Parker v. State

• Decision Date: 03 May 1977
• Docket Number: 8 Div. 905
• Citation: 351 So.2d 927
• Parties: Johnny Ray PARKER v. STATE.
• Court: Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals

Page 927

351 So.2d 927

Johnny Ray PARKER v. STATE.

8 Div. 905.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama.

May 3, 1977.

Rehearing Denied June 7, 1977.

BOWEN, Judge.

The opinion of this court issued March 29, 1977, is hereby set aside and withdrawn. The following opinion becomes the opinion of the court.

The appellant was indicted for the first degree murder of Christine Lott. A petit jury found him guilty of murder in the second degree and fixed his punishment at fifty years imprisonment in the penitentiary. Judgment and sentence by the trial court were accordingly entered. Because the appellant was found to be indigent, counsel was appointed to represent him both at trial and on appeal.

The major contention of the appellant is that the trial court erred in refusing to suppress the confession of the appellant (1) because it was involuntary when considered in light of the totality of the circumstances and (2) because the appellant was a juvenile and did not have the capacity to waive his rights under the Fifth and Sixth Amendments of the Constitution of the United States.

At a hearing outside the presence of the jury to determine the admissibility of the confession, the state presented the testimony of two detectives of the Decatur Police Department. Their testimony established the fact that the appellant was the main suspect in the murder case of Christine Lott which they were investigating. Around 8:30 on the morning of March 4, 1976, they went to the appellant's home which was located approximately seventy-five yards from the scene of the crime. The detectives told the mother of the appellant that they wanted to talk to her son about "what happened at the L & H Salvage Yard" and the murder of Mrs. Lott. Mrs. Parker then told the officers that her son had stated that he "saw some negroes up there". She invited the detectives into her house where they talked to the fifteen year old appellant with his mother present.

The appellant was asked and agreed to talk to the detectives in their police car. Once in the car, the appellant was advised of his constitutional rights and questioned for five or ten minutes. During this time, Mrs. Parker was either in the front yard or by the front door of the house.

The appellant agreed to go with the detectives to the police station for further questioning. Mrs. Parker was told that her son was going to be taken to the police station and would be brought back home "if everything turned out all right". Although the appellant was the "prime" suspect in Mrs. Lott's murder, Mrs. Parker was not informed that her son was a suspect.

Arriving at the police station shortly after 9:00 A.M., the appellant was again advised of his rights. He read a waiver of rights form and signed a written waiver of his constitutional rights at 9:25 that morning. Detective Collier testified that the appellant stated that he understood his rights before signing the waiver form. He also testified that no threats, coercion, intimidation, offer or promise of reward or hope of reward, or leniency "or anything of that nature" was extended to the appellant in order to induce him to make a statement. Three police officers were present during the questioning of the appellant.

The appellant was confronted with statements made by other parties the police had previously questioned in their investigation which conflicted with his answers. At least two of the three officers present told the appellant that they thought the appellant was lying and that he should go ahead and tell the truth. There was testimony from one of the officers that he was nervous and "afraid that he was going to get killed if he told us who it was". The appellant was accused of committing the murder and told by Detective Collier that he "thought he would feel better about it if he told us the truth and asked for forgiveness".

At that point the appellant began crying, confessed to the murder and recited the details of the crime. The total interrogation had consumed forty-five minutes. The three police officers and the appellant went out to the scene of the murder. The appellant recounted and re-enacted the events and then showed the officers where he had hidden the money he took from Mrs. Lott's body.

The appellant was taken back to police headquarters and again advised of his rights and signed a second waiver form at 1:05 P.M. The appellant recited the entire sequence of events and Detective Collier wrote it down. The appellant read the confession, stated that it was true and signed it. This confession was completed at 2:20 P.M.

The juvenile authorities were advised around "noon" that the appellant had been "picked up". While the appellant was being questioned one of the detectives who brought the appellant to police station filed a petition with the juvenile court to invoke the jurisdiction of that court. The appellant was in the custody of the police and not the juvenile authorities when he confessed.

Mrs. Parker, the mother of the appellant, testified that the detectives only talked with her son in the police car and would not let her be with him during that time. They also would not let her give the appellant a "coke" when she brought one out to the car. She testified that one of the detectives told her that they were going to carry Johnny up to the police station "for him to sign a statement that he hadn't been down at Lott's store yesterday". The detectives would not let Mrs. Parker go with her son to the police station and told her that they would bring him back in "a little bit".

A report from the "Mental Health Center" on the I.Q. of the appellant was admitted into evidence at the hearing on the motion to suppress but was not included in the transcript of the court reporter. At trial, the defense called William S. Lucus Jr., Chief of the Out-Patient Services of the North Central Alabama Mental Health Center. He testified that the appellant was very weak in the general comprehension of factual information, common sense, judgment and reasoning. The appellant was a "slow learner" slow in the area of vocabulary. Mr. Lucus administered the Weschler Adult Intelligent Scale test consisting of three general levels of competency: (1) A verbal scale, (2) a performance scale, and (3) a full scale. On the verbal scale the appellant had an I.Q score of 81 with 90 to 110 being the normal range. On the performance scale, the appellant scored within the normal range with an I.Q. of 96. On the full scale, the appellant's I.Q. was 87, just three points below normal. An additional test administered to the appellant revealed no organic brain damage and no extreme emotional instability.

The appellant did not testify at the hearing on the motion to suppress or at trial.

This concluded the hearing on the motion to suppress the confession. The trial court found that the evidence presented a question of fact and refused to suppress the confession.

During the course of the trial and before the confession was admitted into evidence before the jury, the trial judge offered to defense counsel two additional opportunities to introduce evidence on the initial voluntariness and admissibility of the confession. However, defense counsel refused these opportunities and declined to present further testimony on this issue.

At trial, the state presented the testimony of Carl Green who testified that he saw the appellant within three hundred yards of the store of the deceased on the day of the murder. Detective Collier testified substantially as he did on the hearing to determine the admissibility of the confession. A state toxicologist stated that based upon his examination, Mrs. Lott had been strangled to death. Expert testimony was also presented to show that a fingerprint lifted from the vacuum cleaner rod or wand to which the rope was tied that went around the victim's neck belonged to the appellant.

The defense presented the testimony of the parents and relatives of the appellant to show that the appellant had an unhappy home and family life, that his father would become intoxicated and beat him, that the appellant did not like school and that the appellant had difficulty controlling his bowel movements when he was younger. Additional testimony revealed that the appellant read at a fifth grade level.

The confession given by the appellant is dated at 2:20 P.M., March 4, 1976. Court records and orders evidence that at 2:00 P.M. on that same afternoon, counsel was appointed to represent the appellant. At 4:30 P.M. that same afternoon, the appellant and his attorney appeared before the Juvenile Division of the Morgan County Court along with a probation officer and the appellant was advised as to the petition alleging his delinquency for the commission of the offense of murder in the first degree and robbery. That order of the court reflects that:

"The youth is advised of his rights under the law and questioned only as to his care since the time he was taken into custody earlier on this date. He advised the court that he has been under no duress or coercion. He has not been injured, threatened, denied food or other necessary comforts."

The court ordered the appellant detained in the city jail pending his detention hearing. This hearing was held the next day, March 5, 1976. After testimony was taken and evidence presented the juvenile court found that just and reasonable cause existed to detain the appellant, without bond, pending further proceedings.

On March 16, 1976, the juvenile court, on motion of defense counsel, ordered physical and mental examinations of the appellant.

On April 30, 1976, the juvenile court, after an evidentiary hearing, ordered jurisdiction of the cause transferred to the circuit court where the appellant would be treated as an adult. In making this order the juvenile court took into consideration the fact that the appellant had been found delinquent at the age of fifteen and at the time of the murder was already on...