Pinkard v. State

415 So. 2d 1220, 1982 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 3059
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Alabama
DecidedJune 8, 1982
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 415 So. 2d 1220 (Pinkard 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
Pinkard v. State, 415 So. 2d 1220, 1982 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 3059 (Ala. Ct. App. 1982).

Opinion

415 So.2d 1220 (1982)

Harold PINKARD
v.
STATE.

8 Div. 518.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama.

April 20, 1982.
On Return to Remand June 8, 1982.

*1221 Dave Beuoy, Russellville, for appellant.

Charles A. Graddick, Atty. Gen., and J. Thomas Leverette, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellee.

LEIGH M. CLARK, Retired Circuit Judge.

This is an appeal from a judgment of conviction and sentence based on a verdict finding defendant guilty of burglary in the second degree.

The position was taken by defendant on the trial and continues to be pressed by appellant that the prosecution was barred by Code of Alabama 1975, § 15-3-1, which provides:

"The prosecution of all felonies, except those specified in sections 15-3-3 and 15-3-5 [inapplicable as to this case], must be commenced within three years after the commission of the offense."

Code § 15-3-7 provides:

"A prosecution may be commenced within the meaning of this chapter by finding an indictment, the issuing of a warrant or by binding over the offender."

The alleged crime was committed in May 1976. The conviction was on an indictment which was returned on March 31, 1980, nearly four years after the commission of the alleged offense. However, a warrant, based on an affidavit of probable cause for belief that defendant had committed a burglary in the second degree, was issued for his arrest on October 5, 1977, which, according to Code § 15-3-7, constituted the commencement of the prosecution for said burglary, which was described in said affidavit and in an indictment of defendant returned in March 1978 as the burglary of "a dwelling house, situated at Route 1, Phil Campbell, Alabama, the property of C. W. Hamilton." What disposition was made of said indictment is not clearly shown, but the record shows without dispute that the burglary charge upon which the affidavit was made and warrant of arrest issued, upon which the first indictment was based and upon which the indictment on which defendant was tried, was incorrectly described in the affidavit and in the first indictment as the burglary of "a dwelling house, situated at Route 1, Phil Campbell, Alabama," and that it was correctly described in the indictment on which defendant was tried as the burglary of "a dwelling house, situated at Route 1, Haleyville, Alabama." The record further shows that such inaccuracy in the description of the dwelling house became known to the district attorney for the first time about six months before the return of the indictment upon which defendant was tried and convicted. There was also a difference between the second indictment and the first indictment and the affidavit upon which the warrant was issued in that the second indictment alleged that the dwelling house was "the property of C. W. Hamilton," while it was alleged in the first indictment and the affidavit upon which the warrant was issued that the dwelling house was "the property of Mrs. C. W. Hamilton."

The evidence shows that the dwelling house burglarized was the property of both Mr. and Mrs. C. W. Hamilton, that it was situated on Route 1, Haleyville, Alabama, and that at that point Route 1, Phil Campbell, Alabama, was about one mile therefrom. We take judicial knowledge of the fact that Phil Campbell, Alabama, is about ten or twelve miles northwest of Haleyville, Alabama.

One phase of the question as to the statute of limitations is to be determined by whether the burglary charged in the second indictment was the same burglary as the burglary charged in the affidavit upon which the warrant of arrest was issued. Notwithstanding the confusion and the foul-up that occurred, we have no difficulty in determining that they were the same. There is no contention or indication that either Mr. C. W. Hamilton or Mrs. C. W. Hamilton, or both, had more than one dwelling house at the time of the alleged burglary, and there is no semblance of any contention that either had another dwelling house on Route 1, Phil Campbell, Alabama.

Another phase of the problem requires studious consideration of Code of Alabama 1975, § 15-3-6, which provides:

*1222 "When an indictment is lost, mislaid or destroyed, when a judgment is arrested or an indictment quashed for any defect therein, for the reason that it was not found by a grand jury regularly organized, because it charged no offense or for any other cause or when the prosecution is dismissed because of a variance between the allegations of the indictment and the evidence and a new indictment is ordered to be preferred, the time elapsing between the preferring of the first charge or indictment and the subsequent indictment must be deducted from the time limited for the prosecution of the offense last charged."

Although we have no doubt that the offense for which the warrant was issued was the same offense for which the first indictment was preferred and was the same offense for which the second indictment was preferred, a troublesome question is as to whether the prosecution of the second indictment was legally the same prosecution as the prosecution proceeding under the preceding indictment. To meet the test of sameness, there must have been action as to the first indictment that is required by Code of Alabama 1975, § 15-3-6, to permit a deduction from the period of the statute of limitations of "the time elapsing between the preferring of the first ... indictment and the subsequent indictment." We cannot determine that question by the record and transcript before us. The mere fact that the prosecution under the second indictment was for the same offense as the prosecution under the first indictment does not mean that there was only one prosecution. We need to know what happened to the first indictment. We are confident that whatever prosecution there was under the original warrant of arrest merged into the prosecution under the first indictment so that the prosecution thereunder became one continuous prosecution, but neither the record proper nor the transcript discloses a linkage between the two indictments required by § 15-3-6. The nearest approach to such a linkage is that which is stated in the State's "motion to dismiss" the defendant's "motion to quash the indictment," as follows:

"On October 18, 1979, the District Attorney was advised by Mrs. C. W. Hamilton that the premises where the crime occurred were located at Route 1, Haleyville, Alabama, and that Route 1, Phil Campbell, Alabama, actually comes within less than one mile of the premises. Therefore, a new indictment was returned by the March 1980 grand jury charging the defendant with second degree burglary of `a dwelling house, situated at Route 1, Haleyville, Alabama, the property of Mrs. C. W. Hamilton.' Copies of relevant documents are attached hereto and made a part of this motion."

A stipulation between the parties occurred just before the jury was selected to try the case, which is set forth in a colloquy among the trial judge, defendant and defendant's attorney in pertinent part as follows:

"THE COURT: Now, you are Mr. Harold D. Pinkard?
"MR. PINKARD: Yes, sir.
"THE COURT: And you are here with your attorney?
"MR. PINKARD: Yes, sir.
"THE COURT: Now, your attorney and the District Attorney and myself have discussed the motion made by your attorney and listen to the statement I am going to make and if you don't agree with it, say something.

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

Related

Brown v. State
812 So. 2d 305 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 2001)
Finley v. State
683 So. 2d 7 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, 1996)
Langham v. State
662 So. 2d 1201 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, 1994)
Sartin v. State
601 So. 2d 1142 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, 1992)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
415 So. 2d 1220, 1982 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 3059, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pinkard-v-state-alacrimapp-1982.