Coleman v. State
| Decision Date | 09 May 1963 |
| Docket Number | 2 Div. 434 |
| Citation | 276 Ala. 513,164 So.2d 704 |
| Parties | John COLEMAN v. STATE of Alabama. |
| Court | Alabama Supreme Court |
Orzell Billingsley, Jr., Birmingham, for appellant.
Richmond M. Flowers, Atty. Gen., and Dwight W. Bradley, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellee.
John 'Big Time' Coleman, a Negro, was indicted, tried and convicted of murder in the first degree of one John D. 'Screwdriver' Johnson, a white mechanic, and his punishment was fixed at death. The appeal is taken pursuant to the automatic appeal statutes, § 382(1) et seq., Title 15, Code of Ala.1940.
'Screwdriver' Johnson was killed on Wednesday, August 30, 1961, while returning to his home in Eutaw, Alabama about 9:15 in the evening. The cause of death was a shotgun wound on the left side of the chest entering the heart. The apparent motive was robbery, as a billfold which Johnson habitually carried was not found on the body; only the leather strap was attached to his belt. The decedent's body was found in the street in frount of his home by a passerby in an automobile. A screwdriver was found in decedent's hand, with which he had probably tried to defend himself. There were four shots fired, two hitting the deceased. Number five shot were removed from the body and a nearby building. Four shotgun shells, 12 gauge Red Western Super X brand, number five shot were found in decedent's back yard and were sent to the State Toxicologist.
Some ten unfired shotgun shells of the same brand and type as the other four were found underneath an abandoned building across the street from decedent's house, along with a piece of minnow seine which the State contended appellant had used to mask his face. Another piece of seine was found on a barbed wire fence to the rear of decedent's house. These were all sent to the Toxicologist for examination. About the piece of minnow seine found underneath the abandoned house were men's footprints made by a person wearing a narrow pointed shoe. Appellant wore this type shoe at the trial.
Banks & Company, a retail store in Eutaw, had been burglarized on the day before the killing. On the preceding Staturday appellant had escaped jail in Eutaw. There was testimony that a Negro about the size of appellant was seen behined the building and other testimony that appellant was seen in front of the building the night of the burglary. Among the items missing from the store was a 12 gauge Browning automatic shotgun, 30 inch barrel, full choke, standard grade, and shotgun shells of the same brand and type as were found near decedent's home. Certain items of clothing were found missing, including a shirt and sport coats. A button was found near the rear window of the store, which had apparently been pulled from the clothing worn by the burglar in entering the window. The button was sent to the State Toxicologist for examination.
Prior to August, 1961, appellant had on two or three different occasions worked for the proprietor of a minnow pond located on the Tuscaloosa Highway. On or about August 30, 1961, a small building near the pond was entered and a piece of net was cut from one of the minnow seines. It was later determined that two pieces, the one found underneath the building and the other found on the barbed wire fence, perfectly matched the larger piece. A loud sport shirt with the second button missing was found near the pond. Also found was a collar board, the type used to hold new shirts, and a tag used to mark and identify the size of new pants.
The shirt with the missing button, found near the pond, was one of two, of medium size sold by Banks & Company during the year and nowhere within a one hundred mile radius of Eutaw were such shirts sold by any other. Two witnesses testified that they had seen appellant wearing a shirt of this type during the summer. The shirt, of very striking colors, was apparently bought by appellant along with a pair of khaki pants from Banks & Company and were charged to someone for whom appellant had worked. The charge ticket for these two items was entered into evidence.
Another shirt and two sport coats of the type stolen from Banks & Company were found in appellant's possession when he was arrested in Cleveland, Ohio. Appellant claimed he had paid cash at Banks & Company for the items, but none of the sales personnel remembered such a transaction with appellant. Also found in his suitcase was a pair of khaki pants. All of this clothing was sent to the State Toxicologist.
Appellant when asked where he procured the money for travel to Cleveland, stated that he had won most of it in a crap game with two other Negroes. These persons, however, testified that at no time during August, 1961 had they given appellant any money, nor had he won any money from them in a crap game.
Certain checks which the decedent or his wife had cashed for appellant were entered into evidence, being identified by the cashier of the local bank.
Dr. Nelson Grubbs, State Toxicologist, who aided in the investigation of this case is to be commended for his able scidentific preparation of the evidence for presentation at trial. His testimony seems to tie up the vast web of circumstantial evidence, which if believed by the jury, would point, without doubt, to the guilt of appellant.
Dr. Grubbs testified that he examined the four shotgun shells which had been fired, and in his opinion, based on test firings of shotguns in his laboratory, the shells had been fired from a new browning automatic shotgun, standard grade. The shot, which were removed from decedent's body, were also examined and determined to be number five Western Super X shot.
The pieces of minnow seine were determined by Dr. Grubbs to have been cut from a larger piece discovered at the minnow pond. The missing button was determined to have been pulled from the shirt found at the pond; the fibres under the button were the same as the fibres of the shirt and the thread size was identical.
In the pocket of this shirt were found light and dark blue fibres, wood chips, some of which contained a green stain (determined to be coppertox), and an eyelash with purple mascara, nylon fibres of the same type the seine, and some traces of carnauba wax of the type used for coating shotgun shells. The unfired shells were examined and found thereon were light and dark blue fibres, wood chips with the green coppertox stain, purple mascara, and also the nylon fibres of the same type as the seine. In the opinion of Dr. Grubbs, the shells had at one time been contained in the pocket of the shirt. The shirt, which ovidently was purchased from Banks & Company by appellant, was apparently the same shirt which witnesses had testified they saw appellant wear. As stated, it was in evidence that the shirt was very 'loud' and that there had been only two of the same size within a one-hundred-mile radius.
Dr. Grubbs further testified that upon examination of a sport coat of the same type as that stolen from Banks & Company, and found in appellant's possession in Cleveland, he found in the pocket: eyelashes with purple mascara, wood chips with coppertox, and that these items were chemically identical to those same items found in the shirt pocket and on the shotgun shells. The wood chips were evenly cut and appeared to have been produced by cutting wood with a high speed tool.
Dr. Grubbs determined the khaki pants found in appellant's suitcase in Cleveland to be of the type khaki normally used as work pants, and that the tag found at the minnow pond perfectly matched the...
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