Williams v. State

• Decision Date: 28 June 2001
• Docket Number: No. 1999-KA-01666-SCT.,1999-KA-01666-SCT.
• Citation: 794 So.2d 181
• Parties: Willie Lee WILLIAMS a/k/a "Black Bill" v. STATE of Mississippi.
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court

794 So.2d 181

Willie Lee WILLIAMS a/k/a "Black Bill" v. STATE of Mississippi.

No. 1999-KA-01666-SCT.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

June 28, 2001.

Rehearing Denied September 13, 2001.

Haldon J. Kittrell, Columbia, Vicki Lachney Gilliam, Jackson, for Appellant.

Office of the Attorney General by John R. Henry, Jr. for Appellee.

EN BANC.

BANKS, Presiding Justice, for the Court:

¶ 1. This case is before this Court on appeal from a judgment based on a jury verdict convicting Willie Lee Williams a/k/a Black Bill for possession of cocaine with the intent to distribute, as a habitual offender. Because we conclude that the trial judge improperly applied the sentence enhancement for a sale of a controlled substance within 1,500 feet of a school, we reverse and remand for resentencing without the enhancement. In all other respects, we affirm the judgment of the trial court.

I.

¶ 2. The Grand Jury for Marion County, Mississippi, indicted Willie Lee Williams, a/k/a "Black Bill", ("Williams"), for the felony offense of sale or transfer of a controlled substance within 1500 feet of a school, pursuant to Miss.Code Ann. §§ 41-29-139, 41-29-142, & 41-29-147. This indictment was amended on August 27, 1999, to charge Williams as a habitual offender pursuant to Miss.Code Ann. § 99-19-81 (Supp.1996).

¶ 3. Commander Mike Cooper ("Cooper") and undercover agent Donna Davis ("Agent Davis"), along with the members of the Pearl River Basin Narcotics Task Force, participated in a planned drug purchase. Commander Cooper issued $20 to Agent Davis and placed a transmitter on her body. The Task Force equipped her vehicle with a video recorder camera, an eight-millimeter recorder, and an audio transmitter for the purpose of monitoring the transaction.

¶ 4. After being flagged down by Williams, Agent Davis and Williams negotiated for the sale of crack cocaine. Williams agreed to sell a rock of cocaine, along with small "crumbs" of another rock, to Agent Davis for $20. Agent Davis then returned to a predetermined location where the rest of the Task Force members were waiting. After placing the crack in a bag, Agent Davis sealed and initialed the bag. Davis then turned over the audio and video recording and proceeded to describe the sale, and Williams, to the other agents. The Task Force arrested Williams on a later date, but never recovered the money exchanged during the transaction.

¶ 5. At trial, Commander Cooper testified that he placed the sealed bag of cocaine in the evidence locker. Later, he retrieved the alleged cocaine and gave it to another agent with the Task Force to deliver to the crime lab for testing. At the crime lab Tim Gross, a forensic scientist and expert in the field of drug identification, obtained the alleged cocaine from Sharon Denoux, a forensic lab technician. After testing the rock in the bag and concluding that it was cocaine, he returned the package to the technician to place in the evidence vault. Cooper retrieved the cocaine from the crime lab and placed it back in the Task Force's evidence locker until the morning of the trial.

¶ 6. At the close of the proceedings, Williams moved for a directed verdict which was overruled. After deliberating, the jury returned with a verdict of guilty. The trial court sentenced Williams as a habitual offender, to serve a term of 120 years, without parole or possibility of early release, in custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections. Following the denial of his motion for a new trial and/or JNOV, Williams filed a timely notice of appeal to this Court.

II.

¶ 7. The standard of review for a denial of directed verdict and JNOV is identical. Coleman v. State, 697 So.2d 777, 787 (Miss.1997). When reviewing the sufficiency of the evidence, this Court looks to all of the evidence before the jurors to determine whether a reasonable, hypothetical juror could find, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the defendant is guilty. Jackson v. State, 614 So.2d, 965, 972 (Miss. 1993). This Court will not reverse a trial judge's denial of a motion for a new trial unless the verdict is so contrary to the weight of the evidence that, if it is allowed to stand, it would sanction an unconscionable injustice. Groseclose v. State, 440 So.2d 297, 300 (Miss.1983).

a.

¶ 8. At trial, Williams argued that the peremptory challenges exercised by the prosecutor against two African-Americans raised an inference or pattern of discrimination against minority venirepersons. The trial court denied this motion stating that Williams failed to identify a Batson prima facie case; thus, the State was not required to provide race-neutral reasons for its peremptory challenges. See Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 96, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 90 L.Ed.2d 69 (1986)

.

¶ 9. This Court has noted that the pivotal question in Batson becomes whether the opponent of the strike has met the burden of showing that the opposite party has engaged in a pattern of strikes based on race or gender. Randall v. State, 716 So.2d 584, 586 (Miss.1998). Here, the challenges exercised by the prosecutor do not suggest a pattern or raise an inference of discrimination. Only two out of the State's six peremptory challenges were against African Americans, while the other four challenges were against Caucasians. The State accepted two other African-American venirepersons. The trial court was not in error in holding that Williams did not establish a prima facie case under Batson.

b.

¶ 10. Williams contends that the trial court erroneously allowed the introduction of the cocaine without establishing the proper chain of custody because Sharon Denoux, a lab technician, did not testify. Williams acknowledges that the test of whether there has been a proper showing of the chain of possession of evidence is whether there is any reasonable inference of likely tampering with or substitution of evidence. White v. State, 722 So.2d 1242, 1244 (Miss.1998); Gibson v. State, 503 So.2d 230, 234 (Miss.1987). Further, the burden to produce evidence of a broken chain of custody is on the defendant. Hemphill v. State, 566 So.2d 207, 208 (Miss.1990).

¶ 11. Williams argues that he raised the inference of possible tampering with evidence on the cross-examination of witnesses, where he questioned the differences in the amount of cocaine in question. Specifically, Williams points to the testimony of Agent Davis in which she stated that Williams gave her a "rock and a half" and to her identification, at trial, of Exhibit 1 as a single rock of cocaine that she purchased from him.

¶ 12. The significance of issues regarding the chain of custody are largely left to the discretion of the trial judge. Sturdivant v. State, 745 So.2d 240, 243 (Miss.1999). We have held that unless this discretion has been abused, this Court will not reverse. Doby v. State, 532 So.2d 584, 588 (Miss.1988).

¶ 13. In the instant case, Williams's focus on the alleged discrepancy in the testimony of Agent Davis does not raise a reasonable inference of tampering or substitution of evidence. The cocaine tested in the crime lab was established to be the cocaine placed in the evidence bag and locker by Agent Davis and subsequently transported to the crime lab. Agent Davis's testimony consistently supports her first statement that Williams gave her a "rock and some crumbs." That the crumbs may be unaccounted for does not raise a reasonable inference of tampering or substitution of evidence. Moreover, Williams fails to produce evidence of a broken chain of custody.

¶ 14. Agent Davis and Cooper testified that they placed the cocaine in the evidence bag, then sealed and initialed the bag. Cooper further testified that he placed the sealed bag in a evidence locker until he had an Agent Miller deliver the bag to the crime lab. Tim Gross retrieved the sealed bag containing the cocaine from a Sharon Denoux and completed an analysis of the substance, sealed the bag, and returned it to Denoux. After picking up the bag from the lab, Cooper placed the evidence back in the evidence locker. Subsequently, Cooper retrieved the bag in order to bring it to court.

¶ 15. Williams alleges the missing testimony of Denoux is a "crucial link" in the chain of custody for the State. The consistent testimony of the Agents and Gross, however, was that the cocaine was placed and retrieved from a sealed evidence bag. There is no testimony that raises a reasonable inference that any of the five individuals handling the bag tampered with the cocaine. The trial court did not abuse its discretion by allowing evidence of the crack cocaine without Denoux's testimony.

c.

1.

¶ 16. Williams argues that this Court, according to its prior rulings, must look at the totality of the circumstances to decide whether the evidence on the record is sufficient to sustain a finding adverse to the defendant on each element. Wetz v. State, 503 So.2d 803, 808 (Miss.1987). At trial, the jury instructions charged the jury with deciding whether Williams was guilty of willfully, unlawfully, feloniously and knowingly, selling or transferring cocaine within 1,500 feet of school. Williams asserts that the State failed to prove the necessary elements of a sale or transfer of cocaine within 1,500 feet of a school. Moreover, Williams maintains that since the enhancement for selling within 1,500 feet of a school was made a part of the elements of his crime, the entire conviction should be reversed for failure to prove the element of "1,500 hundred feet within a school."¹

¶ 17. The State contends that Williams was charged with the crime of selling and transferring cocaine in the indictment, not with the crime of selling cocaine within 1,500 feet of a school. The State charges that the indictment notified Williams that it was seeking an enhanced sentence because the crime—selling and transferring cocaine—occurred within 1,500 feet of a school. Further, § 41-29-142, the statute in question, the State observes, is only applicable when an individual sells...