Capote v. State

Decision Date10 January 2020
Docket NumberCR-17-0963
Parties Peter CAPOTE v. STATE of Alabama
CourtAlabama Court of Criminal Appeals

Lindsey Mussleman Davis of Holt Mussleman, Morgan & Alvis, Florence, for appellant.

Steve Marshall, atty. gen., and Christopher R. Reader, asst. atty. gen., for appellee.

WINDOM, Presiding Judge.

Peter Capote appeals his convictions for one count of capital murder and one count of first-degree assault.1 Capote was convicted of one count of murder made capital for taking the life of Ki-Jana Freeman through the use of a deadly weapon while Freeman was in a vehicle, see § 13A-5-40(a)(17), Ala. Code 1975, and one count of first-degree assault for causing serious physical injury to Tyler Blythe, see § 13A-6-20, Ala. Code 1975. The jury recommended, by a vote of 10-2, that Capote be sentenced to death for his capital-murder conviction. The circuit court accepted the jury's recommendation and sentenced Capote to death. Capote was sentenced to 20 years in prison for his assault conviction.

In early 2016 Thomas Hubbard was the leader of the gang Almighty Imperial Gangsters. That gang consisted of Hubbard, Capote, Benjamin Young, De'Vontae Bates, Austin Hammonds, Michael Blackburn, and Trey Hamm. On February 28, 2016, Hubbard's residence was burglarized. Several items were taken during the burglary, including Hamm's Xbox video-game console. Hubbard informed the gang that he was going to find out who had burglarized his house and kill him or her.

Hammonds and Bates learned that Ki-Jana Freeman was selling an Xbox in an online marketplace. They suggested to Hubbard that Freeman might have been the person that had stolen Hamm's Xbox. The gang held a meeting and decided to kill Freeman if he was responsible for the burglary. The gang formulated a plan in which Hammonds would meet with Freeman to determine if the Xbox Freeman was selling was the one that had been stolen during the burglary. Hammonds contacted Freeman via an instant message on the social-media Web site Facebook, asking if Freeman had a green, Halo Edition Xbox for sale. Freeman and Hammonds exchanged several messages about the Xbox, but they never met to conduct a transaction. Hammonds, though, represented to Hubbard that he had met with Freeman, telling Hubbard that he thought the Xbox Freeman was selling was the one stolen during the burglary.2

On March 1, 2016, Bates contacted Freeman, purportedly seeking to purchase acid, a hallucinogenic drug. Bates and Freeman agreed to meet at 10:00 p.m. at the Spring Creek Apartments. Bates did not go to the apartment complex; instead, Capote, Young, Hubbard, and Hamm went to the complex in a white truck and waited for Freeman to arrive. Bates sent a text message to Freeman asking him for his location and what kind of vehicle he was driving. Freeman responded that he was about to arrive at the apartment complex and that he was driving a blue Ford Mustang automobile. Bates relayed Freeman's response to his fellow gang members in the truck. When he arrived at the apartment complex, Freeman parked his Mustang in the back parking lot near a dumpster. The white truck pulled behind Freeman. Young and Capote got out of the truck and began firing their weapons at the Mustang. After firing multiple rounds, Young and Capote got back in the truck and left. Freeman was shot multiple times and was pronounced dead shortly after arriving at the hospital. Tyler Blythe, Freeman's friend who had ridden with Freeman to the apartment complex, was shot 13 times but survived his injuries.

During the investigation, law-enforcement officers obtained a video from surveillance cameras at the apartment complex that had recorded the shooting. Hammonds and Bates identified Capote as one of the shooters in the video. Shawn Settles, Hubbard's cellmate at the county jail, gained Hubbard's trust and learned the location of an assault rifle used in the shooting. Settles told law-enforcement officers where they could find the rifle, which led to its recovery. Testing of the rifle and the bullets established that the rifle had been used in the shooting.

Standard of Review

This Court has explained:

" ‘When evidence is presented ore tenus to the trial court, the court's findings of fact based on that evidence are presumed to be correct,’ Ex parte Perkins, 646 So. 2d 46, 47 (Ala. 1994) ; [w]e indulge a presumption that the trial court properly ruled on the weight and probative force of the evidence,’ Bradley v. State, 494 So. 2d 750, 761 (Ala. Crim. App. 1985), aff'd, 494 So. 2d 772 (Ala. 1986) ; and we make "all the reasonable inferences and credibility choices supportive of the decision of the trial court." Kennedy v. State, 640 So. 2d 22, 26 (Ala. Crim. App. 1993), quoting Bradley, 494 So. 2d at 761."

State v. Hargett, 935 So. 2d 1200, 1203 (Ala. Crim. App. 2005). A circuit court's "ruling on a question of law[, however,] carries no presumption of correctness, and this Court's review is de novo." Ex parte Graham, 702 So. 2d 1215, 1221 (Ala. 1997). Thus, " "[w]hen the trial court improperly applies the law to the facts, no presumption of correctness exists as to the court's judgment." " Ex parte Jackson, 886 So. 2d 155, 159 (Ala. 2004) (quoting State v. Hill, 690 So. 2d 1201, 1203 (Ala. 1996), quoting in turn Ex parte Agee, 669 So. 2d 102, 104 (Ala. 1995) ).

Further, because Capote has been sentenced to death, according to Rule 45A, Ala. R. App. P., this Court must search the record for "plain error." 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."

(Emphasis added.)

In Ex parte Brown, 11 So. 3d 933 (Ala. 2008), the Alabama Supreme Court explained:

" "To rise to the level of plain error, the claimed error must not only seriously affect a defendant's ‘substantial rights,’ but it must also have an unfair prejudicial impact on the jury's deliberations." Ex parte Bryant, 951 So. 2d 724, 727 (Ala. 2002) (quoting Hyde v. State, 778 So. 2d 199, 209 (Ala. Crim. App. 1998) ). In United States v. Young, 470 U.S. 1, 15, 105 S.Ct. 1038, 84 L.Ed.2d 1 (1985), the United States Supreme Court, construing the federal plain-error rule, stated:
" ‘The Rule authorizes the Courts of Appeals to correct only "particularly egregious errors," United States v. Frady, 456 U.S. 152, 163, 102 S.Ct. 1584, 71 L.Ed.2d 816 (1982), those errors that "seriously affect the fairness, integrity or public reputation of judicial proceedings," United States v. Atkinson, 297 U.S. [157] at 160, 56 S.Ct. 391, 80 L.Ed. 555 [(1936)]. In other words, the plain-error exception to the contemporaneous-objection rule is to be "used sparingly, solely in those circumstances in which a miscarriage of justice would otherwise result." United States v. Frady, 456 U.S. 152, at 163, n. 14., 102 S.Ct. 1584, 71 L.Ed.2d 816 (1982)
"See also Ex parte Hodges, 856 So. 2d 936, 947-48 (Ala. 2003) (recognizing that plain error exists only if failure to recognize the error would ‘seriously affect the fairness or integrity of the judicial proceedings,’ and that the plain-error doctrine is to be ‘used sparingly, solely in those circumstances in which a miscarriage of justice would otherwise result’ (internal quotation marks omitted))."

11 So. 3d at 938. "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." Hall v. State, 820 So. 2d 113, 121 (Ala. Crim. App. 1999), aff'd, 820 So. 2d 152 (Ala. 2001). Although Capote's failure to object at trial will not bar this Court from reviewing any issue, it will weigh against any claim of prejudice. See Dill v. State, 600 So. 2d 343 (Ala. Crim. App. 1991), aff'd, 600 So. 2d 372 (Ala. 1992).

I.

Capote argues that the circuit court improperly admitted lay-opinion testimony from Capote's codefendants on the ultimate issue in the case -- the identity of the shooter. Bates and Hammonds identified Capote as the shooter when they watched the surveillance video from the apartment complex, and they both testified at trial that Capote was the shooter in the video. Capote claims that neither codefendant was present at the apartment complex during the shooting and that they lacked personal knowledge of the shooting as required under Rule 701, Ala. R. Evid. Capote also contends that this evidence was improperly admitted through the hearsay testimony of Investigator Wes Holland. Capote did not raise these claims below. Consequently, they will be reviewed for plain error only. See Rule 45A, Ala. R. App. P.

Rule 704, Ala. R. Evid., states that "[t]estimony in the form of an opinion or inference otherwise admissible is to be excluded if it embraces an ultimate issue to be decided by the trier of fact." "An ultimate issue has been defined as the last question that must be determined by the jury. See Black's Law Dictionary (5th ed. 1991)." Tims v. State, 711 So. 2d 1118, 1125 (Ala. Crim. App. 1997). Rule 701, Ala. R. Evid., states that "[i]f the witness is not testifying as an expert, the witness's testimony in the form of opinions or inferences is limited to those opinions or inferences which are (a) rationally based on the perception of the witness and (b) helpful to a clear understanding of the witness's testimony or the determination of a fact in issue."

This Court was confronted with a similar situation in Hardy v. State, 804 So. 2d 247 (Ala. Crim. App. 1999), wherein this Court addressed the admissibility of testimony from several witnesses who identified the defendant as the gunman shown in the store's surveillance...

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