Wells v. State

• Decision Date: 18 June 1999
• Citation: 768 So.2d 412
• Court: Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals
• Parties: James Edward WELLS v. STATE.

768 So.2d 412

James Edward WELLS v. STATE.

CR-97-2104.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama.

June 18, 1999.

J. William Cole, Birmingham, for appellant.

Bill Pryor, atty. gen., and Norbert H. Williams, asst. atty. gen., for appellee.

LONG, Presiding Judge.

The appellant, James Edward Wells, was convicted of attempted murder, see §§ 13A-4-2 and 13A-6-2, Ala.Code 1975, and of assault in the first degree, see § 13A-6-20, Ala.Code 1975. Upon application of the Habitual Felony Offender Act, Wells was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole for the attempted murder conviction and to life imprisonment for the assault conviction. This opinion consolidates the issues Wells raised on direct appeal and on appeal from the trial court's denial of his Rule 32 petition for postconviction relief.

I. Issue on Direct Appeal

Wells contends that the trial court erred in denying his motion for a judgment of acquittal in which he challenged the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain his conviction for attempted murder.¹

At trial, Eric Sturdivant, a 1994 graduate of Phillips High School in Birmingham, testified that at around 1:00 p.m. on March 22, 1995, he was playing basketball with some friends on a court located across the street from the high school. According to Sturdivant, when the game was over, sometime between 2:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m., he and his friends began smoking marijuana, which he had purchased earlier that day. Sturdivant stated that shortly after he and his friends began smoking the marijuana, Wells and Anthony Brown approached the basketball court, pulled out guns, said, "What's up now, fucker?" and started shooting at him and his friends. (R. 56.) Sturdivant and his friends ran to a friend's house; no one was injured in the shooting.

Sturdivant testified that he had gotten into an argument with Wells earlier that day at a community center located near the high school. He stated that he had purchased the marijuana from someone at the community center and that Wells had demanded that he give him half of the marijuana, but he had refused his demand.

Sturdivant testified that approximately five minutes after the shooting incident on the basketball court, he and his friends walked back toward the high school and were "hanging out" on a street corner, waiting for classes to end. According to Sturdivant, at approximately 3:20 p.m., his younger brother, Jermaine, approached him and said, "You better be careful.... I just seen them boys going through the cut." (R. 60.) The "cut" was a walk-through near the high school. Despite his brother's warning, Sturdivant remained on the street corner.

According to Sturdivant, approximately 15 minutes later, as school was letting out and students were beginning to walk home, he saw a burgundy-colored automobile driven by Brown, with Wells in the passenger seat, circling around the block near the high school. As the burgundy car circled the block, Sturdivant ran to join several of his friends who were walking with a crowd of between 15 to 20 students. Sturdivant stated that as soon as he caught up with his friends in the crowd of students, he heard several gunshots. According to Sturdivant, as he and the others in the crowd began running for cover, he looked up to see Wells and Brown firing guns into the crowd from the burgundy car. Sturdivant was not hit by the gunfire, but several students in the crowd were struck. After Wells and Brown stopped shooting, they drove away. Approximately one minute later, a green automobile driven by Rodney Austin drove up and someone in the car began firing more shots into the crowd.

Testimony indicated that eight Phillips High School students were injured as a result of the shootings. The most seriously injured student was Corey Shelton, who was struck in his arm and lower back by shotgun pellets. As a result of the shooting, Shelton was hospitalized for approximately a week and a half. Doctors were unable to remove one of the pellets that struck him in the back and lodged in his stomach.

The eight injured students testified at trial and substantially corroborated Sturdivant's testimony. Five of the eight students saw the shots being fired from the burgundy car; the other three did not see the car, but only heard the shots. Two of the eight students saw the green car following the burgundy car and shooting into the crowd; the other six either did not remember seeing a green car or saw no car at all. All eight students testified that they did not know Wells, Brown, or Austin.

Wells, Brown, and Austin were each charged with one count of attempted murder as to Sturdivant and one count of attempted murder as to Corey Shelton. The three were tried together as codefendants. Wells and Brown were found guilty of the attempted murder of Sturdivant and of the lesser included offense of assault in the first degree with respect to the shooting of Shelton. Austin was acquitted of all charges.

In arguing that the evidence was insufficient to sustain his conviction for the attempted murder of Sturdivant, Wells maintains that the State failed to prove that, when he fired into the crowd of students, he had the specific intent to kill Sturdivant.

"In determining the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain a conviction, a reviewing court must accept as true all evidence introduced by the State, accord the State all legitimate inferences therefrom, and consider all evidence in a light most favorable to the prosecution. Furthermore, a judgment of conviction will not be set aside on the ground of insufficiency of the evidence unless, allowing all reasonable presumptions for its correctness, the preponderance of the evidence against the judgment is so decided as to clearly convince the reviewing court that it was wrong and unjust."

Powe v. State, 597 So.2d 721, 724 (Ala. 1991) (citations omitted).

"`In Alabama a person commits the crime of attempt to murder if he intends to cause the death of another person and does any overt act towards the commission of that intent. Alabama Code 1975, Sections 13A-4-2 (the attempt statute), and 13A-6-2 (murder).' Chaney v. State, 417 So.2d 625, 626-27 (Ala.Cr. App.1982). See also Barnes v. State, 571 So.2d 372, 374 (Ala.Cr.App.1990). `Attempted murder is a specific intent crime.... An attempt to commit murder requires the perpetrator to act with the specific intent to commit murder.... A general felonious intent is not sufficient.' Free v. State, 455 So.2d 137, 147 (Ala.Cr.App.1984)."

Minshew v. State, 594 So.2d 703, 704 (Ala. Cr.App.1991). "`While proof of the intent to murder is an element of the burden of proof resting on the state, this intent is not susceptible of positive proof, but rests in inference to be drawn by the jury from all the evidence in the case.'" Id. at 708, quoting Williams v. State, 13 Ala.App. 133, 137, 69 So. 376, 377 (1915). Intent may be presumed from the use of a deadly weapon, the character of the assault, and other attendant circumstances surrounding the assault. Chaney v. State, 417 So.2d 625 (Ala.Cr.App.1982). Furthermore, "[t]he question of intent in an attempt case `belong[s] exclusively to the jury to decide.'" Minshew, 594 So.2d at 708, quoting United States v. Quincy, 31 U.S. (6 Pet.) 445, 8 L.Ed. 458 (1832).

Here, looking at the evidence in a light most favorable to the State, a jury could reasonably have inferred from the circumstances surrounding the shooting that Wells intended to kill Sturdivant when he fired the gun into the crowd of students of which Sturdivant was a part. Sturdivant testified that he and Wells had argued earlier in the day about marijuana and that Wells later approached him and his friends on a basketball court and began shooting at them. Minutes after the initial shooting incident, Wells returned in the burgundy car and opened fire into the crowd where Sturdivant was standing. All eight high school students...