Price v. State, 6 Div. 485
| Decision Date | 15 January 1974 |
| Docket Number | 6 Div. 485 |
| Citation | 288 So.2d 803,52 Ala.App. 21 |
| Parties | Alice PRICE, alias v. STATE. |
| Court | Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals |
Rogers, Howard, Redden & Mills and Rogert M. Harper, Birmingham, for appellant.
William J. Baxley, Atty. Gen. and William T. Musgrove, Jr., Special Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.
Appellant was convicted of murder in the first degree and sentenced to imprisonment for life in the penitentiary. From this judgment of the court, she has appealed.
The evidence offered by the state was circumstantial and was substantially as follows: On the afternoon of January 13, 1972, the appellant was seen by Ruby Leigh Hawkins, about 2 p.m., walking down an alley behind the Hawkins' home with a pistol in her hand. Appellant was going in the direction of a white station wagon which was parked in an alley close by. Soon thereafter Mrs. Hawkins heard a noise which she described as, 'pow.' Immediately the white car backed out, and the deceased jumped out of the car and ran. The witness further testified that she heard appellant say as she passed the house, 'Uh-huh, son-of-a-bitch, I got you now.'
Mary Lyons testified that she lived near the scene of the occurrence at Route 6 in Birmingham, Jefferson County, Alabama, and that the deceased, Virginia Ruth McBride Browning, lived with her in the same house. On the date in question, she heard a noise outside of her house and walked out and saw a white station wagon, which belonged to Charlie Price, behind her house and that she then returned inside. Soon thereafter, she heard screaming and hollering and went back outside and saw the appellant walking across a field behind the house. After hearing a further disturbance, she went down the street and saw the deceased lying on the ground.
Cassandra Bryant Nolan testified that at about 2 o'clock January 13, 1972, she saw the deceased, Virginia Ruth McBride Browning, in Charlie Price's car in a ditch on Sixty Seventh Street. She further testified that with some help from bystanders, she put the deceased in her car and carried her to Carraway Hospital where she was turned over to attendants in the Emergency section.
William L. Allen, Deputy Coroner of Jefferson County, testified that he was present when an autopsy was performed on the deceased by Dr. George F. Scofield; that he observed a gunshot wound with entry on the right shoulder of the deceased.
Dr. Scofield testified that he was a licensed physician and practicing pathologist at the Carraway Hospital in Birmingham; that on January 13, 1972, he performed an autopsy on the deceased, and that it was his opinion that she died of a gunshot wound which penetrated the pulmonary artery.
State witness J. O. Butler, Jr., a detective working with the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department, testified that he investigated the incident, and upon arriving on the scene, the appellant came down the street toward him; that the first words spoken by the appellant were 'I did it, I did it.' After stopping near a sheriff's patrol car, she continued speaking, saying she was at home; that she saw her husband, Charlie, drive down the alley toward Ruth's house; that she went into the house and got a gun, walked toward Ruth's house and saw Ruth getting in the car with Charlie; that she walked over to the passenger side of the car, took the gun out of her bosom and shot Ruth; that she then threw the gun away in a field. He further testified that no one had said anything or done anything to her at this time, but had merely listened to her statement. She was arrested and taken to the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department, where she was informed of her Miranda rights and thereafter gave a statement which was recorded by a tape recorder.
On January 18, Detective Butler carried a copy of the statement, which had been transcribed by a stenographer employed in the sheriff's office, to the appellant; that she read and signed it. He further testified that she had given the statement in his presence; that no one else was present except the appellant and him; that she was not offered any inducement, threatened, coerced, nor made any promise to induce her to give the statement; that when the statement had been transcribed and presented to her for her signature, she read it, said she would sign it and did sign it.
Sometime between January 13, 1972 and January 18, 1972, she had employed an attorney who was not present when she signed the statement presented to her on the 18th. There is no evidence that she asked for nor indicated a desire to have her attorney present when the statement was signed and returned to Detective Butler.
The first argument advanced by appellant is that the state failed to prove the corpus delicti, and that the court was in error in admitting testimony of any confession in the absence of independent proof of the corpus delicti.
In a homicide case, the burden is cast upon the state to prove beyond a reasonable doubt the fact of death and the criminal agency of some person causing it. Moss v. State, 32 Ala.App. 250, 25 So.2d 700, cert. den. 247 Ala. 595, 25 So.2d 703. It seems that this requirement is satisfied when it appears that the death is not a result of an accident or natural causes or suicide. Shelton v. State, 217 Ala. 465, 117 So. 8. However, it is also firmly established that the corpus delicti in a homicide case may be proved by circumstantial evidence, as in other criminal cases. Moss v. State, supra; Hill v. State, 207 Ala. 444, 93 So. 460; Spain v. State, 37 Ala.App. 311, 68 So.2d 53.
If a reasonable inference of the existence of the corpus delicti can be inferred from the evidence, the court should submit to a jury, for its consideration, the weight and sufficiency of the evidence tending to support such inference. McCall v. State, 262 Ala. 414, 79 So.2d 51; Hines v. State, 260 Ala. 668, 72 So.2d 296.
It appears to the court in the light of the above cited authorities that there is ample evidence, independent...
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