W.F. v. State

214 So. 3d 1153
CourtSupreme Court of Alabama
DecidedOctober 30, 2015
Docket1131472
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 214 So. 3d 1153 (W.F. v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
W.F. v. State, 214 So. 3d 1153 (Ala. 2015).

Opinions

MOORE, Chief Justice.

R.J.J., W.L.C., and W.F. (hereinafter referred to collectively as “the petitioners”) were convicted in the Lowndes Circuit Court of hunting after dark, hunting from a public road, and hunting with the aid of an automobile. The Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed them convictions by an un[1155]*1155published memorandum. W.F. v. State (No. CR-13-1188, Aug. 22, 2014), 190 So.3d 588 (Ala.Crim.App.2014)(table). We granted their petition for a writ of certio-rari to review the Court of Criminal Appeals’ decision.

I. Facts and Procedural History

On January 3, 2013, the petitioners, who were juveniles at the time, met at RJJ.’s house. They loaded groceries into a truck with the intent of taking the groceries to a hunting cabin in Lowndes County belonging to a relative of one of the petitioners. W.F. brought his new AR-15 rifle along and placed it in the backseat of the truck. According to R.J.J., he and the other two petitioners are “gun enthusiasts,” and W.F. brought the rifle along for “[sjafety and protection.” R.J.J., who has a permit to carry a concealed weapon in Alabama, testified that he carries a gun wherever he goes, including when he travels at night. He further testified that the magazine for W.F.’s rifle was on the truck’s front center console.

At approximately 6:30 or 6:45 p.m., the petitioners left RJ.J.’s house. R.J.J. drove, W.F. was in the front passenger seat, and W.L.C. was in the backseat. They intended to drop the groceries off at the cabin and then return immediately to R. J. J.’s house because R. J.J.’s parents had ordered pizza for them.

After the petitioners had driven for approximately 15 or 20 minutes, R.J.J. pulled up to a stop sign on Brown Hill Road at the intersection of Brown Hill Road and Highway 29. W.L.C. and R.J.J. testified that the truck came to a complete stop and that they waited at the stop sign to allow a car traveling south on Highway 29 to pass through the intersection before proceeding. W.L.C. testified that the windows of the truck were up at the time and that no shots were fired from the truck. Both R.J.J. and W.L.C. testified that W.F,’s rifle was not fired at any time that night.

Russell Morrow, a retired conservation and enforcement officer for the State of Alabama and a reserve deputy for the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Department, lives on Brown Hill Road. Morrow testified that the area is frequented by wildlife, including deer. After nightfall at approximately 7:00 p.m. on January 3, 2013, Morrow was standing next to his vehicle near his house. From that vantage point, he could see a truck stopped at the stop sign approximately 140 yards away. The left turn signal on the truck was engaged. Morrow could not see any individuals through the windows of the truck. Morrow testified, in contradiction to W.L.C. and R.J.J., that there was no southbound traffic on Highway 29 at the time.

Morrow testified that “the truck sat there and sat there. Then I heard two high powered rounds go off from the vehicle.” Morrow has 25 years of experience in law enforcement and testified that he was familiar with the sound of a firearm. Morrow believed, but did not know for sure, that the sounds came from the driver’s side of the truck. Morrow did not see a muzzle flash and could not see any intended target.

After he heard the shots, the truck turned left and headed south on Highway 29. Morrow got into his own vehicle and followed the truck as it traveled south on Highway 29 and then onto another road before stopping at a gate outside the hunting cabin. The petitioners got out of the truck to open the gate, and Morrow got out of his vehicle. Morrow and the petitioners provided different accounts of the conversation that ensued.

Morrow testified that he asked the petitioners “what they were shooting at” and that they denied shooting at anything. Morrow testified that one of the petitioners. “said that it was firecrackers” that Morrow had heard but that, when Morrow [1156]*1156asked the petitioners to show him the firecrackers, the petitioners “said it wasn’t firecrackers” and acknowledged that they had a rifle in the truck.

W.L.C., however, testified that Morrow “yelled at us,” saying “that we shot something back at the stop sign or he said we shot the stop sign, shot a deer.” According to W.L.C., Morrow repeatedly stated that the petitioners had fired a weapon while the truck was stopped at the intersection, and the petitioners denied doing so. R.J.J. testified that Morrow first accused the petitioners of shooting a pistol at a stop sign, but that then Morrow “kind of changed it” and asked “where was the deer, and things of that nature.” R.J.J. testified that Morrow asked where the pistol was and that R. J.J. said that they had a rifle. W.L.C. testified that Morrow asked the petitioners if they had a gun in the vehicle and that the petitioners said that they did. Morrow told the petitioners that he was going to call the sheriffs department.

The petitioners unlocked the gate and drove up to the cabin. They locked the gate behind them to prevent Morrow from following them. From outside the gate, Morrow could see movement and “lights where they were going in and out” of the cabin, but he could not make out what the petitioners were doing. W.L.C. testified that he and the other petitioners were unloading the groceries from the truck and placing them inside the cabin. Morrow said that the petitioners remained in or around the cabin for 30 minutes.

While the petitioners were at the cabin, Morrow contacted Lowndes County Sheriff John Williams, who dispatched two deputies to the cabin. Before the deputies arrived, the petitioners pulled the truck up to the gate as if to leave. Morrow blocked the gate and told the petitioners that they could not leave until the sheriff deputies arrived. Deputy Reginald McKitt and Deputy Andrew Bryant were the deputies who responded to the scene. Deputy McKitt testified that approximately 30 minutes had passed from the time he was dispatched until he arrived at the cabin. Morrow told Deputy McKitt that he had heard gunshots coming from the petitioners’ truck when the truck was stopped on Brown Hill Road. Deputy McKitt asked the petitioners if there was a weapon in the truck, and they confirmed that there was. Deputy McKitt asked for permission to search the truck, and the petitioners consented to the search.

Deputy McKitt discovered W.F.’s unloaded rifle, with no magazine inserted, in the rear floorboard of the truck. Although Morrow testified that the rifle was equipped with a flash suppressor, R.J.J. said that the rifle did not have a flash suppressor but that it did have “a compensator that reduces kick.” The deputies testified that the rifle smelled as though it had been cleaned with cleaning fluid, and Morrow opined that the rifle had been “freshly wiped down with a solvent.” W.L.C. testified that the rifle was not cleaned that night.

Deputy McKitt testified that he could not determine if the weapon had been fired recently. He further testified that he did not find a magazine in the truck. However, R.J.J. and W.L.C. testified that the magazine was in the truck and that the magazine contained tracer rounds. According to W.L.C., “tracers are a phosphorous tip that, when shot from a gun, it glows. You can see it travel like a line through the sky—through the air, especially at night.” Morrow testified that he had not seen the alleged shots.

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Related

W.F. v. State
214 So. 3d 1168 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, 2015)

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Bluebook (online)
214 So. 3d 1153, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wf-v-state-ala-2015.