Mason v. State

• Decision Date: 06 March 1998
• Citation: 768 So.2d 981
• Parties: Derrick O'Neal MASON v. STATE.
• Court: Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals

768 So.2d 981

Derrick O'Neal MASON v. STATE.

CR-94-2143.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama.

March 6, 1998.

Rehearing Denied May 8, 1998.

Bruce Gardner, Huntsville, for appellant.

Bill Pryor, atty. gen., and Michael Billingsley, asst. atty. gen., for appellee.

BROWN, Judge.

The appellant, Derrick O'Neal Mason, was convicted of the capital offense of murder committed during the course of a robbery in the first degree or an attempt thereof, a violation of § 13A-5-40(a)(2), Code of Alabama 1975. By a vote of 10 to 2, the jury recommended that the appellant be sentenced to death. The trial court followed the jury's recommendation and sentenced the appellant to death.

At the time of her death, 25-year-old Angela Cagle was working as a clerk in a Majik Mart convenience store in Huntsville. Around 2:30 a.m. on Sunday, March 27, 1994, Don Teal, a newspaper delivery man, entered the south door of the Majik Mart to deliver a stack of newspapers. He spoke briefly with Angela Cagle and a customer who was in the store.

Around 3:30 a.m., DeAnna Lechman stopped by a nearby Circle K convenience store to purchase some cigarettes. Circle K did not have the brand that Lechman wanted, so she went to the Majik Mart. Lechman entered through the north door of the store because the south door was locked. As she entered the store, she noticed a sign on the door that read, "This door locked. Use other door." (R. 825.) Lechman did not see anyone in the store, so she assumed that the clerk was in the back. She called out for the clerk. When Lechman approached the back of the store, she observed the partially nude body of Angela Cagle, lying in the storeroom.

Lechman went to the counter and telephoned for help. While she was talking with the police dispatcher, she noticed that the "gas pump machine" was beeping and that it reflected an amount of $5.00 in the display. The cash register was also emitting a continuous tone. In order to hear the dispatcher, Lechman turned off the gas pump machine. She tried unsuccessfully to turn off the cash register.

Within a few minutes, the police arrived at the scene. Paul Hatfield, a patrol officer with the Huntsville Police Department, was one of the first officers to arrive. When Hatfield entered the storeroom, he found the partially nude body of Angela Cagle—she was wearing only her socks— lying across a desk. Cagle was lying on her left side, and she appeared to have suffered a gunshot wound to the right side of her face. Cagle had no visible signs of life.

Cagle's clothing was found near the desk. A bullet was recovered from the west wall in the area above Cagle's hips. A second bullet was found on some shelves located directly north of the victim's head. A shell casing was discovered in the book-shelves, and another casing was found on the floor in the area near Cagle's body. When the coroner removed Cagle's body, a second bullet wound was found on the victim's left cheek. Black buttons were found in the area near Cagle's body. Another button was later found stuck to the victim's chest. A negroid pubic hair, consistent with a known pubic hair from the appellant, was found in the combings from Cagle's pubic hair. In addition, cloth fibers that did not match Cagle's clothing were found on her left inner thigh and calf.

Susan Marcum, who was at that time the manager of the Majik Mart, had spoken with Angela Cagle several times by telephone that night, the last time being around 2:00 a.m. Marcum was summoned to the store around 4:00 a.m. She was able to determine that the last sale occurred at 2:58 a.m., and that no money was missing from the store and that no gasoline had been stolen. Marcum testified that the only way to make the cash register emit the tone heard at the scene was to hit an incorrect button on the register.

Harry Renfroe, Jr., a homicide investigator with the Huntsville Police Department, assisted in the investigation. On March 28, 1994, he was contacted by Dewey Miller, the police officer who was securing the crime scene. Miller informed Renfroe that a black male had approached him at the scene and had asked what type of gun was involved in the incident. Miller told the individual that he did not know. The individual told Miller where he could be reached. Miller conveyed this information to Renfroe. When Renfroe telephoned the individual, the man asked Renfroe what type of weapon was used in the incident. Renfroe asked the individual what type of weapon he was interested in and the man replied a ".380." (R. 1154.) The individual declined to meet with Renfroe that day. When the man telephoned Renfroe the next day, Renfroe asked him what type of .380 had been used in the shooting. The individual indicated that he was not sure. At that time, Renfroe was aware that forensic tests performed on the bullets recovered from the scene indicated that the weapon used was most likely a Davis .380. The man subsequently telephoned Renfroe and told him that the weapon was a Davis .380.

Renfroe agreed to meet with the individual at a local fast-food restaurant that afternoon. During their meeting, the man gave Renfroe the appellant's name. When Renfroe asked the individual why he thought the appellant was involved, the individual replied that the appellant had a.380 pistol and that the appellant was trying to make a name for himself. He told Renfroe that the appellant "was out of control." (R. 1157.) Renfroe returned to his office and informed the other investigators of the information that he had received. The investigators were able to obtain a physical description of the appellant, his address, and a description of his vehicle.¹ Renfroe subsequently spoke with the individual who had furnished him the appellant's name, and the man said that the appellant would most likely be at a certain apartment complex that afternoon or later that evening. A "be-on-the-look-out" was issued for the appellant.

That night, James Goings, a member of the Huntsville Police Department special response team, and another officer spotted the appellant's vehicle. Goings stopped the appellant's vehicle after it entered the drive-through lane of a fast-food restaurant. Two officers in another vehicle followed Goings's vehicle into the parking lot. The appellant cooperated with the officers when he was ordered out of the vehicle and placed under arrest. The appellant was subsequently transported to the criminal investigation division of the police department (CID).

Lisa Hamilton, an evidence technician with the Huntsville Police Department, assisted by Officer Dwight Hasty, performed an inventory search of the appellant's vehicle. A Davis .380 pistol, which was wrapped in a shirt, and a clip containing five rounds of ammunition were found in the appellant's vehicle.

That night, Hamilton transported the weapon and the clip to Brent Wheeler, a firearms expert with the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences. Ballistics tests indicated that the bullets found at the crime scene had been fired through the weapon recovered from the appellant's vehicle.

Harry Renfroe, one of the investigators, first spoke with the appellant when the appellant was brought into the interview room at CID on the night of March 29, 1994. After being apprised of his rights, the appellant waived his rights and talked with Renfroe. In response to Renfroe's questions, the appellant admitted that he had a Davis .380 weapon in his truck. He told Renfroe that he had borrowed the weapon the previous Thursday from an individual named "Barrington." The appellant told Renfroe that the gun had not been out of his possession since that time, and that it had been fired twice. When Renfroe inquired about the appellant's whereabouts on the night of the murder, the appellant told him that he had fallen asleep on the couch at his girlfriend's apartment, while watching television. During the course of the interview, Renfroe was informed that ballistics tests indicated that the gun found in the appellant's truck was the murder weapon. When Renfroe confronted the appellant with this fact, the appellant continued to deny any involvement in the murder. Renfroe left the interview room.

The appellant subsequently asked everyone but James (Bud) Parker, an investigator with the Huntsville Police Department, to leave the room, and then he confessed to Parker that he killed Angela Cagle. Parker testified as follows regarding the statement:

" I identified myself, and at 016 hours on 3/30/94 I advised him of his rights. He said he understood and would tell me what happened.

"I first asked him if his name was Derrick O'Neal Mason, date of birth 8/9/74. He said, `Yes, sir.' I asked him if he shot the victim. He said, `Yes sir.' I asked him why he went into the store. And he said, `To rob it.' I asked him why he shot the victim. He said, `I just did it. It just happened.' I asked him what time he went into the store. He said, `It was late.'

"During the course of the interview the suspect stated he went in the door on the side near the Circle K, which would have been the south door. The victim was from behind—from behind the counter working on a shelf with the merchandise. He had the gun out and was trying to cover his face with his arm. He told her to lock the door, which she did. And she took the key over to the other door and left it in the key hole. He told her to unlock the cash register and to give him the money. She said she could not until the next transaction. He told her to go to the back and to unplug the camera. She went to the back and he went behind her. He kept telling her to unplug the camera, and she said there was no camera in the store. He then said, `I did not want to go back out front with the camera on.' He said, `She kept saying there was no camera in the store.' He did not believe her because he thought all stores had cameras. He told her, `If you don't unplug the camera, I will be forced to shoot you,' he said. `I had put a bullet in

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