Opinion ID: 1772790
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 23

Heading: did the lower court err in submitting the crime of murder to the jury?

Text: This Court has held that when passing upon a motion for directed verdict in a criminal action all evidence introduced by the state is accepted as true, together with all reasonable inferences that may be drawn from that evidence, and if there is sufficient evidence to support the verdict, the motion for a directed verdict must be overruled. Shelton v. State, 445 So.2d 844, 848 (Miss. 1984), (citation omitted). The evidence established that on January 22, 1982, at approximately 3:00 in the afternoon, Johnson entered her apartment carrying Ceddrick, who was then alive. She had been drinking. No one else entered the apartment but Johnson's three other young children. At approximately midnight, officers were summoned to the apartment where they found Ceddrick's body on his bed, badly bruised and cut. The cause of death was extensive blows to the head. The medical experts' testimony discounted Johnson's testimony that the cause of death was an accidental fall of a few feet. There was sufficient evidence to support the verdict. Since the evidence justified the verdict, submission to the jury of the issue of murder was not error. For the reasons set forth above, the conviction and sentence of Christine Johnson is affirmed. AFFIRMED. PATTERSON, C.J., WALKER and ROY NOBLE LEE, P.JJ., and HAWKINS, PRATHER, ROBERTSON and ANDERSON, JJ., concur. DAN M. LEE, J., dissents.