Bridges v. State, 7 Div. 712

• Decision Date: 30 June 1987
• Docket Number: 7 Div. 712
• Citation: 516 So.2d 895
• Parties: Jefferson Douglas BRIDGES v. STATE.
• Court: Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals

Page 895

516 So.2d 895

Jefferson Douglas BRIDGES v. STATE.

7 Div. 712.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama.

June 30, 1987.

Rehearing Denied Sept. 8, 1987.

Certiorari Denied Nov. 20, 1987

Alabama Supreme Court 86-1576.

Roy Giddens, Talladega, for appellant.

Don Siegelman, Atty. Gen., and Jane LeCroy Brannan, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellee.

McMILLAN, Judge.

The appellant, Jefferson Douglas Bridges, was found guilty of the offense of murder in the first degree and was sentenced to life in the penitentiary. The offense was allegedly committed on September 9, 1974, and the appellant was arraigned on December 6, 1984; the trial began January 28, 1985. Thereafter, this court reversed and remanded the case for a new trial in an opinion authored by Judge Leigh M. Clark which found that the trial court committed prejudicial error by overruling the appellant's motion for continuance, 487 So.2d 1012. The appellant was again found guilty of first degree murder and was again sentenced to life imprisonment.

Dennis E. Surrett testified that he was employed by the City of Talladega Police Department in 1984 and 1985. In late 1984, he received some information from Wayne Jones, a confidential informant, concerning a conversation that Jones had had with the appellant wherein the appellant admitted murdering Harold Purvis Davidson. Surrett thereafter borrowed some equipment from the Birmingham office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and with it he "wired" Wayne Jones. Wayne Jones was instructed to turn the unit on at the appropriate time and that the unit would last for approximately three and a half hours to three hours and forty-five minutes. He was further directed to engage the appellant in conversation about Harold Purvis Davidson, the victim. However, Jones was not instructed to elicit from the appellant any specific information regarding the victim. The TIP Fund agreed to pay Wayne Jones approximately $1,525.00 or $1,550.00 in return "for this and some other things."

Surrett, on cross-examination, testified that Wayne Jones did not appear to have been drinking when he was wired with the first tape; however, when Jones returned that afternoon to be wired for the second tape, Surrett testified that he smelled of alcoholic beverages. Surrett further testified that, from listening to the tape, it appeared that the two men were drinking beer and that in the second tape there was a conversation concerning some marijuana. Specifically, the conversation concerning the marijuana occurred when the two men were stopped by an officer with the Talladega Police Department, who wrote the appellant a ticket for driving while his license was revoked.

Surrett testified, on re-direct examination, that once the recording device was turned on the device was never turned off. The taped conversations occurred while Mr. Jones and the appellant were riding in a car. However, they were still engaged in conversation at the time the tape ended. The second tape was subsequently sent to Washington, D.C., in order for the F.B.I. to improve its quality.

Following the testimony of Dennis Surrett, the prosecutor moved to admit certain portions of the first tape. The prosecutor informed the court that there were portions of the tape that contained some objectionable material and he suggested that they go through the tapes and let the defense counsel make objections to the portions which he found objectionable. The prosecutor further stated that the defense counsel had indicated that he wished to offer all of the tapes and that such was satisfactory with the State. The defense counsel responded that he did not want any of the tapes offered and objected to the tapes being played.

Thereafter, the court conducted a hearing outside the presence of the jury. Wayne Jones testified that he was wired with the recorder while he and the appellant were driving around, drinking beer and talking. He testified that the appellant told him that Jackie Oglesby and he had gone to a store in order to buy some beer on credit from Harold Purvis Davidson. Jones further testified that the appellant told him that he robbed Davidson and shot him in the back of the head after Davidson refused to sell the appellant beer on credit. He also testified that the appellant stated that, "[i]f there ain't no witnesses, that murder is the easiest thing in the world to get away with." Jones identified the appellant in court as the man who had admitted killing the victim. Jones testified, on cross-examination, that both the appellant and he had drunk a good deal of beer, but that only their wives, who had been in the car earlier, had smoked marijuana.

Officer Donnie Canada testified that he stopped Wayne Jones and the appellant on the night in question because a taillight lens was broken. He then wrote the appellant a ticket for driving while his license was revoked. He further testified that, in his opinion, the appellant did not appear intoxicated although Wayne Jones did appear intoxicated.

The appellant then took the stand and testified that he was "pretty well drunk" on the day in question. He further testified that he and Wayne Jones smoked some marijuana which Wayne Jones was carrying in his car. He further testified that Wayne Jones bought the beer that they were drinking. He stated that he remembered Officer Canada stopping him, but when the defense counsel asked the appellant whether he was "so intoxicated as not to remember or appreciate what you are saying" the appellant replied, "Some of it, yeah. I was pretty well drunk." The appellant further testified that Wayne Jones continually questioned him about the Davidson murder and that he told Wayne Jones that he did not do it.

The court indicated on several occasions that the remainder of the tapes would be admitted into evidence if the defense counsel so moved. The defense counsel stated that he did not wish to offer any of the tapes. Thereafter, the trial court determined that any portion of the tape which the State attempted to offer into evidence that did not relate to the Davidson murder would be omitted upon objection from defense counsel. The court then went through a transcribed copy of the portion of the tape to be admitted, page by page, and omitted the statements objected to by the defense counsel. Subsequently, the portions of the tape sought to be admitted by the State were played to the jury.

Jackie Oglesby then testified that on September 9, 1974, he was riding around with the appellant and that on that day they went to Purvis Davidson's store on two occasions. The prosecutor claimed surprise when Oglesby's testimony became extremely inconsistent with his testimony at the appellant's previous trial. Jackie Oglesby then claimed the Fifth Amendment privilege. Oglesby's attorney then testified that, in relation to this case, Oglesby had originally given a statement and that at his previous trial his testimony contradicted his earlier statement, which resulted in Oglesby's conviction for perjury. He also testified that he had been released pending his appeal. The prosecutor moved to admit Oglesby's statement from the previous trial on the basis that the present case was a retrial of the same issues and that the same parties and counsel were involved. The defense counsel objected, claiming that it would violate the appellant's right to cross-examine the witness. Thereafter, the statement was admitted into evidence.

I

The appellant argues that the trial court erred in overruling his motion to suppress tape-recorded statements made by the appellant. The appellant also argues, in conjunction with this issue, that the trial court erred in refusing to play the entire tape-recorded statements outside the presence of the jury prior to ruling on whether or not the statements should have been admitted into evidence. Further, the appellant argues that the statements "were involuntary and induced by a paid political informant who created a situation, with the tacit approval of police authorities, in which the defendant became intoxicated on drugs and alcohol provided by the informant." The appellant also contends that the conversations "were partial and unfinished, the informant made the decision on which conversations to record, thereby eliminating potentially favorable statements, the tape recording had been altered or changed by enhancement process, the tape contained filthy, obscene language, which this Honorable Court previously ruled was induced by the informant and would cause an unfavorable reaction by a jury toward the defendant." Although the appellant argues that the trial court erred in refusing to play the entire tape-recorded statements outside the presence of the jury before determining their admissibility, the record indicates that the trial court offered to admit the entire tapes into evidence upon the defense counsel's request. The defense counsel had had access to the tapes for over a year prior to trial.

"If a part of a conversation is adduced in evidence by the state as proving the defendant's declarations or confessions of guilt, the defendant has the right to call for the whole of what was said in that conversation relative to the subject matter of the issue. Chamber v. State, 26 Ala. 59 (1855); William v. State, 39 Ala. 532 (1865); Mullis v. State, 258 Ala. 309, 62 So.2d 451 (1953). The accused is entitled, on cross-examination, to bring out all that he said, at the same time and on the same subject. Parke v. State, 48 Ala. 266 (1872).

"However, the rule which frowns upon incomplete confessions is designed to cover cases where an accused, after admitting commission of the criminal act, is prevented from going further and saying anything which might explain or justify his act. William, supra; United States v. Wenzel, 311 F.2d 164 (4th Cir.1962); see generally 29 Am.Jur.2d 586, Evidence, § 535."

King v. State, 355 So.2d 1148, 1151 (Ala.Cr.App.1978). See also Ashford v. State, 472...