Newsome v. State

• Decision Date: 29 December 1989
• Docket Number: 8 Div. 127
• Parties: Jeffrey Todd NEWSOME v. STATE.
• Court: Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals

Page 703

570 So.2d 703

Jeffrey Todd NEWSOME v. STATE.

8 Div. 127.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama.

Dec. 29, 1989.

Rehearing Denied Feb. 2, 1990.

Certiorari Quashed Oct. 19, 1990

Alabama Supreme Court 89-797.

John Mark McDaniel and Robert V. Wood, Jr., Huntsville, for appellant.

Don Siegelman, Atty. Gen., and Andy S. Poole, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellee.

PATTERSON, Judge.

Appellant, Jeffrey Todd Newsome, was convicted, after a jury trial, of the murder of Kimberly Tabatha Vaughn and was sentenced to life imprisonment. Ala.Code § 13A-6-2 (1975). ¹ He appeals, raising 13 issues.

I.

Appellant first contends that the state's evidence was insufficient to support his conviction. He preserved this issue for review by a motion for judgment of acquittal, which was made at the conclusion of the state's case-in-chief.

The evidence presented by the state in its case-in-chief disclosed that the victim, Kimberly Tabatha Vaughn, visited PJ's, a nightclub in Guntersville, on July 10, 1987. Upon arriving at the club, she parked her automobile on the street nearby and entered the club about 9:30 p.m. She spent the evening in the club with friends, danced, and had several drinks. Appellant apparently arrived at the club around midnight and was observed talking with the victim, in the club, around 1:00 a.m. on July 11, 1987. Appellant and the victim had known each other for several years. The victim left the club alone around 1:00 a.m. and was shortly thereafter observed standing on the sidewalk in front of the club as if she were waiting for someone. She was intoxicated. Shortly after 1:00 a.m., appellant was observed on the street near the club with a man and a woman. The three were engaged in an argument. The victim was never seen alive again. Her unlocked automobile was discovered the following day parked near the club where she had left it the night before.

The investigation into the victim's disappearance commenced with the routine questioning of persons who had been seen with her or who may have seen her in the nightclub on the night of her disappearance. Appellant was routinely questioned on July 16, 1987, a few days after the victim's disappearance. During the interview, he became upset and belligerent; however, he gave the officers the following statement:

"I was with Alan Weaver and Chris Scott, alias, Gumbie, that Friday night. I went to PJ's around eleven--around 10:30 or eleven. We left around 12:00 o'clock, I think. I really don't remember. Then I went to Sneads Crossroads to see Ricky Garrison. He wasn't home. I saw his sister. She's about fourteen or fifteen. Then I went to Gadsden to the Strip. I just cruised around. I don't remember what time I got home. Almost daylight. I talked to Kim when I was at PJ's. I really don't remember what about. Kim's not my type so I wasn't trying to hit on her. I parked my car across the street in front of PJ's.

"I'm six foot and weigh a hundred and fifty-five pounds. I was wearing blue jeans and a white pull-over shirt."

On July 29, 1987, a search warrant was obtained to search appellant's automobile. He consented to accompany the officers to the police station for the search and, on the way, asked if the body of the victim had been found. During the search of appellant's automobile, the officers noticed that the interior roof lining of the automobile was sagging. The officers questioned appellant about the lining, and he stated that the lining was sagging because he had used mineral spirits to clean the interior of the automobile.

On August 3, 1987, the police learned that Mark McClearen had assisted appellant, early on the morning of July 11, 1987, in pulling his automobile from a place where it was stuck in an isolated area near Guntersville. Later that day, McClearen led the officers to the spot where he had assisted appellant in retrieving his vehicle. The place where appellant's vehicle had been stuck was on a steep, heavily wooded, rutted, trail used sometimes by three-wheel recreational vehicles, a considerable distance from a traveled road and in an area which could not be observed from a distance. Appellant's vehicle had struck a pine tree at the spot where it was stuck, and the damage to the tree was discernible to the officers.

A short time later on the same day, the unclothed remains of the victim were discovered within 50 yards of where appellant's vehicle had been stuck. Due to advanced decomposition of the body, the exact time and cause of death could not be determined. The remains consisted mainly of skin and bones. The internal organs had fully decomposed. Some of the deceased's bones were missing. The mandible, or lower jaw bone, and the second thoracic vertebra had become separated from the skeleton, and the hyoid bone ² was missing. Dr. Joseph Embry, a forensic pathologist, testified that the missing hyoid bone was consistent with death by strangulation. An examination of the deceased's teeth disclosed that a frontal bridge, which encompassed three teeth, was missing. Dr. John B. Harrison, a dentist who had personal knowledge of the deceased's dental work, testified that, in his opinion, because the teeth of the bridge had been embedded in bone, its removal was consistent with "blunt force trauma" and that the possibility that an animal removed the bridge was "extremely remote." The hyoid bone, the dental bridge, and the deceased's clothing were never found. Her purse was found a considerable distance from the body. The victim's scalp and a portion of her skeleton were found 120 feet from the pine tree which had been struck by appellant's car. The officers concluded from their examination of the area, that the spot where the scalp and bones were found was the original location of the body and where the victim apparently had been killed. An automobile interior light was found at the scene, and a clothes hanger, which had been unfastened and straightened out, was found hanging in the pine tree.

McClearen testified that he asked appellant what he had been doing in that location, and that appellant told him that he "was over here partying with the Weavers ... taking valium all night ... and had gone down the trail to 'shit.' " McClearen further testified that appellant also told him that Alan Weaver had stolen his drugs and had left him down there stuck. Appellant told McClearen that he had spent the night near where he was stuck, and appellant retrieved an Army-type blanket from the side of the trail.

Alan Weaver and Chris Scott testified that they met appellant in Guntersville around 11:30 p.m., July 10, 1987, and rode around Guntersville with him, while drinking and smoking marijuana. They testified that appellant accused them of stealing marijuana from the glove compartment of his automobile. According to Weaver and Scott, appellant put them out at the "Jitney, Jr." store in Guntersville between 12:30 and 1:00 a.m., July 11, 1987, and told them that he was going to PJ's. They did not see him again that morning.

Lisa Richey, who was married to appellant at the time of the offense, testified that appellant left their apartment around 6:00 p.m., July 10, 1987; that he was dressed in an all-white short-sleeved shirt and blue jeans; and that she did not see him again until around 1:30 p.m., July 11, 1987, at their apartment. When she saw him on the 11th, he was dressed in camouflage pants, was nude from the waist up, and his chest, back, and arms had "red streaks" and "splotches," which he claimed was poison ivy. He explained to her that he had been to Gadsden and had driven around all night. He later explained the damage to his car door by telling his wife that Weaver and Scott had broken into his automobile and stolen his marijuana.

Shortly after appellant had been arrested for the murder of the victim and placed in the Guntersville jail, he had a conversation with another inmate, Johnny Thompson. Thompson testified that appellant told him that, on the night the victim died, he, a friend, and the victim "went riding around"; that the victim wanted to get "high"; that he gave her "crank"; that she died from an overdose of the drug; that he drove to where his automobile had become stuck; and that his friend took the victim's body out of the automobile. Thompson further testified that appellant told him that he worked in a cabinet shop and that, if he had been thinking right, he could have made a box and buried her and they never would have found the body. According to Thompson, appellant stated that he had seen the victim in the night club and had talked with her in the "parking lot."

Subsequently, appellant was incarcerated in the Talladega jail, where he had a conversation with fellow inmate Willis Richardson. Richardson testified that appellant told him that he was charged with murder and that he did not think he would get any time for it because "they didn't have sufficient evidence to convict him on the case as of yet." Richardson testified that, when appellant observed him reading the Bible, appellant asked if he could get forgiveness for murder. Richardson further testified that appellant told him that the only thing that looked bad for him was that "he was last seen with her," and that "they had, at some time, had a fight earlier before the murder took place at some parking lot." Richardson stated that, on one occasion after appellant had received a telephone call, appellant told him that he had talked with his folks and they told him that everything was looking good and that "[w]hatever you do, just stick to your story."

Cheri Smith, appellant's former girlfriend, testified that she dated appellant from the last of May to the first of August, 1986; that, in June of 1986, she visited in appellant's home; that while there, she engaged in a discussion about the victim with appellant and his mother and sister; and that, when she and appellant left, they continued the discussion. The testimony at trial concerning this...