Hall v. State
| Decision Date | 31 October 1978 |
| Docket Number | 7 Div. 602 |
| Citation | 365 So.2d 1249 |
| Parties | Frederick HALL, alias v. STATE. |
| Court | Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals |
Howard B. Warren, Gadsden, for appellant.
William J. Baxley, Atty. Gen., and Eddie Hardaway, Jr., Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State, appellee.
Appellant was convicted for the offense of carnal knowledge of a girl under twelve years of age. The trial court sentenced him to life imprisonment in the penitentiary. At arraignment, in the presence of counsel, he pleaded not guilty. After sentence was imposed appellant gave notice of appeal. He was furnished a free transcript and trial counsel was appointed to represent him on this appeal.
The sufficiency of the evidence is not presented for review. There was no motion to exclude the State's evidence; there was no request for the affirmative charge; there was no motion for a new trial; and no exceptions were reserved to the oral charge of the court.
The evidence presented by the State is undisputed. Appellant did not testify nor did he offer any evidence in his behalf.
The victim was a ten year old girl and on the night of October 31, 1977, (Halloween night) she and three of her girl friends went "trick or treating." The victim was dressed in a costume and had blotches of rouge on her forehead, chin and cheeks. The girls left home at about 5:30 o'clock on that date and during the course of the afternoon they started walking down the railroad track, each carrying a bag of candy and other things they had collected from generous people in the neighborhood. While walking on the track in a group they noticed two men following close behind them. The victim tripped and fell on the track and one of the men grabbed her from behind. Her friends started to her rescue but saw one of the men run his hand in his pocket and they ran from the scene. The victim's friends went to a house nearby and reported that the victim had been abducted by two black men. The victim's mother was called and the police were notified. The mother and the police arrived at the scene but were unable to locate the missing girl.
According to the testimony of the victim appellant and his companion forced her to accompany them. They crossed East Broad Street near the James L. Cain School and went behind the school to a cemetery where appellant's companion, Larry Taylor, ordered the young girl to remove her clothing. She refused to do so. The men carried the victim across Davis Street to an abandoned store where she was again ordered to disrobe and she again refused to remove her clothing. The men became very angry and in a violent and threatening tone of voice directed the victim to undress and lie on the floor. She complied with these commands and Larry Taylor had sexual intercourse with her while she was crying and protesting. She kept begging him to stop as he was hurting her. He refused to heed her outcries and completed the sexual act. Appellant then had sexual intercourse with the helpless victim while she was still crying and begging him to stop. After this traumatic experience the victim was instructed to dress.
After the victim dressed the men forcibly carried her in an automobile and drove her to an unidentified house. They forced her to enter the house and into a bedroom where both men took turns in having sexual intercourse with the girl. They kept her in this house all night. The next morning appellant led the victim from the house and gave her directions to Goss Avenue. When she arrived at Goss Avenue, she went to a house and asked to use the telephone to call her mother. Her mother was not at home at the time. She had been out all night walking the railroad track looking for her daughter with a flashlight. The victim's brother and stepfather came and picked her up. She was carried home and then to Police Headquarters where she gave the officers a description of her assailants. From there she was carried to the hospital for treatment. She was so distraught and mentally disturbed she lost the following week from school.
In the meantime the officers began an intensive search for the two men involved in the assault upon the young girl. They apprehended and interviewed Larry Taylor first. On the night of November 1, 1977, appellant was arrested at the home of one of his friends. He was taken to jail where he was told he was charged with kidnapping and rape. He was not interviewed at that time but put in a cell while the officers continued their investigation on this particular case.
Approximately three hours later the officers returned to the jail and had the jailer bring appellant to the interrogation room. Before appellant was questioned he was given the Miranda rights and warnings and he told the officers he understood his rights and did not want a lawyer. He signed a waiver of rights form and gave a confessory statement in his own handwriting.
Appellant filed a motion to suppress the statement written by him. A voir dire hearing was conducted out of the presence and hearing of the jury to determine the voluntary character of the confessory statement. At this hearing it was shown that appellant was not threatened or coerced in any manner to get him to make the confessory statement. It was further shown that no promises, rewards or hopes thereof, or inducements of any kind were made, or held out to appellant, to get him to write the statement or to sign the waiver of rights form. At the conclusion of the hearing the trial court ruled that the confessory statement was voluntarily, knowingly and understandingly made.
Back before the jury the State laid the proper predicate and the waiver of rights form was admitted into evidence without objection. Appellant objected to the introduction of the written confession on the ground the officers had told appellant that he was charged with kidnapping and rape and not carnal knowledge of a girl under twelve years of age.
Appellant contends that the officers should have told him that he would be charged with carnal knowledge of a girl under the age of twelve and that consent to such a charge was no defense.
The officers testified that they went to the District Attorney's Office and gave them the facts of the case and that it was the District Attorney's Office who made the decision to charge the appellant with offense for which he stands convicted.
The trial court determined at the voir dire hearing that the confession was voluntarily made and upon the proper predicate being laid the written confession made by appellant was introduced into evidence.
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