Mangione v. State

• Decision Date: 19 June 1998
• Citation: 740 So.2d 444
• Parties: Louis Christopher MANGIONE v. STATE.
• Court: Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals

740 So.2d 444

Louis Christopher MANGIONE v. STATE.

CR-96-0080.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama.

June 19, 1998.

Rehearing Denied August 14, 1998.

Certiorari Denied August 13, 1999.

Donald L. Colee, Jr., Birmingham; and John Charles Robbins, Birmingham, for appellant.

Bill Pryor, atty. gen., and James B. Prude, asst. atty. gen., for appellee.

Alabama Supreme Court 1972115.

BROWN, Judge.

The appellant, Louis Christopher Mangione, was charged in a two-count indictment with the capital murder of Vicki Deblieux. Count I of the indictment charged the appellant with the capital offense of murder committed during a kidnapping in the first degree, a violation of § 13A-5-40(a)(1), Ala.Code 1975. Count II of the indictment charged the appellant with the capital offense of murder committed during a robbery in the first degree, a violation of § 13A-5-40(a)(2), Ala.Code 1975. The jury found the appellant guilty of capital murder, as charged in Count I of the indictment, and guilty of murder as a lesser-included offense of the capital murder charged in Count II of the indictment. The appellant was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for the capital murder conviction and to life imprisonment for the murder conviction.

The following evidence was presented at trial. Elmer Andrew Smith and 38-year-old Vicki Deblieux lived together briefly in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Smith testified that in February 1994, Vicki Deblieux told him that she wanted to return to Louisiana to live with her mother. Smith testified that on February 22, 1994, he drove Deblieux to the Alabama-Georgia state line, where he left her at an exit ramp on Interstate 59. From there, Deblieux intended to hitchhike to Louisiana. Deblieux never arrived at Louisiana—several days after Smith left Deblieux at the exit ramp, hikers discovered her nude, mutilated body at the foot of Bald Rock Mountain in St. Clair County.

Larry Flippo, an agent with the Alabama Bureau of Investigation, investigated the murder. Based on information he received from acquaintances of the appellant's, he suspected that the appellant was involved in the homicide. On April 6, 1994, Flippo brought the appellant to the police station for questioning. The appellant gave Flippo a handwritten statement, in which he provided the following facts. On February 22, 1994, he and three companions —Trace Duncan, Kenny Loggins, and Dale Grayson—were riding around the Birmingham area in Grayson's automobile, drinking beer. Between 1:00 and 2:00 a.m., they saw Vicki Deblieux on the exit ramp; she was hitchhiking. They stopped and offered Deblieux a ride; she got into the car and told them that she was going to Louisiana. Instead of driving to the interstate, Grayson drove onto a dirt road toward an area known as the "pipelines." When Deblieux became nervous about this diversion, Grayson informed her that they had to get Loggins's truck, which was parked in this area. Upon arriving at the pipelines, everyone except Deblieux got out of the car. The appellant, his three friends, and Deblieux drank beer and smoked marijuana for a while. Deblieux subsequently got out of the vehicle to go to the bathroom. When she did so, Grayson told the appellant that he was going to "sacrifice the bitch." When Deblieux returned to the car, Grayson hit her with a beer bottle, and then Duncan, Loggins, and Grayson beat Deblieux. Loggins and Grayson stood on Deblieux's throat, choking her. Deblieux died as a result of the beating and choking. The appellant's companions then placed her body in the back of Loggins's truck. The four drove to a Bald Rock Mountain cliff, where Loggins, Grayson, and Duncan unloaded Deblieux's body. According to the appellant's written statement, his companions poked Deblieux's lifeless body with sticks and kicked it. Loggins, Duncan, and Grayson threw Deblieux's body, as well as some of her belongings, off a cliff at Bald Rock Mountain. Grayson then drove the appellant home. The appellant wrote in his statement that, a few days after the incident, his companions told him that they had returned to the site where Deblieux's body had fallen, and mutilated it.

The appellant wrote that Loggins gave him one of Deblieux's fingers as a "souvenir." The appellant said that he placed the finger in a plastic bag, and that he hid the bag in some bushes near a grocery store. The appellant later revised his written statement and claimed that he had thrown the finger into a rock quarry.

Flippo testified that the appellant made several oral statements to him concerning the incident that were not reflected in the appellant's handwritten statement. According to Flippo, the appellant told him that Deblieux did not want to get out of the vehicle when they arrived at the pipelines. The appellant also admitted to Flippo that he threw a bottle at Deblieux after she got out of the vehicle, and that when she ran, he and his companions chased her and knocked her down. Flippo testified that the appellant told him that he and his companions laughed about Deblieux's saying to them, "Okay, I'll party," moments before she died. According to Flippo, the appellant again changed his story about the disposition of Deblieux's finger—he told Flippo that the finger was buried behind his house. Flippo testified that he later found Deblieux's finger in a plastic bag buried in the appellant's backyard.

Bruce Foley, an acquaintance of the appellant's, testified that in March 1994, the appellant showed him a finger in a plastic bag. The appellant told Foley that the finger belonged to a female hitchhiker who had been murdered by some of his friends. The appellant admitted to Foley that he had thrown a beer bottle at the hitchhiker, but he said that he had not participated in the mutilation of the woman's body.

Sonya Gray testified that she had dated Trace Duncan briefly. One evening in March 1994, Gray, her friend Danielle Boso, Loggins, and the appellant visited Duncan at his home. Loggins began talking about a hitchhiker he and the others had killed. The appellant warned Gray that if she and Boso told anyone he "would dig himself out [sic] and pull [their] intestines out with a spoon." Danielle Boso's testimony regarding the conversation at Duncan's house was similar to Gray's.

Dr. Joseph Embry, a licensed medical examiner employed by the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences, performed the autopsy on Deblieux. Dr. Embry testified that Deblieux likely died as a result of blunt-force trauma to the head. The injuries were consistent with her having either been struck on the head with a beer bottle or kicked in the head. Deblieux also sustained numerous bruises and lacerations on her neck, which, Dr. Embry testified, could have been caused by someone standing on her neck. Dr. Embry further testified that numerous other stab wounds and lacerations were inflicted on the victim —Deblieux was stabbed approximately 180 times—the majority of these stab wounds were postmortem.

The appellant testified at trial that on February 22, 1994, he and his three companions were riding around in Grayson's automobile listening to the radio, drinking beer, and smoking marijuana. Around 1:30 a.m., the appellant asked Grayson to take him home. As the four drove to the appellant's house, they saw a female hitchhiking at the Trussville exit on Interstate 59. Grayson pulled his automobile to the side of the road and began talking with the woman. She identified herself as Vicki Deblieux, and she said that she was hitchhiking to Louisiana. Deblieux accepted Grayson's offer of a ride. The appellant testified that he, Deblieux, and his three companions then traveled together to the pipelines. When Deblieux appeared nervous, Grayson told her to "chill out," because they were simply picking up Loggins's truck, which was located at the pipelines. Upon arriving at the pipelines, the appellant and his male companions got out of the vehicle; Deblieux remained inside. According to the appellant's testimony, about an hour later, Deblieux got out of the vehicle to go to the bathroom. The appellant testified that at that point, Grayson told him that he was going to "sacrifice the bitch." Grayson then walked over to Deblieux, who at that time was leaning against Loggins's truck, talking with Loggins and Duncan. Grayson hit Deblieux in the head with a beer bottle. Loggins then hit her with a bottle and Grayson punched her. Deblieux tried to run, but she was tackled by both Loggins and Grayson. Grayson began kicking her and Loggins stood on her throat. The appellant testified that Grayson threatened to kill him and Duncan if they "freaked out." The appellant testified that he then walked over to Grayson's car and sat down while Grayson and Loggins continued to beat Deblieux. Duncan, Loggins, and Grayson then placed Deblieux's body in the back of Loggins's truck. Grayson got into his car and told the appellant, who claimed that he had remained in the passenger seat of the car during this time, that Deblieux was dead. Grayson then drove to Bald Rock Mountain to dispose of the body. The appellant rode with Grayson and Loggins, and Duncan followed in Loggins's truck.

Upon arriving at the top of the mountain, the appellant's three companions disposed of some of Deblieux's possessions and then they removed Deblieux's body from the truck. The appellant testified that Duncan began kicking Deblieux's body and that he placed a bottle between her legs and kicked the bottle. Loggins and Grayson then threw Deblieux's body off the mountain. The appellant testified that Grayson eventually took him home, but only after the group had visited a park and washed Loggins's truck at a car wash. The appellant testified that he had no further involvement in the incident involving Deblieux and that he was unaware that his three companions had mutilated her body until some time later.

I.

The appellant contends that his conviction for intentional murder under...