Mathews v. State

337 So. 2d 125, 1976 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 1717
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Alabama
DecidedAugust 24, 1976
Docket8 Div. 769
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 337 So. 2d 125 (Mathews 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
Mathews v. State, 337 So. 2d 125, 1976 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 1717 (Ala. Ct. App. 1976).

Opinions

WILLIAM I. BYRD, Circuit Judge.

The defendant, Edison Mathews, was indicted, tried, convicted of robbery, and sentenced to serve ten years in the State penitentiary by a jury in Madison County, Alabama from which he appealed.

Evidence presented by the State tended to show that on a dark night, June 5, 1975, about 10:45 P.M., two men entered an establishment known as Veterans Beverage Store on Highway 72 in Madison County, Alabama, operated by Claude Harbin. Harbin was alone. The two men drew pistols and took $60. and a wrist watch from Harbin. Harbin testified one of the men, the defendant, attempted to take the watch off Harbin’s arm forcibly, but was unable to remove it without additional help from Harbin. Mr. Harbin further stated that the defendant took the money and watch and the men fled in a blue car which the witness shot at and hit with his shotgun. At the time of the robbery the defendant had a goatee, beard, and a scar that was seen by the witness.

Edgar Blakenship testified that he drove up as the robbers fled. He and his passenger gave chase, but lost the car and could not identify the robbers.

About twenty-five minutes later the car was found parked about 2.2 miles from the scene of the crime and a short distance across a cotton patch from where the defendant resided. Harbin identified the car as the get-away car. It was impounded by the police.

Nathan Langford, the owner of the car, testified that on the day of the robbery he and the defendant, for much of the afternoon, rode around in the car, a Dodge Swinger. About 5:00 P.M., they began to drink beer, whiskey and gin, and ended up at the home of the defendant. About 7:00 P.M., Langford passed out and the defendant awoke him about 7:30 to obtain the use of the car. The defendant told Langford he would go get some girls. Langford gave the defendant the keys, fell asleep again, and awoke the next morning about 8:00. Soon after Langford awoke, he received a call from the defendant stating that he had left the keys in the car in Huntsville, and it had been stolen the night before. Langford and the defendant reported the theft to the [127]*127police department and the defendant told the police he had used the car on the night of the robbery, but it was stolen from him.

About two days later, Langford and the defendant went to the Madison Police Department to pick up the car. Langford identified the car as his and said the defendant had borrowed the car on the night of the robbery. The defendant at that time said nothing. The police kept the car.

Four or five days after the robbery, Harbin went to the Madison Police Department to check the progress of the investigation. Officer Smiley testified that he spread six or seven mug shots out on the counter for Harbin to inspect. Harbin identified a picture of the defendant as one of the men who robbed him. These pictures were admitted into evidence. Harbin also made an in-court identification of the defendant as the person who robbed him.

The evidence introduced by the State raised questions of fact for the jury and such evidence, if believed, was sufficient to take the case to the jury. The defendant’s motion to exclude the evidence was properly denied.

The defendant testified in his own behalf and denied that he participated in the robbery. He indicated that he did borrow the get-away car from Langford on the night of the robbery at 8:00 P.M., left about 10:00 P.M., went to the Village Gate Club in Madison, then went to Huntsville to meet a girl named Linda at the house of Marie Leamon, arriving there at 10:30 P.M. He testified that he left the keys in the car parked across the street from the house of Marie Leamon. When Linda did not appear, he went to sleep on the couch at Marie’s and was awakened the next morning about 8:00 by Larry Fletcher, who had spent the night upstairs. The defendant said he then discovered that the automobile had been stolen which he reported to Lang-ford.

The defendant was with Langford when the stolen car report was filled out and when Langford went to the police department to claim the car. On cross-examination, the defendant admitted it was “convenient” and “fortunate” that the people who stole the car in Huntsville brought it back to Madison and parked it near his aunt’s house and across a cotton patch from his home where it was found after the robbery.

Marie Leamon testified for the defendant and said the defendant came to her home about 10:15 P.M., on the night of the robbery, looking for a girl; that she did not know the girl; that the defendant was invited in and used her couch on the lower floor upon which to sleep; that she went upstairs about 10:45; that the defendant was still there at that time and was awakened by Larry Fletcher the next morning about 8:00 A.M.

Larry Fletcher testified he was upstairs at the home of Marie Leamon on the night of the robbery; that he heard the voice of the defendant when he came in, but did not see him until he awoke the defendant the next morning.

Testimony concerning the defendant’s good character was admitted and not rebutted.

All the evidence raised a jury question which was resolved against the defendant, and there was no error in the denial of the motion for a new trial.

I

Counsel for appellant contends that robbery is a capital offense and that the trial court erred in refusing to allow the appellant to strike a jury from forty-eight veniremen as required by T. 13, § 125 (90h) Code of Alabama, Recompiled 1958.

The statute provides that in the twenty-third judicial circuit, a defendant, “ . in capital felony cases shall be entitled to strike from a list of not less than forty-eight competent jurors . . . ” The trial court treated the case as non-capital and allowed a venire of thirty-one.

If this were a case of first impression the defendant would have room for argument; however, in a case from Madison County on January 20, 1976, this question was decided [128]*128against defendant, Fisher v. State, Ala.Cr.App., 328 So.2d 311, rehearing denied February 17, 1976, in this court and cert, den. by the Alabama Supreme Court on March 5, 1976, in Ex parte Johnny Ray Fisher, Ala., 328 So.2d 321. The same point was decided even more recently in a robbery case, Killough v. State, 57 Ala.App., 332 So.2d 736, rendered March 16, 1976, rehearing denied April 20, 1976, and cert. den. on June 11, 1976, Ex parte Michael S. Killough, Ala., 332 So.2d 739.

In Fisher, supra, Judge Bookout wrote for the court as he did a concurring opinion in Shepard v. State, 57 Ala.App. 35, 325 So.2d 551, as follows:

“Contrary to the broad language employed by the Supreme Court in Bynum, we are of the opinion that the Court was addressing itself solely to the question of bail. The purpose for a special venire in ‘capital cases’ was to give a defendant, on trial for his life, an additional safeguard, not given to those where only their liberty was at stake. At the time Act No. 532, supra, and Title 30, § 63, Code of Alabama 1940, were enacted, the only' distinction between ‘capital’ and ‘non-capital’ cases was the possible imposition of , the death penalty. Since the imposition of the death penalty has been suspended, there is no rational justification for a special venire in a case formerly classified as ‘capital’ where the maximum punishment is now the same as in a ‘non-capital’ case.

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Related

St. John v. State
358 So. 2d 812 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, 1978)

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Bluebook (online)
337 So. 2d 125, 1976 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 1717, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mathews-v-state-alacrimapp-1976.