OPENING STATEMENT, 2
by Sherman Powell
We further expect in this case that there's going to be some other testimony--I
don't want--I just want to give you an idea of where we're going right now. I have
somewhat of a disagreement with Mr. Dill about what he's going to prove, but I
invite him to prove everything he said he's going to prove, but we don't expect the
evidence is going to be what he said it was. As a matter of fact, when you get to
sparky Moore's statement you read it and see if it says what he said it was going to
say. It's not going to do it. We expect the evidence is not going to air out what he
told you.
We further expect this confession that he wants to walk over here and say the
confession that this man made. He didn't make any confession at all. We expect
the evidence is going to show you there's a very clear explanation of that. And we're
going to tell you right up front, Daniel Moore is not going to make citizen of the
year. Daniel Moore was on drugs. He smoked marijuana. He used crack. He
drank nasty beer. He smoked cigarettes. He went to school at Hanceville. He did a
lot of things, but that doesn't make him a murderer and we don't think the evidence
in this case is going to show that he had an opportunity, a motive or any reason to
be over there and he was not there.
They talk about this Sparky confession. What he didn't tell you about this was
that he didn't tell you the rest of the story you might say. We expect the evidence is
going to show you that Daniels' grandfather was on his bail bond and that Daniel
even along for several months, for a long period of time had been such a
disappointment ot his family that he contemplated ending his own life, and he even
sat down and wrote letters of farewell to his family that he loves. Hadn't got
anything to do with the death of Karen Tipton because he didn't have any idea or
knowledge or thought about that. That's not got anything to do with them, which
gets me back to where I'm going about the evidence.
When they were taking him down there because Uncle Sparky was going to carry
him down to the jail and get grandpa off. We expect the evidence to show you that
Daniel wanted that to happen but he didn't want to be put in jail because he was
afraid if he got put in jail all the bad checks he had been writing that there were
warrants on him and they couldn't get him back out. He didn't want to stay in jail.
he didn't want to be put in there but he did want his grandpa off that bail bond
because he planned to kill himself and he thought if he did that they would take his
grandpa's house away from him.
What he didn't--we expect the evidence to show is in this quote "confession" as
Mr. Dill calls it, that he first told them he said on the way down to the jail, and
Sparky will tell you this, he said that , oh, you can't put me in there because they're
going to get me because I know about this deal about a rich man or doctor in
Cullman or somebody got done in down there. Well, we don't want to hear that
stuff. We're carrying you down there and we're going to get him off and we're
going to put you in jail until the other bondsman gets there and then that's it.
So they didn't believe the first story they told him, which was a lie. He didn't
know anything about any killing or robberies in Cullman County, Alabama. So he
gets down there and gets closer to the time and says, no, I was just kidding you. It
was really one down here, Doctor's wife. He said you mean the one on Chapel Hill
Road and he said, yeah, yeah, that's it. They'll put me in jail, and that's what
happened on it. We expect the evidence will show you that, and that's why he was
doing it. We expect the evidence will show you that, and that's why he was doing it.
And to back that up we expect the evidence will show that these notes to his mother,
his stepfather and his other family members that he had already picked out and left
out in his motel room because he already planned to kill himself.