Tucker v. State

• Decision Date: 29 March 1983
• Docket Number: 4 Div. 44
• Citation: 454 So.2d 541
• Parties: LaDonna Lynn Huddleston TUCKER v. STATE.
• Court: Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals

Page 541

454 So.2d 541

LaDonna Lynn Huddleston TUCKER v. STATE.

4 Div. 44.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama.

March 29, 1983.

Rehearing Denied May 3, 1983.

Maury Smith, Sterling Culpepper, Jr., and Edward B. Parker, II of Smith, Bowman, Thagard, Crook & Culpepper, Montgomery, for appellant.

Charles A. Graddick, Atty. Gen., and William D. Little, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellee.

DeCARLO, Presiding Judge.

Murder; sentence: life imprisonment.

Appellant was indicted under § 13A-5-31(a)(7), Code of Alabama 1975, for the first degree murder of her husband, Jimmy Eugene Tucker, committed either for a pecuniary or other valuable consideration or for hire. The State's theory was not that the appellant had committed the actual murder, but that she had hired or caused a third party to kill her husband. After due deliberation, the jury returned a guilty verdict only as to the lesser included offense of murder.

Appellant's assertion that the evidence was insufficient to sustain her conviction necessitates that we detail the evidence adduced at trial which sustained the State's case.

Gwin Jackson, dispatcher for the Kinston Police Department, testified that she received a telephone complaint from Kenny Davis at 10:38 p.m. on January 24, 1981, concerning a burning pickup truck. She dispatched the fire department and Police Chief Billy Flemming to the reported scene of the fire at 10:41 p.m.

Kinston Police Chief Billy Flemming testified he responded to a police dispatch concerning a burning truck on County Highway Six on January 24, 1981. He arrived first on the scene, followed immediately by the fire department. After the fire was extinguished, Chief Flemming began to transcribe the vehicle identification number from the truck door, at which time he observed in the vehicle a body which had been burned beyond recognition.

Chief Flemming testified a metal container was also found in the vehicle, located between the legs of the body. There was also a piece of garden hose approximately two feet in length found protruding from the truck's gasoline fill spout.

Brice Paul, Sheriff of Coffee County, testified he was called to the scene of a burning truck on County Road Six on January 24, 1981. He obtained the burned vehicle's tag number, called for a registration, and discovered the vehicle was registered to Jimmy E. Tucker. On the morning of January 25, 1981 Sheriff Paul went to Lyster Army Hospital at Fort Rucker, Alabama where he obtained the dental records of Jimmy Eugene Tucker.

Charles F. Brooks, a trace evidence analyst, testified his examination of the floorboard of the burned vehicle revealed the presence of a flammable liquid which was consistent with gasoline. In his opinion, an accelerant had been used in the interior of the truck. Mr. Brooks also compared the portion of garden hose which had been found in the fill spout of the burned vehicle with a portion of hose taken from the appellant's automobile and found that at one time the two pieces had been part of the same hose.

Dr. Richard Roper, a State forensic scientist, testified he compared the X-rays which he ordered on the body removed from the burned vehicle with the known X-rays of Jimmy Eugene Tucker and found they depicted the same person.

Dr. Thomas Gilchrist, a State forensic pathologist, also compared the X-rays taken by Dr. Roper with the known X-rays of Jimmy Eugene Tucker and found they depicted the same person. Further examination of the body by Dr. Gilchrist revealed the cause of death to have been internal hemorrhage from a gunshot wound to the chest which resulted in death prior to the fire's occurrence.

Testimony indicated the victim left work at Big-K in Enterprise, Alabama in his red Ford pickup at 9:20 p.m. on January 24, 1981. He followed a co-worker, Kenneth Beaty, to a nearby bank's night depository, and then preceded him as they traveled down Fort Rucker Boulevard. Beaty then turned off the boulevard as the victim continued on toward Fort Rucker. Mr. Beaty indicated he last saw the victim at approximately 9:35 p.m., immediately before turning off Fort Rucker Boulevard.

Ronnie Glover testified that he and a playmate discovered a white plastic bag protruding from the ground in Pinebrook Trailer Park on February 15, 1981. The bag contained a gun and holster, an army jacket, a pair of gloves, and a pouch containing bullets. He and his friend, Eddie, carried the bag to the trailer of Marie Breyer, with whom Eddie lived.

The gun which was found by the two boys was later examined by Lonnie Harden, a State firearms expert, in relation to the bullets removed from the victim's body. Mr. Harden determined that the bullets from the body were fired from the same gun found by the boys.

Bruce DeVane, Chief Investigator for the District Attorney of the Twelfth Judicial Circuit, testified he was called into the Tucker case by Sheriff Paul after midnight, in the early morning hours of January 25, 1982. After learning the vehicle's registration he proceeded to Fort Rucker, Alabama to the Post Trailer Park address indicated by the registration. Arriving at the trailer park address at 3:30 a.m., he found the victim's two daughters, Tracy and Terry, a friend of Terry's, and one Sandra Baxter at the victim's trailer. They reported that the victim was extremely overdue home from work. Investigator DeVane also learned that the victim's wife, the appellant, did not live at that address, but rather in Pinebrook Mobile Trailer Park in Enterprise.

Investigator DeVane proceeded directly to the appellant's trailer at Pinebrook, arriving there at approximately 4:00 a.m. on January 25, 1981. At the appellant's trailer, he encountered the appellant, LaDonna Tucker, and Douglas Ard. He inquired as to the whereabouts of the victim and the appellant stated she did not know where he was. She last saw him at 2:00 p.m. on January 24, 1981 at his trailer while visiting their two girls with her parents. She and the victim were separated and she was living at Pinebrook with Douglas Wayne Ard.

The record indicates that the appellant made the following statements to Investigator DeVane during his 4:00 a.m. visit to her trailer:

"She stated that the past night, January 24th, 1981, Donald Ard, Douglas Ard's brother had borrowed her car and broke down in it on a road identified as the one with the barricade. She stated that Donald telephoned her residence advising of the breakdown around 8:30 p.m. January 24th, 1981. Subject stated that Douglas Ard telephoned Jimmy Tucker at the Big-K in Enterprise and asked him to come by and pick him up and go to the broke down car. Subject stated that she heard a horn blow outside of her residence at approximately 9:30 p.m. and assumed it to be Jimmy Tucker. She stated Douglas Ard went outside and returned approximately thirty to forty minutes later. I asked her at this time did she know the whereabouts of Donald Ard and she replied she did not know."

When Investigator DeVane returned and questioned appellant at 5:30 a.m., appellant added the following to her previous account:

"Subject added the children lived with Jimmy through an agreement she and Jimmy had. Subject stated that she had two children. Subject stated that she and Doug Ard had been living together since November of 1980. Subject stated that she had met Doug at the Rainbow Vacuum Cleaner place in Enterprise through their employment with the company. Subject related that Donald Ard was Doug's older brother who was from Texas staying with them, but was unemployed.... Subject continued, stating that she and Jimmy Tucker had a good relationship with each other despite of their situation. Subject stated that it was not unusual for Donald Ard to borrow her car. When asked how long it was before Doug and Donald returned from the point Jimmy picked up Doug she replied thirty to forty minutes. Subject stated that when Doug and Donald returned they both walked into her residence together, but Donald left after staying just seconds. To where she did not know. Subject stated that she was alone in the trailer during the time Doug and Donald were gone. When questioned about the phone call Doug Ard got from Donald concerning Donald's break down she replied she did not pay any attention because the phone constantly rang all the time. Subject stated that Doug informed her of the break down and they both decided to call Jimmy."

In a third statement, made at 6:00 p.m. on January 25, 1981 appellant denied owning a gun, or ever having seen one in the possession of Donald (Donnie) or Douglas Ard. She also stated that a week before her husband's death she had talked over the telephone with him about "getting back together."

Gary Michael Snell, a former co-employee with appellant at Rainbow Vacuum Cleaner Service, testified that during a conversation he had with appellant at work in September of 1980, appellant had asked him "to do away with" her husband so she could get her children back. He stated she asked him on three or four occasions to poison Mr. Tucker. Appellant offered him money to kill her husband. Snell finally told appellant that he had poisoned her husband's coffee at Big-K, but he stated he only told her that to placate her.

On another occasion, appellant and Doug Ard asked Snell if he knew someone who would help kill Tucker. Also, in October of 1980, Snell was present at appellant's trailer with appellant and Doug Ard when he heard appellant ask Doug if he knew someone who would kill Tucker. Doug replied that his brother Donnie would, and then Doug telephoned Donnie in Snell's presence and told him he had a job for him to do.

William Jenkins, another former employee of Rainbow, testified that he, appellant and Gary Snell were present at the appellant's trailer in November of 1980 when appellant asked him if he "could get rid of" her husband. When he replied that he could not, appellant indicated she would find someone else.

Art Bond, whose insurance agency...