State v. Goad

707 S.W.2d 846, 1986 Tenn. LEXIS 664
CourtTennessee Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 24, 1986
StatusPublished
Cited by120 cases

This text of 707 S.W.2d 846 (State v. Goad) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Tennessee Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Goad, 707 S.W.2d 846, 1986 Tenn. LEXIS 664 (Tenn. 1986).

Opinion

OPINION

HARBISON, Justice.

Appellant was convicted of murder in the perpetration of an armed robbery and sentenced to death by electrocution. His counsel have presented seventeen issues on appeal. After careful consideration of the record and the briefs, we find no merit in sixteen of these, but because of an incomplete record we are unable to determine whether the remaining issue has merit or not. The present record fully justifies both the conviction and the death sentence, but because of a lack of clarity in the record on one issue, we remand the case to the trial court for further consideration and appropriate disposition.

There is almost no dispute as to the material facts. Appellant offered no evidence in his defense at the guilt phase of the trial. Although he offered four witnesses at the sentencing hearing, he did not personally testify. There is no challenge to the sufficiency of the convicting *848 evidence, so that the facts may be briefly summarized.

On the morning of February 14, 1983, the body of 38-year-old John Crawford was discovered at about 6:30 a.m. by his brother Archie Ray Crawford. The two brothers worked for a fireworks store and market and had done so for about twelve years. They alternated their work shifts, and at the time in question John Crawford was working at night. He had relieved his brother at about 5:30 p.m. on the previous evening. When Archie Crawford returned to work on the next morning he found his brother seated in a chair, apparently dead, with a gunshot wound in the rear left portion of his neck. Archie had last seen his brother alive the preceding evening, but John’s wife testified that she had spoken with her husband over the telephone at about 9:30 p.m. on the evening of February 13.

The cash register was open and all of the currency had been removed. One of the victim’s pockets was pulled out, and apparently his personal funds had been stolen also. He had apparently cashed his paycheck for the previous week out of funds in the cash drawer because the check was found there, but the cash which he had taken in exchange was missing. A total of about $575 had been taken from the store and from the victim.

Appellant was about 35 years of age at the time of the trial. He had been reared in Maury County, Tennessee, and had entered military service shortly after his graduation from high school in Mount Pleasant. He served for about two years in the armed services, one portion being in Europe and the other in Vietnam. After his return from service he had been married three times. He was shown to have been subject to drug abuse to some extent, had been convicted of six major felonies and had been incarcerated for some time as a result of these convictions. He had no history of mental illness or of treatment for drug abuse. He was evaluated prior to trial at a state mental health facility and found to be competent to stand trial. No plea of insanity was interposed, nor was there any specific claim of diminished mental capacity. At the sentencing hearing, however, it was contended that his personality had “changed” since his return from military service, and apparently his career of crime and poor citizenship was attributed to his military experiences.

Appellant was arrested in connection with this case while he was in Panama City, Florida, on April 6, 1983, about seven weeks after the body of the victim was discovered. He was found to be in possession of a two-shot .38 caliber Rohm derringer, having two barrels, one over the other. Ballistics tests subsequently revealed that the bullet recovered from John Crawford’s body had been fired from this weapon. In addition, Edna Faye Rogers, who had owned the derringer, testified that on about February 9 or 10, 1983, she had loaned it to the appellant Goad, with whom she had previously been acquainted. When he did not return it she called him, and he delivered it to her on the evening of February 14, 1983, stating to her that the gun “wasn’t clean anymore.” He explained that he had “used it on a job” and “wasted a guy or blew a guy away.” Ms. Rogers testified that she refused to take the gun back, and that Goad paid her a sum of from $80 to $100 for it.

She said that she did not report the incident because she had seen nothing about a homicide in the news media and did not know whether or not Goad was serious in his statement. She did identify the gun found in Goad’s possession as the one which she had loaned to him.

William Dickey Roy and Steven Charles Taylor testified that they were employed at the Bell Road Liquor Store in Nashville. On February 11, 1983, they had been robbed at the store by appellant, who was using the derringer above referred to, which they identified at trial. Ron Wayne Cobb testified that on March 16, 1983, a *849 little over a month after the homicide involved here, appellant had robbed him as he worked at a market in Donelson and had shot him twice with the same derringer. Ballistics tests verified that the bullets removed from Mr. Cobb’s body were fired from the same weapon which was used in the homicide of John Crawford.

This is a case in which there were no eyewitnesses, no identifiable fingerprints and no formal confession by the accused. The case against appellant was almost entirely circumstantial, except for his somewhat indefinite incriminating statement to Edna Faye Rogers. The issues presented on appeal must be evaluated in light of those facts.

As previously stated there is no issue presented as to the sufficiency of the convicting evidence. The principal issue raised, however, concerns the admission at the guilt phase of two other crimes committed by appellant, these being the robberies of the liquor store on February 11, about two or two and one-half days prior to the crime involved here, and the market on March 16. Three of the issues presented on appeal concern this evidence.

A large portion of the discussion of these issues in appellant’s brief is taken up with complaints about the late notification by the District Attorney General to defense counsel of the names of witnesses to be used. There is no real showing of surprise or lack of ability to defend with regard to these matters, and we find no merit in them.

Appellant correctly cites Bunch v. State, 605 S.W.2d 227 (Tenn.1980), for the proposition that evidence of other criminal offenses by an accused is ordinarily not admissible at a trial because it is not relevant to any issue. In that case, however, the Court said:

“It is well established, of course, that in a criminal trial evidence that the defendant has committed some other crime wholly independent of that for which he is charged, even though it is a crime of the same character, is usually not admissible because it is irrelevant, [citations omitted]. Moreover, because of the obvious prejudice of such evidence to the defendant its admission often constitutes prejudicial error, requiring the reversal of a conviction, [citation omitted]. However, if evidence that the defendant has committed a crime separate and distinct from the one on trial, is relevant

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
707 S.W.2d 846, 1986 Tenn. LEXIS 664, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-goad-tenn-1986.