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State v. Gay1/24/2001
Appeal From Richland County Thomas W. Cooper, Jr., Circuit Court Judge
Heard January 9, 2001
AFFIRMED
A jury convicted appellant of murder, and the trial court sentenced him to life imprisonment. He directly appeals the conviction and sentence. We affirm.
FACTS
On December 31, 1995, the partially-clothed body of fifty-year-old Patricia Huffstetler ("victim") was discovered in the tunnel below Interstate 26, near Elmwood Avenue in Columbia ("the tunnel"). She had been stabbed four times in the chest. Approximately 20 feet from the body, there were signs of a struggle, a pair of broken eyeglasses, and drag marks which led to the body.
As part of the investigation, Detective Robert Benson was questioning people at the Salvation Army on January 3, 1996. Appellant approached Detective Benson saying that the detective would want to talk with him. Because of the late hour, Detective Benson asked appellant to come to the police station the next day. Appellant arrived at the station the following morning, and Detective Steve Rice interviewed appellant. Appellant gave Detective Rice a statement in which appellant said that he knew the victim and had last seen her a few days before Christmas. Appellant denied that he had ever been physically involved with the victim.
After hearing about the victim in the news on New Year's Day, the victim's former boyfriend, Greg Hiers, contacted police. Hiers told Detective Benson that, based on information from his Caller ID, he believed the victim had called him from a pay phone at 10:59 a.m. on December 31.
The pay phone was located outside an Exxon station on Elmwood Avenue. On January 4, 1996, Detective Rice obtained the surveillance tape from the convenience store at the Exxon station for the day of December 31, 1995. That evening, Detective Rice viewed the videotape which showed the victim, together with appellant, in the convenience store from 10:48 to 10:52 a.m. Detective Rice testified that he recognized appellant because he had just interviewed him that morning.
Realizing that appellant had lied about when he last saw the victim, the police located appellant and again questioned him at the station. After being confronted with the videotape, appellant initially denied, but then admitted the tape reflected that he and the victim were together the morning of December 31.
Police searched appellant's room at the Salvation Army. In the room, police seized three trash bags and a duffel bag. A damp, black sweatshirt was retrieved from one of the bags. In addition, police discovered a knife under the pillow of the unoccupied bunk.
The State presented evidence that robbery was appellant's motive for the crime. In the videotape, the victim paid for her purchase at the Exxon convenience store from a white purse, and the cashier testified that the victim paid with a $50 or $100 bill. The police discovered the white purse, without any money in it, in a cemetery located between the Exxon and the tunnel. Police searched appellant's car and found a bill of sale for the car dated January 3, 1996. The seller of the car testified that appellant had purchased the car for $270, using mostly large bills.
In addition, the State presented evidence which linked appellant to the knife discovered on the bunk at the Salvation Army. Walter Armstrong testified that approximately four years before trial he gave appellant a knife similar to the one discovered and that he saw appellant with the knife as recently as November 1995. The pathologist testified that the knife was consistent with the weapon which caused the victim's stab wounds.
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