Court Opinion

ID: 9825481
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-01 13:10:57.078105+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:40:53.417496
License: Public Domain

On Rehearing.
[12] In the original opinion we justified 'the court’s ruling on the testimony of state witness Doss upon the theory that his testimony constituted a part of the res gestae and was therefore admissible. A further consideration of this matter, coupled with the authorities cited below, convinces us now that we were in error in this connection. Entertaining this view, the original opinion is modified and corrected in this respect, and the judgment of conviction will be reversed, because of the error of the court in admitting the testimony of witness Doss to the effect that some five minutes or more after the alleged commission of the offense he (witness) saw the defendant some 200 yards from the place where the alleged original shooting ■occurred resulting in the death of the deceased named in the indictment, and that at that time the defendant had a long gun and shot at the witness with ' it, and that he (witness) returned the fire, shooting at defendant twice with his pistol, This transaction was separate and distinct from the transaction upon which the alleged offense complained of in the indictment was predicated, and was not contemporaneous, or connected in any manner with the main fact under consideration. That it was highly prejudicial to the substantial rights of the defendant, and was calculated to prejudice the minds of the jury against him, cannot be doubted. This being true, it was irrelevant and inadmissible, and under the following authorities the court’s ruling must be adjudged error: Hardaman v. State, 16 Ala. App. 408, 78 South. 324 (on rehearing). Martin v. State, 16 Ala. App. 406, 78 South. 322; Johnson’s Case, 201 Ala. 41, 77 South. 335, 6 A. L. R. 1031; Jones v. State, 17 Ala. App. 394, 85 South. 830; Dennison v. State, 17 Ala. App. 674, 88 South. 211; Madry v. State, 201 Ala. 512, 514, 78 South. 866.
Application for rehearing is granted. The judgment of conviction is reversed, and the cause remanded.
Reversed and remanded.