Snipes v. State, 5 Div. 91

• Decision Date: 03 April 1973
• Docket Number: 5 Div. 91
• Citation: 277 So.2d 413,50 Ala.App. 139
• Parties: Shirley SNIPES, alias v. STATE.
• Court: Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals

Page 413

277 So.2d 413

50 Ala.App. 139

Shirley SNIPES, alias v. STATE.

5 Div. 91.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama.

April 3, 1973.

Rehearing Denied May 1, 1973.

James T. Gullage, Opelika, for appellant.

William J. Baxley, Atty. Gen., and George R. Stuart, Special Asst. Atty. Gen., Birmingham, for the State.

HARRIS, Judge.

Appellant was tried and convicted in the Circuit Court of Lee County for the offense denounced by Title 14, Section 214, Code of Alabama 1940, and was sentenced to four (4) years imprisonment in the penitentiary. This section is as follows:

'Any person who, by falsely personating another, and with the intent to injure or defraud, obtains or receives any property intended to be delivered to the individual personated, shall, on conviction, be punished as if he had stolen it.'

According to the state's evidence, appellant went to Easterwood Shoes, a store located in the Midway Shopping Center, in Opelika, Alabama, to purchase a pair of shoes and a handbag to match a particular dress or garment which she carried with her. She went to Mrs. Barbara Foster, an employee of the store who had known appellant for about six years and sought her help in making the selection. Mrs. Foster found exactly the shoes and bag that appellant was seeking. The shoes were priced at $24.00 and the handbag at $15.00. Mrs. Foster knew that appellant had married but she did not know her married name. In making these purchases, appellant gave Mrs. Foster a Bank Americard, which had been issued to Melvin Chatman. Mrs. Foster assumed her customer was Mrs. Chatman. The necessary sales ticket was made out and appellant signed her name thereto, viz. Mrs. Melvin Chatman and left the store with her purchases. Mrs. Foster further testified that two weeks prior to this transaction, appellant was in the store and purchased a pair of shoes using the very same Bank Americard, signing her name as 'Mrs. Melvin Chatman'. Mrs. Foster said she had no reason to doubt that appellant was Mrs. Chatman. The sales slip dated 10/39/70 was introduced in evidence as well as the sales slip dated 10/14/70, all over appellant's objections.

The Chatman's lived in the same trailer park where appellant and her husband resided. There was one common mail box for all residents of the park. In June of 1970, the Chatmans moved to Brookside in Jefferson County and Mrs. Chatman testified that she had not visited Opelika since they moved and was certainly not in the Easterwood Shoe Store in October, 1970, when the shoes and bag were purchased with her husband's Bank Americard; that as a matter of fact she had never used the Bank Americard to do any shopping in Easterwood Shoe Store; that in November, 1970, they received bills showing the purchase of shoes and handbag with the name 'Mrs. Melvin Chatman' signed to the card. She immediately knew that this was not her signature and also that she did not make these purchases. She and her husband reported these facts to the Bank Americard service and she was not required to pay these bills. She further testified that she had not authorized appellant or anyone else to use this credit card.

Appellant testifying in her behalf said she went to the Easterwood Shoe Store to buy a pair of shoes and a handbag in September, 1970, and paid cash for these items. She said she did not go to this store at all in October, 1970. She denied that she carried a dress with her to have it matched with the shoes and handbag. She denied that she used a Bank Americard to make these purchases, and that the name 'Mrs. Melvin Chatman' on the sales slip was not the handwriting.

Appellant contends that the trial court committed reversible error in allowing testimony that appellant had used the same Bank Americard credit card in the same store, signing the same name, 'Mrs. Melvin Chatman', two weeks prior to the occasion made the basis of the indictment on the ground that evidence of distinct and independent offenses are not admissible in the trial of a person accused of a particular crime. This is the general rule. However, there are well recognized exceptions to this rule and one of paramount importance is the 'identity exception'.

These recognized exceptions to the general rule have developed into general categories and are listed in Wharton's Criminal Evidence, Section 31, as follows:

'These exceptions fall under the following general divisions: (1) Relevancy as part of res gestae. (2) Relevancy to prove identity of person or of crime. (3) Relevancy to prove scienter, or guilty knowledge. (4) Relevancy to prove intent. (5) Relevancy to show motive. (6) Relevancy to prove system. (7) Relevancy to prove malice. (8) Relevancy to rebut special defenses. (9) Relevancy in various particular crimes. It is recognized that in many instances the line of demarcation is not clear, but the discretion vested in the trial judge, intelligently and considerately exercised, will enable the prosecution fully to present the charge, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, to protect the accused and secure to him the rights guaranteed to him by the Constitution and the laws.' (emphasis added)

From Wilkins v. State, 29 Ala.App. 349, 197 So. 75, we take the following as expositive of the very issue here involved:

'* * * It is a well-established common-law rule that in a criminal prosecution proof which shows or tends to show that the accused is guilty of the commission of other crimes or offenses at other times, even though of the same nature as the one charged in the indictment, is incompetent and inadmissible for the purpose of showing the commission of the particular crime charged unless the other offenses are connected with the offense for which he is on trial. In other words, proof of such collateral offenses cannot be used as substantive evidence to establish the guilt of the accused as to the crime charged. 20 Am.Jur., Section 309, pp. 287, 288. Wharton's Criminal Evidence, 10th Ed., Volume 1, Section 30, p. 59. This well-established principle of criminal evidence, however, is subject to several, equally well-established exceptions, which include cases where intent or identity is involved. As found in 22 R.C.L., Section 39, p. 1204: 'But this general rule is not to be followed blindly and evidence rejected on the sole ground that it does show the commission of another crime. If evidence is relevant and competent it should be admitted regardless of its incidental effect. Accordingly it is held...