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BUSH v. STATE12/1/1995
judge to determine whether there is testimony sufficient to make it appear prima facie that the offense has been committed. The evidence on which the judge acts may not necessarily establish the corpus delicti. It may be, and often is, conflicting and contradictory. In such case, the credibility of the witnesses and the sufficiency of the entire evidence are for the ultimate decision of the jury."
McDowell v. State, 238 Ala. 101, 105, 189 So. 183, 185 (1939); Gamble, supra, § 304.01. Here, we have found that the state presented evidence sufficient not only to prove the corpus delicti of murder committed during the course of a robbery or an attempted robbery, but also to make out a prima facie case to be submitted to the jury. The fact that the trial court did not instruct the jury on the law of corpus delicti, under the circumstances here, did not constitute error, much less plain error.
XVIII.
The appellant contends that the trial court erred in admitting evidence of the robbery-murder that occurred in the Seven-Eleven store. He argues that this subsequent crime was unrelated to the charged crime and that the admission of evidence pertaining to that crime violated the general exclusionary rule prohibiting the introduction of such evidence. He also contends that the prosecutor's argument to the jury concerning this subsequent crime was error and highly prejudicial. We find no merit in these contentions.
As we have previously stated in Part I, the evidence of the murder and robbery of the Seven-Eleven store was admissible under the res gestae or continuing transaction exception and under the intent and motive exceptions to the general exclusionary rule. We conclude that the evidence of the subsequent crime was relevant, was reasonably necessary to the state's case, and was plain and conclusive, and that its probative value
outweighed any potential prejudicial effect. The trial court did not abuse its discretion in admitting this evidence.
If the accused's commission of another crime is admissible in a prosecution, the state may prove in detail the manner in which the accused committed the other crime. Weatherford v. State; Gamble, supra, § 69.02(8). Here, it was proper for the prosecution to comment on the details of the subsequent crime and to draw any reasonable inferences therefrom in its arguments to the jury. After reviewing the arguments of the prosecution in this regard, we do not find them to be improper. We note that the impact of the evidence of the robbery-murder committed at the Seven-Eleven store was considerably reduced by the trial court's instruction to the jury that it was "not to consider the evidence of the . . . Adams shooting as direct or substantive evidence of the guilt of William Bush of the crime alleged in the indictment."
The appellant contends in footnote 103 to his brief to this court that the evidence of the subsequent crime was improperly admitted because, he says, he was not given prior notice that the state intended to offer that evidence. We find no merit in this contention. The evidence was admitted at the two prior trials of this case, and its use here certainly came as no surprise to the appellant.
XIX.
The appellant contends that his inculpatory statements to the police, which when considered together amounted to full confessions to the commission of the three crimes, should have been suppressed because, he argues, they were obtained after his allegedly illegal arrest, without Miranda warnings, and after the failure of the officer to honor his request to remain silent, and they were involuntary because they were made as the result of threats and coercion. These ide
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