Key v. State

Decision Date01 March 2002
Citation891 So.2d 353
PartiesGary Frank KEY v. STATE of Alabama.
CourtAlabama Court of Criminal Appeals

Warren Freeman, Delta, for appellant.

William H. Pryor, Jr., atty. gen., and David R. Clark, asst. atty. gen., for appellee.

COBB, Judge.

Gary Frank Key was convicted by a jury, following a guilty plea, of the capital murder of his ex-wife, Debra. Key admitted that he fired shots into the vehicle in which Debra was a passenger and that he wounded her fatally. § 13A-5-40(a)(17), Ala.Code 1975. Following a sentencing hearing, the jury recommended by a 12-0 vote that a death sentence be imposed. The trial court held a separate hearing, determined that the aggravating circumstances outweighed the mitigating circumstances, and sentenced Key to death. Key obtained new counsel and filed a motion for a new trial. Following a hearing, the trial court denied the motion for a new trial. This appeal follows.

Facts

After a 13-year marriage, Gary Key and Debra Key divorced on September 22, 1997. Debra continued to experience problems with Key, and she filed stalking charges against him. On January 16, 1998, Key was indicted for aggravated stalking. On July 30, 1998, Key negotiated a guilty plea to the aggravated-stalking charge, and he was sentenced to a 10-year term of imprisonment. He applied for probation, which the State did not oppose, and the court set a probation hearing for September 1998.

At approximately 6:15 p.m. on July 31, 1998, the day after Key pleaded guilty to aggravated stalking, Debra and her best friend, Robbie Doyle, were in Doyle's automobile. They stopped for a moment in a parking lot, and Doyle noticed that an automobile pulled up next to hers. Doyle told Debra that Key was next to them, and Debra said, "Run." Doyle drove away from Key's vehicle and into a service station parking lot. As she drove through the parking lot, she screamed to bystanders, "Call the law. He's going to kill us." (R. 707.) Key pursued them in his car, and he rammed his car into Doyle's as she left the service station. Doyle sped away, but was forced to slow down because of traffic conditions. Key rammed her car twice more. Doyle lost control of her vehicle, which spun around and landed in a ditch.

As a result of the accident, Debra was thrown to the floor on the passenger side of the car. She was searching for a pistol that she carried with her, but was unable to find it. Doyle realized that Key was at the driver's side door, holding a long gun. Doyle told Debra to continue searching for the gun while she attempted to talk with Key. Key ordered Doyle to tell Debra to get out of the car, and Doyle explained to him that Debra's car door was against the ditch and that her own car door was up in the air, so she asked Key to help them get out of the car. A woman passing the scene stopped her car and she heard Key screaming at the women to get out of the car. When Key saw the passerby, he told her to go on, and the woman left. Key twice more told Debra to get out of the car, then he fired a shot that struck Doyle in the left breast. Doyle slumped to the side, facing Debra, who was still on the floorboard of the car. Doyle said she heard five or six shots and saw Debra's body jump as it was struck by the gunshots. As the women screamed, Key walked away from them, got into his car, and drove away. Forensic tests later revealed that Key had fired an SKS assault rifle into the car. Doyle next heard a woman outside the car asking if they needed an ambulance, and the woman left to summon emergency technicians. Doyle said that she and Debra reached out and interlocked their little fingers. Debra said, "I can't breathe. I'm going to die." (R. 720.) Debra was conscious when emergency workers arrived, and she told a paramedic that her ex-husband had run her and her best friend off the road and had shot them. Debra sustained gunshot wounds to her face, upper chest and abdomen. Her liver and spleen were shattered, her colon was damaged, she had a hole in her diaphragm. She underwent two or three hours of surgery, and died soon after surgery.

Key was apprehended the next day. Officers did not detect the odor of alcohol about Key, and Key did not exhibit any problems communicating with the officers. In his statement to the police, Key denied any involvement in the shooting. Key acknowledged that he had been in court on the stalking charge and said that he had been recommended for probation. He denied ingesting alcohol or other drugs on the day Debra was shot, and he claimed that he had not ingested drugs in more than a year. (R. 816.)

At the penalty phase of the trial, Dr. Warner, the medical examiner who performed the autopsy on Debra's body, testified that he observed five gunshot wounds. One bullet entered Debra's left cheek, exited the left side of her chin, then reentered her left upper chest and traveled through her breast, and exited the body. Dr. Warner testified that this bullet would not have caused Debra's death, but as it "burn[ed] along the wound pathway, tear[ing] up the skin," it would have been very painful. (R. 940.) Dr. Warner testified that another bullet passed through Debra's left breast, then grazed her abdomen. That wound would not have been fatal, but would have been very painful due to the sensitivity of the breast. A third bullet penetrated Debra's right breast and exited her body. The fourth bullet wound Dr. Warner identified began in the lower chest, passed through the thoracic and abdominal cavities, and exited at the left hip. According to Dr. Warner, the path of the final bullet penetrated the left upper abdomen, traveled through the internal viscera, and exited at the left hip. Dr. Warner testified that the fourth and fifth wounds he identified caused extensive damage to Debra's heart, liver, spleen, and intestines, and were the fatal wounds. He further stated that wounds to the liver are "exquisitely painful." (R. 953.) The pain associated with damage to the lungs, intestines, and heart would have been painful. Dr. Warner stated that Debra was rapidly incapacitated but that she suffered a slow death.

One of the paramedics who transported Debra from the scene testified that she was conscious until she was anesthetized for surgery. Debra told him she was in pain and that she could not breathe. The paramedic testified, "She had approximately a softball sized hole in her left upper chest ... [and] it wasn't surprising that she couldn't breathe." (R. 983.) Debra asked the paramedic if she was going to die and repeatedly said she saw angels around her. At the penalty phase of the trial, Key presented testimony from his brother, who stated that their father was abusive and that Key had had a bad temper when he was younger. He said that Key suffered a broken neck when he was approximately six or seven years old, and that he suffered from headaches thereafter. Key's brother testified that Key became angry when Debra left him, and he heard Key say that if he could not have Debra, no one could have her. He also said he was going to kill Debra.

Dr. John Goff, a psychologist, testified on Key's behalf. He stated that Key suffered from a borderline personality disorder. Goff's evaluation of Key indicated to him that Key had a delusion that Debra was having a homosexual affair, and that the affair prevented Debra's reconciliation with him. He said that Key apparently became enraged over his perception of the circumstances and was probably not in control "from a psychological standpoint" when he shot Debra. (R. 1125-27.) Dr. Goff testified that it was not relevant to his diagnosis that one day before the murder Key pleaded guilty to stalking Debra or that Key had lied to the police when he was apprehended. Key told Dr. Goff that he had abused cocaine and alcohol in the days before the murder and that he remembered firing the first shot into Doyle's car. The prosecutor asked Dr. Goff about a document Key filed in September 1999 in a court proceeding involving a civil matter in which Key denied using drugs or alcohol before the incident and in which he said Robbie Doyle caused the crash. Dr. Goff testified that Key's statements in that document were irrelevant to his diagnosis. Joann Terrell, a licensed clinical social worker, testified about the psychosocial assessment she conducted of Key. She testified that she interviewed Key and several members of his family and that she reviewed Key's school and psychological records. Terrell testified that Key exhibited disruptive behavior as a child and that he suffered physical and emotional abuse in his home. She said that Key was impulsive and self-destructive and that he experienced uncontrolled rage. Terrell said Debra was the only person who took an interest in Key and that when she left him, he wanted her back and began stalking her. Terrell said that Key's guilty plea to aggravated stalking the day before the murder was not relevant to her evaluation of Key. The prosecutor read into the record a letter Key had written to his daughter while he was awaiting trial for this capital murder. The letter stated:

"`For two years I tried to tell your mother not to put me in jail but someone kept getting her to. On July 30th they give [sic] me ten years and I just can't do it. So I lost you and your mother and my life, too.'"

(R. 1259.)

Terrell said that the letter did not indicate to her that the guilty plea and 10-year sentence were motives for the murder. She stated that the murder was the result of "a horrible chance encounter" and impulsive acting out. (R. 1259.) Key told Terrell that he did not intend to shoot Robbie Doyle and that he meant only to shoot out the car window when he shot Doyle.

The prosecutor presented the testimony of the clerk of the Calhoun Circuit Court to show that, on July 30, 1998, Key entered into a plea agreement in the aggravated-stalking case, was...

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37 cases
  • Capote v. State
    • United States
    • Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals
    • 10 Enero 2020
    ...has been imposed for similar crimes throughout this State. See Dotch v. State, 67 So. 3d 936 (Ala. Crim. App. 2010) ; Key v. State, 891 So. 2d 353 (Ala. Crim. App. 2002) ; Knight v. State, 907 So. 2d 470 (Ala. Crim. App. 2004). This Court also notes that Young, a codefendant, was sentenced ......
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    • Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals
    • 8 Julio 2011
    ...examination of the relevant facts and legal principles, that our cases have deemed to be virtually unchallengeable." Key v. State, 891 So. 2d 353, 376 (Ala. Crim. App. 2002). As the circuit court in Key aptly noted:"' [T]he day a lawyer is supposed to come in here and make motions and enter......
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    • Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals
    • 18 Diciembre 2015
    ...sponte a limiting instruction when evidence of collateral bad acts is admitted as substantive evidence of guilt); Key v. State, 891 So.2d 353, 366–67 (Ala.Crim.App.2002) (holding that the circuit court was not required to give sua sponte a limiting instruction regarding evidence of Key's pr......
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    • Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals
    • 5 Agosto 2022
    ...we will review the claim as it relates to the penalty phase of the trial because the same jury also sat at the penalty phase. See Key, 891 So.2d at 371. Dearman failed to raise these claims in the circuit thus, these claims will be reviewed for plain error only. See Phillips v. State, 287 S......
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1 books & journal articles
  • Seeking a Recusal: Calling the Judge a Lizard Won't Help Your Cause
    • United States
    • Alabama State Bar Alabama Lawyer No. 71-3, May 2010
    • Invalid date
    ...question the mental competency of a party and order a defendant to undergo a psychological exam without fearing recusal. In Key v. State, 891 So. 2d 353 (Ala. Crim. App. 2002), the judge ordered the exam because Key had made "inappropriate facial expressions to the surviving victim and to t......

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