Opinion ID: 864806
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: whether the guilty verdict was against the

Text: OVERWHELMING WEIGHT OF THE EVIDENCE. ¶33. After the jury returned a verdict finding Jones guilty of murder, the trial judge promptly entered a judgment of conviction and imposition of a life sentence consistent with the statute. Jones timely filed his motion for a judgment notwithstanding the verdict, or in the alternative, for a new trial, which motion was denied by the trial court. ¶34. We discuss Issues III and IV together, though we readily acknowledge that both the trial judge and this Court are required to consider altogether different criteria and factors in separately ruling on these motions. “The motion for j.n.o.v. tests the legal sufficiency of the evidence supporting the verdict” while “[t]he motion for a new trial is an altogether different animal.” Jesco, Inc. v. Whitehead, 451 So.2d 706, 713-14 (Miss. 1984) (Robertson, J., specially concurring). Our cases setting out the standard of review for the legal sufficiency 24 of the evidence are legion. In Gleeton v. State, 716 So.2d 1083, 1087 (Miss. 1998), we stated: [W]e must, with respect to each element of the offense, consider all of the evidence – not just the evidence which supports the case for the prosecution – in the light most favorable to the verdict. The credible evidence which is consistent with the guilt [of the accused] must be accepted as true. The prosecution must be given the benefit of all favorable inferences that may reasonably be drawn from the evidence. Matters regarding the weight and credibility to be accorded the evidence are resolved by the jury. We may reverse only where, with respect to one or more of the elements of the offense charged, the evidence so considered is such that reasonable and fair-minded jurors could only find the accused not guilty. Wetz v. State, 503 So.2d 803, 808 (Miss. 1987) (citations omitted). 716 So.2d at 1087 (quoting from Franklin v. State, 676 So.2d 287, 288 (Miss. 1996)). ¶35. As we have thus far noted on more than one occasion, the case sub judice was a circumstantial evidence case because Jones did not confess to the crime, nor were there eyewitnesses to the crime. Mangum v. State, 762 So.2d 337, 344 (Miss. 2000); Stringfellow v. State, 595 So.2d 1320, 1322 (Miss. 1992). Thus, the trial court quite appropriately gave a circumstantial evidence instruction to the jury. Instruction C-15 stated: The law presumes every person charged with the commission of a crime to be innocent. This presumption places upon the [S]tate the burden of proving the defendant guilty of every material element of the crime with which [he] is charged. Before you can return a verdict of guilty, the State must prove to your satisfaction beyond a reasonable doubt and to the exclusion of every reasonable hypothesis consistent with innocence that the defendant is guilty. The presumption of innocence attends the defendant throughout the trial and prevails at its close unless overcome by evidence which satisfies the jury of [his] guilt beyond a reasonable doubt and to the exclusion of every reasonable hypothesis consistent with innocence. The defendant is not required to prove [his] innocence. 25 The Court instructs the jury that a reasonable doubt of guilt may arise from the evidence, from the lack of evidence, from an insufficiency of evidence, or from a conflict in the evidence; but however, it arises, if it does arise in your mind, then it both justifies and demands, under your oaths, that you return a verdict of not guilty.14 Likewise, in today’s case, the jury was informed via a properly worded jury instruction that in order to find Jones guilty of the murder of Jennifer Stewart, the jury had to find from the evidence in the case “beyond a reasonable doubt and to the exclusion of every other reasonable hypothesis other than that of guilt15 that (1) On or about February 15, 2000, in Tunica County, Mississippi; (2) Jennifer Stewart, now deceased, was at the time a living person; (3) and that Jones did, with deliberate design; (4) kill Jennifer Stewart without authority of law. See Miss. Code Ann. § 97-3-19(1)(a) (Rev. 2000). Again, the jury was further informed through this “elements” instruction, that if the State failed to prove any one or more of the elements beyond a reasonable doubt and to the exclusion of every other reasonable hypothesis other than that of guilt, the jury had to find the defendant not guilty of the crime. ¶36. Keeping all of this in mind, we turn again to the record. Jones clocked out from work at Fitzgerald’s Casino at 10:34 p.m. on February 15, 2000, presumably to drive to his residence at 308 Buck Island Trailer Park, where he and Jennifer Stewart lived. The drive from Fitzgerald’s to his residence was no more than a ten minute drive. At 11:29 p.m., Jones made a 911 call requesting law enforcement to come to his residence. Deputy Woods responded 14 As to the second paragraph of this circumstantial evidence instruction, the defendant got more than that to which he was entitled. 15 This is a different way of saying “every other reasonable hypothesis consistent with innocence.” 26 immediately and upon arrival at 308 Buck Island Trailer Park, Woods found Jones standing outside his trailer covered in blood and crying. Officers Woods, McCulk and Payne went inside the trailer and found the body of a bloody Jennifer Stewart lying partially on the bed and on the floor, face up. There was blood “all over the house.” There was human blood on Jones’s tee shirt. The blood transfer pattern on Jones’s tee shirt was consistent with the blood transfer pattern on the scarf Stewart was wearing at the time her body was discovered. A portion of the front of Jones’s tee shirt contained blood stains consistent with the shirt being in close proximity to a medium velocity or cast off pattern associated with blunt force trauma or a stabbing incident. Stewart’s death was a homicide caused from two lethal stab wounds consistent with a knife or box cutter. Certainly, when we view this evidence in the light most favorable to the State, we can unhesitatingly conclude that any reasonable, rational and fairminded juror could have found from this evidence that the State of Mississippi had proved, beyond a reasonable doubt and to the exclusion of every other reasonable hypothesis consistent with innocence, each and every element of the crime of deliberate design murder. Put differently, we are certainly unable to state that from this evidence, with respect to one or more of the elements of the crime of deliberate design murder, any reasonable and fair-minded juror in the exercise of sound judgment could only find Jones not guilty of the brutal murder of Jennifer Stewart. ¶37. Because of the status of the record and the applicable law, we find that the trial judge in this case committed no error in denying Jones’s motion for a judgment notwithstanding the verdict. 27 ¶38. “That as a matter of law the motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict must be overruled and denied in no way affects and little informs the trial judge regarding his disposition of the motion for a new trial.” Jesco, 451 So.2d at 714 (Robertson, J., specially concurring). As with a j.n.o.v. motion, our law is well-settled concerning our review of the trial court’s denial of a motion for a new trial: A motion for a new trial, however, falls within a lower standard of review than does that for a judgment notwithstanding the verdict. Id. at 127.16 A motion for a new trial simply challenges the weight of the evidence. Id. This Court has explained that it will reverse the trial court’s denial of a motion for a new trial only if, by doing so, the court abused its discretion. Id. (quoting Gleeton v. State, 716 So.2d at 1088). “We will not order a new trial unless convinced that the verdict is so contrary to the overwhelming weight of the evidence that, to allow it to stand, would be to sanction an unconscionable injustice.” Id. (quoting Groseclose v. State, 440 So.2d 297, 300 (Miss. 1983)).This Court has also explained that factual disputes are properly resolved by a jury and do not mandate a new trial. McNeal v. State, 617 So.2d 999, 1009 (Miss. 1993). Holloway v. State, 809 So.2d 598, 605-06 (¶¶ 21-22) (Miss. 2000). Ginn v. State, 860 So.2d 675, 685 (Miss. 2003). See also Bush v. State, 895 So.2d 836, 844 (Miss. 2005), and URCCC 10.05. ¶39. As in any case in which the trial court has appropriately denied a motion for a directed verdict, and allowed the case to be submitted to the jury, today’s case has conflicting testimony. It is not part of our mandated appellate review to decide from conflicting evidence as to what verdict we would have rendered had we been the jury deciding this case. Again, when the jury retired to deliberate, it had before it for consideration the testimony of Dwight Woods, a Tunica County Deputy Sheriff; Eugene Payne, a Tunica County Investigator; Christie 16 Sheffield v. State, 749 So.2d 123 (Miss. 1999). 28 Smith, a serologist with the Mississippi Crime Lab; Dr. Steven Timothy Hayne, a forensic pathologist; Grant Dale Graham, Sr., a bloodstain pattern analyst with the Biloxi Crime Lab; and, Mary Lancaster, Jones’s former co-worker when Jones worked at Harrah’s Casino, who knew both Jones and Stewart. ¶40. On the other hand, the jury also had before it the testimony of Jones’s bloodstain analysis expert, Paul Kish, who disagreed with Graham regarding the bloodstain pattern on Jones’s tee shirt. If the jury accepted Graham’s testimony, then the jury could find that the bloodstain pattern was a result of Jones stabbing Stewart with a sharp object such as a knife or box cutter. However, if the jury accepted Kish’s testimony, then the jury could find that the bloodstain pattern was a result of Jones merely moving Stewart’s bloody body which he had discovered upon his arriving home from work. Defense counsel quite appropriately argued to the jury that based on Dr. Hayne’s testimony regarding the fact that rigor mortis normally occurred within two to four hours after death, and that based on Dr. Hayne admitting that from some of the photographs of Stewart’s body taken at the scene at around 12:10 a.m., rigor mortis was already occurring, then death would have occurred no later than 10:10 p.m., and as early as 8:10 p.m., and that under either scenario, the undisputed evidence showed Jones to still be at work at Fitzgerald’s Casino.17 Defense counsel also argued to the jury that based on the appearance of the six stab wounds on Stewart’s body, and the bloodstain patterns on Jones’s shirt as testified to by Paul Kish, the jury could conclude from its “walking around sense” that 17 Again, Jones clocked out from work at 10:34 p.m. 29 the killing of Stewart did not occur as the State theorized. In other words, there was no way that Jones could have been the killer. ¶41. In this circumstantial evidence case there was unquestionably conflicting evidence and conflicting theories presented to the jury, and thus, the jury, and only the jury, could determine the facts, as it found the facts to be from the evidence before it, and then apply those facts to the law as properly given to it by the trial court via the written instructions. We are thus unable to find that the jury’s guilty verdict was so contrary to the overwhelming weight of the evidence so as to sanction an unconscionable injustice by allowing the verdict to stand. ¶42. From the record before us, the verdict of the jury is beyond our authority to disturb; therefore, in applying the appropriate law as enunciated concerning the motion for a new trial, we find the trial court committed no error in denying Jones’s motion for a new trial. Thus we find that Jones’s assignments of error as to the trial judge’s denial of both his motion for a judgment notwithstanding the verdict, and his motion for a new trial, are without merit.