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BUSH v. STATE12/1/1995
, and the appellant shot him again. Before departing, the appellant took two bags of "zodiac sign tags" from a rack behind the counter near the cash register. The first shot striking Dominguez passed through his chin, lodging in his neck and severing a large artery. The second shot striking Dominguez entered his right shoulder and passed through his lungs and heart. He died quickly at the scene from the injuries caused by the second shot; however, the injuries sustained as a result of the first shot were potentially fatal. Holmes was shot in the throat and, although seriously injured, he survived. He was able to describe his assailant, the pistol, and the automobile the assailants were driving. He described the automobile as a 1973 white-over-green Chevrolet Monte Carlo and the pistol as a nickel-plated .38 caliber short-barreled special.
After leaving the Majik Market, the appellant and Pringle drove to a nearby Seven-Eleven convenience store on Narrow Lane Road in Montgomery, arriving there sometime before 4:00 a.m. The appellant entered the store and purchased a package of Kool cigarettes from the clerk, Thomas Adams. After Adams opened the cash register, the appellant forced him into an office area behind the counter and shot him in the neck with the same pistol he had used to shoot Dominguez and Holmes. The shot to
Adams's neck shattered his spinal cord and killed him instantly. When the shot was fired, the barrel of the pistol was either touching Adams's neck or within a fraction of an inch of it. The appellant took between $20 to $30 from the cash register, along with a bank bag and checks.
The appellant made a statement to the police in which he confessed to the crimes. Although in his first statement he claimed that Pringle was the triggerman in both shootings at the Majik Market and that he was the triggerman in the collateral capital offense at the Seven-Eleven store, in his second statement, he admitted that he fired the shots that killed Dominguez and Adams and that wounded Holmes. In assisting the officers in recovering the weapon, the appellant said to Officer R.T. Ward, when the pistol was recovered, " hat's the weapon that was used to shoot all three people." Ballistic tests of the pistol — a nickel-plated .38 caliber short-barreled special — proved that it was the pistol that fired the shots in the commission of the three crimes.
For a more detailed recitation of the facts and circumstances surrounding the commission of the crimes and the appellant's involvement, see Bush II, 523 So.2d at 542.
The appellant did not testify at the guilt phase or at the sentencing phase of his trial. He offered no evidence in his defense at the guilt phase. He presented four witnesses at the sentencing phase before the jury, who testified to matters in mitigation of sentence, and he introduced letters that he had written and drawings that he had done while in prison.
It is apparent from the arguments of the appellant's trial counsel, the cross-examination of the state's witnesses, and the assertions made in the appellant's brief that his defense theory was mistaken identity. In furtherance of this theory, he sought to bolster Holmes's identification of Edward Pringle's brother, Cornelius Pringle, as the robber-assailant. He also points out that a number of fingerprints were lifted from the scene of the charged crime and that none matched his. He attempted to discredit the testimony of Patricia Pringle, the wife of Edward Pringle — that her husband had told her that he and the appellant had committed the three crimes and that the appellant had told her that he had shot Dominguez, Holmes, and Adams — by showing that she had received reward money fo
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