Stemple v. State
Stemple v. State
Opinion
The appellant was indicted and convicted for the grand larceny of a tractor and hay bale loader. In accordance with the verdict *Page 35 of the jury the trial judge sentenced the appellant to eight years' imprisonment.
Officer Gerald Monday of the Houston County Sheriff's Department testified that while patrolling in Houston County during the early morning hours of February 5, 1977, he heard a conversation between two men on his C.B. radio. Officer Monday identified one voice as that of the appellant and stated that the appellant was talking to a man whom he called "Doug". The conversation regarded a trailer-tractor rig being unable to turn around on a dirt road. By monitoring the C.B. radio transmission of the appellant and "Doug", Officer Monday was able to locate and follow the trailer-tractor rig after it had entered Highway 231 South. Loaded on the trailer-tractor rig were a farm tractor and hay bale loader.
Emmett Ammons, a policeman for the City of Dothan, answered Officer Monday's call for assistance. Monday then stopped the pickup truck which Douglas Odom was driving and aided Officer Ammons in stopping the trailer-tractor rig driven by the appellant.
After being stopped, the appellant told Officer Monday that he was from Biloxi, Mississippi, where he was a "hauler for Clark Howling Hauling Company" and that he had been hired to haul this farm tractor.
In jail, the appellant told Lieutenant Joe Pitts of the Houston County Sheriff's Department that he had been contacted at a lounge in DeFuniak Springs, Florida, by Bill Morrison who hired him for $250.00 to drive his (the appellant's) semi-tractor trailer to Dothan, Alabama, and move a farm tractor approximately ten miles. Lieutenant Pitts testified that the appellant stated that he loaded the farm tractor onto the flat bed of his truck.
Floyd Owens testified that he was the owner of the farm tractor and hay bale loader found on the truck driven by the appellant. Owens left the tractor in a hay field on February 4th after finishing work. The evidence revealed that the fence around this field had been torn down in two separate places in the process of loading the tractor.
The appellant did not testify and called no witnesses in his behalf.
On February 22, 1977, the appellant was arraigned and pled not guilty. On February 25, a motion to quash the indictment was filed. While the failure to accord the accused a preliminary hearing can be taken advantage of by a motion to quash the indictment stating that ground, Wade v. State,
The only objection interposed at trial was made after Officer Monday identified the appellant's voice and only on the ground that the question was leading. Matters not objected to in the trial court cannot be considered on the first time on *Page 36
appeal since review on appeal applies only to rulings invoked at nisi prius. Scroggins v. State, Ala.Cr.App.,
Moreover this evidence was properly admitted notwithstanding the fact that Officer Monday never heard the accused's voice before the commission of the crime.
"The general rule that a witness may not identify an accused by recognition of his voice, unless he has some basis for comparison of the accused's voice with the voice he identifies as the accused's, is satisfied if the witness acquires his knowledge of the accused's voice after the event testified to by the witness, as well as before that time." See 70 A.L.R.2d 995, 1002, citing McGraw v. State,
34 Ala. App. 43 ,36 So.2d 559 (1948).
At a hearing on the motion the appellant testified that he "withheld everything" from his attorney because his life had been threatened. The appellant stated that Bill Meeks, the man who loaded the farm tractor on his trailer, threatened him after the tractor had been loaded. Meeks allegedly told the appellant "that I (the appellant) was in Houston County, and as long as I was there, to keep my mouth shut about anything that had gone on, or I would be — would probably not get back to Mississippi again". The appellant further testified that he "found out that Lieutenant Pitts might be involved too". Under questioning by the trial judge, the appellant admitted that at some point before his arrest he "knew" or "figured" the tractor to be stolen.
James Douglas Odom, a co-defendant who had already been convicted for the theft of the farm tractor, testified that the appellant had no prior knowledge that the tractor was stolen but was merely hired and sent by Cliff Clark to haul three tractors to North Carolina. The appellant contended that he was merely an employee of Cliff Clark carrying out a job he was paid to do which was arranged between Douglas and Clark.
The requirements essential to the granting of a motion for a new trial on the basis of newly discovered evidence are that the newly discovered evidence (1) has been discovered since the trial, (2) could not have been discovered before trial by the exercise of due diligence, (3) is material, (4) is not merely cumulative or impeaching, *Page 37
and (5) will probably change the result if a new trial is granted. Hodge v. State,
We have carefully reviewed the evidence presented on the motion for new trial and find that the trial judge was correct in denying that motion. The evidence does not reveal that the appellant was in such real, apparent, or imminent danger at the time of his trial as to explain or justify his failure to present any defense at all. The evidence presented by the appellant is highly suspect inasmuch as appellate courts look with disfavor on a motion for new trial for newly discovered evidence. Hodge v. State,
We have searched the entire record and found no errors substantially affecting the rights of the appellant. Therefore the judgment of the trial court is due to be affirmed.
AFFIRMED.
All Judges concur.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- James R. Stemple v. State.
- Cited By
- 14 cases
- Status
- Published