Morris v. State

• Decision Date: 23 November 2005
• Docket Number: No. CR-02-1765.,CR-02-1765.
• Citation: 956 So.2d 431
• Court: Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals
• Parties: Alfonzo MORRIS v. STATE of Alabama.

956 So.2d 431

Alfonzo MORRIS v. STATE of Alabama.

No. CR-02-1765.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama.

November 23, 2005.

Rehearing Denied February 24, 2006.

Certiorari Quashed November 22, 2006 Alabama Supreme Court 1050742.

Bryan A. Stevenson and Aaryn M. Urell, Montgomery, for appellant.

Troy King, atty. gen., and Margaret Mary (Missy) Fullmer, deputy atty. gen., and Jasper B. Roberts, Jr., asst. atty. gen., for appellee.

COBB, Judge.

Alfonzo Morris was convicted by a Jefferson County jury of two counts of capital murder for the death of Miriam Rochester; he was sentenced to death. The murder was made capital because it was committed during the course of a burglary, § 13A-5-40(a)(4), Ala.Code 1975, and because it was committed during the course of a robbery, § 13A-5-40(a)(2), Ala.Code 1975. The jury recommended by a vote of 10-2 that Morris be sentenced to death. The trial court adjudicated Morris guilty of both counts of capital murder and sentenced him to death. After Morris filed a motion for new trial, the trial court conducted a hearing and denied the motion. This appeal followed.

I.

The evidence presented at trial tended to show that 85-year-old Miriam Rochester was beaten to death in her home during the commission of a burglary and a robbery on the night of February 24, 1997. Earlier that evening, at approximately 9:00 p.m., the elderly woman who shared Rochester's house, Elizabeth Russell, had fainted and Rochester had summoned emergency medical assistance. One of the paramedics who responded to the call, Juanita Patterson, testified that, while she was inside the house assessing and caring for Russell, she received information from an ambulance attendant that caused her to go outside to check on her rescue vehicle. When Patterson walked outside, she saw a man later identified as Morris walking around the rescue vehicle. He was looking into the vehicle and he placed his hand on the vehicle's door, Patterson said. Patterson said that Morris walked toward her and asked her what was going on inside the house; he asked if someone had died and he began to walk around Patterson to enter the residence. Patterson told him that everything was under control and that he did not need to go inside. Morris told her that he knew everyone in the area and insisted that he had a right to enter the house. Patterson put her hands up to prevent Morris from walking around her and into the house, and Morris became "somewhat belligerent and aggravated" and he raised his voice, Patterson said. (R. 297.) Patterson told Morris to leave the premises and informed him that she would call the police if he did not leave. She said that Morris turned and walked away, muttering to himself and calling her a "bitch." Patterson testified that she was very close to Morris while they had this conversation so she was able to see him clearly. She also testified that she smelled the odor of alcohol about him.

Medical personnel placed Russell in the ambulance so she could be transported to the hospital. Patterson testified that after she administered medical care to Russell in the ambulance and stepped outside so that the ambulance could drive away, she saw Morris standing at the rear of the ambulance. Patterson said that she and her partner told Morris that they had everything under control and that he needed to leave. Instead of leaving, Patterson testified, Morris peered into the ambulance and attempted to see who was inside; he told them that he wanted to know who was inside the ambulance. When the again told Morris he needed to leave, he walked away.

Rochester telephoned one of Russell's sons, Charles Russell, at approximately 9:30 p.m. and told him that his mother had fainted and had been transported to the hospital. Charles called his brother, Daniel, and asked him to check on their mother in the hospital. At approximately 10 p.m., Charles telephoned Rochester and told her that family members were at the hospital with his mother. Daniel testified that, while he was visiting his mother in the hospital that evening, she asked him to go to the residence to be sure she had locked the back door.¹ When he got to residence at approximately 11:00 p.m., he became alarmed because the door to Russell's part of the house was open and the house appeared to have been ransacked. Daniel telephoned his brother from a neighbor's house; Daniel drove to Charles's residence and the two of them returned to Rochester's house. Charles testified that he was frightened that the burglar might still be inside the house, so they returned to Charles's house and attempted to telephone Rochester. Rochester's telephone line was busy, so they contacted the police.

Daniel and Charles returned to Rochester's house. While they were waiting for the police to arrive, Daniel looked in the front window and he saw Rochester on the floor. They telephoned the police a second time, and emergency personnel arrived soon after. Birmingham police officer Eric Smith testified that he arrived at the scene at approximately 12:15 a.m. The house had been ransacked, he said, and he discovered Rochester on the floor with head wounds. Paramedic Juanita Patterson responded to the second emergency call at Rochester's residence on the night of February 24, 1997. Officer Smith testified that, when Patterson arrived at the scene, she "broke down" and she "lost it" completely. (R. 410.) Patterson's partner entered the house and confirmed that Rochester was deceased.

Patterson did not enter the house, but, at the request of a police officer, she looked inside the house. She told the officer that, when she had been inside the house for the earlier emergency call, Rochester's side of the house had been very neat and orderly. When she saw the house during the second call, items were scattered everywhere and lamps had been turned over. Patterson examined a photograph of the crime scene and testified that the rooms of the house had not been ransacked when she was there earlier that evening. Patterson told the police about her earlier encounter with Morris and she provided a description of him.

Officer Smith encountered Morris two blocks from the crime scene at approximately 5:00 a.m. Morris was staggering and appeared to be intoxicated, so Smith arrested him for public intoxication. While patting Morris down incident to the arrest, Smith discovered numerous items of costume jewelry, a cigarette, coins, and pills. Charles Russell later viewed the items of jewelry taken from Morris and he testified that he recognized many of the items because some belonged to his mother and some to Rochester.

Soon after Morris was arrested, Patterson was taken to a location in a police car and was asked if she could identify a suspect who stood outside the police car under bright lights. The suspect was Morris. She said she knew it was the person she had seen at Rochester's house, but she wanted to know if she could hear him speak. Before she completed her question to the police, Morris "began to talk and was fussing," and she knew from having seen him and having been in a confrontation with him earlier, that the man she saw under the bright lights was the man she had seen at Rochester's house. (R. 314.)

Detective Phillip Russell of the Birmingham Police Department's homicide unit testified that Officer Smith notified him that he had detained Morris for public intoxication and that Morris had items of jewelry belonging to Rochester in his possession. Russell stated that, when he saw Morris at the police department following his arrest, he determined that Morris was too intoxicated to be interrogated; Russell was afraid that Morris could not understand what Russell said to him, so he was placed in the city jail for 8 or 10 hours before he was interrogated. (R. 455.)

Further investigation revealed that Rochester's blood was on one of the shoes Morris was wearing when he was arrested. A cigarette in Morris's pocket at the time of his arrest was the same brand as the unsmoked cigarette found at the crime scene. The filter of the unsmoked cigarette recovered at the crime scene was found to contain Morris's DNA. The pathologist who performed the autopsy on Rochester determined that the 4-foot, 10-inch, 92-pound woman had sustained multiple lacerations to her head and two skull fractures, one of which was over 10 inches long. The pathologist determined that blunt-force injuries to the head caused Rochester's death.

Morris did not present any evidence on his behalf. After deliberating for 59 minutes, the jury found Morris guilty of the two counts of capital murder for which he had been indicted. A sentencing hearing was conducted, and the jury, by a vote of 10-2, recommended that Morris receive the death sentence. Following a separate hearing before the trial court, the judge sentenced Morris to death. This appeal follows.

II.

In Issue VII of his brief to this Court, Morris argues that the trial court erred to reversal when it denied his request for a mental-health expert who could assist him in preparing and presenting a defense based on the expert's evaluation of his mental-health and mental-retardation issues. He argues in Issue II of his brief that the record establishes that he is mentally retarded and that Atkins v. Virginia, 536 U.S. 304, 122 S.Ct. 2242, 153 L.Ed.2d 335 (2002), mandates a reversal of his death sentence. Because the facts and law relevant to the analysis of these issues are intertwined, we will discuss the issues together.

The procedural facts relevant to this issue are complicated and, therefore, are set forth in detail below.

Morris was arrested on the capital-murder charges on February 27, 1997, and he was indicted on November 7, 1997. Trial had been set for February 22, 1999. On February 10, 1999, defense counsel filed an amended plea, alleging that Morris was not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect; specifically, he alleged that Morris had been unable to appreciate...