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Pittman v. State

The trial court did not violate defendant's right to confrontation in allowing several witnesses to testify about statements made to them by defendant's girlfriend, who invoked her Fifth Amendment privilege, because there was evidence that defendant and his girlfriend acted in concert to conceal defendant's participation in the victim's death.

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Appellant Charles Clyde Pittman, Jr., was convicted of malice murder, possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime and possession of a firearm by a first offender probationer.1 The victim was appellant’s aunt, Linda Hunt.

Ms. Hunt’s body was found in her mobile home by relatives and a friend after she did not report to work. She had died as a result of a single gunshot wound that entered behind her right ear and exited near her left jaw. Expert testimony established that the shot was fired from a distance of less than one inch. Appellant told investigating officers he had shot the victim while in a cocaine-induced state and had asked his girlfriend to dispose of the murder weapon. The girlfriend led investigators to the gun that appellant had given her, and experts identified it as the weapon that fired the fatal shot. Appellant also stated he had burned the clothing he was wearing when the victim was killed, and investigators found the ashes of a fire at the site appellant described. There was evidence at the murder scene that an open can of paint had been knocked over after the victim was killed and before her body was found. Fresh paint removed from the upholstery of the driver’s seat of the car appellant used was determined by an expert to be like the spilled paint “with respect to color, texture, microchemical reactivity, detailed binder characteristics and pigment characteristics.” The State also introduced evidence that, at the time of the murder, appellant was on probation. The evidence was sufficient to authorize a rational trier of fact to find appellant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of the crimes charged. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307 99 SC 2781, 61 LE2d 560 1979.

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