Jarrod Taylor v. State of Alabama.

157 So. 3d 131, 2010 WL 3834347, 2010 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 83
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Alabama
DecidedOctober 1, 2010
DocketCR-05-0066
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 157 So. 3d 131 (Jarrod Taylor v. State of Alabama.) 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
Jarrod Taylor v. State of Alabama., 157 So. 3d 131, 2010 WL 3834347, 2010 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 83 (Ala. Ct. App. 2010).

Opinion

On Remand from the Alabama Supreme Court

WELCH, Judge.

Jarrod Taylor was indicted in April 1998 on four counts of capital murder. Count one charged Taylor with intentionally causing the deaths of Sherry Gaston, Bruce Gaston, and Steve Dyas pursuant to one scheme or course of conduct. See § 13A-5-40(a)(10), Ala.Code 1975. Counts two, three, and four charged Taylor with the murder of each of the three victims during the course of a robbery. See § 13A-5-40(a)(2), Ala.Code 1975. Taylor was tried before a jury and was found guilty of the four counts of capital murder. Following a sentencing hearing, the jury recommended, by a vote of 7-5, that Taylor be sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. The trial court held a separate sentencing hearing, after which it entered a judgment overriding the jury’s recommendation and sentencing Taylor to death. This Court affirmed the convictions and the sentence of death. Taylor v. State, 808 So.2d 1148 (Ala.Crim.App.2000). The Alabama Supreme Court granted Taylor’s petition for certiorari review, and it affirmed this Court’s judgment. Ex parte Taylor, 808 So.2d 1215 (Ala.2001). The United States Supreme Court denied Taylor’s petition for a writ of certiorari. Taylor v. Alabama, 534 U.S. 1086, 122 S.Ct. 824, 151 L.Ed.2d 705 (2002).

On July 31, 2002, Taylor filed a petition pursuant to Rule 32, Ala. R.Crim. P., challenging the convictions and sentence. Taylor filed a corrected Rule 32 petition on August 15, 2002; Taylor filed a first amended Rule 32 petition on May 2, 2003; Taylor filed a corrected first amended petition on May 5, 2003. The State filed several motions for dismissal, alleging that certain claims were precluded, failed to state a claim upon which relief could be granted, were not pleaded sufficiently, or were not filed within the statutory limitations period. See Rules 32.2, 32.3, 32.6(b), and 32.7(d), Ala. R.Crim. P.

On October 23, 2003, the circuit court granted the State’s motions for dismissal of many of the claims in Taylor’s Rule 32 petition. Other claims in Taylor’s Rule 32 petition remained pending. On February 2, 2004, the State filed a letter with the circuit court stating, among other things, that two of Taylor’s claims — Claim IV.B.10 and Claim V.C. — should not have been dismissed on the ground that they were filed outside the limitations period set forth in Rule 32.2(c), Ala. R.Crim. P. On February 11, 2004, the circuit court held a hearing on pending motions. The circuit court stated that it was setting aside its previous order and that it would allow discovery on the two claims it had dismissed on ground that they were filed outside the limitations period.

On July 28, 2005, the State submitted to the circuit court a proposed order stating that the court’s orders of partial dismissal [135]*135entered on October 23, 2003, had completely disposed of all claims in Taylor’s Rule 32 petition. On August 1, 2005, the circuit court entered an order dismissing, in its entirety, Taylor’s corrected first amended Rule 32 petition. The circuit court stated, in relevant part:

“Upon thorough consideration and review of the pleadings that have been filed by Petitioner Taylor and the State of Alabama in this matter and the orders that this Court entered on October 23, 2003, this Court finds that all of the claims in Petitioner Taylor’s corrected first amended Rule 32 petition have been dismissed. For that reason, this Court finds that Petitioner Taylor’s corrected first amended Rule 32 petition is due to be summarily dismissed.”

(C. 1640.)

Taylor appeals the orders of partial dismissal entered on October 23, 2003, and he appeals the August 1, 2005, final order summarily dismissing the petition in its entirety.

This Court initially dismissed Taylor’s appeal by order on May 10, 2006, on the ground that the attorney who had filed the notice of appeal had not been granted pro hac vice status. Taylor v. State (No. CR-05-0066), 978 So.2d 76 (Ala.Crim.App.2006) (table). Taylor filed with the Alabama Supreme Court a petition for a writ of certiorari, and that Court granted Taylor’s petition. On certiorari review the Alabama Supreme Court reversed this Court’s judgment dismissing Taylor’s appeal, and it remanded the cause for further proceedings. Ex parte Taylor, 157 So.3d 122 (Ala.2008). Therefore, we now review the circuit court’s dismissal of Taylor’s Rule 32 petition.

On direct appeal, this Court summarized the State’s evidence as follows:

“On the morning of December 12, 1997, Jarrod Taylor and his friend, Kenyatta McMillan, took a .380 caliber pistol from the home of a friend of Taylor’s and then bought a BB-pellet pistol from a nearby Wal-Mart discount department store. According to McMillan, who was the State’s main witness against Taylor, Taylor was armed with the pistol and McMillan had the BB gun. Later that morning, the two men entered Steve Dyas Motors, a used car dealership in Mobile, for the purpose of robbing it. Jarrod Taylor pretended to be interested in purchasing a Ford Mustang automobile. Taylor negotiated the purchase of the automobile with Sherry Gaston, a salesperson at Steve Dyas Motors, and told her that he was from Louisiana and that his father-in-law was going to give him the money to purchase the automobile as an early Christmas present. Taylor and McMillan spent the day test-driving the automobile, filling out the paperwork for the purchase of the car, and waiting for Taylor’s fictitious father-in-law to arrive with the $13,700 to purchase the car. At one point, Taylor asked Sherry Gaston for a bill of sale that he could take to his father-in-law to show him the price of the automobile. They came and went from the used car dealership several times during the day. As closing time neared, the employees of Steve Dyas Motors began leaving the dealership to prepare for their annual Christmas party. When Taylor and McMillan entered the car dealership for the last time, around dusk, only Sherry Gaston, who was awaiting Taylor’s return to complete the sale, her husband, Bruce Gaston, and Steve Dyas, the owner, were in the office. When Taylor and McMillan entered the office, Taylor immediately shot Bruce Gaston in the chest with the .380 pistol. Bruce Gaston fell to the floor as Sherry Gaston ran to [136]*136a bathroom and locked herself in and Steve Dyas ran to a back room and tried to escape through a window. Kenyatta McMillan stopped Steve Dyas and brought him back to the office at gunpoint. Taylor and McMillan were demanding to know where the money and the safe [were], and Steve Dyas was on his knees begging for his life. Dyas tried to convince them that he did not have a safe and did not keep money in the office; he offered the two gunmen any car on the lot and the money and credit cards from his wallet. As Steve Dyas begged for his life, Taylor placed the .380 pistol to Dyas’s head and shot him, killing him instantly. Taylor then went to the bathroom door and ordered Sherry Gaston to come out. Sherry Ga-ston obeyed and opened the bathroom door. She begged for her life and told them that she was the mother of two children who needed her; Taylor put the .380 pistol to her head and shot her, killing her instantly. The two gunmen then rummaged the office area, taking Sherry Gaston’s purse and the wallets from the two male victims. They took the paperwork Sherry Gaston had prepared for the sale of the automobile, leaving copies of the paperwork on Sherry Gaston’s desk that they thought would make it appear that Jarrod Taylor had bought the automobile.

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Bluebook (online)
157 So. 3d 131, 2010 WL 3834347, 2010 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 83, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jarrod-taylor-v-state-of-alabama-alacrimapp-2010.