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Hall v. State8/22/2005
I. Facts
A. Facts on Direct Appeal
As set forth in our Supreme Court's opinion on direct appeal, the proof at the Petitioner's trial established the following facts:
At around midnight on April 16, 1991, the defendant threw gasoline on the victim, Traci Crozier, his ex-girlfriend, as she was lying in the front seat of her car. The victim received third degree burns to more than ninety percent of her body and died several hours later in the hospital. When questioned by police, the defendant initially denied involvement in the offense. Eventually, however, [the Petitioner] admitted responsibility, but claimed that he did not intend to kill the victim; he intended to burn her car.
The victim met the defendant in December of 1984. They began living together in January of 1986, and continuously resided together until three weeks prior to her murder. On March 26, 1991, the victim left and moved into the house with her grandmother, Gloria Mathis, and her uncle, Chris Mathis. After the separation, the defendant would frequently, and often late at night, call the Mathis home in search of the victim. In the early morning hours of April 6, 1991, the Mathis household was awakened by a dog barking and looked outside to see the victim's car, a two-door Nissan Pulsar, burning. The victim's uncle saw the defendant running away from the burning car and fired a gunshot into the air. The fire department was called to extinguish the fire and investigate the arson. When the defendant called the Mathis house thereafter, the victim's uncle threatened [the Petitioner] in the event he did not leave the victim alone. The defendant responded: "If I can't have her, nobody can't."
On the night of April 16, 1991, shortly before midnight, Viola Wylene Price was sitting in her car outside her home when she saw "a ball of fire" in the middle of the street. As she started to get out of her car, a black car, later identified as being similar to the defendant's, sped away from the scene. After the car passed, Price ran into her house and called 911. Her son, Billy Ray Wilson, was inside and when he heard his mother call for emergency assistance, he ran outside to see what was happening. When he saw the burning car and heard someone inside it screaming for help, Wilson ran to the driver's side of the car. Though the door was open, he could not see anyone through the flames. Wilson ran around to the passenger side of the car where he saw the victim attempting to get out through the window. Wilson pulled the victim from the car, removed her burning shoes and clothes, helped her extinguish the flames on her body, and assisted her to a safe distance from the burning car in the event of an explosion.
Price returned to the scene after calling for emergency assistance. Though the victim had been so badly burned that her hair was melted and skin was hanging from her arms, she remained coherent and alert. The victim expressed concern about her appearance and the likelihood of permanent scarring from the burns. She gave Price her name and telephone number. When Price asked the victim for the identity of the perpetrator, the victim responded, "Lee Hall." The victim also told Price that [the Petitioner] twice previously had set fire to her car. The victim told Wilson that the defendant "threw gas on me, gas bomb." She repeated, "it was gas, gas bomb. He set me on fire."
Earl Atchley, Commander of the Chattanooga Fire Department, received the 911 call at 12:06 a.m. on April 17, 1991. When he arrived at the scene the victim's car was "fully involved" in fire[,] and the victim was badly burned. Though Commander Atchley did not recognize her, the victim remembered
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