In re: Anthony Tyson v. State

• Decision Date: 01 October 2000
• Citation: 784 So.2d 357
• Parties: (Ala. 2000) Ex Parte Anthony Tyson (In re: Anthony Tyson v. State) 1991309
• Court: Alabama Supreme Court

784 So.2d 357 (Ala. 2000)

Ex Parte Anthony Tyson

(In re: Anthony Tyson v. State)

1991309

SUPREME COURT OF ALABAMA OCTOBER TERM, 2000-2001

11/17/2000

PETITION FOR WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS

(Macon Circuit Court, CC-97-54; Court of Criminal Appeals, CR-98-0267)

PER CURIAM.

Anthony Tyson was convicted of capital murder for the deaths of Derek Cowan and Damien Thompson. Tyson was convicted of two counts under § 13A-5-40(a)(2), Ala. Code 1975 -- murder committed during the course of a robbery in the first degree -- and of one count under § 13A-5-40(a)(10) -- the murder of two or more people during one act or pursuant to one scheme or course of conduct. By a vote of 10-2, the jury recommended that Tyson be sentenced to death. The trial court followed the jury's recommendation and sentenced Tyson to death by electrocution. In a unanimous decision, the Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed Tyson's conviction and sentence. Tyson v. State, [CR-98-0267, February 4, 2000] ___ So. 2d ___ (Ala. Crim. App. 2000). We granted certiorari review, pursuant to Rule 39(c), Ala. R. App. P.¹ We affirm the judgment of the Court of Criminal Appeals.

Tyson has raised 13 issues for our review. The Court of Criminal Appeals fully addressed and correctly resolved each of these issues in its thorough and well-researched opinion. Only four of those issues warrant further discussion. Three of them question the validity of the search warrant; the final issue challenges limitations the trial court placed on Tyson's cross-examination of the prosecution's expert witness on DNA evidence.

I. Facts

On January 4, 1997, Porter Key was driving on Franklin Road in Macon County when he discovered Cowan's body in the middle of the road. Key said he had to drive off the road to avoid the body. He said that he saw a green Acura automobile roll off the road and strike a fence, and that the car then backed up onto the road and sped off in the direction of Tuskegee. Key said he thought the driver of this car had been involved in a hit-and-run accident, so, he said, he chased the car in an attempt to get the license-plate number. He was unable to keep up and lost the car somewhere in Tuskegee. Later, law-enforcement personnel discovered that Cowan had not been the victim of a hit-and-run accident, but had been shot twice in the back of the head.

Within minutes after Key discovered Cowan's body, Thompson's body was discovered slumped forward on the passenger side of an Acura automobile that was in the bushes at an intersection in Tuskegee. The keys were in the car and it was still running. Thompson had also been shot twice in the head.

Alphonso Cardwell testified that he and Cowan had been scheduled to meet for a drug exchange on a dirt road off County Road 36 on January 4, 1997. He testified that as he was driving to the designated location he saw Cowan, Thompson, and a third male, whom he identified at trial as Anthony Tyson, drive by in a green Acura. The Acura was being followed, he said, by another vehicle, driven by Cornelius "D'Rock" Drisker. Cardwell testified that when he arrived at the location of the planned exchange, he gave Cowan $300 in exchange for cocaine. Minutes later, Cowan's body was discovered. Witnesses testified that one of his pockets was turned inside out. The $300 was missing.

Police connected Tyson to the murders while investigating a shooting in Union Springs that occurred 10 days after the double murder in Macon County. Nicholas Martin testified that Tyson and three other people shot at him from a car as he was walking his dog. He testified that he recognized Tyson and that he went to the police station and signed a warrant for Tyson's arrest.² Law-enforcement authorities later determined that the gun identified as the weapon used in the Union Springs shooting was the same weapon used in the murder of Cowan and Thompson.

Substantial forensic evidence connected Tyson to the double murder. After executing a search warrant, based on evidence obtained in the investigation of the Union Springs shooting, the police recovered from Tyson's apartment a Lorcin chrome .380 pistol and blood-stained sneakers. A DNA analysis of the blood on the sneakers showed that the blood matched Thompson's blood. Police recovered Tyson's fingerprints from the green Acura. Spent shell casings recovered from the Acura, from near Cowan's body, and from the Union Springs shooting were identified as having been fired by the same gun, a Lorcin .380, which was identified as belonging to Tyson.

Tyson's defense at trial was that he did not kill Cowan and Thompson. He attempted to show that another person could have committed the murders, specifically, the man who had been seen in a car with the victims earlier on the day of the murders.

II. The Search Warrant

Tyson argues that evidence seized from his apartment should have been suppressed because, he says, the search warrant was not based on sufficient probable cause, listed the wrong address, and did not authorize a nighttime search. The affidavit in support of the search warrant reads:

"I am Raymon Dawson Smith. I work as an Agent in the Alabama Bureau of Investigations, a division of the Alabama Department of Public Safety. I have worked for the Department of Public Safety for over 21 years, as an officer. I have worked in `ABI,' Alabama Bureau of Investigations for about a year.

"On the evening of January 14, 1997, a shooting occurred in Union Springs, Alabama, that involved the firing of multiple shots from a vehicle occupied by several black males at one Nicholas Martin (hereinafter Martin). Martin is a 26 year old black male from Union Springs. Martin identified the vehicle as a blue Pontiac displaying a `55' tag occupied by four black males. Words were apparently exchanged and then shots were fired from the vehicle at Martin, who then ran. Martin identified one of the occupants of the vehicle as a person known to him as Anthony Tyson (hereinafter Tyson). Martin stated that he has seen Tyson on several occasions prior to this incident and can identify Tyson. Martin also identified Tyson as one of the person[s] shooting from the vehicle.

"The police were notified by phone and a description of the vehicle, which left the area, was provided and dispatched. Union Springs officers tried to stop a vehicle fitting the description given. The said vehicle fled the stop attempt; and chase commenced. State Troopers became involved in the chase. The vehicle fled Bullock County into Macon County where Tuskegee Police officers and Macon County sheriff's deputies joined the pursuit.

"The vehicle was pursued onto Macon County Road 3, or Howard Road, and entered the area of the project apartments. The vehicle finally stopped on Foster Street in Tuskegee, where several subjects fled the car and escaped. One subject, Willie Jernel Stinson, an 18 year old black male, was captured before he could flee the vehicle.

"After having his Miranda rights read to him, Stinson identified the other three occupants of the vehicle, including Tyson. Stinson stated that he was in the car with the other three subjects in Union Springs. Stinson stated that Tyson shot several times at an individual in Union Springs. Stinson stated that Tyson use[d] a .380 semi-automatic pistol during the altercation. Stinson further stated that he has seen Tyson with this .380 semi-automatic pistol on several occasions.

"The Tuskegee Police Department impounded the vehicle that was apprehended during the high speed chase. Consent to search the vehicle was obtained from the owner. A search of the vehicle revealed one .380 caliber shell casing.

"Investigators returned to the shooting scene on Ellis Street in Union Springs. Several empty cartridge casings were found on the ground in the area, all .380 caliber. One spent bullet was also found. "The vehicle that the subjects fled in stopped approximately 2.5 miles from Tyson's residence before subjects jumped out and ran. Tyson was seen at his residence less than 36 hours after the shooting incident in Union Springs.

"On January 17, 1997, officers attempted to serve arrest warrants from Bullock County on Tyson at his residence at 401-A North Church Street, Tuskegee, Alabama. While attempting to serve the arrest warrants on Tyson, officers encountered three subjects inside the residence. The subjects informed officers that they had just missed Tyson by approximately five minutes. One of the subjects in the residence, Maurice Gay, was also identified by Stinson as being involved in the shooting in Union Springs. Maurice Gay came out of the rear bedroom pointing a shotgun at officers.

"For the foregoing reasons, the undersigned officer has probable cause to believe that the weapon(s) used during the shooting in Union Springs and other related evidence may be contained in Tyson's residence."

A. Whether the search-warrant affidavit was

based on sufficient probable cause.

When reviewing the question whether officers had probable cause, this Court has stated:

"`Sufficient information must be presented to the magistrate to allow that official to determine probable cause; his action cannot be a mere ratification of the bare conclusions of others. In order to ensure that such an abdication of the magistrate's duty does not occur, courts must continue to conscientiously review the sufficiency of affidavits on which warrants are issued.'"

Crittenden v. State, 476 So. 2d 632, 633-34 (Ala. 1985) (quoting Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213, 239 (1983) (emphasis omitted)). The affidavit supporting the warrant in this case presents significant information, not merely conclusory statements "that [give] the magistrate virtually no basis at all for making a judgment regarding probable cause." Id. at 633. Agent Smith's affidavit provides a detailed description of the investigation leading to his belief that the weapon used in the Union Springs shooting would be found at Tyson's...