Hyde v. State, CR-04-1390.

• Decision Date: 28 September 2007
• Docket Number: CR-04-1390.
• Citation: 13 So.3d 997
• Parties: Christopher Shane HYDE v. STATE of Alabama.
• Court: Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals

13 So.3d 997

Christopher Shane HYDE v. STATE of Alabama.

CR-04-1390.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama.

September 28, 2007.

Rehearing Denied December 14, 2007.

Certiorari Denied February 27, 2009. Alabama Supreme Court 1070417.

Samuel Boyd Bentley, Jasper; and Mark Bishop Turner, Jasper, for appellant.

Troy King, atty. gen., and Anne C. Adams and Kevin M. Blackburn, asst. attys. gen., for appellee.

McMILLAN, Judge.

The appellant, Christopher Shane Hyde, was convicted of murdering June Williams, Randle Lane,¹ and Ricky Peterson by one act or pursuant to one scheme or course of conduct and for murdering Lane and Peterson during the course of a robbery, offenses defined as capital by § 13A-5-40(a)(10), Ala.Code 1975, and § 13A-5-40(a)(2), Ala.Code 1975. The jury, by a vote of 10 to 2, recommended that Hyde be sentenced to death. The circuit court followed the jury's recommendation and sentenced Hyde to death.

The State's evidence tended to show the following. On March 26, 2003, Archie Tingle discovered the bodies of Williams, Lane, and Peterson in the Bell Funeral Home in Sumiton. The forensic pathologist testified that all three victims died as a result of gunshot wounds. Williams and Peterson died from bullet wounds to the head. Lane died as a result of a bullet that entered his chin, exited through his neck, reentered his chest, and lacerated his aorta. Lane died of exsanguination— he bled to death.

Tingle testified that immediately before he discovered the bodies he observed a young white male riding a little red bicycle in the area around the funeral home. He saw the man walk from the funeral home to Peterson's green pickup truck, put his bicycle in the back of the truck, and drive off. After the man left, Tingle went into the funeral home to see if Peterson had loaned the man his truck. Tingle discovered the three bodies and telephoned the police.

At the time of the murders Hyde was living in a mobile home with his step-father's brother, Jerry Griffis, his wife, Angela, and their 10-year-old daughter. Their daughter had a little red bicycle that Hyde had started riding about five days before the murders. On the day of the murders, Angela Griffis said that Hyde asked if he could use her daughter's bicycle. She said that he left the mobile home to go to the bus stop where her daughter had left the bicycle before getting on the bus to go to school. When he came back later that day, she said, he was riding the bicycle.

Cynthia Green testified that she was cleaning the Sumiton First Baptist Church on the morning of March 26, 2003, when she heard a loud knock on the door. She said that a young male, whom she identified at trial as Hyde, was at the door and asked to use the bathroom. She said that he had been riding a red bicycle. Green did not let Hyde enter the church and he left. The Sumiton First Baptist Church is near the Bell Funeral Home.

After discovering the bodies, police issued a be-on-the-lookout, "BOLO," alert for Peterson's green truck. The truck was discovered abandoned at a Texaco gasoline station. Behind the station was the trailer park where Hyde had been living with the Griffis family. Police conducted a search of the trailer park and spoke to some of the residents. Angela Griffis told police that Hyde had been picked up by his sister and had left the trailer park. Jerry Griffis said that after police left, he remembered that Hyde had earlier gone to the back porch, where they put their garbage. He searched through the four trash bags. In one bag Griffis discovered a gun, two billfolds belonging to the deceased male victims, and a set of keys. Forensic tests identified the gun as the gun used to murder all three victims.

The State's evidence also showed that Hyde's sister took Hyde to Birmingham and dropped him at the outskirts of town. Hyde went to the Greyhound bus station and purchased a ticket in his name to Atlanta, Georgia. Local authorities notified Atlanta law enforcement that he would be arriving in Atlanta on a particular bus and requested that they detain Hyde. Hyde was taken into custody as he left the bus in Atlanta. Investigator Frank Cole of the Walker County District Attorney's Office and three law-enforcement personnel went to Atlanta to escort Hyde to Alabama. When the officers returned to Walker County with Hyde, they questioned him. Hyde confessed to killing Williams, Lane, and Peterson, and to taking Lane's and Peterson's wallets.

The jury convicted Hyde of three counts of capital murder for murdering Lane and Peterson during the course of a robbery and for murdering Williams, Lane, and Peterson pursuant to one act or pursuant to one course of conduct. A separate sentencing hearing was held before the same jury. The jury recommended, by a vote of 10 to 2, that Hyde be sentenced to death. The circuit court ordered that a presentence report be prepared. See § 13A-5-47(b), Ala.Code 1975. The court then held a separate sentencing hearing and sentenced Hyde to death. This appeal, which is automatic in a case involving the death penalty, followed. See § 13A-5-53, Ala. Code 1975.

Standard of Review

Because Hyde has been sentenced to death, this Court must review the proceedings in the circuit court for "plain error." Rule 45A, Ala.R.App.P., states:

"In all cases in which the death penalty has been imposed, the Court of Criminal Appeals shall notice any plain error or defect in the proceedings under review, whether or not brought to the attention of the trial court, and take appropriate appellate action by reason thereof, whenever such error has or probably has adversely affected the substantial right of the appellant."

In describing this standard of review the Alabama Supreme Court has stated:

"`"`Plain error' arises only if the error is so obvious that the failure to notice it would seriously affect the fairness or integrity of the judicial proceedings."' Ex parte Womack, 435 So.2d 766, 769 (Ala.1983) (quoting United States v. Chaney, 662 F.2d 1148, 1152 (5th Cir.1981)). See also Ex parte Woodall, 730 So.2d 652 (Ala.1998). `"In other words, the plain-error exception to the contemporaneous objection rule is to be `used sparingly, solely in those circumstances in which a miscarriage of justice would otherwise result.'"' Ex parte Land, 678 So.2d 224, 232 (Ala. 1996) (quoting United States v. Young, 470 U.S. 1, 15, 105 S.Ct. 1038, 84 L.Ed.2d 1 (1985) (quoting in turn United States v. Frady, 456 U.S. 152, 163 n. 14, 102 S.Ct. 1584, 71 L.Ed.2d 816 (1982))). `To rise to the level of plain error, the claimed error must not only seriously affect a defendant's "substantial rights," but it must also have an unfair prejudicial impact on the jury's deliberations.' Hyde v. State, 778 So.2d 199, 209 (Ala. Crim.App.1998), aff'd, 778 So.2d 237 (Ala.2000), cert. denied, 532 U.S. 907, 121 S.Ct. 1233, 149 L.Ed.2d 142 (2001). This Court may take appropriate action when the error `has or probably has adversely affected the substantial rights of the appellant.' Rule 45A, Ala. R.App.P. `[A] failure to object at trial, while not precluding our review, will weigh against any claim of prejudice.' Ex parte Woodall, 730 So.2d at 657 (citing Kuenzel v. State, 577 So.2d 474 (Ala. Crim.App.1990), aff'd, 577 So.2d 531 (Ala.1991))."

Ex parte Bryant, 951 So.2d 724, 727 (Ala.2002)(emphasis added).

Guilt-Phase Issues

I.

Hyde first argues that the circuit court erred in denying his motion for a change of venue. He asserts that he was unable to obtain a fair and impartial trial in Walker County because, he says, of the prejudicial pretrial publicity that surrounded the case.

When reviewing a ruling on a motion for a change of venue, we consider the following:

"`"A trial court is in a better position than an appellate court to determine what effect, if any, pretrial publicity might have in a particular case. The trial court has the best opportunity to evaluate the effects of any pretrial publicity on the community as a whole and on the individual members of the jury venire. The trial court's ruling on a motion for a change of venue will be reversed only when there is a showing that the trial court has abused its discretion. Nelson v State, 440 So.2d 1130 (Ala.Cr.App. 1983)."

"`Joiner v. State, 651 So.2d 1155, 1156 (Ala.Cr.App.1994).'

"Clemons v. State, 720 So.2d 961, 977 (Ala.Cr.App.1996), aff'd, 720 So.2d 985 (Ala.1998), cert. denied, 525 U.S. 1124, 119 S.Ct. 907, 142 L.Ed.2d 906 (1999). `The mere fact that publicity and media attention were widespread is not sufficient to warrant a change of venue. Rather, Ex parte Grayson[, 479 So.2d 76 (Ala.1985),] held that the appellant must show that he suffered actual prejudice or that the community was saturated with prejudicial publicity.' Slagle v. State, 606 So.2d 193, 195 (Ala.Cr.App. 1992). `"Moreover, the passage of time cannot be ignored as a factor in bringing objectivity to trial."' Whisenhant v. State, 555 So.2d 219, 224 (Ala.Cr.App. 1988), aff'd, 555 So.2d 235 (Ala.1989), cert. denied, 496 U.S. 943, 110 S.Ct. 3230, 110 L.Ed.2d 676 (1990) (citations omitted) (quoting Dannelly v. State, 47 Ala.App. 363, 254 So.2d 434, cert. denied, 287 Ala. 729, 254 So.2d 443 (1971)).

"`In connection with pretrial publicity, there are two situations which mandate a change of venue: 1) when the accused has demonstrated "actual prejudice" against him on the part of the jurors; 2) when there is "presumed prejudice" resulting from community saturation with such prejudicial pretrial publicity that no impartial jury can be selected. Sheppard v. Maxwell, 384 U.S. 333, 86 S.Ct. 1507, 16 L.Ed.2d 600 (1966); Rideau [v. Louisiana, 373 U.S. 723, 83 S.Ct. 1417, 10 L.Ed.2d 663 (1963)]; Estes v. Texas, 381 U.S. 532, 85 S.Ct. 1628, 14 L.Ed.2d 543 (1965); Ex parte Grayson, 479 So.2d 76, 80 (Ala.), cert. denied, 474 U.S. 865, 106 S.Ct. 189, 88 L.Ed.2d 157 (1985); Coleman v. Zant, 708 F.2d 541 (11th. Cir.1983).'

"Hunt v. State, 642 So.2d 999, 1042-43 (Ala.Cr.App.1993),...