Sasser v. State
| Decision Date | 22 April 1980 |
| Docket Number | 4 Div. 783 |
| Citation | 387 So.2d 237 |
| Parties | Robert Bryan SASSER, alias v. STATE. |
| Court | Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals |
Michael Crespi, Headland, George H. Jones, Birmingham, for appellant.
Charles A. Graddick, Atty. Gen., Sarah Kathryn Farnell, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellee.
Appellant-defendant was tried on an indictment charging him with committing an assault with a deadly instrument to-wit, a rifle, upon Deputy Sheriff Bill Shaw while engaged in the active discharge of his lawful duty or duties. Defendant had pleaded not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity. A jury found him guilty as charged in the indictment, and the court fixed his punishment at imprisonment for twelve years and sentenced him accordingly.
The cardinal issue presented by appellant is as to the sufficiency of the evidence to support the verdict, which was raised in the trial court by written request for the general charge in favor of defendant, which the trial court refused, and by a motion for a new trial that the trial court overruled.
The issue as to the sufficiency of the evidence is divided into two parts. One is whether there should have been a verdict, under the direction or instruction of the court, of not guilty, and the other as to whether there should have been a verdict, under the direction or instruction of the court, of not guilty by reason of insanity.
There is no merit, in our opinion, in the first phase of the issue presented by appellant. According to the undisputed evidence, on the morning of December 31, 1978, defendant came to the apartment of Randy Cooper, located behind the Townline Motel Restaurant in Andalusia, Alabama, and told Mr. Cooper that About that time, approximately 6:30, there was a knock at the apartment door, and Mr. Cooper answered the knock and saw Deputy Sheriff Bill Shaw at the door, who asked if the defendant was there. The answer of Mr. Cooper was that "he was not there." Officer Shaw then left the apartment. Mr. Cooper then left his apartment to make a phone call and upon his return defendant had left. Missing from the apartment at that time was a .22 250 Remington rifle, owned by Mr. Cooper. The rifle was loaded "with five rounds." While in the apartment defendant drank five or six glasses of wine, from a bottle of wine he had with him. He stated while there that he was attempting to sell wine to the restaurant.
About 11:30 on the same morning, according to the testimony of A. A. Joseph, who lived in an apartment at the Townline Motel, he saw defendant in front of the motel; at that time defendant had a rifle in his hand with a scope on it, which was established by the evidence to have been the rifle that had been removed from Mr. Cooper's apartment. Defendant was in the "grass area by the road" at the intersection of Highway 29 and another road in front of the motel. Defendant "would stop so often and point it (the rifle) down the road and look through the scope, aim it down the road." A "police car" was "down the road" at the time. Soon thereafter Mr. Joseph heard some shots fired; then defendant came in the restaurant with the rifle and told Mr. Joseph "to get out of it," which he did. Defendant told Mr. Joseph that if he let anyone into the restaurant, he would blow Mr. Joseph's "head off."
Mr. Earl Windham, manager of the Townline Motel, testified that between 11:00 A.M. and 12:00 Noon on December 31, 1978, while he was in his office, he saw defendant out on an island of the by-pass at the intersection of Highway 29 in front of the motel, with a rifle in his hand. He heard a shot and looked again at defendant and saw him shoot the rifle three times. It looked "like he was shooting right down the highway." A truck drove up in front of the office, and people started getting out and running. Mr. Windham managed to get most of his customers back into their rooms in the motel. He heard sirens blowing. He saw defendant get in Mr. Windham's truck, place his hands on the dash and find the key; defendant then drove off in the truck and went south on Highway 29. Defendant had not been registered at the motel on that occasion.
Deputy Sheriff Bill Shaw testified that on the morning of December 31, 1978, he went to the Townline Motel with a warrant for the arrest of defendant. He went to Mr. Cooper's apartment and was informed by Mr. Cooper that defendant was not there. Deputy Shaw then returned to the jail. At approximately 11:30 A.M. he received a telephone call and returned in a "marked patrol unit" of the Covington County Sheriff's Department. Soon after driving through the intersection, a bullet came through the door of the automobile he was driving. He further testified:
(Mr. McGill indicating on the diagram).
Deputy Shaw further testified that they proceeded to follow defendant in the truck, fired at him and caught up with him after defendant had wrecked the truck in which he was traveling.
As to the phase of the issue presented by appellant pertaining to the question whether there should have been a verdict, on direction or instruction of the court, that defendant was not guilty by reason of insanity, we find that there is no substantial dispute in the evidence. Defendant's evidence on the question consisted of the testimony of Dr. Virupaksha Kothandapani, a staff psychologist at Searcy Hospital, Mount Vernon, Alabama, since 1976, who first observed and tested defendant at Searcy Hospital upon his admission there on October 26, 1976. He was admitted on a "probate commitment." He testified to extensive tests and treatment of defendant at that time and on the three other occasions of three other admissions to the Searcy Hospital, including the admission soon after he was arrested for the alleged crime in the instant case. He diagnosed appellant's illness as manic-depressive psychosis, manic type. During his lengthy testimony, he said, inter alia
Dr. William H. Rudder, a psychiatrist engaged in private practice in Mobile and practicing two days a week at the Searcy State Hospital, said that his diagnosis of defendant was "manic depressive illness, manic type." That diagnosis never changed. A part of his testimony was as follows:
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Petersen v. State
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