Tomlin v. State

• Decision Date: 20 November 1979
• Docket Number: 1 Div. 23
• Parties: Phillip Wayne TOMLIN v. STATE.
• Court: Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals

Page 47

443 So.2d 47

Phillip Wayne TOMLIN v. STATE.

1 Div. 23.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama.

Nov. 20, 1979.

Rehearing Denied Dec. 18, 1979.

Richard D. Horne and James E. Atchison, of Hess, Atchison & Stout, Mobile, for appellant.

Charles A. Graddick, Atty. Gen. and Joseph G.L. Marston, III, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.

BOOKOUT, Judge.

Murder in the first degree wherein two or more human beings are intentionally killed, and murder in the first degree when the killing was done for a pecuniary or other valuable consideration or pursuant to a contract or for hire; sentence: death by electrocution.

The State's evidence was sufficient to justify appellant's conviction even though there was no eyewitness testimony concerning the double killings. It is therefore unnecessary for the purposes of this appeal to narrate a detailed account of the brutal and calculated murders contained in the voluminous record before us. Briefly, the facts are as follows:

At approximately 5:30 p.m. on January 2, 1977, at the Theodore-Dawes Exit to Interstate 10 in Mobile, nineteen-year-old Ricky Brune and fifteen-year-old Cheryl Moore were found dead in the front seat of Brune's car. Their deaths resulted from multiple gunshot wounds in the back from a sixteen-gauge shotgun and a .38 caliber pistol. The fatal shots were fired from inside the car from the rear seat. An unoccupied 1968 Ford had been spotted parked at the exit with the motor running at 4:50 p.m.

The appellant and his "partner," John Ronald Daniels, had arrived in Mobile at Randy and Danny Shanks' trailer the night before between 11:30 and 12:00 p.m. after travelling from Houston, Texas. The Shankses were the appellant's brothers-in-law. The appellant introduced Daniels as his "hit man" and told the Shankses "he had come to Mobile to get revenge ... on the guy that killed his brother ... [that] he was going to kill the person who killed his brother." The appellant's brother had been killed as a result of an accidental shotgun discharge which involved Ricky Brune on November 25, 1975.

After midnight on January 2, Randy Shanks rented a room at the Eight Days Inn for appellant and Daniels. Inside the motel room the appellant and Daniels showed the Shankses the .38 and .44 caliber pistols and a disassembled sixteen-gauge shotgun. The weapons were kept in a satchel. Later, the appellant drove the Shankses back to their trailer and asked Danny if he could use his car "the next day to get out of town." Danny told him no, that he "didn't want to get involved in it." The appellant was driving his sister's 1968 Ford.

The appellant and his "hit man" Daniels were last seen in Mobile between 3:00 and 4:00 p.m. the afternoon of the murders at the Highway 90 Lounge located two miles north of the Theodore-Dawes Exit. Outside the lounge inside his sister's car, the appellant had conversations with the Shanks brothers and James Stokes. The appellant was next seen in Houston, Texas, late that night. His sister's 1968 Ford was found abandoned at the New Orleans International Airport.

I

The appellant contends that Counts 1 and 3 of the indictment were defective and that his demurrer to those counts should have been granted. We do not agree. Omitting the formal parts, the indictment charges that the appellant, Phillip Wayne Tomlin:

"... did unlawfully, intentionally, and with malice aforethought kill Richard Brune and Cheryl Moore by, towit: on January 2, 1977, at a location on or near Interstate 10 in Mobile County, Alabama, was shot with a gun, in violation of Act Number 213, Section 2, Sub-Section J (Act # 213, § 2(j)), Acts of Alabama, Regular Session, 1975, against the peace and dignity of the State of Alabama.

"... did unlawfully, intentionally, and with malice aforethought kill Richard Brune and Cheryl Moore by shooting Richard Brune and Cheryl Moore with a gun, said killings were done for a pecuniary or other valuable consideration, or pursuant to a contract or for hire, in violation of Act Number 213, Section 2, Sub-Section G (Act # 213, § 2(g)), Acts of Alabama, Regular Session, 1975, against the peace and dignity of the State of Alabama.

"... did unlawfully, intentionally, and with malice aforethought kill Richard Brune and Cheryl Moore, by shooting them with a gun, wherein both Richard Brune and Cheryl Moore were intentionally killed by PHILLIP WAYNE TOMLIN by one or a series of acts, in violation of Act Number 213, Section 2, Sub-Section J (Act # 213, § 2(j)) and Act Number 213, Section 6, Sub-Section H (Act # 213, § 6(h)), Acts of Alabama, Regular Session, 1975, in that said killings were especially heinous, atrocious or cruel...."

Appellant pled not guilty to the charges at his arraignment on October 13, 1977. He reserved the right to file special pleas within twenty days. Appellant did not file his demurrer to the indictment until March 20, 1978, after the jury had been empaneled. We hold that appellant's indictment was not subject to demurrer, and in any event the delay in filing constituted a waiver.

Recently we reaffirmed long standing principles recognized by this court and the Alabama Supreme Court by holding the following:

"Generally, a demurrer is the proper procedure to raise defects in an indictment. Andrews v. State, 344 So.2d 533 (Ala.Cr.App.), cert. denied, 344 So.2d 538 (Ala.1977). Since a plea to the merits admits the validity of an indictment, a demurrer filed after arraignment and after a plea of not guilty is properly stricken. Underwood v. State, 248 Ala. 308, 27 So.2d 492 (1946). The right to file a demurrer is waived unless the demurrer is filed before a plea to the merits. Holloway v. State, 37 Ala.App. 96, 64 So.2d 115, cert. denied, 258 Ala. 558, 64 So.2d 121 (1953). If an indictment is merely voidable and subject to demurrer, the failure to demur will prevent appellate review of the indictment's short comings. Williams v. State, 333 So.2d 610 (Ala.Cr.App.), affirmed, 333 So.2d 613 (Ala.1976)." Edwards v. State, 379 So.2d 336 (Ala.Cr.App.1979).

Of course if an indictment is void as opposed to voidable, as where the indictment does not on its face charge an offense, or where the accused is left unaware of the nature and cause of the charge against him, this court is bound to take notice of such defect even in the absence of an objection. Edwards, supra; Davidson v. State, 351 So.2d 683 (Ala.Cr.App.1977); Fitzgerald v. State, 53 Ala.App. 663, 303 So.2d 162 (1974). If the indictment had been void rather than voidable, the defect would have been reached by the appellant's request for an affirmative charge. Edwards, supra; Coker v. State, 18 Ala.App 550, 93 So. 384 (1922). The defect could have been preserved by a motion in arrest of judgment. Francois v. State, 20 Ala. 83 (1852).

In the instant case, however, each count of the indictment stated an offense in such a manner as to apprise appellant of the nature of the charges against him. We hold, therefore, that the indictment was not void on its face and that the trial court was correct in overruling the untimely demurrer.

Even had the demurrer been timely filed, we hold that the faulty grammar in Count 1 was not objectionable.

"Before an objection because of false grammar, incorrect spelling, or mere clerical errors is entertained, the court should be satisfied of the tendency of the error to mislead, or to leave in doubt the meaning of the charge to a person of common understanding, reading, not for the purpose of finding defects, but to ascertain what is intended to be charged. Grant v. State, 55 Ala. 201 (1876). Neither clerical nor grammatical errors vitiate an indictment unless they change the words or obscure the meaning, Grant, supra, or unless the error changes a word into one of different import or the sense is so obscure that one of ordinary intelligence cannot determine with certainty the meaning from the context. Sanders v. State, 2 Ala.App. 13, 56 So. 69 (1911)...."

Cook v. State, 369 So.2d 1243 (Ala.Cr.App.1977), affirmed in part, reversed in part on other grounds, 369 So.2d 1251 (Ala.1978).

The sense of Count 1 in the indictment is clear. The grammatical error did not obscure the sense of what was intended to be charged.

Contrary to appellant's argument that Count 1 of the indictment charges no more than the first degree murder of two persons, we hold that the requisite language of § 13-11-2(a)(10), Code of Ala.1975, is sufficiently followed to charge a capital offense. The Alabama Supreme Court has specifically held that the capital offense expressed in § 13-11-2(a)(10) is murder aggravated by two or more individuals being killed. Ex parte Clements, 370 So.2d 723, 726 (Ala.1979). It is thus distinguishable from traditional noncapital first degree murder.

It was proper that each count allege that the killings were done "unlawfully, intentionally, and with malice aforethought," elements of the first degree murder statute, rather than solely done intentionally. Section 13-11-2(a)(10) requires proof of (1) murder in the first degree (2) wherein two or more people are intentionally killed by the defendant. Thus first degree murder and an intentional killing must be alleged and proved under the instant statute.

Count 3 of the indictment was likewise not subject to demurrer for concluding that "said killings were especially heinous, atrocious or cruel"--language found in § 13-11-6(8). That language was mere surplusage to the first part of Count 3 which properly charged a capital offense under § 13-11-2(a)(10). As early cases have held, unnecessary averments in an indictment do not impair its validity. The most that can result from them is to hold the prosecution to the proof of them. Aaron v. State, 39 Ala. 75 (1863). Johnson v. State, 35 Ala. 363 (1860); Lindsay v. State, 19 Ala. 560 (1851). Surplusage does not vitiate an indictment otherwise good. McDaniel v. State, 20 Ala.App. 407, 102 So. 788, cert. denied, 212 Ala. 415, 102 So. 791 (1924). As long as the...