Opinion ID: 1655531
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Murder Charge

Text: ¶ 22. Holmes also argues that the evidence is insufficient to support the jury's verdict that he is guilty of murdering Simmons. Holmes was indicted and convicted of murder under Miss.Code Ann. § 97-3-19 (2000), which, in part, provides: (1) The killing of a human being without the authority of law by any means or in any manner shall be murder in the following cases: (a) When done with deliberate design to effect the death of the person killed, or of any human being; (b) When done in the commission of an act eminently dangerous to others and evincing a depraved heart, regardless of human life, although without any premeditated design to effect the death of any particular individual. ¶ 23. As previously stated, we must give the prosecution the benefit of all favorable inferences which may be drawn from the evidence. McClain, 625 So.2d at 778. ¶ 24. Holmes asserts that the jury based its verdict not on the testimony from witnesses who said that Gowdy committed the shooting and not Holmes, but on the multiple inconsistent statements of Holmes and his co-defendant, Kenneth Brown. ¶ 25. In response, the State again argues that the inconsistencies in Holmes's and Brown's statements, which were taken soon after the shooting, and their testimony at trial (three and a half years after the shooting), were to be determined by the jury and not the judge. ¶ 26. Continuing the State's aforementioned list of evidence, reasonable jurors could have found that (7) Holmes and Brown were seen by the Gordon sisters holding their guns in the air; (8) Holmes ran down an alley with the intent to head off Simmons as he was trying to get away; (9) Holmes was seen, by Christopher Simmons, running down Ridgeway Street with a gun in his hand; and (10) Holmes left Simmons in the alley, dying, then hid his gun. ¶ 27. The State is correct in its assertion that Holmes's and Brown's admissions and confessions to law enforcement, Holmes's and Brown's contradictory testimony at trial, and the testimony from other witnesses, were sufficient to support Holmes's convictions of conspiracy to commit murder and murder less than capital.