Wilson v. State

• Decision Date: 13 January 1995
• Docket Number: CR-93-2132,CR-92-1223
• Citation: 690 So.2d 449
• Parties: Betty Woods WILSON v. STATE. Betty Woods WILSON v. STATE.
• Court: Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals

Page 449

690 So.2d 449

Betty Woods WILSON v. STATE.

Betty Woods WILSON v. STATE.

CR-92-1223, CR-93-2132.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama.

Jan. 13, 1995.

Rehearing Denied May 5, 1995.

Jack Drake, Tuscaloosa; Paul M. Sandlin, Huntsville, Charles Hooper, Huntsville; and Bobby Lee Cook, Summerville, GA, for appellant.

James H. Evans, Atty. Gen., Margaret Childers, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellee.

TAYLOR, Judge.

The appellant, Betty Woods Wilson, was convicted of hiring someone to kill her husband, Dr. Jack W. Wilson, a Huntsville ophthalmologist, an offense made capital because the murder was "done for a pecuniary or other valuable consideration or pursuant to a contract or for hire." § 13A-5-40(a)(7), Code of Alabama 1975. The appellant waived the jury's participation in the penalty phase of the capital trial and the state recommended that Wilson be sentenced to life without parole. The court accepted the state's recommendation and sentenced the appellant to life imprisonment in the penitentiary without the possibility of parole.

This case was originally submitted to this court after oral argument in February 1994. Before a decision in this case could be released, the appellant filed a petition for post-conviction relief pursuant to Rule 32, Ala.R.Crim.P., collaterally attacking her conviction and sentence. When that petition was filed, submission of the direct appeal in this case was set aside until the trial court acted on the post-conviction petition. The trial court denied the petition in September 1994. A briefing schedule was set for appeal from the post-conviction petition and this case was resubmitted to this court on December 12, 1994. This is one of the reasons for the delay in this case.

This opinion consolidates the appeals from both the appellant's conviction of the crime of capital murder and the court's denial of her petition for post-conviction relief.

The state's evidence tended to show that the body of Dr. Jack Wilson was found in his home on Boulder Circle in Huntsville, Alabama, on May 22, 1992. ¹ He had been severely beaten around the head, arms, and hands and had been stabbed twice in the chest. A bloody baseball bat was found approximately five feet from the body.

Dr. Wilson died leaving an estate valued at approximately $6,300,000. The terms of Dr. Wilson's will provided that the majority of his estate would go to his wife, the appellant, Betty Woods Wilson.

Dr. Joseph Embry, forensic pathologist for the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences, testified that Dr. Wilson died as a result of injuries caused by the beating to his head and the stab wounds to his chest. He further testified that there were nine lacerations on Dr. Wilson's head. The lacerations ranged in size from 7/8 of an inch to 2 1/2 inches in length. It was Dr. Embry's opinion that the lacerations were consistent with wounds that would be caused by a baseball bat.

At the time of appellant Wilson's trial, James Dennison White was under indictment for the murder of Dr. Wilson. White, pursuant to a plea agreement, testified that he was hired by appellant Wilson and her sister, Peggy Lowe, to kill Dr. Wilson. He said that he met Lowe at his daughter's school in Vincent, Alabama, where he often did carpentry work. Their friendship developed after he did some carpentry work for Lowe, and they frequently talked on the telephone. White said that one of the reasons he committed the murder was to win Lowe's affection. White said that Lowe once told him while they were talking on the telephone that she loved him. Lowe told White that she had a friend who was in a bad marriage and whose husband mistreated her. She told him that this friend wanted to get rid of her husband. White learned in March 1992 that this friend was in fact Lowe's sister, Betty Woods Wilson. White told Lowe that he had "connections" and could arrange for the murder of Dr. Wilson. Between late March 1992 and early April 1992, Lowe and White discussed having Wilson's husband killed. He testified that they agreed upon a price of $5,000. He said that Peggy Lowe called him later in April to tell him that her sister had given her one-half of the money to give to him.

White said that after he received the money he paid some past due utility bills, deposited $500 in his bank account which had been overdrawn by over $400, and spent the remaining money on his four children. By the end of April he had spent the money. The reason that White was in financial difficulty, he said, was because he had injured his right ankle and left knee at a previous job. White testified that he had an eighth grade education, that he had been married four times, and that he had drug and alcohol problems.

White testified that Lowe started pressuring him to murder Dr. Wilson after he had sexual intercourse with her on May 15, 1992. Lowe told him that if he did not murder Dr. Wilson, she would have to repay her sister. He stated that he told Lowe that in order to go to Huntsville to commit the murder he needed more money because he had spent the $2,500 she had given to him in April. Lowe told him to go to Lake Guntersville State Park and get some money from appellant Wilson who was at an Alcoholics Anonymous "AA" meeting. Lowe told him to go to Wilson's car, a black BMW, which would be parked near the entrance to the park and retrieve a book entitled The Sleeping Beauty and the Firebird. The car would be unlocked and the book would be on the back seat. The book, about a ballet, would have money in it to finance his trip to Huntsville to murder Dr. Wilson.

White arrived at Lake Guntersville State Park on the evening of May 16, 1992, but the security guard at the entrance gate would not let him enter. He told the guard that he needed to retrieve a book from appellant Wilson's car and that he had come a long distance to get it. The guard told him that he could try to contact Wilson on a pay telephone located at a service station several miles from the park entrance. White went to the pay telephone and called Lowe. Lowe told him to call the front desk at the lodge to try and locate her sister. White left a message for appellant Wilson at the front desk. He then waited by the front entrance and one of the guards brought the book to him. He testified that after he got the money and the book, he went to Huntsville and drove past the Wilson house and then returned to his trailer in Vincent.

White testified that not more than two days after May 16, he received a telephone call from Wilson. Appellant Wilson asked him what was "going on" and why he had not committed the murder. She also told him that she wanted Dr. Wilson murdered before May 24, because she did not want to go on their planned vacation with him.

White said that he was unable to get cartridges for his gun. On May 20, 1992, Lowe telephoned him and said that she had the "tool and equipment to do the job." He said that he met appellant Wilson and Lowe at Logan Martin Dam. They were in appellant Wilson's black BMW. Lowe got out of the BMW holding a sweater in her hand. She opened one of the doors to his truck and dropped a .38 caliber revolver, which had been wrapped in the sweater, on the seat. White went back to his trailer, wrapped the gun in a towel, and hid it under some boards behind his trailer.

White stated that he was told that he would receive a telephone call telling him when to commit the murder. Early in the morning of May 21, 1992, he received a telephone call from the appellant. He said that he went to Dr. Wilson's office but decided not to kill him there because there were too many people around. He went to a pay telephone near the office, telephoned Lowe, and talked to appellant Wilson, who was staying at Lowe's house. He told her that he needed some money so that he could spend the night in Huntsville. He said that appellant Wilson told him to meet her at the Chick-Fil-A restaurant at Parkway City Mall in Huntsville around 12:00 that day and that she would give him some money. White said that he stood in line at the Chick-Fil-A restaurant, was waited on by a girl named Christina, got a sandwich, walked outside, and sat down on one of the benches. Wilson also went through the line in the restaurant, walked outside, and handed him a bag that contained an $100 bill.

White then went to K-Mart, purchased a travel kit and some underwear, so that he could spend the night in Huntsville. He then checked into a Ramada Inn. He decided to drive by the Wilson house to "check the layout" of the property. He said that he tried to act like a jogger, although he was dressed in jeans. While he was in the Wilsons' neighborhood he saw a neighbor of the Wilsons doing yard work. He returned to the hotel and called Lowe. The following morning appellant Wilson telephoned him. White told her that she would need to drive him to their house so that no one would see him.

He testified that appellant Wilson met him at the Parkway City Mall around 3:00 p.m. on Friday, May 22, 1992. As he got out of his car to get in her BMW, he saw that she was wearing flowered tennis shoes. He got down on the floor of her car and she drove him to her house. When they pulled into the garage, she handed him $40 and told him where her husband's bedroom was located. Dr. Wilson was not home at this time. White testified that he decided not to use the gun and instead took along some rope. He said that he stayed in the house for what he believed to be several hours waiting for Dr. Wilson to arrive. As he was walking on the landing of the stairs he came face-to-face with Dr. Wilson. They wrestled, he knocked Dr. Wilson down, and he grabbed an object that he later said that he could not identify and started beating Dr. Wilson with it. He testified that after this he "blanked out" and the next thing he remembers is finding himself behind the Wilson house in the woods. He buried a bag containing some clothes in the woods, went back to the house, and had a...