-inch Magnum number one buckshot. The pellets removed from Wor-ley’s body were number one buckshot which is compatible with the spent shell. The live round contained twenty-four pellets.

I

The sole issue raised by this appellant is that his conviction was based solely on the uncorroborated testimony of his accomplices. Thus, he contends that his motion for judgment of acquittal should have been granted.

Section 12-21-222, Code of Alabama 1975 provides:

“A conviction of felony cannot be had on the testimony of an accomplice unless corroborated by other evidence tending to connect the defendant with the commission of the offense, and such corroborative evidence, if it merely shows the commission of the offense or the circumstances thereof, is not sufficient.”

(A)

The first task before us is to determine which witnesses were accomplices. “The classic and usual test to determine whether a witness is an accomplice is whether he could be indicted and convicted for the particular offense, either as principal or accessory.” Jacks v. State, 364 So.2d 397, 401 (Ala.Crim.App.), cert. denied, 364 So.2d 406 (Ala.1978) (citations omitted).

There is no doubt that Keith Black and. Clarence Cartwright are accomplices. Both were indicted for this crime along with the appellant and both of them pled guilty to the charge of manslaughter for this offense.

Furthermore, both Black and Cartwright admitted their participation in this crime. When a witness admits participation in a crime, that witness is an accomplice as a matter of law. Craig v. State, 376 So.2d 803 (Ala.Crim.App.), cert. denied, 376 So.2d 807 (Ala.1979). The State does not dispute the fact that both Black and Cartwright were accomplices.

Although Denise Black Ramos was never indicted for this offense, the question is whether vel non she could have been indicted for this offense. If so, then she was an accomplice.

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728 So. 2d 172 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1998)

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Bluebook (online)
540 So. 2d 795, 1988 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 676, 1988 WL 132793, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/herring-v-state-alacrimapp-1988.