Shanklin v. State
| Decision Date | 19 December 2014 |
| Docket Number | CR–11–1441. |
| Citation | 187 So.3d 734 |
| Parties | Clayton Antwain SHANKLIN v. STATE of Alabama. |
| Court | Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals |
Alabama Supreme Court 1140922.
William C. White II, Clayton Rushing Tartt, and James Woodfin Parkman III, Birmingham, for appellant.
Luther Strange, atty. gen., and Lauren A. Simpson, asst. atty. gen., for appellee.
, Judge.
Clayton Antwain Shanklin was convicted of one count of capital murder for killing Michael Crumpton ("Michael") during the course of a first-degree robbery, see § 13A–5–40(a)(2), Ala.Code
1975; a second count of capital murder for killing Michael during the course of a first-degree burglary, see § 13A–5–40(a)(4), Ala.Code 1975, and one count of attempted murder for attempting to cause the death of Ashley Crumpton ("Ashley"), Michael's wife, see §§ 13A–4–2 and 13A–6–2, Ala.Code 1975. During the penalty phase of Shanklin's trial, the jury, by a vote of 12 to 0, recommended that Shanklin be sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. After receiving a presentence-investigation report and conducting a sentencing hearing, the circuit court overrode the jury's recommendation, finding that the aggravating circumstances "vastly outweigh[ed]" the mitigating circumstances, and sentenced Shanklin to death. Shanklin filed a motion for a new trial, which the circuit court denied. This appeal, which is automatic in a case involving the death penalty, followed. See § 13A–5–53, Ala.Code 1975. We affirm.
The evidence introduced at trial established the following: On October 11, 2009, Shanklin sent Tracy Ward, his girlfriend, a text message telling her that he wanted to "meet up" and smoke marijuana. Ward then drove to Parrish, to pick up Shanklin at his grandmother's house; she arrived at approximately 9:00 p.m. Ward and Shanklin then drove to Shanklin's mother's house and, thereafter, drove to the Warrior River Apartments in Cordova, because Ward was going to purchase marijuana from her long-time friend, Michael. Ward telephoned Michael and told him that she would be coming by his apartment to purchase marijuana. According to Ward, Shanklin had never been to Michael's apartment and he stayed in the vehicle when she went into Michael's apartment to purchase the marijuana.
When Ward entered Michael's apartment, she saw Michael, Ashley, Michael's mother, Lori Crumpton, and Michael's uncle, Lonnie Beard. Ward and Michael went into the master bedroom where Ward paid Michael $25 for one gram of marijuana. According to Ward, when Michael gave her the marijuana she observed more marijuana "in individual sacks" and also observed "a stack of cash." According to Ashley, when Ward and Michael returned from the master bedroom, Ward said, " ‘Y'all have a lot of money.’ " (R. 590.) Ward then left Michael's apartment and returned to her vehicle.
Ward and Shanklin left the apartment complex and, according to Ward, Shanklin asked her whom she had seen in the apartment, how much marijuana she had seen in the apartment, and what kind of marijuana she had seen in the apartment. Ward told Shanklin that she had seen "only a few sacks" of marijuana but that it was "hydro
," which, she said, means "a very high grade of marijuana." Ward told Shanklin that she had seen "a stack of money in there also." Ward and Shanklin returned to Parrish, where they went to an abandoned house and smoked the marijuana. Thereafter, Ward told Shanklin that she was going to go home; Shanklin, however, told Ward that he wanted to go to Jasper to pick up his cousin Kevin Shanklin ("Kevin"). Ward stated that she suspected that Shanklin and Kevin were going to rob Michael because Shanklin had mentioned "earlier that he wanted to go in there," presumably talking about Michael's apartment.
Ward then drove Shanklin to Kevin's house. Shanklin went inside Kevin's house where he remained for approximately 20 minutes; thereafter, both Shanklin and Kevin came out of Kevin's house and got into Ward's vehicle. Shanklin then told Ward that they wanted to go to "Jeremiah's" apartment—Jeremiah, like Michael, lived at the Warrior River Apartments. Ward then drove Shanklin and Kevin to the Warrior River Apartments and let them out in front of Jeremiah's apartment sometime "before midnight." According to Ward, Shanklin sent her approximately 100 text messages between 11:49 p.m. and 2:40 a.m. Although Ward stated that she knew what was going to happen, she did nothing to stop it.1
According to Ashley, after Ward left the apartment, the family continued to watch television. Around midnight Ashley decided to go to sleep in the master bedroom; Michael and Lonnie, however, stayed awake. At that time, Michael and Ashley's two-years-old and eight-months-old children were asleep in the bedroom they shared, which was adjacent to the master bedroom. Around 1:30 a.m., Ashley awoke and went outside to smoke a cigarette, and Michael joined her—Lonnie had already left the apartment. Michael and Ashley then went back inside the apartment, checked to make sure the doors were secured, and went to sleep in the master bedroom.
Thereafter, Ashley was awakened by voices, and she attempted to wake Michael but she noticed someone in the room. Ashley then lay back down because, she said, she "was going for [her] gun," which was normally kept under her pillow; her gun, however, was not there. Ashley then sat up in the bed, and the individual next to the bed pulled out a gun, which she described as a silver, revolver-type gun, and said, " ‘Bitch, don't move.’ " Ashley also saw a second individual at the foot of the bed. According to Ashley, the individual with the gun was wearing a ski mask and the individual at the foot of the bed was wearing a bandana, which, she said, covered only the bridge of his nose and his mouth. Ashley screamed at them to get out of the apartment.
At that time, the individual wearing the ski mask fired the gun, hitting her in the upper thigh. The individual wearing the ski mask then gave the gun to the individual wearing the bandana, who then "put[ ] the gun in [her] face and pull[ed] the trigger three times"; the gun, however, misfired, and he passed the gun back to the individual wearing the ski mask. While the gun was in her face, Ashley noticed that the individual wearing the bandana had "[l]ight skin ... [and] a scar on the right side of his face." (R. 609.) After the individual wearing the bandana handed the gun back to the individual wearing the ski mask, Ashley began fighting the individual wearing the bandana, and Michael awoke and began yelling at the two individuals.
According to Ashley, the two individuals also had in their possession "big and bulky looking" rocks, which, she said, appeared to be from the nearby railroad tracks. As Ashley was fighting the individual wearing the bandana, he struck her twice in the chest with the rock. Ashley, however, was able to "get the rock from his hand and start striking him with it." (R. 611.) Then the individual wearing the ski mask struck Michael on the head with a rock and the individual wearing the bandana escaped from Ashley and ran "back down the hallway." (R. 611.) Ashley then turned to help Michael fight the individual wearing the ski mask. According to Ashley, while Michael was facing the wall, the individual wearing the ski mask (R. 612.) Michael grabbed his back in pain, and the individual wearing the ski mask attempted to run out of the master bedroom. Ashley, however, grabbed him, trapped his head in the bedroom door, and "was hitting him with the door and his head against the wall." (R. 613.) Ashley then turned on the bedroom lights and, because the ski mask had come off during the struggle, Ashley saw the side of his face. While Ashley had the individual with the ski mask pinned in the doorway, Michael got up from the bedroom floor with a gun in his hand and told Ashley "to get out." At that point Ashley let go of the individual with the ski mask. According to Ashley, the individual with the ski mask ran down the hallway into the living room where the individual with the bandana was waiting, and the two left the apartment.
Ashley then went to Michael and they both walked down the hallway. Ashley then looked into her children's room and noticed that her children were both awake and in the eight-month-old's crib; Ashley explained that she did not know how the two-year-old ended up in the crib. Then, according to Ashley, the following occurred:
(R. 617–18.) Ashley could not find her telephone and told Michael that she was going to Karen Nicholson's apartment to telephone an ambulance. On the way to Nicholson's apartment, Ashley saw her upstairs neighbor, Steven Madison, and told him what had happened to Michael. Madison went to Michael's apartment to tend to Michael, and Ashley went to Nicholson's apartment to telephone an ambulance. When Ashley arrived at Nicholson's apartment, which, Nicholson stated, was around 3:00 a.m., Nicholson would not let Ashley leave because Nicholson "was afraid that [the intruders] were still on the grounds." Nicholson then telephoned 911.2
According to Madison, when he entered Michael's apartment he saw Michael "slumped over...
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