Agee v. State, 6 Div. 264
| Decision Date | 12 February 1985 |
| Docket Number | 6 Div. 264 |
| Citation | 470 So.2d 1331 |
| Parties | Lonnie Dale AGEE v. STATE. |
| Court | Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals |
Virginia A. Vinson and Charles M. Purvis, Birmingham, for appellant.
Charles A. Graddick, Atty. Gen., and Louis C. Colley, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellee.
Appellant Lonnie Dale Agee was indicted by the Jefferson County Grand Jury for arson in the first degree in violation of § 13A-8-41, Code of Alabama, 1975. The appellant entered a plea of not guilty at his arraignment. On April 18, 1983, the appellant was tried by a jury. The jury returned a verdict of guilty as charged in the indictment and the trial judge subsequently imposed punishment of life imprisonment and fixed restitution in the amount of $50,000.00. This appeal followed.
The New Spot Lounge, located in Birmingham, Jefferson County, Alabama, was damaged by a bomb explosion on June 11, 1982, at 4:45 a.m. Police investigators discovered that the bomb was detonated by way of a wire stretched from the bomb to a car battery some 392 feet outside the establishment. The connections to the bomb were secured with a type of electrical tape.
The electrical tape taken off the wires and connections of the bomb were submitted to a test in which cyanorcrylate ester was used to process latent fingerprints. Frank Kendall, a fingerprint expert with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, testified that he conducted the latent fingerprint process and compared the fingerprints found on the tape with the print of the right index finger of the appellant. The two prints matched.
Furthermore, Annette Wells, a witness called by the State, testified that prior to the explosion at the New Spot Lounge, the appellant had inquired as to her interest in making $10,000 by carrying a bomb into the lounge. Also, another witness, Mona Wells, testified that the appellant was with her the morning of the bombing, but left her presence about 3:30 a.m. and returned approximately 6:15 a.m. She also stated that the appellant asked her to testify differently at the trial about the times he was with her. Her testimony continued with her statement that she had seen an object in the appellant's garage that looked like a bomb. The appellant's attorney attempted to refute the testimony of both Annette Wells and Mona Wells by impeaching their testimony through cross-examination.
The State also called Clint Lawson as a witness and he testified that the appelllant had talked to him about the possibility of bombing a club near the airport. Lawson also stated that the appellant showed him a bomb and that he noticed cable wire near the bomb. The appellant's attorney once again tried to impeach the credibility of the State's witness through means of cross-examination.
The sole issue appellant presents for consideration on appeal is whether sufficient evidence was presented by the prosecution to sustain the conviction of first degree arson.
We are required to review evidence in a light that is most favorable to the State. Cumbo v. State, 368 So.2d 871 (Ala.Crim.App.), writ denied, Ex parte Cumbo, 368 So.2d 877 (Ala.1978); Barnes v. State, 429 So.2d 1114 (Ala.Crim.App.1982).
The test that must be applied is not whether the circumstantial evidence excluded every reasonable hypothesis of guilt, but, rather, whether a jury might reasonably find that the evidence excluded every reasonable hypothesis except that of guilt. Davis v. State, 418 So.2d 959 (Ala.Crim.App.1982); Jolly v. State, 395 So.2d 1135 (Ala.Crim.App. 1981); Dolvin v. State, 391 So.2d 133 (Ala.1980); Cumbo, supra. Furthermore, the use of circumstantial evidence will support the conviction of an accused as stoutly as direct evidence, provided the circumstantial evidence points to the guilt of the accused. Andrews v. State, 437 So.2d 661 (Ala.Crim.App. 1983); Davis, supra; Gullatt v. State, 409 So.2d 466 (Ala.Crim.App. 1981).
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