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Baird v. State6/28/2002
On April 6, 2001, Michael Ray Baird was convicted of intentional murder, a violation of § 13A-6-2(a)(1), Ala. Code 1975, and felony-murder, a violation of § 13A-6-2(a)(3), Ala. Code 1975. The trial court sentenced him, as an habitual offender, to two terms of life in prison without the possibility of parole; the sentences were to run consecutively. See § 13A-5-9(c)(4), Ala. Code 1975. Baird filed a motion for a new trial, which the trial court denied following a hearing. This appeal followed.
The evidence at trial revealed the following. Baird is married to Ricky Lamastus's sister, Linda. The bodies of Ricky and Joyce Lamastus were discovered in their residence on Sunday, October 4, 1998, by a friend of Joyce Lamastus. Ricky Lamastus had been shot twice, once in the head and once in the neck. Joyce Lamastus was shot four times, once in the chest that penetrated the heart and left lung and three times in the back of the neck around the base of the skull. All of the gunshots were from close range.
Mitch Rector, a forensic scientist with the Department of Forensic Sciences, testified that the six spent shell casings recovered from the gun in Baird's vehicle had been fired from the pistol that had been recovered from Baird's car. Rector testified that the bullets recovered from the crime scene or from the victims' bodies contained similarities to bullets that were test-fired from the gun recovered from Baird's vehicle. Rector testified that the gun could not be excluded from consideration as the gun that fired the bullets recovered from the Lamastuses' residence or from the bodies, but that the bullets were too badly damaged to state with absolute certainty that they had, in fact, been fired from that gun.
Ricky and Joyce Lamastus had filed charges against Baird stemming from a prior incident. One witness testified that Joyce Lamastus stated to her during a telephone conversation on October 1, 1998, that Baird had come to their house and waved a gun around. Then, on October 2, 1998, the Lamastuses filed a complaint against Baird, alleging that he had threatened in a telephone conversation to kill them. Another witness testified that on October 2, 1998, Baird had stated to her that he was going to kill Ricky and Joyce Lamastus if they did not leave him and his wife alone.
Baird was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol on Friday, October 2, 1998, at approximately 6:50 p.m. The arresting officer found a .38 caliber handgun in Baird's car. The deputy discovered that the pistol had six empty cartridges in the cylinder, which the deputy emptied from the gun. The deputy also noticed prescription bottles with Joyce Lamastus's name on them in the car. Shannon Kiley, Baird's stepdaughter, took Baird's car home. She discovered Joyce Lamastus's purse, prescription bottles, an ATM card, a debit card, Blockbuster video rental card, and other personal items belonging to Joyce Lamastus. Baird's wife subsequently turned the items over to the police.
Two witnesses testified as to their observations of Baird while he was in jail after he was arrested for driving under the influence . One witness testified that he saw Baird take a shower with his clothes on and saw him flush his socks down the toilet. This witness testified that Baird told him that he had killed somebody and that he had to get rid of the evidence. Another witness testified that he saw Baird cut his shoes into pieces and discard them in a trash can. Ricky and Joyce Lamastus's bodies were found in their residence at approximately 10:30 on the morning of Sunday, October 4, 1998. Baird, in a statement recorded by audio- and video-recording devices, confessed to committing the murders.
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