Ex parte State of Alabama

• Decision Date: 02 September 2022
• Docket Number: SC-2022-0417
• Parties: Ex parte State of Alabama v. State of Alabama In re: Brett Richard Yeiter
• Court: Alabama Supreme Court

Ex parte State of Alabama

In re: Brett Richard Yeiter
v.
State of Alabama

No. SC-2022-0417

Supreme Court of Alabama

September 2, 2022

Escambia Circuit Court: CC-15-42; Court of Criminal Appeals: CR-18-0599

PETITION FOR WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE COURT OFCRIMINAL APPEALS

SELLERS, JUSTICE

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This Court granted the State of Alabama's petition for a writ of certiorari to consider the Court of Criminal Appeals' decision reversing Brett Richard Yeiter's capital-murder conviction and death sentence. According to the Court of Criminal Appeals, the Escambia Circuit Court committed reversible error in admitting evidence of Yeiter's prior bad acts, including evidence of his previous criminal convictions that resulted in periods of incarceration. We reverse the judgment of the Court of Criminal Appeals.

Yeiter was convicted of killing his father-in-law, Paul Phillips. The following facts and procedural history are set out in the Court of Criminal Appeals' opinion:

"On the evening of October 26, 2014, Phillips attended the Book of Acts Holiness Church, where he was the preacher Phillips's grandson Nathan Blair also attended the church that evening. Blair's vehicle was low on oil, so he decided to leave it parked in the church parking lot until he could get some oil. The next morning, Phillips and Blair returned to the church with oil to put in the vehicle Yeiter, who was Phillips's son-in-law and Blair's stepfather, was already in the church parking lot. Yeiter was upset because Blair's vehicle was low on oil and Blair had allowed his vehicle to run low on oil in the past

"Blair testified that Yeiter 'would try to pour the oil into the car, but he would -- he would try to push [Phillips], you know, like trying to, I guess trying to get him to -- agitated, you know.' Blair testified that he thought Yeiter was 'trying

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to start a fight with' Phillips and that Yeiter 'grabbed [Phillips's] glasses off of his face' and threw them on the ground. Blair testified that once they put oil in the vehicle, Phillips sent him to take a bill to Kristen Garner's house, which was 'around the corner' from the church. Before he left, Blair saw Phillips try to remove a lawnmower from the back of his truck and Yeiter tried to 'shake it away' from Phillips.

"In a statement he made to the police a week later, Yeiter said he was trying to help Phillips with the lawnmower but that he and Phillips 'got to tussling back and forth with the mower' and '[t]hat's when [Phillips] finally said he was going to get his gun. "Let me go get my gun," or something like that he said. Hell if I know.' Yeiter got in his truck, drove the short distance to his house, got his shotgun, and returned to the church. When he returned, Yeiter saw Phillips sitting in his parked truck, and the engine was running. Yeiter said he walked toward Phillips but did not see a weapon. Yeiter said he told Phillips to 'pull' his weapon, and then Yeiter shot Phillips. Yeiter said he 'believe[d]' he shot Phillips 'right in the chest.' Yeiter, however, shot Phillips in the side of his head, killing him.

"Blair returned to the church in time to hear the gunshot. He saw Yeiter in the parking lot holding a 'long' gun in his hand. Yeiter drove away, and Blair went to Phillips's truck and saw that Phillips was shot. He returned to Garner's house, and she telephoned 911.

"Yeiter stopped at Suncoast Sod, a business near the church. He went inside and told Toni Casey, who was Phillips's niece, that he had shot Phillips. Yeiter gave his mobile phone to Casey and told her he did not need it anymore. Casey telephoned 911 and told them the Phillips family had 'mentally abused' Yeiter for years and that they 'just drove him crazy.'

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"Emergency personnel responded to the scene within 20 minutes. Phillips was still breathing, but there was no evidence showing that he regained consciousness after Yeiter shot him. Police did not find a gun on Phillips or in his vehicle.

"Yeiter drove west for a few days, using credit cards to buy gas and alcohol. He told law enforcement that he 'threw [the shotgun] out in the woods somewhere' in Arkansas. He said he kept the gun with him until then because he 'didn't know whether [he] was going to kill [himself] yet or not.' Law enforcement arrested Yeiter in Texas, and authorities returned him to Alabama.

"Law enforcement in Alabama interviewed Yeiter a week after the shooting. He told the police that he had consumed 'half a gallon' of liquor beginning around 7 a.m. the day he shot Phillips. He said that when he drove to his house to get his gun, he 'thought about it all the way [to his house] and all the way back.' When he made his statement to the police a week after the shooting, Yeiter said he 'would still [shoot Phillips] again because [Phillips has] had me over the years so fricking mad about everything.' He said, 'I did it .... Nothing is going to justify it.' He then told the police that he had 'been up there to Atmore before' on work release for first-degree theft of property and that he had a prior conviction in Michigan.

"An Escambia County grand jury indicted Yeiter for capital murder in January 2015. Before trial, Yeiter moved to suppress the statement he had made to the police, and he moved

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