Brown v. State, 6 Div. 706
| Decision Date | 01 April 1975 |
| Docket Number | 6 Div. 706 |
| Citation | 314 So.2d 717,55 Ala.App. 264 |
| Parties | Charles BROWN, alias v. STATE. |
| Court | Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals |
Parker, Wilkinson & Purvis, Birmingham, for appellant.
William J. Baxley, Atty. Gen., Montgomery, and Quentin Q. Brown, Jr., Birmingham, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.
Robbery; twenty-five years.
On February 23, 1973, Harold Bulloch, manager of the A & P store on Carolina Avenue in Bessemer, Alabama, was working at one of the check-out counters. About 7:50 P.M., he observed a man push a grocery cart behind the counter and enter the check-out aisle with a package of trash bags. The man pulled one trash bag out and pointing a small revolver at Bulloch, said, 'Don't put it in there, put it in here.'
After collecting the money from the register drawer, the man told Bulloch to go to the office and to, 'Hurry, hurry, or you'll going to be the first one I am going to kill.' As Bulloch was escorted to the office, he noticed there were three men involved in the robbery. Approximately $3,000., was removed from the safe and placed in the sack. The police were called within two minutes after the robbers fled.
During the trial, Bulloch positively identified appellant as the man who held the revolver on him and made him open the safe.
After the robbery, Officer B. E. Shew of the Bessemer Police Department talked to Bulloch and received the shopping cart with some items in it. This evidence was taken to J. W. Griffin, an identification officer who removed latent prints from the cart in Shew's presence. These prints were then mailed by Shew to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
At the trial, Officer Shew identified the FBI report regarding these prints and stated it was kept in his files as part of the investigative record of the case.
When appellant was arrested on April 3, 1973, he told Officer Shew he had never been in the A & P store an Carolina Avenue.
J. W. Griffin, an officer with twenty-six years experience in fingerprint identification testified he compared the latent prints from the car with fingerprints he made of appellant on the date of his arrest. It was his opinion that the latent prints taken from the cart were those of appellant.
Appellant testified that at the time of the robbery, he was at home with his wife and had been confined to bed because of a gunshot wound. He denied being in the A & P store or seeing Mr. Bulloch.
It was appellant's wife's testimony that her husband was home on the date of the robbery, and she remembered the date because she was to accompany her sister to a party. Her husband however, was feeling ill and she did not go. Robert LeRoy Brown, appellant's brother, came to their home that night and gave them money collected from appellant's fellow-employees.
The testimony of Robert LeRoy Brown was substantially the same as that of appellant's wife.
Appellant contends the introduction of this fingerprint report from the Federal Bureau of Investigation was error:
FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION
Washington, D.C.
A AND P SUPERMARKET
BESSEMER, ALABAMA
FEBRUARY 23, 1973
ROBBERY
'Reference: Letter March 14, 1973
Examination Requested by: Addressee
Specimens: Ten lifts
'Copies of fingerprints of Charles Willie Brown, FBI #24241H; James Arthur Middleton, FBI #76417J11; and Randolph Austin, FBI #83404J2
Ten latent fingerprints and one latent palm print of value are present on five of the lifts. The latent impressions on the remaining lifts are of no value. See the attached page for the results of the comparisons of the ten latent fingerprints with the fingerprints of Brown.
There are no palm prints contained in our identification division files for Brown, Middleton or Austin.
L. Patrick Gray, III
Acting Director'
'Mr. George W. Barron
Photographs of the latent palm print have been prepared for our files and will be available for comparison with any inked palm prints that you may wish to submit for this purpose.
The specimens and your mail envelope are enclosed.
Should you desire the assistance of one of the FBIs Fingerprint Experts in the trial of this case, a current set of inked fingerprints of Brown, signed by an official who will be available to testify at the trial, should accompany or be submitted prior to any request for testimony. We should be notified in ample time to make the necessary arrangements. This report should be used, however, if legal considerations permit, in lieu of the appearance of our expert in any pre-trial action such as a preliminary hearing or grand jury hearing. Our representative cannot be made available to testify if any other fingerprint expert is to present testimony on the same point, that is, that the impressions in question are identical.
Enclosures (14)
LC #A--68499.'
Ten latent fingerprints present on four lifts submitted in connection with the robbery of the A and P Supermarket, 1731 Carolina Avenue, Bessemer, Alabama, on February 23, 1973, have been identified as fingerprints of Brown.'
Appellant insists the report was hearsay and should not have been allowed without authentication or the right to cross-examine the custodian of the report.
Counsel for appellant argues that its introduction was in violation of the procedure proscribed in T. 7., § 428, Code of Alabama, and relies for support on Parham v. State, 34 Ala.App. 408, 40 So.2d 644. There a record showing the...
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