Siebert v. State, 5 Div. 383

• Decision Date: 28 April 1989
• Docket Number: 5 Div. 383
• Citation: 555 So.2d 772
• Parties: Danial L. SIEBERT v. STATE.
• Court: Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals

Page 772

555 So.2d 772

Danial L. SIEBERT v. STATE.

5 Div. 383.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama.

April 28, 1989.

Rehearing Denied June 30, 1989.

George N. Sims, Talladega, for appellant.

Don Siegelman, Atty. Gen., and William D. Little, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellee.

TAYLOR, Presiding Judge.

The appellant, Danial L. Siebert, was convicted of the murders of Sherri Weathers, Chad Charles Weathers, and Joseph Charlton Weathers, a capital offense as defined by § 13A-5-40(a)(10), Code of Alabama 1975. Following a sentencing hearing, the jury unanimously recommended a sentence of death. The trial court ordered a presentence investigation to be conducted and, after complying with § 13A-5-47, Code of Alabama 1975, sentenced the appellant to death by electrocution.

The evidence as presented by the State tended to establish that in late December 1985, Donald Hendron left Los Angeles, California, driving east. Hendron was going first to North Carolina to visit his family, and then to Talladega, Alabama, where he was to operate a theater program at the Alabama Institute for the Deaf and Blind (hereinafter referred to as the Institute). In Tucson, Arizona, Hendron picked up a man who identified himself as Danial Spence. Hendron identified the appellant as that man. Appellant, who was an artist, discussed his views on art with Hendron and showed him some of his work. Hendron was impressed with appellant's talent and asked him to come to Talladega and work with the theater program as a set designer. Appellant readily agreed, but stated that he wished to visit his mother in Illinois before going to Talladega. Hendron and appellant parted company just north of Jackson, Mississippi. Appellant was hitchhiking north to Illinois. Hendron continued driving east to North Carolina. Hendron arrived in Talladega on January 9, 1986. Appellant arrived there on January 20, 1986.

Hendron and appellant first shared an apartment at the Institute, then moved into another apartment in the Porter Building approximately a week and a half later. Appellant expressed to Hendron an interest in settling down in Talladega. Shortly after the two men moved into the Porter Building, appellant began dating Sherri Weathers, a 24-year-old deaf student at the Institute. Because such a relationship was specifically prohibited by the Institute's rules, Hendron wished to separate himself from this situation, and moved out of the Porter Building apartment on February 16, 1986. Hendron and appellant saw each other for the last time on February 19, 1986, when Hendron arranged to pick up appellant around 8:00 a.m. the next morning to attend a faculty meeting. When Hendron went by the Porter Building the next morning, however, appellant was not there.

In February 1986, Sherri Weathers was living in apartment 30 of the Sunrise Apartments with her sons, five-year-old Chad and four-year-old Joey. Around 8:00 p.m. on February 19, 1989, appellant was seen with Sherri Weathers and a neighbor of hers, Linda Jarman, buying beer at a convenience store in Talladega. The three left the convenience store together. Fettus Porter, a neighbor of Sherri's, returned home around 9:30 p.m. that night and found a note from Sherri asking him to come over and play cards with her, Linda Jarman, and appellant. Porter went over to Sherri's apartment around 10:30 p.m., where he found Sherri and Linda chatting. They told Porter that appellant had left in Linda's car, a cream-colored Buick, to get some beer, and said they all were going to play cards when appellant returned. Porter remained at the apartment until about 11:30 or midnight. When he left to go back to his apartment, appellant still had not returned.

Sometime during the night of February 19, 1986, Catherine Elaine Shellborne, who lived next door to Sherri Weathers in apartment 31 of the Sunrise apartments, heard through her wall adjoining Sherri's apartment a man saying "Come to me. You can join your mother." Later, she heard the man say, "Come on and you will be with your mother and your brother."

Billy Kyle, another resident of the Sunrise Apartments, saw Sherri Weathers fighting with appellant in her apartment on the night of February 19, 1986. When asked what time he observed them fighting, Billy, a mildly retarded deaf man, could only say that it was sometime after 8:00 p.m., the time he arrived home. By Sunday, February 23, 1986, Billy had not seen Sherri or her children around the apartments. Remembering the fight he had seen between Sherri and appellant in her apartment on Wednesday night, Billy tried to check on Sherri, but could summon no one to the door of apartment 30. By this time Billy was extremely concerned about the welfare of Sherri and her children, so he entered Sherri's apartment through an unsecured window, but when he saw a part of Sherri's body protruding out from under a sheet, he became scared and left. Billy Kyle was later cleared by the police of any involvement in the murders.

The next morning, however, Billy told Wanda Hunley, an Institute social worker, that he was concerned about Sherri and asked her to check on Sherri and her sons. After making several phone calls, she learned that no one had seen Sherri or her children in several days. She also learned that there was an odor emanating from apartment 30. Ms. Hunley, accompanied by several other individuals, then went to the Sunrise Apartments and obtained a passkey for apartment 30. Upon entering the apartment, Ms. Hunley and the others found the bodies of Sherri, Chad, and Joey Weathers.

Autopsies of the bodies of the three people disclosed that Sherri Weathers died as the result of strangulation, and that Chad and Joey Weathers died as the result of ligature strangulation.

An extensive investigation was launched. During this investigation, shoe prints were lifted from apartment 30 and from the appellant's apartment in the Porter Building. The shoe print from the Porter Building apartment and some of those from Sherri's apartment were found to be consistent in tread design and approximate size. Additionally, a child's pajama bottom was found in appellant's Porter Building apartment.

In March 1986, a 1973 Buick was found abandoned near Elizabethtown, Kentucky. A black purse in this car contained a receipt bearing the name of Sherri Weathers. Also found in the car was a brass key which opened the door to appellant's Porter Building apartment. At an abandoned campsite near the Buick were found business cards bearing the name Danial Spence and the address of his Porter Building apartment; various photographs of Sherri Weathers; a mailgram addressed to Don Hendron; a birth certificate bearing the name Danny Ray Spence; other items bearing the name Danial Spence; two sheets of white paper on which appeared the names Sherri Weathers, Chad Weathers, and Joseph Weathers; and an art pad bearing the name Sherri Weathers. Various items of clothing found at the Kentucky site were found to contain fibers of the same type as the red carpet in appellant's Porter Building apartment. Finally, two fingerprints and a palm print discovered on the Buick were identified as those of the appellant, Danial L. Siebert.

In March 10, 1986, appellant identified himself in New Jersey to Harold Hutchins of the Atlantic City Police Department, using a Social Security card bearing the name of Chad Weathers.

On June 14, 1986, appellant identified himself in Virginia to Joseph McLaughlin of the New Kent County Sheriff's Department, using a Social Security card bearing the name of Joseph Charles Weathers.

Appellant was finally apprehended in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee, on September 5, 1986. At the time of his arrest, appellant had in his possession a Social Security card bearing the name of Joseph C. Weathers, and a torn manila envelope on which appeared the following: "-eathers, Joseph."

After appellant was advised of his Miranda rights and waived those rights, he made a statement, the pertinent part of which follows:

He went to Sherri Weathers's apartment on the evening of February 19, 1986, and let himself in with a key which he had been given. Sherri and Linda Jarman were there. Eventually, Linda left. As he and Sherri were walking toward her bedroom, he strangled her with a piece of cloth that he had on his person. Then he woke up each of the boys individually and strangled them. He left town in a car, which he abandoned in Kentucky after it had two flat tires. After spending a couple of days at a campsite he set up near the car, he headed north and then went east, in an attempt to get as far away from Alabama as he could.

Thereafter, appellant waived his right to formal extradition proceedings and was returned to Alabama to stand trial for the murders of Sherri, Chad, and Joey Weathers. We note that appellant has also been convicted of the capital murder of Linda Jarman and received the death sentence. His conviction and sentence have been affirmed by this court. Siebert v. State [Ms. 7 Div. 851, April 14, 1989] (Ala.Cr.App.1989).

I

Appellant first contends that the trial court erred in admitting into evidence statements made by appellant because, he says, the Miranda warnings given to him in Tennessee were improperly worded. Specifically, appellant contends that the detective, who informed appellant of his Miranda rights prior to appellant's making his statement, told him "anything you say can be used against you in court," instead of "anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law," and therefore that his initial statement, and all subsequent statements, were inadmissible. This contention was raised without success in appellant's earlier appeal. Siebert v. State, supra.

Our examination of the record reveals that at the time of his arrest appellant was informed of his Miranda rights by Captain Hurst of the Talladega Police Department. Shortly thereafter, upon arrival at the Humphreys County, Tennessee, jail, appellant was...