Rayford v. State

321 So. 2d 734, 56 Ala. App. 394, 1975 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 1346
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Alabama
DecidedOctober 1, 1975
Docket6 Div. 663
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 321 So. 2d 734 (Rayford 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
Rayford v. State, 321 So. 2d 734, 56 Ala. App. 394, 1975 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 1346 (Ala. Ct. App. 1975).

Opinion

CLARK, Supernumerary Circuit Judge.

Early in the afternoon of June 7, 1973, an armed robbery occurred in an A & P store, in the city of Tuscaloosa, during which the assistant manager, Ferrell Cork, was killed. Appellant was tried for his murder, convicted of murder in the first degree and sentenced to imprisonment in the penitentiary for life.

The State called as witnesses several persons in the store when the robbery and killing occurred. It was a “super” store with four cash registers. The size of the store, the varied locations of the witnesses, the separate activities of the two robbers in different parts of the store at the same time, the physical arrangements of the inside of the store and other circumstances precluded each witness from having a comprehensive view of the entire occurrence. The testimony of the witnesses as a whole shows beyond serious question and without dispute that two “black males,” each armed with a pistol, entered the store; one told an employee of A & P to move aside and proceeded to take money from three of the [397]*397cash registers and put the money in his pockets. The other at gunpoint forced the produce manager into the office and ordered him to open the safe; he stated that he could not open it, but that Mr. Cork, who at the time was outside, could do so. When Mr. Cork entered the store, he was ordered by the robber, who had rifled the cash registers, to open the safe, and was shot by him upon Cork’s refusal to open the safe. The two struggled with each other; while they were struggling, the robber in the office leaned over a counter and shot in the direction of Cork. The robbers then left the store.

A witness, who was in the cutting room of the store in the back at the time of the robbery, went out the back door after hearing shots and saw a “colored” man run around the side of the store toward an automobile, gold in color and with a black top, being driven by a person whom he could not describe. The automobile left the scene.

A meat cutter at the store, upon returning from lunch at home the day of the robbery and while within three or four blocks of the store, saw an automobile with “brownish gold body” and black top with two “black males” in it come from the direction of the store and run a red traffic light at a fast speed.

One witness in the store during the robbery identified appellant as the man in the office that fired his pistol at Mr. Cork. Other witnesses were unable to identify appellant as a participant, although ten of them had an opportunity to do so at a line-up.

A post-mortem examination of Mr. Cork revealed that deceased had been hit by at least four bullets. There was some indication, according to the examination, of a wound of a fifth bullet, but only four bullets were found in him. All four were 22 caliber. It was determined that two of them were not from a 22 caliber pistol that was introduced in evidence by the State and which is hereinafter discussed, but no determination could be made whether the other two bullets were from such weapon.

At approximately 3:30 the same afternoon, defendant was arrested approximately five miles from Sumiton, Alabama. He and another “black male” were in an automobile being driven at a high rate of speed from the direction of Jasper toward Birmingham on Highway 78. It was pursued by an officer of the Sumiton Police Department in a chase that lasted about five minutes, during which the automobile traveled an estimated speed of between 80 and 90 miles per hour, crossed double yellow lines, went off the traveled portion of the highway through a parking area for one or more filling stations and a restaurant, collided with two trucks and an automobile, went through two ravines, plunged into a ditch and “went up on its nose” along the side of the highway. This was in Jefferson County a short distance from the Walker-Jefferson County line. Appellant, who was driving, and the other occupant immediately abandoned the automobile. Appellant fled from the scene and was chased on foot by Officer J. R. Myers, who had been chasing him in the automobile. Officer Myers ran behind him into the woods a distance of a quarter of a mile, captured him after a struggle and placed him in custody under a charge of reckless driving and illegally crossing a double yellow line. A large crowd assembled in the vicinity of the incident. In the automobile, in plain view on the right front floor board thereof was a 22 caliber pistol with four spent and three unspent cartridges. The pistol was taken into custody by Officer Myers, who delivered his prisoner to Officer Norris, who had taken part in the chase of the automobile, with the direction that appellant be taken to jail at Sumiton, in Walker County. Meanwhile Officer Myers maintained surveillance over the automobile, not allowing it to be touched by anyone. He stayed with the automobile until a wrecker from Sumiton came for it and towed it to Sumiton. Dur[398]*398ing that time the chief of police of Sumiton joined Officer Myers at the scene. After the arrest, a knife, a live 22 cartridge, and nineteen dollars in currency and twenty-six cents “in change” were found in the pockets of appellant.

As the automobile was towed from the scene to the place of business of the “wrecker service” in Sumiton, Chief of Police Walter Allredd went with it. Promptly upon its being released from its tow, in an unenclosed area, the inside of the body of the automobile was examined by Officer Marvin Willcutt in company with Chief Allredd. Exposed to view before any entry into the automobile was the corner of a pillow case under the driver’s seat. From within and underneath the pillow case was obtained the total sum of five hundred and forty-four dollars in currency of various denominations. Testimony showed that five hundred and sixty-eight dollars and nineteen cents was missing from the store immediately after the robbery.

Appellant did not testify, but he presented four witnesses who testified in effect that he was in Birmingham at the time of subject crime. The first witness was his mother, who testified he left her home that day at 1:20 P.M. On cross-examination she testified she had had a stroke and “my mind is not good sometimes.” Others said they saw him soon after 1:20 P.M. at a pool room in Birmingham; the last one seeing him that afternoon said he last saw him about 2:15. Appellant was then driving an automobile, which, it seems reasonably clear, was the automobile in which he was riding at Sumiton and was the property of another, a close friend of appellant’s mother.

There was some discrepancy in the testimony as to the make, style and color of the automobile described by the Tuscaloosa witnesses, but two of them testified that it looked like pictures taken of the automobile which appellant was driving at Sumiton, which had a gold body and a black top.

The alibi testimony furnishes the only conflict with positive, convincing evidence that appellant was a participant in the first degree murder of Ferrell Cork. No serious insistence is made, and we think none can be made, that the time between the crime and the incident at Sumiton was not sufficient for the robbers to have traveled from the one point to the other. The time factor in this respect is in favor of the State rather than defendant, we think. The automobile bore a Jefferson County license tag. It was owned by a friend of appellant’s family, who evidently lived in Birmingham.

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Related

Wilkinson v. State
374 So. 2d 396 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, 1979)

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Bluebook (online)
321 So. 2d 734, 56 Ala. App. 394, 1975 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 1346, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rayford-v-state-alacrimapp-1975.