King v. State

• Decision Date: 10 March 1987
• Docket Number: 6 Div. 43
• Citation: 505 So.2d 403
• Parties: Christopher Doyle KING v. STATE.
• Court: Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals

Page 403

505 So.2d 403

Christopher Doyle KING v. STATE.

6 Div. 43.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama.

March 10, 1987.

Lawrence B. Sheffield, Jr., and Lawrence B. Sheffield III of Sheffield & Sheffield, Birmingham, for appellant.

Charles A. Graddick, Atty. Gen., and P. David Bjurberg, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellee.

PATTERSON, Judge.

Appellant, Christopher Doyle King, was indicted by a two-count indictment for murder in violation of § 13A-6-2, Code of Alabama 1975. Count one charged that appellant

"... did recklessly engage in conduct which manifested extreme indifference to human life and created a grave risk of death to a persn other than the said Christopher Doyle King, and did thereby cause the death of Dwight Lee Reeves by shooting into an automobile in which the said Dwight Lee Reeves was a passenger and shooting the said Dwight Lee Reeves with a pistol, in violation of Section 13A-6-2[ (a)(2) ] of the Alabama Criminal Code...."

Count two charged that appellant

"... did intentionally cause the death of another person, Dwight Lee Reeves, by shooting him with a pistol, in violation of Section 13A-6-2[ (a)(1) ] of the Alabama Criminal Code...."

The case was tried to a jury, and on October 3, 1985, the jury returned a verdict of guilty of murder, as charged in count one. The trial court sentenced appellant to twenty years in the penitentiary and fined him $1,000, payable to the Alabama Crime Victims Compensation Fund.

King appeals, raising one issue: "Whether or not the State of Alabama failed to prove that the appellant manifested extreme indifference to human life in general as required by Section 13A-6-2(a)(2) of the Alabama Code so as to support a conviction for reckless murder." This issue was properly preserved for our review by a motion for judgment of acquittal made at the conclusion of the State's case-in-chief and by motion for new trial, both of which were overruled.

The evidence presented by the State disclosed that on the evening of November 22, 1984, Dwight Lee Reeves and his cousin, Rodney Dunnaway, traveled from Fultondale to Birmingham to visit Trader Johns, a nightclub in east Birmingham. They traveled in Dunnaway's automobile. That same evening, appellant and a friend, Bobby Knight, visited the same club. They traveled in appellant's blue pickup truck. While at the club, appellant and Reeves apparently "bumped" into each other and exchanged words. Both were apparently upset by the encounter. Dunnaway and Reeves left the club around 1:30 a.m. to go home. Appellant and Knight left shortly before Dunnaway and Reeves. As Dunnaway and Reeves were pulling out of the parking lot of the club, a blue pickup truck pulled up closely behind Dunnaway's automobile and stopped for a short period. Dunnaway was driving, and Reeves was sitting on the passenger's side in the front seat of the automobile. Dunnaway drove away from the club, entered the interstate highway, and proceeded westward toward downtown Birmingham and Fultondale at a speed of approximately fifty-five miles per hour. Appellant and Knight left the parking lot of the club in the pickup truck, which appellant was driving, and after entering the interstate highway, proceeded westward in the same direction as Dunnaway was proceeding, and in the opposite direction from appellant's home. Appellant observed Dunnaway's automobile and recognized the passenger, Reeves, as the person with whom he had had the altercation at the club. Appellant drove his truck closely behind Dunnaway's automobile and, while blinking his truck's lights, "tailgated" it for several miles. Dunnaway reduced his speed several times to let the truck pass, but it continued closely behind him. As the vehicles approached the 31st Street exit, appellant pulled a .38-caliber pistol from under the seat of his truck, pulled up beside Dunnaway's automobile on the right side, fired two or three shots at the vehicle, and turned right on the off-ramp, leaving the interstate highway. Bullets struck the rear tires of Dunnaway's vehicle, causing them to immediately go flat, and the vehicle came to a halt some distance beyond the 31st Street exit. One bullet pierced the window on the passenger's side and struck Reeves in the head. He fell over into Dunnaway's lap. Reeves died from the head wound several hours later. Reeves and Dunnaway were unarmed and did nothing to provoke the shooting. Appellant went home immediately after the incident and did not report it. The police investigation ultimately led to his arrest some two months later. Appellant gave conflicting stories to several persons about the incident, and when arrested, falsely stated that he had no knowledge of the incident. He disposed of the pistol in a "dumpster," and it was never recovered. The State's case was primarily based upon the testimony of Dunnaway and Knight, and the testimony of each was essentially consistent with the other's.

Knight, testifying for the State, stated that, just before the incident, appellant stated that he was going to "mess with them and shoot the tires out." He further testified that, just after the shooting, appellant stated that he "might have messed up or he shot the window out." In substance, Knight testified that there was no provocation or excuse for appellant's actions.

This court interpreted the meaning of reckless homicide proscribed by § 13A-6-2(a)(2), in Northington v. State, 413 So.2d 1169 (Ala.Cr.App.1981), cert. quashed, 413 So.2d 1172 (Ala.1982). Therein, we stated the following:

"Reckless homicide manifesting extreme indifference to human life (13A-6-2(a)(2)) must be distinguished from purposeful or knowing murder (13A-6-2(a)(1)). See American Law Institute, Model Penal Code and Commentaries, Part II, Section 210.2 (1980). Under whatever name, the doctrine of universal malice, depraved heart murder, or reckless homicide manifesting extreme indifference to human life is intended to embrace those cases where a person has no deliberate intent to kill or injure any particular individual. Napier v. State, 357 So.2d 1001, 1007 (Ala.Cr.App.1977), reversed on other grounds, 357 So.2d 1011 (Ala.1978). 'The element of "extreme indifference to human life," by definition, does not address itself to the life of the victim, but to human life generally.' People By And Through Russel v. District Court For Fourth Judicial District, 185 Colo. 78, 521 P.2d 1254, 1256 (1974)."

Id. at 1170-71. We also stated,

"The function of this section is to embrace those homicides caused by such acts as driving an automobile in a grossly wanton manner, shooting a firearm into a crowd or moving train, and throwing a timber from a roof onto a crowded street. Napier, 357 So.2d at 1007."

Id. at 1172. The Supreme Court of Alabama subsequently adopted this interpretation. Ex parte Washington, 448 So.2d 404, 408 (Ala.1984); Ex parte McCormack, 431 So.2d 1340 (Ala.1983).

In Ex parte Weems, 463 So.2d 170, 172 (Ala.1984), the Supreme Court, in an opinion by Justice Faulkner, stated the following:

"Alabama's homicide statutes were derived from the Model Penal Code. In providing that homicide committed 'recklessly under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to human life' constitutes murder, the drafters of the model code were attempting to define a degree of recklessness 'that cannot be fairly distinguished from homicides committed purposely or knowingly.' Model Penal Code and Commentaries, § 210.02, Comment, 4 (1980). That standard was designed to encompass the category of murder traditionally referred to as 'depraved heart' or 'universal malice' killings. Examples of such acts include shooting into an occupied house or into a moving automobile or piloting a speedboat through a group of swimmers. See LaFave & Scott, Criminal Law, § 70 (1972)."

We find in a discussion of "depraved heart murder" in LaFave & Scott, Criminal Law, § 70 (1972), the following:

"For murder the degree of risk of death or serious bodily injury must be more than a mere unreasonable risk, more even than a high degree of risk. Perhaps the required danger may be designated a 'very high degree' of risk to distinguish it from those lesser degrees of risk which will suffice for other crimes. Such a designation of conduct at all events is more accurately descriptive than that flowery expression found in the old cases and occasionally incorporated into some modern statutes--i.e., conduct 'evincing a depraved heart, devoid of social duty, and fatally bent on mischief.' Although 'very high degree of risk' means something quite substantial, it is still something less than certainty or substantial certainty. The distinctions between an unreasonable risk and a high degree of risk and a very high degree of risk are, of course, matters of degree, and there is no exact boundary line between each category; they shade gradually like a spectrum from one group to another.

"It should be noted, however, that for depraved-heart murder it is not a great amount of risk in the abstract which is decisive. The risk is exactly the same when one fires his rifle into a window of what appears to be an abandoned cabin in a deserted mining town as when one shoots the same bullet into the window of a well-kept city home, when in fact in each case one person occupies the room into which the shot is fired. In the deserted cabin situation it may not be, while in the occupied home situation it may be, murder when the occupant is killed. This illustrates that it is what the defendant should realize to be the degree of risk, in the light of the surrounding circumstances which he knows, which is important, rather than the amount of risk as an abstract proposition of the mathematics of chance.

"Another matter to be noted is that the risk must not only be very high, as the defendant ought to realize in the light of what he knows, it must also under the circumstances be unjustifiable for him to take the risk. The motives for the defendant's risky conduct...