Hollingsworth v. State
| Decision Date | 31 October 1978 |
| Docket Number | 2 Div. 224 |
| Citation | 366 So.2d 326 |
| Parties | Douglas Lloyd HOLLINGSWORTH v. STATE. |
| Court | Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals |
William T. Faile of Morris & Faile, Selma, for appellant.
William J. Baxley, Atty. Gen., and James F. Hampton, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.
Appellant-defendant was indicted in one count for an assault upon Captain William H. Duke, with the intent to murder him, and in another count for unlawfully threatening, harming, or causing injury to a law officer actively engaged in the performance of his duty.
In response to a motion to compel an election, the State struck the second count and the case proceeded through the trial to a verdict under Count I, the count charging an assault with intent to murder.
The jury found defendant guilty of an assault and fixed his punishment at a fine of five hundred dollars. The court imposed additional punishment of a six-month sentence to hard labor for Dallas County.
At the conclusion of the evidence for the State, the defendant moved to exclude the evidence. The motion as overruled. Defendant rested without presenting any testimony. He requested in writing the general affirmative charge in his favor, which the trial court refused.
The undisputed evidence shows that at about 2:00 A.M. on March 26, 1977, there were six, seven, eight, nine or ten pistol shots fired from an automobile at, into or in the direction of the residence of Captain William H. Duke, a deputy sheriff with an assignment as Chief of Narcotics, of Dallas County. An officer living in the same neighborhood testified that he heard the shots and saw the automobile. He notified law enforcement personnel who came to the scene but did not at that time apprehend anyone or find any evidence of injury or damage to any person or property.
Captain Duke was at home the night of the shooting, but he was not aware of the shooting until well after sunrise, when his son, Mr. Paul Duke of the Police Department of Selma, came to the residence soon after he had marked off duty about 7:00 A.M. The son noticed a bullet hole in the glass of the front door. Soon thereafter, Deputy Sheriff Walker arrived at the residence. Upon inspection, it was revealed that two bullets had entered the house; one bullet went through the front door, through the living room and dining room, where no partition was between them, and went through the sliding glass of the back door. The bullet itself was not recovered. The other bullet went through a pane of a front window, through the wall between the living room and kitchen, and into a cabinet, in which it was located and from which it was removed.
At the house at the time it was shot into, were Captain Duke and Mrs. Duke and their daughter-in-law, Mrs. Paul Duke, and the six-week-old child of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Duke. Officer Paul Duke was not at home but was on duty at the Police Department. Captain and Mrs. Duke were sleeping in a rear bedroom. Mrs. Paul Duke and her child were in a front bedroom. The third bedroom, the one nearest the front door, was unoccupied. None of the occupants heard the shots. They were all unaware of what occurred until Mr. Paul Duke returned the next morning from his duties at the police station.
The evidence connecting defendant with the criminal conduct involved consisted exclusively of some incriminating admission by him and the testimony of Ray Parnell.
The statement of defendant, which was reduced to writing and signed by defendant, was as follows:
The quoted statement was signed by Douglas L. Hollingsworth and witnessed by W. H. Duke. Below the statement just quoted was the following:
"A few days later I got scared about having a pistol so I went to the new bypass bridge and threw the .22 pistol into the Alabama River."
The additional statement was also signed by defendant and witnessed by W. H. Duke.
Ray Parnell testified that he had known defendant about seven years, that on March 26, 1977, they were "room mates or sharing a place," that on the early morning of March 26, they were traveling in defendant's Volkswagen, having left the place where they lived between 8:00 and 11:00 P.M. They were "smoking pot and drinking." He knew where Captain Duke lived. There was a gun, a pistol, in the glove compartment of the automobile, which "Doug took care of." They were "kind of looking for a party or something like that," during their travel all that evening. When they arrived in the neighborhood of where Captain Duke lived, Parnell took the gun out of the glove compartment. He was asked what he said about that time. His testimony continued as follows:
Upon being interrogated as to any response by defendant, the witness answered, "He said maybe 'yeah.' " Testimony of the witness continued as follows:
According to the undisputed evidence, two or three nights after the alleged crime in this case, Parnell again shot into the house of Captain Duke. He was apprehended, charged with assault with intent to murder Captain Duke on the first occasion and with assault with intent to murder Captain Duke on the second occasion, pleaded guilty to the charges and was given a sentence of five years in each case, with the sentences to run concurrently.
During the cross-examination of Ray Parnell and while defendant's attorney was interrogating him on the question of defendant's response to statements by Parnell as to shooting "up" Captain Duke's automobile or into his house, some reference was made to other statements made by the witness. The trial court ruled that defendant had opened the door for the admission, over defendant's objection, of a recorded statement made by the witness to counsel for the State and Deputy Sheriff Walker, a part of which was as follows:
Also admitted in evidence, over the objection of defendant, was an...
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