Shields v. State

296 So. 2d 786, 52 Ala. App. 690, 1974 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 1132
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Alabama
DecidedMarch 5, 1974
Docket8 Div. 379
StatusPublished
Cited by24 cases

This text of 296 So. 2d 786 (Shields 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
Shields v. State, 296 So. 2d 786, 52 Ala. App. 690, 1974 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 1132 (Ala. Ct. App. 1974).

Opinions

[694]*694DeCARLO, Judge.

Appellant and Gary Luschen were indicted for first degree murder and were tried separately. Luschen was sentenced to death and appellant was sentenced to twenty (20) years.

Defense Counsel filed two pleas in abatement. Plea One challenged the composition of the grand jury, and Plea Two alleged that the grand jury was prejudiced as a result of adverse publicity attending the case. After a hearing with no offer of evidence, the pleas were overruled.

I

Appellant contends the trial court erred in overruling the pleas without demurrer, motion or issue being joined. Further, since no replication was filed by the State, the allegations contained -therein were required to be taken as true.

In support of his argument, defense counsel relies on Carter v. State, 21 Ala.App. 406, 108 So. 642, in which a plea of misnomer was overruled. In reversing this decision, the Court of Appeals stated:

“ . . .It will therefore be seen that the defendant’s plea of misnomer was in form and properly before the court, to be disposed of as in such cases made and provided. The trial judge did not do this, but without motion, demurrer, or issue joined, overruled the defendant’s plea. This is shown by the judgment and was error to a reversal.”

Pleas in abatement are dilatory pleas, sustainable without proof only when the court can see from the pleading that they are well taken. If this is not clear, the appellant has the burden of establishing the asserted grounds of the plea. Howell v. Howell, 171 Ala. 502, 54 So. 601; Barnes v. Burke, 47 Ala.App. 253, 253 So.2d 46.

To make a naked allegation the basis of a plea is insufficient. It must be followed by proof. The plea, upon its face, did not show that the fact alleged was true, but rather that proof was necessary for it to be sustained. The appellant cannot now complain. He declined to prove the allegations of his pleas.

II

Immediately following this ruling, appellant filed a motion to quash the jury venire on the same grounds of Plea One. Upon conclusion of the testimony in support of this motion, it was overruled.

Appellant claims the jury box from which the venire was drawn for the trial, and from which the grand jury was taken, was in law, clearly fraudulent, and his motion to quash should have been granted.

The fraud required to quash the venire is the intentional omission from the jury roll of names of a large number of legally qualified citizens, and such intentional systematic exclusion must be shown. State ex rel. Gregg v. Maples, 286 Ala. 274, 239 So.2d 198.

The jury list was compiled from such sources as the city directory, telephone book, voter’s registration lists, tax assessor’s rolls, and individual names submitted by commission members. Appellant contends that the selection of every eighth, ninth, or tenth name from each list was a systematic exclusion.

Testimony heard on the motion to quash, however, indicates a concerted effort was made by the jury commission to comply with the provisions of Title 30, Code of Alabama, 1940. Nothing was affirmatively [695]*695shown that demonstrated an intentional systematic exclusion of legally qualified citizens, and the trial court’s overruling of the motion was correct.

Appellant also complains that a trial date was not set, but at the conclusion of the above hearing, the record shows the case was set for the following morning.

III

Appellant’s insistence that the court erred in refusing his motion for a non-jury trial is unfounded. Singleton v. State, 288 Ala. 519, 262 So.2d 768.

IV

The primary contention upon which appellant seeks reversal is the insufficiency of the evidence. He argues that the evidence did not authorize a finding by the jury that the appellant conspired, aided or abetted in the homicide. For this reason, the facts presented at trial are reviewed here:

At approximately 7:00 A.M. on May 5, 1971, the bloody body of Robert Caneer was found in a ditch on the Bankhead Highway in Huntsville. Testimony from the State Toxicologist set the time of death about 8-10 hours earlier. The body contained over thirty stab wounds. Bloody bedding, pillows, sheets, etc. were found off a side road within a hundred yards of the body.

Witness James Tollett, who lived with deceased, testified that the appellant and one Ray Young came to Caneer’s apartment on May 4 about 10:00 P.M. and purchased some heroin. Thereafter, appellant, Ray Young, and Caneer left about 11:00 P.M. enroute to the apartment of Ray Young. At the time Caneer left, he had in his possession some 10-15 bags of heroin.

Upon arrival at the Young’s apartment (#7 in the complex), an argument arose between Mr. and Mrs. Young. In his immediate haste to leave the apartment, Ray Young had an automobile accident. His wife accompanied him to the hospital, and Caneer and appellant were left standing outside the apartment with the wrecked automobile.

Although the State introduced evidence of four conflicting statements made by appellant, certain facts in each one remained consistent. Admittedly, one Gary Luschen was with appellant at his apartment (#2 in the complex) later that same night, while Caneer was in the apartment of Ray Young. Luschen remarked to appellant that Caneer had given him a bad “fix”, and he was going over to rob him. Luschen picked up a knife in appellant’s kitchen and told appellant to go with him. Upon arriving at the Young’s apartment, appellant went into the bathroom. He heard Caneer exclaim, “Why, Gary, why”, but he did not leave the bathroom until Luschen came to the door. Appellant asked if Caneer was dead, and Luschen replied “I don’t know.” Thereafter appellant helped Luschen clean up and dispose of the body.

In one statement to a police officer, appellant remarked that after Caneer was killed, he and Luschen divided the ten packages of heroin. At the trial, however, he denied even seeing any heroin at that time. Appellant also contended that he was threatened by Luschen and forced to go with him to Young’s apartment.

In Morris v. State, 146 Ala. 66, 41 So. 274, Judge Denson made these comments concerning the extent of proof necessary to establish a conspiracy:

“. . . [Cjonspiracy, need not be proved by positive testimony. It rarely is so proved. The jury are to determine whether it exists, and the extent of it, from the conduct of the parties and all the testimony in the case.”

He further commented that the existence of a conspiracy may be inferred from all the attendant circumstances accompanying [696]*696the doing of the act, and from the conduct of the appellant subsequent to the criminal act.

For his definition of “aid and abet”, Judge Denson referred to the earlier case of Raiford v. State, 59 Ala. 106:

“The words aid and abet, in legal phrase, are pretty much the synonyms of each other. * * * They comprehend all assistance rendered by acts, words of encouragement or support, or presence, actual or constructive, to render assistance, should it become necessary. No particular acts are necessary.

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Bluebook (online)
296 So. 2d 786, 52 Ala. App. 690, 1974 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 1132, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/shields-v-state-alacrimapp-1974.