Title: Bradley v. State
Citation: 562 So. 2d 1276
Docket Number: 89-KA-0035
State: Mississippi
Issuer: Mississippi Supreme Court
Date: May 23, 1990

562 So. 2d 1276 (1990) Terry BRADLEY v. STATE of Mississippi. No. 89-KA-0035. Supreme Court of Mississippi. May 23, 1990. *1277 C. Ray Scales, Jr., C. Ray Scales, Jr. &amp; Associates, Jackson, for appellant. Mike C. Moore, Atty. Gen., Charles W. Maris, Jr., Sp Asst. Atty. Gen., Jackson, for appellee. Before ROY NOBLE LEE, C.J., and PITTMAN and BLASS, JJ. ROY NOBLE LEE, Chief Justice, for the Court: Terry Bradley was convicted in the Circuit court of Wayne County for selling cocaine and was sentenced to fifteen years in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections and was ordered to pay a fine of $9,000. He has appealed to this court and assigns ten errors in the trial below. In 1986, a confidential informant (CI) informed the Bureau of Narcotics that Terry Bradley was a known cocaine dealer who resided in Wayne County, Mississippi, and that the CI would be willing to introduce a narcotics agent to Bradley for the purpose of purchasing cocaine. At approximately 12:14 p.m. on May 9, 1986, Marie Edwards, a Narcotics Agent for the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics (MBN), met with other MBN officers and the confidential informant at a woodyard near Highway 84 in Wayne County, Mississippi, to make tentative plans for locating Terry Bradley and purchasing one-half (1/2) ounce of cocaine from him. Agent Edwards would attempt to buy the cocaine and the other agents were to surveil her while she made the drug purchase. Agent Edwards was equipped with a body transmitter and had a small microcassette recorder in her handbag. Edwards and the CI travelled to 1303 Joiner Street in Waynesboro, the residence where the informant believed Bradley would be. Upon arrival there, the CI got out of the car and attempted to locate Bradley. Three black males were at the same residence looking for him. These men told Agent Edwards and the CI that if they followed them, they might be able to locate Bradley. The men led Agent Edwards and the CI to 1315 Gatlin Street in Waynesboro. When they arrived at that residence, the three black males spoke briefly with another black male and shortly thereafter the three black males left. After they left the area the CI got out of the vehicle and talked to the same black male that the other men had talked to. A few minutes later, Agent Edwards observed a man whom she later knew to be Terry Bradley come out of the house and talk to the CI. They were then invited into the house by an unidentified male person. Agent Edwards and the CI went into the house where Agent Edwards observed four other black males in the den area watching *1278 television and appellant at the sink running water over dishes. At that point, the CI introduced appellant to Agent Edwards using Bradley's nickname of "Mose". The CI told appellant that Agent Edwards' name was "Rita". They went into the bedroom and appellant entered the room with a white paper towel in his hand. The CI excused himself and left the room, closing the door behind him. After the CI left the room, appellant withdrew from the paper towel a sandwich bag, which contained a white powder substance. Appellant represented that it was cocaine, guaranteed to be good, and the price was $900.00. Agent Edwards paid the appellant with nine (9) $100 bills from official state funds, which had been photocopied and identified by serial numbers. After the transaction, Agent Edwards and the CI left the area and returned to the woodyard near Highway 84 to meet with the surveilling officers. The transaction had taken six or seven minutes. Agent Edwards produced the white substance and one of the officers performed a field test, which revealed that the substance was cocaine. The officers then paid the CI $300.00 for his assistance in the investigation. Under this assigned error, the appellant argues that Agent Edwards' presence on the premises and purchase of cocaine without a search warrant made her a trespasser who was illegally on the property. He concludes that the court should have suppressed the evidence obtained from the purchase. After a hearing on the motion to suppress the evidence, the trial court made the following finding: In nearly every sale of cocaine where an officer is involved, the modus operandi is that followed in the present case. Literally hundreds of cases over the entire United States have been investigated and disposed of by the same methods. The courts have *1279 universally approved the procedure. Lewis v. U.S., 385 U.S. 206, 87 S. Ct. 424, 17 L. Ed. 2d 312 (1966) and its progeny through the years have established that such methods are permitted under the law and do not violate Fourth Amendment rights. The trial court's finding of fact is supported by the overwhelming weight of the evidence and is accepted by this court. Smith v. State, 465 So. 2d 999, 1002 (Miss. 1985); Pool v. State, 483 So. 2d 331, 334 (Miss. 1986). Appellant's assigned error number one is rejected. The appellant's defense was an alibi. He claims that at the time of the drug sale, he was in the office of Dr. Hobart Korngay, a dentist in Meridian, Mississippi, for dental work. Dr. Korngay testified that, based on a receipt, dated May 9, 1986, the day in question, appellant, Terry Bradley, and three other persons, one of whom was Danny Sherrod, had come to his office to have some gold crowns put in Bradley's teeth. The names on the receipt were: Mary Lee Moore; Big Mo Sherrod; M. Williams; M. Goss; and Mo Tyler. The procedure would have taken at least until noon. Dr. Korngay further testified that it would be impossible to remember the occasion, who was there, and anything about it. The appellant testified that he went to Meridian on the morning of that day without an appointment and arrived at Dr. Korngay's office around 10:15 A.M.; that he got some gold put in six of his teeth; that they took a lunch break and returned to the dentist's office around 1:00 P.M.; that the dental work was completed around 1:30 P.M. and he returned to Wayne County. This Court has held that if an informant is with a participant in the crime or an eye witness to the offense, then the confidential informant is a material witness and the trial court must require the prosecution to identify the informant, if the defendant so requests. Middlebrook v. State, 555 So. 2d 1009, 1010 (Miss. 1990); Pinkney v. State, 538 So. 2d 329, 348 (Miss. 1988); Arnett v. State, 532 So. 2d 1003, 1008 (Miss. 1988); Breckenridge v. State, 472 So. 2d 373, 377 (Miss. 1985). Agent Edwards testified that she had prearranged with the CI to leave the room during the time when the offense was committed and that he had excused himself by going to the bathroom and was not present while the sale was being made and consummated; that she, Agent Edwards, and the appellant were the only ones in the room when she bought, paid for, and received the cocaine and that the CI did not return until the transaction was entirely over. After the pre-trial hearing, the trial court made the following findings: As in the previous question, this court is bound by the finding of the lower court and will not overturn its finding of fact unless it is clearly erroneous. Neal v. State, 451 So. 2d 743, 753 (Miss. 1984); See also, Breckenridge, 472 So. 2d at 377. The assigned error number two is rejected. On cross-examination, Agents Parham and Edwards testified that the MBN sometimes pays confidential informants according to whether a drug transaction takes place and the amount they are paid depends on the type of drug they seize or buy and the amount. That cross-examination developed the entire connection between the CI and the narcotic agents, how they operated and how much the CI was paid. The discussion here is overlapped by the discussion on assigned errors one and two and they all deal with the same subject matter. The law stated there applies here. See also, Williams v. State, 463 So. 2d 1064 (Miss. 1985) (although Williams is distinguished from the case at bar). The assigned error number three is rejected. The prosecution inquired on cross-examination of Reginald White, a witness for the appellant, whether he lived in Biloxi or Gulfport. He stated that he lived in Waynesboro, but admitted that he does "business" there. When asked whether he was a business associate of the appellant, White denied that he was and said they were just friends. The following cross-examination occurred: White was called by the appellant to establish his defense of misidentification and alibi. White stated on cross-examination that, while Sherrod was heavy set like the appellant, Sherrod did not look like the appellant.[1] The appellant's primary defense, however, was that he was in Meridian at the time of the sale and he depended upon Dr. Korngay's testimony and his own to establish that defense. A long time prior to the adoption of the Rules of Evidence, in Hardy v. State, 143 Miss. 352, 108 So. 727 (1926), this Court stated: Id. at 729 (emphasis added). After the cross-examination of White, the appellant made a motion for a new trial. The trial court stated: Comment to Rule 404(b), Mississippi Rules of Evidence, states the following: M.R.E. 404(b). Rule 616 provides that for the purpose of attacking the credibility of a witness, evidence *1282 of bias, prejudice, or interest of the witness for or against any party to the case is admissible. No further comment was made as to the question and answer and it was not referred to in argument. We are of the opinion that the cross-examination did not constitute reversible error and that the objection and motion for new trial were properly overruled. Assigned error number four is rejected. The contention involves the following portion of the direct examination of Agent Edwards by the assistant district attorney: An objection was made to the question and answer which was overruled by the court. The conversation between appellant and Agent Edwards was a part of the entire transaction and was connected with the crime, e.g., sale of cocaine, and was included within the same transaction as the sale. The conversation was admissible. See Davis v. State, 530 So. 2d 694, 697-698 (Miss. 1988); Minor v. State, 482 So. 2d 1107, 1110-1 (Miss. 1986); Barnette v. State, 481 So. 2d 788, 790 (Miss. 1985). Further, the probative value of the statement outweighed the danger of unfair prejudice under M.R.E. 403. The assigned error number five is rejected. The appellant argues that the prosecution did not prove that the substance was cocaine, i.e., did not perform a D-cocaine and L-cocaine test. The undisputed testimony at trial by Allison Smith, a forensic chemist with the Mississippi Crime Lab, indicated that the substance was cocaine. The question of whether the substance was cocaine went to the weight and the credibility of Smith's testimony and was an issue for the jury to decide. Sanders v. State, 479 So. 2d 1097, 1103 (Miss. 1985). Assignment number six is rejected. The appellant, relying upon Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 106 S. Ct. 1712, 90 L. Ed. 2d 69 (1986), argues that the state was allowed to strike black juror, Frank Ray, without giving a sufficient race-neutral reason. With regard to the question, the following transpired: The trial court ruled: We have held that factual findings made by the trial judge will be given great deference. Wheeler v. State, 536 So. 2d 1347, 1351 (Miss. 1988). In Lockett v. State, 517 So. 2d 1346 (Miss. 1987), this Court has said "[w]e place our trust in the trial judges to determine whether or not a discriminatory motive underlies the prosecutor's articulated reasons." We are of the opinion that assigned error number six has no merit and it is rejected. The appellant contends that the trial was moved from the Wayne County courthouse to the city auditorium and that the jury and court personnel had problems hearing the questions and answers, prejudicing his case. At the beginning of the trial, the judge informed the jury as to why the trial was being held in the city auditorium: At the conclusion of the prosecution's case-in-chief, appellant moved for a mistrial arguing that the trial court had no statutory authority to move the trial from the county courthouse; that the acoustics in the auditorium were bad; and there was danger that the jury could not hear the questions of counsel and the answers of the witnesses. The matter was fully developed before the trial judge. The appellant presented no evidence that the jury was incapable of hearing testimony nor did he demonstrate that the heat in the courtroom was excessive. The assigned error number eight is rejected. The assistant district attorney asked the following question on voir dire: On motion for JNOV or new trial, the appellant called Virgil Powe, a juror, to the stand. He admitted that his son had been convicted of selling cocaine and had served three years in the penitentiary. When asked about the voir dire questions, Powe replied that he did not recall the particular question about members of a juror's family and thought he was asked if he had ever been evicted. The lower court made detailed findings of fact against the contention of the appellant that he was prejudiced by the juror: The assigned error number nine is rejected. The sentence imposed by the lower court was within the provisions of the statute and was within the sound discretion of *1285 the trial judge. It does not constitute cruel and inhuman punishment. Byrd v. State, 522 So. 2d 756, 760 (Miss. 1988); Whitley v. State, 511 So. 2d 929, 932 (Miss. 1987). Assignment number ten is rejected. There being no reversible error in the trial below, the judgment of the lower court is affirmed. CONVICTION SALE OF COCAINE, SENTENCE OF 15 YEARS IN THE CUSTODY OF MISSISSIPPI DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTION, PAY A FINE OF $9,000, PAY ATTORNEY'S FEES OF $1,000 AND ALL COURT COSTS AFFIRMED. HAWKINS, P.J., and PRATHER, ROBERTSON, SULLIVAN, ANDERSON, PITTMAN and BLASS, JJ., concur. DAN M. LEE, P.J., concurs in results only. [1] Testimony introduced by appellant was to the observation that Agent Edwards confused appellant with Sherrod.