Boyle v. State

• Citation: 154 So.3d 171
• Decision Date: 29 March 2013
• Docket Number: CR–09–0822.
• Parties: Timothy Scott BOYLE v. STATE of Alabama.
• Court: Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals

154 So.3d 171

Timothy Scott BOYLE

v.STATE of Alabama.

CR–09–0822.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama.

March 29, 2013.

Rehearing Denied Sept. 27, 2013.

Certiorari Denied April 18, 2014

John Morgan Cunningham, Gadsden; and Bryan A. Stevenson, Angela Setzer, and Alicia A. D'Addario, Montgomery, for appellant.

Troy King and Luther Strange, attys. gen., and Kristi L. Deason Hagood, deputy atty. gen., and J. Clayton Crenshaw, asst. atty. gen., for appellee.

Opinion

BURKE, Judge.

The appellant, Timothy Scott Boyle, was convicted of murdering two-year-old Savannah White, an offense defined as capital by § 13A–5–40(a)(15), Ala.Code 1975, because the victim was under the age of 14 at the time of her death, and for possessing a controlled substance, a violation of § 13A–12–212(a)(1), Ala.Code 1975. The jury unanimously recommended that Boyle be sentenced to death on the capital-murder conviction. The circuit court followed the jury's recommendation and sentenced Boyle to death on his capital-murder conviction and to 10 years' imprisonment on his possession conviction. This appeal followed.

The State's evidence tended to show that on October 26, 2005, at around 6:30 a.m. Boyle brought Savannah to the emergency room of the Riverview Regional Medical Center. She was nonresponsive, had bruises on her forehead, had what appeared to be a cigarette burn on her foot, and had red marks around the front of her neck. Dr. James Lauridson, the forensic pathologist who conducted the autopsy on Savannah, testified that Savannah died as a result of cerebral edema, or brain swelling, from blunt-force trauma to her head, that Savannah's head injuries spanned the entire circumference of her head and that her brain swelled to such a degree that part of it broke off and pushed down into her spinal cord.

H.D.,¹ the nine-year-old sister of the victim, testified that she was five years old at the time of Savannah's death. About a week before Savannah's death, H.D. said, Boyle hit Savannah's head against the car door when he was putting her in her car seat because he was mad at Savannah. On the night before Savannah's death H.D. was taking a bath and Boyle came in the bathroom, threw her against the wall, and told her to leave.² She peeked through the door, H.D. said, and saw Boyle throw Savannah against the wall in the bathtub and dunk her head under the water several times. That night, H.D. said, Savannah cried for a long time and threw up all over the bed that H.D. and Savannah shared. H.D. testified that Boyle would not leave Savannah alone and that he came into their room throughout the night and told Savannah to go to sleep and when she would not he would slap her. The next morning, H.D. said, she was unable to wake Savannah. H.D. further testified that she never saw anyone but Boyle hit Savannah in the head. (R. 1384.)

Kim Parr testified that at the time of Savannah's death she lived next to the victim and her mother, Melissa White, at Rainbow Apartments in Rainbow City. She said that before White met Boyle, about three months before Savannah's death, White was a good mother but that that changed after Boyle came into her life. Parr said that when Boyle was around, Savannah would scream and that on October 20, 2005, when she was babysitting, she noticed what appeared to be a cigarette burn on Savannah's foot and bruises on her forehead. She asked Boyle how Savannah had been burned, Parr said, and he told her that he was holding Savannah and smoking a cigarette and that he accidentally burned her ankle when Savannah turned her head. Parr photographed Savannah's injuries and reported the injuries to the Department of Human Resources (“DHR”) a few days before Savannah's death. Parr said that she saw Savannah at around 9:00 p.m. on the night before her death and that she had a runny nose but otherwise seemed fine and did not appear to be injured. Parr further testified that early in the morning of October 26, 2005, Boyle telephoned her four times from the emergency room and asked her to remove drugs from the apartment—she declined to do so. The last time he telephoned, Parr said, Boyle was laughing because he told her the police were chasing him around the hospital. Parr testified that Boyle told her that he wanted her to remove the pills because he knew that DHR would investigate and he thought that White might lose her children.

Francina Lemons, a nurse at Riverview emergency room, testified that in the early morning hours of October 26, 2005, she observed Boyle outside the emergency room holding Savannah and pacing in front of the door. She said that she and a co-worker, Emily Millican, brought them into the emergency room. Lemons said that Savannah had red marks around the front of her neck, bruises on her forehead, and what appeared to be a cigarette burn on one of her feet. Lemons gave three accounts of what Boyle said about Savannah's injuries: First, Lemons said, Boyle told her that he could not get Savannah to wake up and he may have given her too much Tylenol brand pain reliever; second, Boyle said that he found Savannah hanging over her bed with a sheet wrapped around her neck and he had tried to revive her; and third, she overhead Boyle on the telephone saying that Savannah would not stop crying and he could not get her quiet.

Claude Burk, Savannah's maternal grandfather, testified that he and his wife frequently took care of Savannah and her sister on the weekends and that around a week before Savannah's death he noticed knots on the back of Savannah's head and a burn on her left foot. Burk said that he and his wife confronted Boyle about Savannah's injuries and he told them that he had accidentally hit Savannah's head on the roof of the car when he was putting her in her car seat and that he accidentally burned her foot with a cigarette when he was holding her and she turned.

Cathy Horton, a nurse at Riverview emergency room, testified that Savannah was not responsive when she was admitted, that she had marks on her hands and feet, that she had a bruise on her forehead, and that blood tests showed the presence of amphetamine in her system.

Sgt. Charles Clifton, with the Cherokee County Sheriff's office, testified that he searched the victim's residence after hospital personnel reported Savannah's injuries. He seized the sheets on Savannah's bed, he said, because they were stained with vomit. Sgt. Clifton also testified that he had been informed that Boyle had contacted a neighbor and asked her to remove some pills from the master bedroom, and as a result he seized various pills and a crack pipe from the apartment. Two pills were identified as oxycodone hydrochloride, a Schedule II controlled substance; 4 pills were identified as Clonazepam, a Schedule IV controlled substance; and 25 pills were identified as methylphenidate hydrochloride, a Schedule II controlled substance.

In his defense, Boyle presented the testimony of his cousin, Victoria Miller, who testified that she had been around Boyle and Savannah and that Savannah did not act like she was scared of Boyle. She also said that Boyle had been active in planning Savannah's birthday party just a few days before her death.

Steven Johnson, an Etowah County DHR caseworker, also testified for Boyle. Johnson said that he spoke with H.D. at the hospital immediately after Savannah was brought to the emergency room and that H.D. told him that Boyle threw Savannah in the bathtub and that he drowned her but she did not mention that Boyle had burned Savannah with a cigarette or that Boyle had slapped Savannah.

The jury convicted Boyle of murdering two-year-old Savannah. A separate sentencing hearing was held at which time the jury unanimously recommended that Boyle be sentenced to death. The circuit court followed the jury's recommendation and sentenced Boyle to death. This appeal, which is automatic in a case involving the death penalty, followed. See § 13A–5–53, Ala.Code 1975.

Standard of Review

Because Boyle has been sentenced to death, this Court must search the record of the trial proceedings for plain error. See Rule 45A, Ala. R.App. P. Rule 45A, states:

“In all cases in which the death penalty has been imposed, the Court of Criminal Appeals shall notice any plain error or defect in the proceedings under review, whether or not brought to the attention of the trial court, and take appropriate appellate action by reason thereof, whenever such error has or probably has adversely affected the substantial right of the appellant.”

In defining the scope of “plain error,” this Court in Hall v. State, 820 So.2d 113 (Ala.Crim.App.1999), stated:

“Plain error is defined as error that has ‘adversely affected the substantial right of the appellant.’ The standard of review in reviewing a claim under the plain-error doctrine is stricter than the standard used in reviewing an issue that was properly raised in the trial court or on appeal. As the United States Supreme Court stated in United States v. Young, 470 U.S. 1, 105 S.Ct. 1038, 84 L.Ed.2d 1 (1985), the plain-error doctrine applies only if the error is ‘particularly egregious' and if it ‘seriously affect[s] the fairness, integrity or public reputation of judicial proceedings.’ See Ex parte Price, 725 So.2d 1063 (Ala.1998), cert. denied, 526 U.S. 1133, 119 S.Ct. 1809, 143 L.Ed.2d 1012 (1999) ; Burgess v. State, 723 So.2d 742 (Ala.Cr.App.1997), aff'd, 723 So.2d 770 (Ala.1998), cert. denied, 526 U.S. 1052, 119 S.Ct. 1360, 143 L.Ed.2d 521 (1999) ; Johnson v. State, 620 So.2d 679, 701 (Ala.Cr.App.1992), rev'd on other grounds, 620 So.2d 709 (Ala.1993), on remand, 620 So.2d 714 (Ala.Cr.App.), cert. denied, 510 U.S. 905, 114 S.Ct. 285, 126 L.Ed.2d 235 (1993).”

820 So.2d at 121–22.

Boyle was convicted of both capital murder and the noncapital offense of possession of a controlled substance. The plain error standard of review does not apply to noncapital convictions. In Ex parte Woodall, 730 So.2d 652 (Ala.1998), the Alabama Supreme Court held that a defendant who is...