Smoot v. State

Appellant was convicted of murder in the second degree of B.J. Turner and sentenced to imprisonment for fifteen years. His trial was on an indictment charging murder in the first degree.

The corpus delicti was thoroughly established by the testimony of Talladega County Sheriff Jerry Studdard and other witnesses to the effect that about 6:30 P.M. May 8, 1979, a search was begun for the victim as a reported missing person; his decomposed body was found about 2:00 the next morning about three-fourths of a mile off Talladega County Road No. 88 near a garbage dump; the victim's automobile was in…