Scott v. State

• Decision Date: 05 October 2012
• Docket Number: CR–08–1747.
• Citation: 163 So.3d 389
• Parties: Christie Michelle SCOTT v. STATE of Alabama.
• Court: Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals

163 So.3d 389

Christie Michelle SCOTT

v.STATE of Alabama.

CR–08–1747.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama.

Oct. 5, 2012.

Rehearing Denied Feb. 8, 2013.

Nickolas Rowland Heatherly, Huntsville; and Bryan A. Stevenson and Angela Setzer, Montgomery, for appellant.

Troy King and Luther Strange, attys. gen., and Henry M. Johnson, asst. atty. gen., for appellee.

Opinion

WELCH, Judge.

The appellant, Christie Michelle Scott, was indicted for three counts of capital murder in connection with a fire at her house that resulted in the death of her six-year-old son Mason. Count I of the indictment charged that Scott murdered Mason for pecuniary gain or other valuable consideration, i.e., the proceeds of a life-insurance policy, a violation of § 13A–5–40(a)(7), Ala.Code 1975; Count II charged that Scott murdered Mason during the course of an arson in the first degree, a violation of § 13A–5–40(a)(9), Ala.Code 1975; and Count III charged that Scott murdered a child under the age of 14, a violation of § 13A–5–40(a)(15), Ala.Code 1975. A jury found Scott guilty on all counts and recommended, by a vote of 7 to 5, that Scott be sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. The circuit court held a separate sentencing hearing and sentenced Scott to death. This appeal followed.

More than 70 witnesses testified in the State's case-in-chief. The evidence tended to show that in the early morning hours of August 16, 2008, a fire was set in the Scott house and that Mason died as a result of the fire. Dr. Emily Ward, a pathologist with the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences, testified that Mason died from smoke in his airway and thermal burns.

At the time of the fire, Scott and her four-year-old son Noah were sleeping in Scott's bedroom, Mason was in the boys' bedroom, and Jeremy Scott, Scott's husband, was not at home and had been out of town for several weeks. Sgt. Brian Shackelford of the Russellville Police Department testified that he arrived minutes after the emergency call, that he kicked open the back door, and that he was only able to make it four or five feet inside the house because of the heat and smoke. Firefighters testified that after extinguishing the fire they searched the house several times before they were able to identify Mason's badly charred body.

The Scott's neighbor, Jennifer Davidson, testified that her doorbell rang around 2:30 a.m. on August 16, 2008. She opened the door and found Scott and Noah. Scott told her that her house was on fire. Davidson went to the back of the house to telephone emergency 911 because, she said, the telephone in the front of the house was not working. When she got back to the front door, she said, Scott told her that her other son, Mason, was still in the house. Davidson telephoned 911 again to inform them that a child was still in the house. Emergency 911 records showed that the first call was made at 2:33:17 on the morning of August 16 and that the second call was made at 2:35:48—two and one half minutes later.

After police and firefighters arrived at the scene, Davidson stayed with Scott. Davidson testified that when Scott was in the ambulance Scott said, “Don't call Jeremy. Don't call Jeremy. He'll blame me or he'll try to hurt his self.” (R. 998.) Davidson also heard Scott ask what fire marshal was at the scene. Scott said that she did not like one of the fire marshals because he had worked her other house fire. Davidson also testified that Scott was fully dressed and that at one point while they were in the ambulance Scott patted her pant pocket and pulled out a cell phone and said: “I had my cell phone the whole time. I could have called 911.” (R. 997–98.)

Davidson's boyfriend, Brian Copeland, testified that Scott came to the door of the house he shared with Davidson in the early morning hours of August 16 and told them that her house was on fire. Copeland ran to the Scotts' house to try and find a way inside to help Mason. Copeland said that Scott told him that all the doors were locked and there was no way to get inside the house, that Scott did not enter any numbers in the keypad to open the garage door in his presence, that he did not enter any numbers in the keypad, and that he did not have to restrain Scott to prevent her from going into the house. These statements were inconsistent with Scott's account of the events on August 16, 2008.

An emergency medical technician with Pleasant Bay Ambulance Service, Elzie Malone, testified that he responded to the fire. He said that Scott told him that she was alright and that she did not need to go to the hospital. Malone said that Scott then said: “How am I going to tell Jeremy that I have let his baby die?” (R. 1061.)

Several officials testified concerning a statement that Scott's father's, Donald Bray, made to Scott when he arrived at the scene of the fire. William Crenshaw, a volunteer firefighter, testified that when Scott's father arrived he said: “What the hell have you done with my grandbabies?” (R. 1291.) Sgt. Shackelford testified that Scott's father said: “Oh, my God. What have you done to my babies?” (R. 1260.)

Jerry Yarborough, a paramedic with Pleasant Bay Ambulance Service, testified that when Scott's father arrived at the scene he was upset and said to Scott: “Where's my babies? Oh, no, not my babies. What have you done?” (R. 1126.) When Yarborough tried to calm Scott down, Yarborough testified, Scott said to him “You don't understand. I killed his [Jeremy's] baby.” (R. 1128.) Yarborough also testified that Scott said that she didn't know how someone could be so unlucky as to have two fires in three years and “I hope it ain't that one [the fire marshal] from Colbert County. I don't want him here.” (R. 1128.)

Cpt. Steve Thornton with the Russellville Fire Department testified that he arrived at the scene after the fire had been extinguished. The fire, he said, originated in Mason's and Noah's bedroom. He said that some of the electrical outlets from the bedroom were cut out of the wall in his presence, that each outlet was cut at a different length to identify it, and that the outlets were photographed from all angles. One outlet, he said, the outlet that was behind Mason's bed could not be located; however, numerous photographs of this outlet had been made. Thornton said that firefighters sifted through the fire debris for 8 to 10 hours but were unable to locate this missing outlet.

Dolan Gassett, a deputy fire marshal, testified that he found a disabled smoke detector in the hallway outside the boys' bedroom. (R. 1818.) Morris Brown, a former firearms and toolsmark expert with the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences, testified that in his opinion the smoke detector had been forcibly removed, or pulled from the wall, before the fire started and it was lying on the floor, undamaged by the fire. He said: “[S]ome force acted upon the wires enough to cause the tearing of this housing and caused the collateral abrasion of the wire.” (R. 2399–40.) There was evidence indicating that everything else mounted on the walls at the same height as the smoke detector—the electrical box that housed the smoke detector, a thermostat, a wooden doorbell cover, and a picture frame—had sustained serious heat damage or had melted completely. Testing indicated that the smoke detector would have worked properly if it had been on the wall at the time of the fire.

James Edwards, a deputy with the State Fire Marshal's Office, testified that he interviewed Scott at the Russellville Fire Department on August 26. Scott gave the following account of the events of August 16:

“I went back to watch TV. I was watching Fear on HBO. I went back to check on them at 10:00 p.m. Mason was asleep and Noah Riley was not. I turned on the satellite and told him that he needed to go to sleep. I went back to watch my movie. The movie went off around 11:00 p.m. I went in the room to check on the boys. The TV was off and Noah Riley was still awake. I told him to come get in the bed with me.

“We went to my room and went to bed. As I went to sleep, the house was fine. The Jack and Jill bathroom light was on and the night-light played and—plugged into the wall. In my room I had turned the light on over the toilet for Noah Riley. We went to sleep.

“The next thing I remember is something hitting my face. As I started to wake up, I could smell the smoke and feel the heat on my face. I rolled off the bed and covered Noah Riley and told him to be still. I crawled over to the door. I looked out in the hallway, which was covered in smoke. I could see flickering that I thought at the time was coming from the laundry room.

“I went back into our room, pushed the door to. I crawled back over to the bed and pulled Noah Riley off in the floor. He began to cry at this point. I took a deep breath, stood up, and opened the window. I punched the screen out. I picked up Noah Riley, kissed him, told him I loved him, and dropped him out of the window.

“At this time I could hear crackling and popping. I began to try to get out of the window, got halfway out and fell. When I got on the ground, I took, Noah Riley by the hand and started around the house. He told me that I was hurting him. So I picked him up and carried him through the front yard with me.

“Where there was—there was fire coming out of the window in the boys' room and going over the top of the roof. It was orange. I ran to Jennifer's house, banged on the door. When she came to the door, I handed Noah Riley to her, told her to dial 911 that the house was on fire.

“I yelled to her that Mason was still in the house as I headed back to the house. I ran over to the garage doors. I put in the code and the doors would not open. I tried several times to get in with the code. Then I ran around to the front of the house. The flames had started running across the peak of the roof.

“I was headed to the front door when Brian [Copeland] grabbed me and held me down. Later I remembered the light in my bathroom was off when I woke up.”

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