Opinion ID: 1726623
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: law weight of the evidence

Text: Watson first argues the sufficiency of the evidence to convict. The jury had the testimony of Brewer and Watson. Brewer's testimony was positive and unequivocal. Further, there in the trailer when the officer asked him who shot him, Brewer replied, Troy. In this record the only remarkable fact as to Brewer was that he was not killed, being shot in the face at such close range by a shotgun. The record does not reveal how seriously he was wounded, however, or how many pellets struck him. Watson's statement to the officer is incredible. To claim a person walked into the trailer, shot Brewer with Watson's shotgun and then left, and yet be unable to give any clue as to his identity is manifestly strange. We must conclude this was a classic jury issue on the weight of the evidence, which we have no right to disturb. In Whittington v. State, 377 So.2d 927, p. 929 (Miss. 1979), we stated: We have often stated that conflicts in the evidence, its strengths or weaknesses, are for the jury's consideration. It is the sole judge of the weight and worth of testimony and has a duty to determine the evidence it will accept as true or that which it should reject as untrue. The first officer who arrived was Jennings. He saw Brewer on the floor, appearing to be in a lot of pain. Jennings testified: I asked him what had happened, and he said they didn't know, that somebody shot the man; so I called for Mobile Medic and an investigator. [Emphasis added] [Vol. I, pp. 42-43] We cannot agree with Watson's contention on appeal that the above testimony by Jennings discredited Brewer's testimony as to the identity of his assailant, and required the jury to accept Watson's version. In the first place the answer is ambiguous, susceptible to more than one interpretation. In the second place, even if it were unequivocal, a jury issue was still clearly presented upon the conflicting evidence. The mere fact there is an even balance of one prosecuting witness for the state and one defense witness for the defense, the defendant, does not prevent the jury from weighing the credibility of each, and deciding the issue. Leflore v. State, 439 So.2d 675 (Miss. 1983); Gray v. State, 389 So.2d 1384 (Miss. 1980); Hester v. State, 240 Miss. 369, 127 So.2d 430 (1961); and Jones v. State, 223 Miss. 809, 79 So.2d 262 (1955).