Scroggins v. State

• Decision Date: 26 September 1997
• Citation: 727 So.2d 123
• Parties: Nathaniel SCROGGINS v. STATE.
• Court: Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals

727 So.2d 123

Nathaniel SCROGGINS v. STATE.

CR-96-0902.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama.

September 26, 1997.

Rehearing Denied October 31, 1997.

Charles Amos Thompson, Birmingham, for appellant.

Bill Pryor, atty. gen., and Beth Slate Poe, asst. atty. gen., for appellee.

BROWN, Judge.

The appellant, Nathaniel Scroggins, was convicted of one count of murder, a violation of § 13A-6-2, Code of Alabama 1975; one count of murder made capital because it was committed by or through the use of a deadly weapon while the victim was in a vehicle, a violation of § 13A-5-40(a)(17), Code of Alabama 1975; and one count of murder made capital because it was committed by or through the use of a deadly weapon fired or otherwise used within or from a vehicle, a violation of § 13A-5-40(a)(18), Code of Alabama 1975. He was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder conviction, and to a term of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for the two capital murder convictions.

The evidence presented at trial established the following. On December 6, 1995, the victim, 19-year-old Richard Fields, left his residence and went with some friends to the Anchor Motel, which was located on the east side of Birmingham. At the motel, he met his friend Billy Joe Williams and the appellant. Shortly thereafter, the three young men left the motel in the victim's car and went to someone's house to buy some marijuana. The victim and the appellant agreed to split the cost of the marijuana, and the appellant advanced the victim some money for his share of the marijuana. At the dealer's house, a member of the group purchased two $5 bags of marijuana and they then left.

The victim drove to the end of the street and stopped the car. He and the appellant discussed the money that was used to purchase the drugs. According to Billy Joe Williams, the appellant did not believe that the victim intended to repay him. Williams, who was seated in the front passenger seat, testified that he was looking away and that he did not see what happened between the victim, who was seated in the driver's seat, and the appellant, who was seated in the backseat. Williams testified that he heard two shots fired from the backseat, then he looked up to see the victim "slide over and hit his head on the window." Williams asked the appellant to tell the police that they were at his aunt's house and that they did not know anything about the shooting. Williams then jumped out of the car and ran down the street to his aunt's house.

During the early morning hours of December 7, 1995, law enforcement officials discovered the body of the victim lying face down in the street. No vehicle was nearby, and no weapon was found in the vicinity of the body. The following day, the victim's uncle identified a vehicle that had been abandoned in the Food World grocery store parking lot as the vehicle that his nephew had been driving the previous night.

An autopsy performed on the victim established that the victim died from a gunshot wound to the head. The postmortem examination also revealed a second, nonlethal gunshot wound to the head, and that at the time of his death, the victim had a blood-alcohol content of 0.03%, as well as a nonlethal level of cocaine in his system. The bullet removed from the victim's head had been fired from a.25 caliber gun.

The appellant did not dispute that he shot the victim, but his version of the events of December 6, 1995, differed from Williams's version. He maintained that he acted in self-defense. The appellant testified that he was afraid of the victim because the only time he had seen the victim previously, the victim was "handling guns." The appellant said that he believed the victim was not going to repay the $5 he had advanced him to purchase the marijuana. The appellant further testified that he asked the victim to take him home, but that the victim refused to do so. He claimed that the victim told him to "shut up" or that he would take all of the appellant's money. The appellant initially claimed that the victim then stopped the car and reached back, as if he were going to slap him. Later, the appellant testified that the victim reached under the seat and pulled out a gun. At that point, the appellant pulled out his own gun, a .25 caliber automatic, and fired two shots. The appellant maintained that he wanted to tell the police, but that Billy Joe Williams told him that "he [Williams] was not going to jail for anyone." He testified that Williams dragged the victim out of the car and that Williams also removed a gun from the victim's body. They left the victim's body in the street. The appellant then rode to the Food World grocery store with Williams, and they left the car in the parking lot.

I.

The appellant contends that the trial court erred by admitting into evidence two photographs that depicted the extent of the victim's injuries. Specifically, the appellant complains that the photographs were "grossly inflammatory, irrelevant" and "gory."

The law in Alabama has long been that photographs are admissible into evidence under certain conditions.

"`As a general rule, photographs are admissible into evidence if they tend to prove or disprove some disputed or material issue, to illustrate or elucidate some other relevant fact or evidence, or to corroborate or disprove some other evidence offered or to be offered, and their admission is within the sound discretion of the trial judge. Photographs which depict the character and location of external wounds on the body of a deceased are admissible even though they are cumulative and based upon undisputed matters. The fact that a photograph is gruesome and ghastly is no reason to exclude its admission into evidence, if it has some relevancy to the proceedings, even if the photographs may tend to inflame the jury.'

"Magwood v. State, 494 So.2d 124, 141 (Ala.Cr.App.1985), affirmed, 494 So.2d 154 (Ala.1986) (citations omitted)."

Harris v. State, 632 So.2d 503, 530 (Ala.Cr. App.1992), aff'd, 632 So.2d 543 (Ala.1993), aff'd, 513 U.S. 504, 115 S.Ct. 1031, 130 L.Ed.2d 1004 (1995). See also Travis v. State, [Ms. CR-92-958 at 84, April 18, 1997] ___ So.2d ___, ___ (Ala.Cr.App.1997); Howard v. State, 678 So.2d 302, 304 (Ala.Cr. App.1996).

In the present case, both photographs (State's exhibits 16 and 17) were relevant because they depicted the extent of the injuries caused by the two gunshots to the victim's head. The photographs also illustrated the forensic pathologist's testimony regarding the victim's autopsy. Moreover, because the remaining photographs (State's exhibits 12-15) were photographs of the victim's body and did not show the wounds, State's exhibits 16 and 17 were not cumulative of any other photographs. See Dabbs v. State, 518 So.2d 825, 829 (Ala.Cr.App.1987) (photographs of a victim's head injuries taken during an autopsy were gruesome, but necessary to demonstrate the extent of the injuries). Accordingly, the admission of the photographs was not reversible error.

II.

The appellant next contends that the trial court erred by allowing the state to offer into evidence the preliminary hearing testimony of prosecution witness Billy Joe Williams, after it was established that the witness was unavailable to testify at trial.

The general rule is that hearsay evidence is inadmissible unless it falls into one of the recognized exceptions to the general exclusionary rule against hearsay. These exceptions are contained in Rule 803 ("Hearsay Exceptions; Availability of Declarant Immaterial") and Rule 804 ("Hearsay Exceptions; Declarant Unavailable"), Ala.R.Evid. One such recognized exception is when the declarant is unavailable; this includes situations in which the declarant "is absent from the hearing and the proponent of the statement has been unable to procure the declarant's attendance... by process or other reasonable means." Rule 804(a)(5), Ala.R.Evid.

When a declarant is unavailable as a witness, Rule 804(b)(1) provides that the declarant's former testimony from a prior proceeding is admissible, provided the following conditions are met: (1) the former testimony was given under oath; (2) the former testimony occurred "before a tribunal or officer having by law the authority to take testimony and legally requiring an opportunity for cross-examination"; (3) the former testimony was given under circumstances affording the party against whom the witness was offered an opportunity to test the witness's credibility by cross-examination; and (4) the former testimony was given in litigation in which the issues and parties were substantially the same as in the present cause. Despite the appellant's allegations to the contrary, all of these conditions were met in this case.¹

"A party seeking to introduce a witness's testimony from a prior proceeding at a subsequent proceeding, must establish the unavailability of the witness and the reasons therefor. Lamar v. State, 578 So.2d 1382 (Ala.Cr.App.1991), cert. denied, 596 So.2d 659 (Ala.1991). This predicate is fulfilled when the party offering the evidence establishes that it has exercised due diligence in obtaining the witness, but without success. See Matkins v. State, 521 So.2d 1040, 1041-42 (Ala.Cr.App. 1987)."

Johnson v. State, 623 So.2d 444, 447 (Ala.Cr. App.1993).

In the present case, the state offered the testimony of Morgan Knight, an investigator with the Jefferson County District Attorney's Office. Knight was an experienced investigator, with 7 years' experience with the district attorney's office, and, before that, some 23 years' experience with the Birmingham Police Department. Knight testified that he had been asked to look for Billy Joe Williams before the appellant's case was presented to the grand jury.² He was unsuccessful in locating Billy Joe Williams, despite speaking with various relatives and neighbors of Williams, as well as checking out records of utility companies to see if an address could be found for...