Cooper v. State

• Decision Date: 18 September 1992
• Docket Number: CR-91-952
• Parties: Thomas COOPER v. STATE.
• Court: Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals

Page 460

611 So.2d 460

Thomas COOPER v. STATE.

CR-91-952.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama.

Sept. 18, 1992.

Rehearing Denied Oct. 23, 1992.

Certiorari Denied Dec. 18, 1992

Alabama Supreme Court 1920170.

Boyd Campbell, Montgomery, for appellant.

James H. Evans, Atty. Gen., and Norbert Williams, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellee.

TAYLOR, Judge.

The appellant, Thomas Cooper, was convicted of murder, a violation of § 13A-6-2, Code of Alabama 1975. He was sentenced to life imprisonment.

The appellant presents four issues on appeal.

I

Initially, the appellant contends that the evidence was insufficient to establish a prima facie case of murder. Section 13A-6-2, Code of Alabama 1975, provides, in pertinent part, as follows: "A person commits the crime of murder if: (1) With intent to cause the death of another person, he causes the death of that person...."

The state's evidence tended to show that in the early evening of December 31, 1989, the Montgomery Police Department received an anonymous telephone call reporting a dead body located behind a building at 864 Bell Street in Montgomery. Upon arriving on the scene, police found the corpse of a woman lying face-down nearly two feet from the back of the building with her pants pulled down below her waist. The victim had several injuries to her head caused by a blunt object and two stab wounds to her neck. The cause of death was later determined to have resulted from massive internal and external bleeding caused by her multiple wounds.

An investigation of the scene revealed a blood-covered brick lying near the corner of the building. Further, officers found three large blood stains on the back wall of the building, the furthest of which was nearly 30 feet away, while the closest was right over the body.

A few hours after the body was discovered, police officers were called to the nearby Salvation Army Shelter, which was separated from the crime scene by a gasoline service station, by a man claiming to have received a bag of bloody clothing. The man, Bobby Adams, told the officers that the appellant, who lived at the Salvation Army Shelter, had given him the bag of clothing and had told him to dispose of it. Inside the bag, the officers found a red t-shirt, undershorts, blue jeans, and a towel from a Holiday Inn. All of the articles were covered with blood. After receiving consent from the appellant to search his footlocker at the Salvation Army, the officers discovered a camouflage jacket, three white athletic socks, and a sleeveless white undershirt. These items also had blood on them.

Laboratory analysis revealed that the blood on each article of clothing was consistent with the victim's type. The blood on the towel was from someone wiping his hands on it, but was of such consistency that a blood type could not be ascertained. Laboratory analysis also could not determine the type of blood on the brick, but did reveal that the hair matted on the brick was consistent with the victim's. One of the blood stains on the wall of the building was consistent with the victim's type. Further, semen stains were found in the appellant's shorts, while the rape kit results of an anal smear performed on the victim revealed sperm consistent with the appellant's.

In a statement to the police, the appellant said that, on the night of the December 29, he had been at a friend's house until around 10:00 when he left to return to the Salvation Army Shelter. On the way, he got in a fight with two black males but received no injuries. After that, he discovered the bag of bloody clothes at the gas station between the Salvation Army Shelter and the building where the victim would eventually be discovered, took them back to his room, and hid them in his nightstand. He also stated that he was wearing black corduroy pants, a black shirt, burgundy loafers, and a camouflage jacket that evening.

At trial, however, a clerk at the gas station stated that she saw the appellant that evening and that he had not been wearing black corduroy pants, but that he had been wearing jeans. Also, she said that he was walking with a woman that fit the victim's description.

Adams testified that, on December 29, he spoke with the appellant near the Salvation Army at approximately 10:00 p.m. At that time, the appellant was wearing a clean pair of jeans and a clean camouflage coat and his appearance was clean. At approximately 11:00, the appellant returned to the Salvation Army Shelter, where he spoke with Adams outside the back door. The appellant's clothes were now covered with dark stains. The appellant told Adams that he had been "jumped" by three or four guys and that someone had gotten "fucked up bad, real bad." The appellant then went to take a shower, and Adams brought him a towel to dry off. When the appellant got out of the shower, Adams noticed a spot of blood under the appellant's nose.

On the afternoon of December 31, according to Adams, the appellant asked him to throw a bag of dirty clothes in the garbage for him. After discovering blood on the clothes, Adams called the police. He then spoke to the appellant in the bathroom at the Salvation Army Shelter. The appellant first denied knowing the victim, and then went to retrieve a pocketknife which he asked Adams to throw away for him. When Adams refused, the appellant wrapped the knife in toilet paper and flushed it down the commode.

Finally, Adams stated at trial that the appellant, after his arrest, told him that he had been smoking crack cocaine with the victim on the night of her death. The appellant also said to him that he had been having sex with the victim behind the building at 864 Bell Street when someone walked up behind them and said, "Bitch, give me your money." The appellant told Adams that he panicked and fled. Adams, however, stated that the appellant would never run from a fight.

The appellant, in testifying at trial, admitted that he had been with the victim behind 864 Bell Street having sex and smoking crack before they were attacked by a group of men. The appellant stated that he fled, but returned later to find the victim dead. It was at that point that his clothes became stained with her blood. He also stated that he had made the anonymous 911 phone call reporting the victim's body to the police and denied giving a knife to Adams.

There were several inconsistencies in the testimony. For example, on cross-examination, the appellant stated that he had engaged in vaginal intercourse with the victim, not anal. The forensic analysis revealed that the victim had engaged only in anal intercourse on the night of her death. Also, the state produced the rebuttal testimony of the victim's sister, who testified that the victim's right arm had been completely paralyzed in a car accident. Given the fact that the victim's right arm was completely paralyzed, the appellant's description of the victim's activities just before the alleged attack would have been impossible.

On appeal, the appellant contends that the evidence was insufficient to establish a prima facie case of murder against him. He points to the fact that a bloodstain, found 30 feet from the body on the wall of the building at 864 Bell Street, was of a type characteristic of neither the victim nor the appellant. He contends that his trial testimony was evidence of his innocence.

In reviewing a conviction, we must view the evidence in a light most favorable to the prosecution. White v. State, 546 So.2d 1014 (Ala.Cr.App.1989). Though not all of the evidence in this case is direct evidence, circumstantial evidence is entitled to the same weight as direct evidence, provided that it points to the guilt of the accused. Hinton v. State, 548 So.2d 547 (Ala.Cr.App.1988), aff'd, 548 So.2d 562 (Ala.1989), cert. denied, 493 U.S. 969, 110 S.Ct. 419, 107 L.Ed.2d 383 (1989); White, supra. Conflicting evidence presents a jury issue. Curry v. State, 601 So.2d 157 (Ala.Cr.App.1992); Smith v. State, 583 So.2d 990 (Ala.Cr.App.), writ denied, 583 So.2d 993 (Ala.1991).

After reviewing the facts as set out above, we hold that the evidence was sufficient for the jury to find the appellant guilty of murder. See, e.g., Bland v. State, 601 So.2d 521 (Ala.Cr.App.1992).

II

Next, the appellant contends that his constitutional rights to equal protection of the law and to a fair trial were violated when the court denied his Batson v. Kentucky ¹ motion. More specifically, the appellant argues that the prosecution illegally used its peremptory strikes to exclude blacks from the jury.

In Batson, the United States Supreme Court held that the prosecution violates equal protection when it peremptorily strikes "potential jurors [from the venire] solely on account of their race or on the assumption that black jurors as a group will be unable impartially to consider the State's case against a black defendant." 476 U.S. at 89, 106 S.Ct. at 1719. After the appellant makes a timely Batson motion and establishes a prima facie showing of discrimination, the burden shifts to the state to provide a race-neutral reason for each strike of a minority veniremember. See, e.g., Ex parte Bird, 594 So.2d 676 (Ala.1991). We will reverse the circuit court's ruling on the Batson motion only if it is "clearly erroneous." Jackson v. State, 549 So.2d 616 (Ala.Cr.App.1989).

In this case, the appellant is a black male. The prosecution used peremptory strikes to remove seven of nine blacks from the venire, leaving two blacks to serve on the jury. When the appellant concluded his argument on his Batson motion, the circuit court directed the appellant to read out the numbers of the state's allegedly discriminatory strikes. As each number was read, the state was directed to respond with its grounds for striking that juror.

The record reveals that the appellant read out the names of only six excused veniremembers, not seven, and therefore, the state explained only six of its strikes. In presenting the Batson motion to ...