Hopson v. State

• Decision Date: 07 December 1976
• Docket Number: 7 Div. 492
• Citation: 352 So.2d 500
• Parties: LaFrench HOPSON v. STATE.
• Court: Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals

Page 500

352 So.2d 500

LaFrench HOPSON v. STATE.

7 Div. 492.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama.

Dec. 7, 1976.

Rehearing Denied Jan. 4, 1977.

H. Wayne Love and James D. Sloan, Anniston, for appellant.

William J. Baxley, Atty. Gen., and Eric A. Bowen, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.

HARRIS, Judge.

Appellant was convicted of murder in the second degree and the jury fixed his punishment at 20 years imprisonment in the penitentiary. He was represented by court-appointed counsel at arraignment and trial. He pleaded not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity. After conviction appellant gave notice of appeal and was furnished a free transcript. Trial counsel was appointed to represent him on this appeal.

Appellant was indicted on February 9, 1971, for murder in the first degree involving the death of his uncle, LaFrench Hughley, by shooting him with a gun. The evidence surrounding the killing was circumstantial. Appellant did not testify, and no testimony was offered in his behalf.

At the conclusion of the State's case appellant made the following motion:

"MR. LOVE: Your Honor, we move to exclude the State's evidence on the basis that they have failed to prove the corpus delicti. They have failed to prove that the man died of any criminal act. The indictment says that he was killed by a shot with a rifle, and they have failed to prove that. They have failed to prove that, even if he was shot with a rifle, he died from that. They have failed to prove that, even if he died by a gunshot wound, that it was a shot fired by the defendant. They have failed to prove that it was intentional, premeditated, and deliberate."

This motion was overruled but it puts us to a recital of the evidence, which is most favorable to the State.

Dan Hughley, Jr., a brother of the deceased and an uncle of appellant, testified that he was 71 years of age and that his brother was 40 years of age at the time of his death on the 28th day of August, 1970. He stated that his brother and appellant were living in the same house located at 1020 Parkwood Drive, Anniston, Alabama, on August 28, 1970. He said the last time he saw his brother alive was on the morning of August 28, and the next time he saw him was on the afternoon of the same day when the Rescue Squad was taking him out of the house on a stretcher.

This witness further testified that on the afternoon of August 28, appellant drove to his home on Sidney Street and told him that he had killed the , referring to the deceased. He stated that appellant was driving a blue Buick automobile and that he saw a rifle that belonged to his father in appellant's automobile. He said that after appellant told him he had killed the deceased, he drove off at a fast rate of speed. He further stated that he was in such shock that he was unable to move until someone offered to carry him to his brother's house. When he arrived at his brother's home, he saw him on the stretcher and he was very bloody. He entered the house and found his brother's brains scattered all over the floor in the bedroom. He saw bullet holes in the window of the bedroom and a number of bullet holes in the door to the bedroom. He further testified that he saw blood and brains in his brother's bedroom but he did not see any weapons of any kind guns, knives, rifles, axes, hatchets, picks, etc.

Dan Hughley, Jr., further stated that he saw his brother the next day at the funeral home and he was dead. That the next time he saw appellant was on the day of the trial of appellant for murder on June 16, 1976.

Magnolia Mitchell testified that she lived at 1008 Parkwood Drive which was directly across the street from the house where appellant and the deceased lived. She stated she saw appellant on the afternoon of the killing, between 1:00 and 1:30 o'clock. That she was sitting on the porch of her home and saw appellant drive to the home where he had been living with the deceased. She saw him enter the house and after a few minutes he came out with a rifle or gun in his hand and got in his car and left. After appellant left, the deceased came home and entered his house. About an hour or so later appellant came back to the house. He jumped out of his car, ran upon the porch and started shooting at the window and also the door. She heard glass breaking. She then saw appellant run around to the rear of the house and she heard a noise, like somebody breaking in the back door and saw that door open.

She further testified that she had known the deceased for a long time and had talked to him almost every day. She stated that she was familiar with his voice. She said that when appellant broke into the back door, she heard the deceased say, "Please, Bill, don't. Please, Bill, don't," and she heard more shots, after which appellant got in his car and left. He carried the rifle with him. Appellant was also called "Bill" by the people who knew him. That was his nickname. She then ran to the home of her next door neighbor.

She further stated she saw the Rescue Squad carrying the deceased out of the house on a stretcher. She also saw the brother of the deceased when he came to the house and went inside.

This witness further said that she next saw appellant later that afternoon. He was walking and was carrying the gun with him; that a number of people were at the house when appellant walked up and asked for his clothes. Most of the people present jumped up and ran but someone went in the house and returned with some clothes and put them on the porch. Appellant walked to the porch and picked up the clothes and walked up the street.

On cross-examination this witness testified that in her best judgment appellant fired four to six to ten shots before he got in his car and fled from the scene. She stated she saw appellant shoot through the door and through the window.

Dorothy Minnifield testified that on August 28, 1970, she lived with her husband and family at 1010 Parkwood Drive; that she knew the deceased in his lifetime but she did not see him on the day he was killed. She stated she was sitting on her porch on August 28, and saw appellant drive his blue Buick automobile to the house of the deceased. That she observed him stop his car and reach back and get a rifle. He got out of his car and walked up on the porch where he and the deceased lived. She saw him fire one shot and she ran to the Turner house a short distance away. While standing on the porch of the Turner house, she saw appellant come out of the Hughley house with the gun in his hand. He got in his car and left the premises and she did not see appellant again until the day of his trial. She identified him in the courtroom as being the same man who fired the shot in the deceased's home on the day he was killed.

Circumstantial evidence may afford satisfactory proof of the corpus delicti in a murder prosecution, and, if facts are presented from which the jury may reasonably infer the crime has been committed, the question must be submitted to the jury, and other evidence tending to implicate the defendant is thereby rendered admissible. Johnson v. State, 247 Ala. 271, 24 So.2d 17; Phillips v. State, 248 Ala. 510, 28 So.2d 542; DeSilvey v. State, 245 Ala. 163, 16 So.2d 183; Harnage v. State, 49 Ala.App. 563, 274 So.2d 333; Cronnon v. State, 56 Ala.App. 192, 320 So.2d 697.

This is one of the strongest cases of circumstantial evidence to reach this Court in a long time. Moreover, a few minutes after the fatal shooting appellant drove to the home of the brother of deceased and told him that he had killed LaFrench Hughley and soon thereafter he fled from the state of Alabama.

Prior to entering into the trial of this case appellant filed a motion to dismiss the indictment on the ground he was denied a speedy trial. After a lengthy hearing this motion was denied. Appellant then filed a motion for a change of venue alleging that he could not get a fair trial in Calhoun County because of widespread publicity relative to the case. Testimony was heard on this motion and the Court denied this motion also.

It was developed on this hearing that appellant left Alabama after killing his uncle and went to the state of New York. Shortly after arriving in New York, he committed another homicide resulting in a conviction for manslaughter in the first degree for which he was sentenced to eight years in Attica State Prison. He testified that while serving the eight-year sentence in Attica, he learned that he had been indicted for murder in the first degree in Calhoun County, Alabama, involving the death of his uncle, LaFrench Hughley. He further stated that on August 20, 1973, he communicated with the Alabama authorities requesting that he be returned to Alabama to answer the charges pending against him. He said he did not receive a reply to this request. Later he solicited the aid of the Legal Aid Bureau of Buffalo, New York.

On August 22, 1974, a letter was sent to the Calhoun County Court by an attorney for Hopson, stating he was enclosing a motion for a speedy trial for Hopson who was presently incarcerated in Attica Correctional Facility. This letter made inquiry as to the status of the case against Hopson for which a warrant was being held against him at Attica. This letter was followed by another letter from a different attorney on September 19, 1974, seeking the status of the case against Hopson. This letter was also sent to the Calhoun County Court. This last letter was answered by the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Calhoun County advising the writer that the Grand Jury of Calhoun County indicted Hopson for murder in the first degree on February 9, 1971, but that the defendant had not been arrested.

Alabama had filed a detainer for Hopson with the proper authorities in New York. On November 12, 1974, the County Judge of Wyoming County dismissed the warrant for Hopson's arrest without prejudice to any subsequent extradition proceedings by the State of Alabama.

In the meantime the...