Pitts v. State
| Decision Date | 16 August 1960 |
| Docket Number | 1 Div. 810 |
| Citation | 40 Ala.App. 702,122 So.2d 542 |
| Parties | John Thomas PITTS v. STATE. |
| Court | Alabama Court of Appeals |
Ronald P. Slepian, Mobile, for appellant.
MacDonald Gallion, Atty. Gen., and John C. Tyson, III, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.
Appellant was charged, tried and convicted of manslaughter in the second degree.
About 5:30 p. m., March 5, 1959, appellant's automobile traveling eastwardly on Moffat street in Mobile, collided with an automobile going in a westwardly direction operated by Mr. Jack Pride. Three men who were passengers in appellant's automobile were fatally injured.
Mr. Pride testified when he first saw defendant's automobile it was traveling at a speed greater than sixty miles per hour and when within two or three hundred feet of Mr. Pride's car it ran off the road, travelled for approximately one hundred feet, throwing up a wall of mud and water, then the wheels were cut sharply to the left in an effort to get back onto the pavement. The car skidded at an angle for some distance both on and off the pavement and crashed broadside into Mr. Pride's automobile. Mr. Pride lost the sight of one eye and sustained a punctured lung, ten broken ribs, a crushed heel, and numerous cuts and bruises. The witness was semi-conscious following the wreck and did not get out of his automobile, and could not state who was driving the automobile that collided with his car.
Mr. Fern LaBan, a witness for the state, testified that on the occasion of the collision he was driving with two companions following some four to five car lengths behind Mr. Pride's automobile, when he saw appellant's automobile skidding down the center of the road; that he slowed his car and the impact from appellant's automobile knocked the Pride automobile into Mr. LaBan's car; that when he got out of his car he saw two colored men lying on the ground; that he went across the street and called an ambulance and the police; that he could not state who was driving the automobile.
Archibald W. Sims testified for the state that he was riding in the front seat of Mr. LaBan's automobile and witnessed the collision; that he saw two bodies fall out the right side of defendant's automobile and as soon as he could get out of the car he went to look at the two men and saw that one was evidently dead and the other was seriously injured; that he went back to the car and saw one man lying across the back seat; that the left front door was ajar and the impact had forced the bottom part of the front seat to the left and outside the car a distance of approximately two feet; that the defendant was slumped across the steering wheel, with his right arm hanging in the steering wheel, his head was against the door, his dody on the seat under the steering wheel; that defendant was unconscious and witness picked up his head, looked at his face and felt his pulse but did not move him, and that he later identified him at the hospital. The witness stated there was another man wrapped completely around the center post on the driver's side of the automobile, and it was impossible to tell whether this person was in the back seat or front seat of the automobile; that if defendant had been straightened up he would have been behind that steering wheel, but if the seat were pushed back to its normal position he would have been to the right of the steering wheel.
Harold Fendley testified that at about 4:00 on the afternoon of the accident the defendant stopped at his home and picked up his son, Harold Fendley, Jr., who had been sitting on the porch talking with his father; that defendant was driving the automobile in question at this time; that he was accompanied by three other colored boys; that when they drove away Harold Fendley, Jr., was sitting on the right side in the front, Raymond Mitchell was sitting in the middle in front and McClain and Jackson were in the rear seat; that he next saw his son approximately one and one-half hours later, dead at the hospital.
Annie Howard testified that about 4:15 that afternoon defendant picked her up near a bus stop and gave her a ride home and that defendant was driving the automobile.
Clarence Joseph Lund, Jr., testified he was a police officer of the City of Mobile and that he investigated the accident shortly after it occurred; that he found two bodies on the ground alongside the left of the car and a third was in the front seat; that defendant was sitting in the door frame of the left rear door, leaning against the back seat, and Azel Jackson was sitting on the back seat holding a hankerchief to defendant's head. Pitts appeared to be severely hurt but was not unconscious; that he went to the County Hospital and talked with John Thomas Pitts, and Azel Jackson, the other survivor of the accident; that Pitts stated he was the owner of the...
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