Bufford v. State, 2 Div. 231
| Decision Date | 26 February 1980 |
| Docket Number | 2 Div. 231 |
| Citation | 382 So.2d 1162 |
| Parties | Charles Lee BUFFORD v. STATE |
| Court | Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals |
J.L. Chestnut, Jr. of Chestnut, Sanders & Sanders, Selma, for appellant.
Charles A. Graddick, Atty. Gen., J. Anthony McLain, Spec. Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellee.
The appellant was indicted and tried for the capital felony of robbery when the victim was intentionally killed by the defendant. The jury found him guilty and fixed punishment at death. After a separate hearing on aggravating and mitigating circumstances, the trial judge accepted the penalty as fixed by the jury and sentenced him accordingly.
On Saturday, April 30, 1977, the appellant was a state prisoner in the Wilcox County Jail and was classified as being on "work release" status. Between 7:00 and 7:30 that morning, he was released into the custody of the victim, Roland Cooper, the Probate Judge of Wilcox County. The appellant worked around the Cooper home most of the day, cutting grass and doing other minor jobs. Late that afternoon Cooper and the appellant drove to a garden located about a mile from the residence. They were in Cooper's blue station wagon, commonly known as a Jeep Wagoneer. Cooper's son saw his father and the appellant driving to the garden around 5:00 p.m.
Deputy Sheriff Bobby Young and Walter Sheffield discovered the body of Cooper some time after 8:00 p.m. on that date. They had gone to the garden looking for the missing victim and had found blood and "drag marks" in the freshly plowed ground. They followed the marks and found the body of Cooper in a wooded area, "face down with his hands tied behind him." The body was partially covered with leaves and limbs.
There were several wounds to the head of the body, and it was determined that death was caused by "acute intercranial hemorrhage ... subsequent to massive fracturing of the skull." The wounds were described by Richard Roper, a State Toxicologist, as having been made by "an instrument which would have some type of cutting edge ... which could also deliver a substantial blow of crushing force to the skull." The death weapon was an 18-inch iron or steel bar normally used as a depth gauge on the rear of a garden tiller and described as a "tiller guide bar."
The victim's billfold was found about midway between where the blood stains were and the garden entrance. Three of the victim's credit cards were found about twenty feet from where the billfold was found. The victim usually carried $150 to $200 in his billfold, according to his wife. His post office box key, which he kept in his billfold, was found on the front seat of the jeep the next day when his son retrieved the vehicle from the Selma Police Department.
Around 6:00 p.m. on May 30, Chester Gregory, an acquaintance of Cooper, saw the appellant driving the victim's jeep toward Selma. Joy Snell, another witness, observed a young black male driving the victim's vehicle toward Selma at approximately the same time. Neither witness saw Cooper in the vehicle. Later Selma Police Officer Joseph McGrew stopped and arrested the appellant for driving while intoxicated at about 8:20 p.m. in Selma. The appellant was driving the blue Jeep Wagoneer registered to the victim. The vehicle was taken to the police station and locked, and the appellant was placed in the rear seat of the police car and taken to jail.
Officer McGrew testified that he read the appellant the Miranda warning upon taking him into custody. After laying a proper Miranda and voluntariness predicate, the witness testified that upon radioing the vehicle tag number to headquarters and receiving a reply that it was registered to Roland Cooper, the appellant volunteered that Cooper was his "boss man." The appellant further stated that Cooper was out at the Selma mall, and he was trying to find his way back there to pick him up.
Selma Police Officer Ernest Dufour was on duty the night in question. He drove the Jeep Wagoneer back to the police station and turned the keys over to his captain. He observed the appellant in the patrol car and at the scene of the arrest as well as at the police station. After proper Miranda and voluntariness predicates were laid, a statement made by the appellant to Officer Dufour that night was admitted into evidence:
At 11:00 p.m. on the date in question, Selma Police Officer Larry Hart took over the police car which Officer McGrew had used to transport the appellant to jail. As he was going off his shift at 7:00 a.m. the next morning, he discovered on the rear floorboard $106, a black comb, and a silver key. The key was identified by the victim's son as being to the county radio system used in the victim's vehicle. At the time of the appellant's booking, he had in his possession $40.35 and a set of keys to the Jeep Wagoneer.
At 10:15 p.m. on April 30, the appellant signed a "Statement of Rights Form" in the presence of Captain James Foster of the Selma Police Department. After laying proper predicates as to the voluntariness of the appellant's statement and as to the Miranda warning, Captain Foster testified concerning his questioning of the appellant. He said that the appellant told him Cooper was "at the cabin." The appellant said Cooper came to the jail and picked him up that morning to cut grass at his cabin. That afternoon they went to the garden to plant some corn. He said Cooper cursed him for planting the corn wrong and began showing him how to plant it properly. From the record:
The shirt and trousers which the appellant was wearing on April 30 were turned over to the state crime lab on may 1, and human blood was found on both garments. A latent thumbprint of the appellant was found on the left rear door handle of the jeep. Two brown paper bags found inside on the front floorboard of the vehicle contained fingerprints and a palmprint of the appellant.
When the State rested its case in chief, the defense announced "Charles Bufford rests," whereupon both sides commenced closing arguments to the jury. No motion to exclude the State's evidence was filed at that time, and no request for the affirmative charge was made.
The Alabama capital felony statute is constitutional. Jacobs v. State, Ala.Cr.App., 361 So.2d 607 (1977), affirmed, Ala., 361 So.2d 640 (1978), cert. denied, 439 U.S. 1122, 99 S.Ct. 1034, 59 L.Ed.2d 83 (1979); Clements v. State, Ala.Cr.App., 370 So.2d 708, affirmed in part, reversed in part on another ground, Ala., 370 So.2d 723 (1978); Watters v. State, Ala.Cr.App., 369 So.2d 1262, reversed on other grounds, Ala., 369 So.2d 1272, on remand, 369 So.2d 1275 (1978); Colley v. State, Ala.Cr.App. [Ms. September 4, 1979]; Evans v. State, Ala.Cr.App., 361 So.2d 654, affirmed in part, reversed in part on another...
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