Experts say Baldwin prosecutors likely to try Stephen Nodine again on murder, stalking charges

Published: Wednesday, December 22, 2010, 5:30 AM

BAY MINETTE, Ala. — A Baldwin County judge Tuesday set a new trial date for former Mobile County Commissioner Stephen Nodine on murder and stalking charges, but it will be up to the new district attorney to decide if the state moves forward.

A jury on Monday convicted Nodine of a misdemeanor ethics violation but could not reach a unanimous verdict on charges that he stalked and killed his girlfriend, Angel Downs.

Circuit Judge Charles Partin scheduled the possible retrial for Feb. 28. Hallie Dixon, who defeated Baldwin County District Attorney Judy Newcomb in the Republican primary, will take office next month.

Newcomb said Monday that she believes the new administration should try the case again. Dixon said that she wants a chance to review the case and talk to Downs’ family before making a decision.

The Feb. 28 date keeps the case in the system but is not a hard date. Either side could request a delay. Since Newcomb prosecuted the case herself, several experts suggested, Dixon would need more than two months to put a new case together.

Jurors have said they split 9-3 in favor of conviction, which experts said is an important factor in a decision to retry a case.

“I’d say if it was a 9-3 split the other way, I’d go home,” said Mobile County District Attorney John Tyson Jr.

Tyson, who leaves office next month, said he believes it is likely Baldwin prosecutors will give it another try. The split, the strength of the evidence and the type of crime are all factors to consider, he said.

“The more serious the charge, the more seriously you have to take a look at the evidence, and the more seriously you have to think about the decision to do it or not,” he said.

Dixon said that deadlocked juries sometimes can spur plea bargains. But defense attorney Dennis Knizley said his client has maintained his innocence from the beginning and that a plea deal has been “off the table” from the start.

Dixon said that in any case that ends with a deadlocked jury, she will re-evaluate the entire case to gauge how likely it is that a second trial will end in conviction. How the first jury divided is a factor, she said.

“It’s not a mathematical equation by any means,” she said. “But in a general sense, I think it does affect the likelihood of success in the future.”

If there is a second trial, Knizley said Tuesday, he anticipates asking that it be moved to another jurisdiction. Although Knizley did not ask for a change of venue before the first trial, he said media coverage would make it extremely difficult to get a fair jury.

“There was absolute saturation during the trial, including the Twitter,” he said, referring to blow-by-blow accounts provided by TV reporters through the social networking site.

Since prosecutors are elected, outside influences sometimes can enter the decision to retry a high-profile case, some said.

“Politics can be a factor,” said. Deborah Young, a former federal prosecutor who followed the Nodine case. “And public opinion can be a factor.”

Young, who now teaches at Samford University’s Cumberland School of Law in Birmingham, said part of a prosecutor’s decision springs from how strong he or she feels the case is.

“Prosecutors always retry a case when they’re surprised by the result,” she said.

Experts said a second trial gives both sides an opportunity to address shortcomings exposed by the first trial. Which side benefits more? Experts said that depends on the case.

“Often, only the prosecutor puts on real evidence,” said Young.

Others said the prosecutors usually have less knowledge about the defense strategy than vice versa before the first trial, which means prosecutors have the upper hand in a retrial.

“Conventional wisdom is that a hung jury is a victory for the defense because there’s no conviction,” said Don Cochran, a Cumberland professor who previously worked as a state and federal prosecutor in Jefferson County. “I never really viewed it that way as a prosecutor.”

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Stephen Nodine murder trial: Testimony describes stormy, violent relationship between Nodine, Downs

Published: Wednesday, December 15, 2010, 5:00 AM

BAY MINETTE, Ala. — Two weeks before she suffered a fatal gunshot to the head, Angel Downs warned that Stephen Nodine might kill her, a friend of hers testified Tuesday.

Emily Simmons, who said she was friends with both Downs and Nodine, testified that Downs confided in her after having several harsh confrontations with Nodine during the weekend of the Flora-Bama Mullet Toss in April.

Downs, Simmons said, told her that if she were ever found dead, it would by Nodine’s hand — not suicide.

“She was crying,” Simmons testified. “He had changed. He was not the person she knew.”

Nodine, who was a Mobile County commissioner at the time of Downs’ death, stands accused of murder, stalking and an ethics charges related to the alleged misuse of his government-issued pickup truck.

Simmons also testified that she was waiting in the car outside of Downs’ home in Gulf Shores at the end of that weekend when Nodine showed up and followed Downs into her home. Later, Downs ran back to the car.

“She told me that he tried to break her arm when they were inside,” Simmons said. “She screamed, and he let her go.”

Simmons was the last witness of an eventful day Tuesday. Defense attorneys will get a chance to cross-examine her today. ?Prosecutors said they expect to wrap up their case later in the day.

The testimony undercut the defense position that Downs shot herself on the evening of May 9.

Other friends of Downs testified that they also witnessed abusive behavior by Nodine.

Tracie Sweatt testified that Nodine knocked on the door of the beach condominium she was using, along with Downs and several other women, for that last weekend of April.

Sweatt told jurors that Nodine opened one of the bedroom doors and found Downs, asleep and in her pajamas, with a male friend, who was fully clothed.

“You’re a whore,” Sweatt quoted Nodine as telling Downs.

Nodine threw what appeared to be a garage door opener and hit Downs in the forehead, Sweatt testified.

Another friend who was part of the group that weekend, Christine Salley, testified that Nodine came looking for Downs on the beach the next day, April 25.

“He said, ‘Where’s that f——-g whore?’” she said.

Salley testified that Downs moved her residence to The Ridge condominiums in Gulf Shores because she wanted a home where she could park in the garage, so that Nodine would not know whether she was home.

Salley also described a trip to a New Orleans Saints game in 2009 that turned violent. She said she learned after the game that Downs and Nodine had a physical fight in the French Quarter but that Downs had managed to get away.

“She was very upset, just sitting in the car with a blank stare,” Salley told jurors. “She had scratches on her, and she had blood on her clothes.”

Defense attorney John Williams challenged the view expressed by Salley and Sweatt that Downs had broken off her relationship with Nodine.

During cross-examination, he asked both witnesses about a number signs that Nodine and Downs were still a couple: After the weekend in April, they dined together at several restaurants, and they spent the day together at Pensacola Beach on May 9.

Nodine and his teenage son also slept over at Downs’ home the previous Friday, Williams said.

Sweatt said that they did not know that Nodine and his son stayed at Downs’ home.

“But, no, given their relationship, it would not surprise me,” said Sweatt, who described the couple’s relationship as on and off.

Earlier Tuesday, a waiter at Don Carlos Mexican Restaurant in Daphne testified that Nodine appeared nervous as he drank coffee on the evening of May 9.

“He just seemed to be a little nervous and fidgety, playing with his phone,” said Joshua King, who refilled Nodine’s coffee and water.

King also testified that Nodine seemed upset as he left the restaurant.

“He made a loud outburst, something like, ‘Oh, no,’ like he had received some piece of startling news,” he said.

In an effort to prove the ethics charge, prosecutors offered testimony from Mobile County Administrator John Pafenbach, who testified that county employees, except for law enforcement officers, are prohibited from using county vehicles for personal reasons.

Under cross-examination from defense lawyer Dennis Knizley, Pafenbach acknowledged that the county does not give the written policy to commissioners when they take office.

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After day and a half of jury selection, Stephen Nodine's murder trial sees first testimony

Published: Wednesday, December 08, 2010, 6:00 AM

BAY MINETTE, Ala. — Minutes before she died from a gunshot to the head, Angel Downs sent a text message saying that then-Mobile County Commissioner Stephen Nodine was at her home, the victim’s sister testified Tuesday.

Susan Bloodworth, the first witness at Nodine’s murder trial in Baldwin County Circuit Court, told jurors that her sister had just called her to ask where she should shoot someone who was trying to break into her home — the head, chest or leg.

Bloodworth testified that she told her sister that the chest was the best target and demanded to know if it was Nodine, a married man with whom Downs had a years-long and sometimes stormy affair.

Bloodworth said Downs would not answer but sent her a text message a short time later: "Stephen Nodine is here." Twenty to 30 minutes later, Bloodworth said, she got a call from her sister’s landlord informing her that Downs had been shot to death.

In addition to murder, Nodine, 47, stands accused of stalking the 45-year-old real estate agent and making personal use of his Mobile County government-issued pickup truck.

Prosecutor lays out Downs timeline

BAY MINETTE, Ala. -- Baldwin County District Attorney Judy Newcomb laid out a dramatic timeline leading up to Angel Downs’ death.

Defendant Stephen Nodine, called Downs’ cell phone four times on May 9 after he had spent the day with her and others at the beach in Pensacola.According to Newcomb, the sequence went as follows:

• Downs sent a text message to a friend at 7:35 p.m.

• At 7:38, she called her sister, Susan Bloodworth, who did not answer. Nodine called her that same minute. The call lasted 21 seconds.

• At 7:39, Downs got a text message from a friend inviting her to come over to a cookout that evening.

• At 7:41, Downs returned the text, asking what she could bring.

• At 7:42, Nodine called for the second time. It lasted 4 seconds. That same minute, she called her sister again, this time on her cell phone. She got no answer, so called Bloodworth’s home again.

This time, Bloodworth answered, and Downs asked her sister if someone was breaking into her home, where should she shoot him?Newcomb said the call lasted a minute and 50 seconds but that Downs would not tell her sister who she was talking about.

• At 7:43 and 7:44, Nodine called a third and fourth time.

• At 7:44, Downs’ friend sent her a text message to tell her she was cooking burgers.

At 7:46, Downs sent a text message to her sister: “Stephen Nodine is here.”Seven minutes later, Newcomb told jurors, a neighbor called 911.“Angel Downs is dead,” she said.

Just as important, Newcomb said, is what several witnesses said: They heard a gunshot and then saw Nodine’s red, county-issued pickup truck leaving the subdivision at a high rate of speed.

One of those neighbors immediately felt he should check on Downs, Newcomb said.

One witness saw Nodine’s truck in the street outside her condo, turning around. He could not see Downs because his view was blocked by the truck and foliage, Newcomb said.

Defense attorney Dennis Knizley told jurors during his opening statement that his client went to Downs’ home on the evening of May 9 — after spending the day with her and others at Pensacola Beach — after discovering that he had left his wallet there.

"She was alive when he left. ... There is no evidence, no physical evidence, that places him there at or about the time of Ms. Downs’ death," he said.

Knizley told jurors that he will offer an expert witness who will testify that there are three main reasons why people commit suicide — financial problems, troubles with interpersonal relationships and health issues.

Downs, Knizley said, had all three. She was sinking financially because of the collapsing real estate market, had suffered from a life-threatening heart condition and had a tumultuous relationship with a married man. Plus, he said, she nearly died from a drug overdose in 2006.

Bloodworth told jurors that her sister was in a good mood when they talked that morning. Bloodworth said they discussed Bloodworth’s plan to visit Downs in Gulf Shores that summer and a possible job opening for Downs in Georgia, where their family lives.

Bloodworth disputed the possibility of suicide. She testified that her sister gave no indication she might be depressed or thinking about suicide. Bloodworth testified that her sister long ago had come to terms with her heart condition and did not find it to be a stress in her life.

Bloodworth also said she examined her sister’s estate after her death and did not find any unusual bills or other signs of impending financial doom.

With a large photo of Downs projected on a wall and displayed on a pair of monitors hanging from the ceiling in Circuit Judge Charles Partin’s courtroom, Baldwin County District Attorney Judy Newcomb told jurors that she will present evidence showing that the victim recently started dating another man.

She said Downs was also moving beyond her life with Nodine, whom the victim referred to as "Crazy" or "Crazy Man" during conversations and written communications, Bloodworth testified.

When Baldwin County sheriff’s investigators questioned Nodine on the night of the shooting, he gave conflicting accounts of his actions, Newcomb said. She told jurors that Nodine told investigators that he stayed at Downs’ home only five minutes after returning for his wallet.

He alternately told them the reason he left so quickly was that he had to get back to work on Mobile County’s response to the BP PLC oil spill; that he wanted to watch the Yankees-Red Sox game; and that he had been gone all day and needed to get home.

Nodine also told investigators that he stopped at TimberCreek golf course because he wanted to hit some balls, only to realize that it was closed. Newcomb suggested that the real reason he stopped was because he wanted to use the facility’s showers and change his clothes.

Knizley told jurors that his client wanted to get some practice in preparation for a golf tournament he was participating in the next day. He said Nodine changed his clothes at a Ruby Tuesday and stopped for something to eat at a Mexican restaurant in Daphne because the Ruby Tuesday was too crowded.

There was nothing sinister about those actions, Knizley said, adding that Nodine was sweaty and grimy from a day slathered in suntan lotion. Nodine did not dump the clothes but put left them in his truck, Knizley said. And investigators did not find a shred of incriminating evidence on those clothes, Knizley said.

(Staff Reporter Kim Lanier contributed to this report.)

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