Title: Ex Parte Pope
Citation: 562 So. 2d 131
Docket Number: N/A
State: Alabama
Issuer: Alabama Supreme Court
Date: August 25, 1989

562 So. 2d 131 (1989)
Ex Parte Robert Heath POPE.
(Re Robert Heath Pope v. State of Alabama).
88-440.

Supreme Court of Alabama.
August 25, 1989.
Rehearing Denied April 27, 1990.
*132 Arthur Parker, Birmingham, for petitioner.
Don Siegelman, Atty. Gen., and J. Thomas Leverette, Asst. Atty. Gen., for respondent.
ADAMS, Justice.
Petitioner, Robert Heath Pope, was convicted of assault in the second degree and was sentenced to serve a term of three years in the state penitentiary. The Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the conviction, without opinion. 541 So. 2d 86. We issued our writ of certiorari to review the following issues:
I. Whether the trial court improperly limited the petitioner's cross-examination of a state witness.
II. Whether the trial court erred in refusing to give the following instructions in its charge to the jury:
On February 21, 1987, at approximately 8:00 p.m., Phillip Necklaus and Timmy Riggs arrived at Sherry Johnson's house, located in Cullman, Alabama, where a party was in progress. Ten to 12 persons were there, including Pope. At approximately 10:00 p.m., Necklaus asked Pope to leave the premises; at that time a fight began between the two. Subsequently, Pope, Debbie Ponder (who was then Pope's girlfriend and who is now his wife), Sherry Johnson, and two others left the premises; they returned after approximately one hour. Upon their return, Sherry Johnson did not enter the house, but walked to the rear of the house, where she remained in the backyard. Pope and Ponder entered the house, and a fight ensued, involving Pope, Ponder, Necklaus, and Riggs. Pope and Necklaus began fighting in the living room and continued the fight into the bedroom, where Pope broke a tequila bottle over Necklaus's head. Pope proceeded to cut Necklaus on his back, chest, and shoulders with the broken bottle, inflicting wounds requiring 46 surgical staples to close.
When Riggs heard the tequila bottle break, he came to Necklaus's assistance and found Pope wielding a piece of glass in his right hand. Pope then cut Riggs on his back, arm, and chest, inflicting wounds requiring over 50 stitches to close.
*133 During the trial, the state introduced a physician's testimony that after his examination of Necklaus's and Riggs's wounds, he determined that they could have been fatal and that they would result in permanent disfigurement.
During the trial, Sherry Johnson, a witness for the state, testified that she saw the fight between Pope and Riggs through the bedroom window while she stood behind the house. Pope's counsel sought to impeach this witness during cross-examination by attempting to admit a prior inconsistent statement that she had allegedly made during the preliminary hearing. Pope asserted that Johnson stated at the preliminary hearing that she was not near the house but was some distance from the house, and he argued that she, therefore, would not have had an opportunity to view the altercation through the window. He claims error and asserts that the trial judge unconstitutionally curtailed his cross-examination of witness Johnson during the following colloquy:
Addressing Pope's first contention, we note that a criminal defendant has the right to a thorough and sifting cross-examination, but that right is not absolute. The latitude and extent of cross-examination are matters within the sound discretion of the trial court, and in the absence of abuse, that discretion is not reversible on appeal. See Connell v. State, 294 Ala. 477, 318 So. 2d 710, on remand, 55 Ala.App. 717, 318 So. 2d 718, cert. denied, 294 Ala. 754, 318 So. 2d 718 (1974); Turner v. State, 289 Ala. 97, 265 So. 2d 883, on remand, 48 Ala.App. 754, 265 So. 2d 885 (1972).
The proper predicate for the admission of a prior inconsistent statement must be established before the statement is admitted. Ex parte Watts, 471 So. 2d 505 (Ala.1985). This predicate must specify the time when the statement was made, the place where the statement was made, the content of the statement, the person to whom the statement was made, and the substance of the statement. See C. Gamble, McElroy's Alabama Evidence, § 157.01(1) at 329 (1977). Our review of the record reveals that counsel for the defendant failed to lay a proper predicate to impeach Johnson's testimony; therefore, no error can be found in the trial court's foreclosing of his cross-examination of this witness.
Regarding Pope's second claim of error, evidence was presented that the photographs in question, state's exhibits 6 and 8, were presented to petitioner during pretrial discovery, but that Pope chose not to copy the photographs. We cannot hold the trial judge in error for not ordering the state to allow Pope to use these photographs, which were not in evidence at the time of Pope's request. We further cannot hold that the state's refusal was a violation of Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 83 S. Ct. 1194, 10 L. Ed. 2d 215 (1963), because the state had previously complied with a Temp. Rule 18, A.R.Cr.P., motion by defendant in which these photographs were disclosed by the state. Therefore, no error can be found on this issue.
Turning our attention to Pope's second claim of error, which is that the trial *135 court erred in not giving jury instructions regarding circumstantial evidence, self defense, and reasonable doubt, we find no merit in this contention and affirm as to this issue. We held in Ex parte Bell, 475 So. 2d 609 (Ala.1985), that in order to preserve an issue of refused jury instructions, it is necessary for the proponent of the instructions to recite briefly the relevant facts in connection with the jury charge. Our review of the record reveals that counsel for petitioner failed to recite the necessary facts and, therefore, we deem his statements regarding circumstantial evidence, self defense, and reasonable doubt to be abstract and not reviewable in this appeal.
For the foregoing reasons, the judgment of the trial court is due to be, and it hereby is, affirmed.
AFFIRMED.
HORNSBY, C.J., and MADDOX, ALMON and STEAGALL, JJ., concur.