Davidson v. State
| Citation | 48 Ala.App. 446,265 So.2d 888 |
| Decision Date | 17 August 1971 |
| Docket Number | 1 Div. 53 |
| Parties | Tommy William DAVIDSON v. STATE. |
| Court | Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals |
C. Wayne Loudermilch and Robert M. Harper, Mobile, for appellant.
MacDonald Gallion, Atty. Gen., and Richard F. Calhoun, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.
The defendant was indicted for the offense of murder in the first degree and convicted of the offense of murder in the second degree. Judgment was duly entered and the defendant was sentenced to thirty years in the penitentiary.
The body of Charles Vander Wielen, the person alleged in the indictment to have been killed, was found in the front seat of his automobile just off Highway I--10 in Baldwin County about fifteen miles East of the unincorporated community of Loxley. The automobile had proceeded off said highway, down a fill, and through the fence which borders the highway and on several feet further. The body and the automobile were found about 7:30 A.M. on the morning of May 20, 1968. In addition to the body of the deceased, the officers found a baseball bat, a ball peen hammer, and a screwdriver in the automobile. There were some clothes hanging on the driver's side of the automobile, a Luger pistol was recovered from 'one pocket and a clip out of the other pocket.'
State Toxicologist Nelson E. Grubbs examined the body of the deceased and performed an autopsy thereon. After testifying to the injuries he found, he stated that in his opinion death was due to violent force to the back of the head with a blunt instrument. He said that he found four wounds in the head which had been made with a sharp instrument. He fitted the screw driver found in the car into those wounds and it fit them perfectly. He further testified that he found glass particles, some paint particles, grease, and pinestraw between the undershirt and trousers of the deceased.
Dr. Grubbs also said that in the basement of the Mobile County Jail he later examined a Pontiac automobile which was identified by other witnesses as being the property of defendant's mother. Dr. Grubbs stated that he found human blood stains, particles of glass, and pinestraw in this car.
The witness stated that he examined a house which was identified by other witnesses as being the home of the defendant's mother and her husband, the deceased, prior to his death. Defendant's mother was not living in the house at the time it was examined by the witness. No one was living in it at that time. The defendant's mother had moved to Pensacola, Florida, after the death of the deceased. The defendant did not live in that house and had never lived in it. It had been leased to his mother and the deceased. Dr. Grubbs found human blood stains in that house and particles of glass.
The articles found in the car of the deceased, those found in the automobile belonging to defendant's mother, and those found in the house where his mother was living at the time of the death of the deceased were admitted into evidence. The defendant objected to the admission of those articles taken from his mother's car and from the above mentioned house as well as all evidence concerning them on the ground of an unlawful search and seizure.
About 11:00 A.M. on May 28, 1968, the Mobile County Officers stopped the defendant and his wife and mother in the car of the mother on Interstate 65 and told the defendant that the sheriff wanted to talk with them. Those three went with said officers to the sheriff's offices at the courthouse and jail in Mobile. One car of officers rode in front of the defendant and his mother and another car of officers behind them on the way to the basement of the courthouse, where the cars were parked. They then proceeded through three locked doors on the way from the basement to the sheriff's offices where the three were seated in a hall. They remained in and about the offices until about 3:00 P.M. when the Sheriff of Baldwin County arrived. They were not told that they were under arrest although it is evident that they could not have left without the permission of the officers.
Taylor Wilkins, Sheriff of Baldwin County, testified that they secured a search warrant and searched the automobile belonging to the defendant's mother before he (the sheriff) talked to the defendant; that during the course of the afternoon he talked to the defendant about twice and later a third time with Mr. Driggers, a Mobile County Officer. According to the State's evidence, Sheriff Wilkins was the first officer to interrogate the defendant. During the testimony of Sheriff Wilkins regarding this interrogation, the following occurred:
Sheriff Wilkins did not obtain a confession from the defendant. The defendant denied any knowledge of the disappearance of the deceased in answer to Wilkins' questions. Wilkins questioned him later in the day and again did not secure a confession.
Officer Driggers testified that he heard Sheriff Wilkins inform the defendant of his rights.
About 10:00 P.M. that night the defendant's wife, Laura Davidson, told Sheriff Wilkins and Officer Driggers that she was going to tell the truth. She then told the officers that her husband left home that night before the deceased was found dead the following morning, and came back about 6:00 A.M. the next morning and had his mother with him. She said she would try to get the defendant to tell the truth. The officers carried her to the room where the defendant was in the sheriff's offices. In the presence of those two officers and perhaps others, she talked with the defendant, her husband. It was an emotional scene. She cried and the defendant cried. She pled with him to tell them what he knew and he said he would. At that point Officer Driggers testified as follows:
Officer Driggers further testified that the defendant signed the above mentioned form and it was introduced in evidence. It is as follows:
'STATE'S EXHIBIT 34
'YOUR RIGHTS
'Place Sheriff Dept.
Date May 28, 1968
Time 10:55 P.M.
'Before we ask you any questions, you must understand your rights.
'You have the right to remain silent.
'Anything you say can and will be used against you in Court.
'You have the right to talk to a lawyer for advice before we ask you any questions and to have him with you during questioning.
'If you cannot afford a lawyer, one will be appointed for you before any questioning if you wish.
'WAIVER OF RIGHTS
A stenographer was brought in and took in shorthand the defendant's confession in which he admitted killing the deceased with a baseball bat at his mother's home in Mobile, helping his mother carry him out on Highway I--10, running the car with him in it off the fill and through the fence, leaving him and the car where they were found, and other details of the murder. The statement was typed and the defendant signed it after reading it. His confession thus written and signed was introduced into evidence.
The defendant and his wife deny in their testimony much of the testimony of Officers Driggers and Sheriff Wilkins. She testified that those officers told her if the defendant would talk he would probably only be convicted of manslaughter...
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