Lee v. State

364 So. 2d 687, 1978 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 1378
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Alabama
DecidedNovember 21, 1978
Docket3 Div. 868
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 364 So. 2d 687 (Lee 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
Lee v. State, 364 So. 2d 687, 1978 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 1378 (Ala. Ct. App. 1978).

Opinion

HARRIS, Presiding Judge.

Appellant was convicted of murder in the first degree and the jury fixed his punishment at life imprisonment in the penitentiary. Prior to trial appellant signed a written waiver of arraignment and entered a plea of not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity. After sentence was imposed he gave notice of appeal and requested a free transcript. He was furnished a free transcript and one of his trial attorneys was appointed to represent him on this appeal.

The evidence presented by the State made out a clear case of murder in the first degree with no mitigating or extenuating circumstances. He shot an unarmed man with a twelve gauge pump gun three times while the victim was sitting in a chair or bench on the front porch of a house at 1532 West Fifth Street located in the Oak Park area of the City of Montgomery. The homicide took place around ten o’clock on the night of August 7, 1977. Appellant did not testify, nor did he offer any evidence in his behalf.

At the conclusion of the State’s case appellant filed a written motion to exclude the State’s evidence on the following grounds:

1. The State failed to prove venue.
2. The State failed to present a prima facie case.
3. The State failed to sustain the burden of proof.
4. The testimony is insufficient to overcome the presumption of innocence.
5. There is a fatal variance in the allegations of the indictment and the proof.

The trial court overruled and denied the motion to exclude.

Mattie Pearl Fuller testified that, on Sunday night, August 7, 1977, she. lived with her husband and daughter at 1532 West Fifth Street in Oak Park and had lived at this address for approximately five years. She stated that appellant, the deceased, James Landon, and Willie Lewis Calhoun were sitting on her porch talking; that she did not hear any argument but she did hear appellant tell the deceased to get off the porch. After hearing this statement she went inside her house to look at television. About ten minutes later she heard three shots. She sat for a few moments and started to walk back to the front porch. She looked through the screen and, “I saw James laying across my door, and I saw Robert get in his car and leave.” She further testified that appellant lived at 1544 West Fifth Street which was three houses from the scene of the shooting. She stated she did not see the deceased with a weapon of any kind at the time the three men were sitting on her porch.

Jenny Knight testified that she lived on West Fifth Street and that she knew both appellant and the deceased. Appellant lived in the next house from her home. The houses on West Fifth Street are very close to each other. She further testified that she rented a room to a girl by the name of Lonnie Fitzpatrick and they were both on her front porch on the night of August 7, 1977. She stated that while she and Lonnie were standing on her front [689]*689porch she saw appellant enter his house and return with a shotgun; that he went to the side of his car which was parked in his yard close to a tree. She saw appellant put the gun to his shoulder when he was close to the tree. She stated that the front porch of Mattie Fuller’s house was about fifty feet from the place where she saw appellant throw the gun up to his shoulder. When appellant placed the gun to his shoulder Jenny Knight ran inside her house and three or four minutes later she heard three shots. After the shots were fired she came out of her house to look and she saw appellant going back inside his house with his gun. Moments later she saw appellant come from his house and get in his car and put the gun down beside him in the car. She observed him as he drove slowly down the street. She was shown State’s Exhibit No. 2 and identified the photograph as the car that appellant drove away from the scene of the homicide and stated that it was his car.

On cross-examination she testified that she had not seen appellant ‘“since he did what he did.” She further stated that she did not see appellant actually fire the gun, saying “I did not see him fire it, but I seed him when he throwed it up. And when it was fired, who else could have fired it but him.” She testified that the shooting occurred at about ten o’clock on the night of August 7, 1977.

Lonnie Fitzpatrick testified that on August 7, 1977, she was living with Jenny Knight at 1544 West Fifth Street. They were sitting on the front porch together and she saw appellant with a shotgun in his hand. She saw him go in his house and come out with the shotgun; that a man came up to appellant and was trying to talk to him but appellant told the man to get back. She identified this man as Willie Lewis Calhoun. She said that appellant told Calhoun to stand back and then he threw the shotgun up; that he was near a tree when appellant threw the gun up and that in her judgment Mattie Fuller’s front porch was thirty, thirty-five, or forty feet away from the place where appellant threw up the gun. When she saw appellant throw up the gun she ran into the house and got as far as the bedroom when she heard three shots. After the firing ceased she came back to the porch and saw appellant backing out of his driveway. This witness also identified State’s Exhibit No. 2 as a photograph of appellant’s car and the one he drove away from his home after the shooting.

On cross-examination this witness stated that appellant’s car was a Buick and it was parked in his yard before the shooting. She described the car as a white Buick with a white vinyl top.

Willie Calhoun testified that he lived at 1520 West Fifth Street in Oak Park, and that he knew both appellant and the deceased; that on the night of August 7, 1977, he was on Mattie Fuller’s porch with the appellant and the deceased. Calhoun said he had been there about ten minutes when appellant made a statement to the deceased coupled with an ugly word. He quoted appellant as saying to the deceased, “I am tired of you so and so with me. Said I am going to settle this once and for all.”

From the record:

“A. Well, he walked off the porch, and I sat there a few minutes, and I went on behind him. When I got there he was coming out of the house with his shotgun.
“Q. Who was?
“A. Mr. Lee.
“Q. And whose house did he go to?
“A. He went to his house.
* * * * * *
“Q. Did you see him come out the house?
“A. Yes.
“Q. What did he have with him?
“A. A shotgun.
“Q. Did you say anything to him?
“A. I begged him — I told him — I said, Jessie come here and let me talk to you. I said, don’t do that. He said, get back. He said, you better get back. So naturally, Pm going to get back.
“Q. And did he stop some place?
“A. He stopped there and aimed at him.
[690]*690“Q. Where did he stop?
“A. Out there by that tree in his yard.
“Q. The tree in his yard?
“A. That is right.

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Related

Herron v. State
513 So. 2d 107 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, 1987)
Ervin v. State
399 So. 2d 894 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, 1981)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
364 So. 2d 687, 1978 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 1378, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lee-v-state-alacrimapp-1978.