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Pruitt v. State3/19/1999
In the Supreme Court of Georgia
A jury convicted Timothy Woodrow Pruitt of malice murder, felony murder, kidnapping with bodily injury, rape, aggravated sodomy, aggravated child molestation, aggravated assault, aggravated battery, child molestation, and cruelty to children. Pruitt was sentenced to death after the jury found the following statutory aggravating circumstances: the offense of murder was committed while the defendant was engaged in the commission of kidnapping with bodily injury, rape and aggravated battery; the offense of rape was committed while the defendant was engaged in the commission of kidnapping with bodily injury and aggravated battery; the offense of kidnapping with bodily injury was committed while the defendant was engaged in the commission of an aggravated battery; and the offense of murder was outrageously or wantonly vile, horrible, or inhuman, in that it involved torture, depravity of mind and an aggravated battery before death. Pruitt appeals and we affirm.
1. The evidence shows that in April 1992 Myrtle Ricketts was renting two trailer homes on her property, one to Tammy Lovell and one to Vicky Gottschalk. Ms. Gottschalk lived with her ten-year-old daughter, Wendy Nicole Vincent. Ms. Lovell lived with her two young sons. Pruitt is Lovell's ex-husband and in early April 1992 Lovell and Pruitt were attempting a reconciliation; Pruitt sometimes stayed the night at his ex-wife's trailer.
At about midnight on April 9, 1992, Pruitt arrived at Lovell's trailer. He was drunk and violent and he and Lovell got into an argument. Lovell told him she did not want him there. At about 1:15 a.m., Pruitt angrily left, punching Lovell's porch light as he was leaving and cutting his hand. Pruitt was wearing blue jeans, a flannel shirt, and Reebok tennis shoes. At about the same time, Ms. Gottschalk left her home to work a night shift; her daughter remained sleeping in her trailer. The trailers share a common driveway and Gottschalk had to wait for Pruitt to pull out first. Shortly thereafter, Lovell looked out her window and saw a man she assumed was Pruitt unscrewing the porch light on the Gottschalk trailer. She looked away to attend to a sick child and, when she looked out again, the area was dark.
At about 3 a.m., Pruitt entered a convenience store and asked to use the bathroom. The clerk recognized Pruitt because he was a regular customer, but she did not know his name. Pruitt had blood on him, but the clerk testified that this was not unusual because Pruitt was a chicken catcher and chicken catchers usually have blood on them. Pruitt was in the bathroom for about ten minutes, and then left the store. At about 3:45 a.m., Pruitt returned and went back into the bathroom for five minutes. He emerged, stared at the clerk while she helped another customer, and then left. When the clerk checked the bathroom shortly thereafter, paper towels and Comet were strewn about, and the water had been left running. She testified that only Pruitt had used the bathroom since she cleaned it. A friend of Pruitt testified that he called her at 3 or 3:30 a.m. and told her he needed to talk because he had "done something bad." She told him he could not come over because her child was sick.
Pruitt returned to his ex-wife's trailer and she let him in. He undressed, leaving the clothes he had been wearing in a pile, and showered. At about 6:30 a.m., Ms. Gottschalk returned home and found her daughter lying dead on the bedroom floor. Wendy had been stabbed several times and her throat was cut. The medical examiner also testified that there was trauma to her vagina and anus. Semen stains on the bed indicated that the assault began there and the victim was then mo
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