James v. State

309 So. 2d 495, 54 Ala. App. 458, 1975 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 1575
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Alabama
DecidedMarch 4, 1975
Docket6 Div. 758
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 309 So. 2d 495 (James 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
James v. State, 309 So. 2d 495, 54 Ala. App. 458, 1975 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 1575 (Ala. Ct. App. 1975).

Opinion

BOOKOUT, Judge.

The Grand Jury of Cullman County, Alabama, charged Ronnie Earl James with the felonious stealing of one hog of the value of $80.00, the property of Norman Graham. The Jury found appellant guilty as charged. Judgment set sentence at thirty months imprisonment in the penitentiary. Appellant was represented . by court appointed counsel both at trial and here on appeal.

Appellant made a motion to suppress the admission of his shoes as evidence. The grounds cited in the motion were that the shoes were illegally seized and that the alleged spots of blood on them would be inflammatory to the jury. The shoes matched tracks found at the hog farm where the hog was stolen. The motion was denied.

The indictment arose from an incident at Norman Graham’s hog parlor in Cullman County, Alabama, in the early morning hours of June 22, 1973. Officer Jimmy Johnson of the Cullman Police Department testified for the State. He stated that at about 3:45 A.M. on June 22, 1973, he and his partner, Sergeant Flinn, saw a car in the parking lot of Warehouse Grocery in Cullman. Appellant was “under the wheel” and two other men were in the car. The automobile had no license plate. As they approached, one Charles Gable left the car to make a telephone call at a phone station in the store. Gable appeared to be intoxicated, and Johnson arrested him for disorderly conduct. The officers then took Gable to the police station, but before leaving, told appellant not to drive the car as he also appeared to be intoxicated.

The further transcription of Johnson’s testimony was destroyed by a tornado which struck Cullman, Alabama, and surrounding areas on April 3, 1974. The following relation of Johnson’s testimony is from Johnson’s summary of that testimony entered in the record without objection.

On their return to the parking lot after taking Gable to the station, the officers saw appellant driving his car. After chasing him, they arrested appellant for reckless driving, driving without a driver’s license and driving a car without a license plate. They took him to the police station.

Johnson checked the car for more alcohol. He noticed that there was a red substance both on the trunk lid and rear bumper of the car. He opened the trunk and found a large amount of the red substance in the trunk as well as a white substance which appeared to be hair. He then called Sergeant Flinn who asked Jerry Yeager, the third person in the car, who was still asleep in the back seat, what the substance was. He replied that it must ■have been from frogs as the trio had been frog gigging that evening. Johnson and Flinn then turned the case over to a city detective coming on duty at that time.

G. O. Buckelew, an investigator for Cullman County testified, but a portion of the transcript of his testimony was also destroyed by the tornado. A summary of his testimony is in the transcript of the evi[460]*460dence. In that summary, he stated he received a call regarding the theft at about 7:30 A.M. on June 22, 1973. He and three other officers went to Graham’s farm. The hog parlor in question is located about 125 to 200 yards down a dirt road from the paved road known as the Missionary Grove Road. The parlor is enclosed by a fence, and there is a steel gate at the intersection of the paved road and the dirt road. The officers discovered two sets of foot prints in the soggy ground next to the dirt road leading to the hog parlor. The tracks lead from the gate to the parlor. One set of the tracks looked as if made by tennis shoes, while the other appeared to be made by square-toed shoes with a heel missing from the right shoe. Plaster of paris molds were made of both sets of tracks. They also found spots of dried blood along the road and a large pool of dried blood near the barn.

The officers then learned that appellant and Gable had been arrested earlier that morning and that the trunk lid of appellant’s car had blood spots on it. On the way to the jail, they stopped at Gable’s home. There the officers asked Mrs. Gable if Ronnie James and Charles Gable had been there. She said yes, and gave the officers permission to look in the shop behind the house. There they found what appeared to be pieces of meat tissue and hair. They then went to the jail.

At the jail, Officer Buckelew stated that he saw a 1968 Chevrolet with the trunk lid open. He noticed pieces of meat and white hair in the trunk which was covered with blood.

Inside the jail, he talked to appellant. Appellant told him that the 1968 Chevrolet was his. Buckelew noticed that appellant was wearing square-toed shoes with the right heel missing. Buckelew asked appellant’s permission to take his shoes as he was investigating the theft and slaughter of a hog. He gave his permission and surrendered the shoes to the officer. Buckelew also spoke to Charles Gable and noticed that he was wearing tennis shoes which sole matched the prints found at the hog parlor. He asked Gable for the shoes to be used in the investigation of the theft and slaughter of a hog. Gable agreed and gave him his shoes. All four shoes were sent to the Federal Bureau of Investigation laboratory in Washington, D. C., and the samples of blood, tissues and hair recovered from the hog parlor were given to the State Toxicologist. Both appellant and Gable were warned of their constitutional rights and stated only that they had been frog gigging that night and had nothing to do with a hog.

Norman Graham testified that he raised feeder pigs on his farm and that he had been informed by his caretaker that one of the hogs was missing. He reported this to the authorities. The value of the missing hog was $80.00.

He further stated that his land adjoins the Gable’s land, that “old man” Gable has died since the occurrence and Charles Gable is the son of “old man” Gable. He said that he had given “old man” Gable permission to fish in his six ponds. Graham said it was possible for Gable’s family to think that they all had permission to fish in the ponds. He added, however, that he had never given appellant permission to fish.

Detective Buckelew was recalled. Through him, the molds of the tennis shoe tracks and the molds of the square-toed shoes were admitted without objection. The tennis shoes and the square-toed shoes obtained from Gable and appellant were admitted without objection. The shoes matched the respective molds. A photograph of the inside and outside of the 1968 Chevrolet showing the dried blood was also admitted without objections. On cross-examination, he said that when he examined the tracks at the farm, he did not look to see if the blood was dripped before or after the tracks were made.

State Toxicologist, Brent Wheeler, testified that he analyzed the hair and blood [461]*461samples. The hair was similar to that of white hog bristle. The blood was not human, but was from an animal. It was not possible to determine the type of animal.

The State then rested. Appellant moved to exclude the State’s evidence on the ground of insufficiency of the evidence and that the State did not prove venue. Over appellant’s objection, the State recalled Mr. Graham who said his farm is located in Cullman County, Alabama. The motion was denied.

Appellant called Norman Graham. He reiterated the testimony with regard to his granting fishing rights to “old man” Gable. He stated further that the hog parlor is approximately five hundred yards from the Gable’s house.

Officer Wendell Roden testified that he participated in the investigation of the theft.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Hill v. State
372 So. 2d 405 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, 1979)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
309 So. 2d 495, 54 Ala. App. 458, 1975 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 1575, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/james-v-state-alacrimapp-1975.