Bush v. State
| Decision Date | 10 February 2005 |
| Docket Number | No. 2003-KA-01528-SCT.,2003-KA-01528-SCT. |
| Citation | 895 So.2d 836 |
| Parties | Kanynne Jamol BUSH a/k/a Jamol Kanynne Bush v. STATE of Mississippi. |
| Court | Mississippi Supreme Court |
James (Jay) R. Foster, attorney for appellant.
Office of the Attorney General, by W. Daniel Hinchcliff, attorney for appellee.
Before WALLER, P.J., GRAVES and DICKINSON, JJ.
¶ 1. A Harrison County Circuit Court jury unanimously convicted Kanynne Jamol Bush of capital murder with the underlying felony being armed robbery. The trial court subsequently sentenced Bush to life in prison without probation or parole. Bush now appeals the conviction which we affirm.
¶ 2. On the night of December 9, 1999, Russell Stone went to the EZ Serve in Gulfport, Mississippi to see his girlfriend, Brenda Kliensmith, a cashier. That night, Kliensmith received a phone call from a female who identified herself as Monica. Kliensmith recognized the voice of Monica, an employee at EZ Serve, and upon request, told her what time she was getting off and that she was working by herself that night.
¶ 3. Around 9 p.m., a male and female, masked and wearing black, burst into the store. The male jumped the counter and put his gun to Kliensmith's head. He then pointed the gun at Stone, approached him, and ordered him and Kleinsmith to get on the floor. When Kliensmith and Stone did not immediately lie down, the assailant asked Stone, "Do you think I'm playing, b* * * *?" and then shot him. Stone fell to the floor, moaning loudly for several minutes.
¶ 4. Kliensmith got on the floor, told the gunman she was pregnant, and begged that he not kill her. The assailant left, and Kliensmith called 911, frantically trying to explain what had happened. The police and ambulance arrived and took Stone to the hospital. He subsequently died as a result of his injury. In March of 2000, the Grand Jury in Harrison County indicted Jamol Bush, Monica Towner, Narquita Watson, and Erica Riley for the murder of Stone and armed robbery of the EZ Serve. However, before Bush could be arrested, he left Gulfport and went into hiding.
¶ 5. In October of 2000, police in Avon Park, Florida were investigating an in-state robbery and received a tip from Bush's girlfriend that "Reshard Bush," her boyfriend, had been involved in the robbery. After investigating Bush's identity at his place of work and running a search in the National Crime Information Center's database, Officers John Robinson and Michael Rowan discovered that the name "Reshard" was an alias. The computer search revealed that police in Mississippi had issued an arrest warrant for Jamol Bush in connection with Stone's murder. The officers called the Gulfport police and got a description of the circumstances surrounding the warrant. The officers then located Bush, followed the car in which he was riding, and took him into custody.
¶ 6. The officers met with Bush at the criminal investigations unit and developed a rapport with him over the course of an hour. Robinson testified that Bush eventually discussed the Florida robbery and also gave an unrecorded description of murdering Stone in Gulfport. Robinson said Bush told him about a variety of details surrounding the murder, including: (1) There was a cooperative, pregnant, female clerk in the store that night and an uncooperative white male; (2) Bush panicked and shot the male when he failed to obey Bush's orders; (3) Three black females, one of whom used to work at EZ serve, were cohorts in committing the crime; and (4) They intended to rob the store's safe of $40,000.00.
¶ 7. Robinson further testified, and the transcript of the conversation confirms, that when he and Rowan tried to record Bush's confession to the Mississippi crime, Bush became apprehensive and refused to cooperate. The closest Bush came to discussing the event was in this brief exchange between the officers and him:
In the hearing on his Motion to Suppress the inculpating statements, Bush said he never said anything to the officers about a Gulfport incident.
¶ 8. At trial, Kliensmith testified that although she did not recognize the assailant when she first saw him in the store, she had noticed a "slit" above his left eye. She also testified that she told the police that he might have had a gold tooth and she thought he was either five foot, ten inches or six feet tall.1 Although Bush is six feet tall, he does not have a scratch or scar above his left eye, nor does he have a gold tooth. At trial, however, Kliensmith identified Bush as the man who killed Stone, testifying that she recognized him, because she had looked at him "right in his eyes" that night.
¶ 9. Erica Riley, an admitted participant in the robbery, testified against Bush at his trial. Riley stated that she, Towner, and Watson had discussed the possibility of "hit[ting] the lick" (i.e. "robbing somebody"). After going down the street to ask Bush if he was interested, he told her "it was all good" and agreed to participate. She testified that Bush and Towner were the ones who went into the store while she and Watson, who was driving the car, waited outside. After they heard the gunshot, Watson drove off and then returned to the EZ Serve where Bush and Towner got in. At that point, Riley testified that Bush demanded Watson drive away from the convenience store, insisting that someone inside had been shot in the leg. She also testified that about three days later she heard him discussing the need to get rid of both the clothes he wore in the robbery and his gun. Although she did not see him dispose of the gun, she said she saw him take the clothes and put them in the garbage.
¶ 10. On October 17, 2002, a Harrison County Circuit Court jury convicted Bush of capital murder with the underlying felony being armed robbery, but was unable to agree on a sentence. Therefore, the trial court sentenced Bush to life in prison without probation or parole. Bush requests that we reverse and remand the case for a new trial.
¶ 11. Bush raises five grounds of reversible error: improper denial of Bush's Motion to Suppress the inculpatory statements Bush made to the Florida officers; failure by the State to present sufficient evidence to support a jury finding that Bush committed armed robbery; violation of Bush's constitutional right to confrontation; improper admission of evidence of Bush's prior convictions; and improper comments about Bush by the prosecution.
(emphasis added). When asked at the hearing on the Motion to Suppress whether he had made any of the alleged statements to the officers about the Gulfport murder, Bush unequivocally told the court that he had said nothing at all to the police about the incident.
¶ 13. We first note that an appellant is not entitled to raise new issues on appeal that he has not first presented to the trial court for determination. Dunn v. State, 693 So.2d 1333, 1339 (Miss.1997). Bush argued before the trial court that any statements made to the officers during their interview with him were inadmissible because of the failure to comply with Miranda and because a warrant for Bush's arrest had not been issued. Bush's attorney explicitly stated that Bush had not confessed to the murder, and Bush told the court he had not even spoken to the officers about the murder. Now he argues that although he spoke to the officers, the resultant confession was illegally obtained.
¶ 14. In using his now-acknowledged confession to the murder as a basis for his legal argument, Bush essentially admits that he lied to the trial court when he said he...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Haynes v. State, No. 2005-KA-00722-SCT.
...prosecution, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt." Bush v. State, 895 So.2d 836, 843 (Miss.2005) (citing Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 315, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979)). Excluding Haynes' confession, and con......
-
Bennett v. State, No. 2003-DP-00765-SCT.
...denial of his motion for directed verdict is an attack on the sufficiency of the evidence. ¶ 72. In the recent case of Bush v. State, 895 So.2d 836, 843-45 (Miss.2005), Presiding Justice Waller, speaking for a unanimous Court, clarified the distinction between the weight and the sufficiency......
-
Irby v. Travis, No. 2004-CA-00414-SCT.
...of the evidence are not synonymous bears repeating both here and in the final issue below. Our recent opinion in Bush v. State, 895 So.2d 836, 843 (Miss.2005), discussed sufficiency versus weight of the evidence. When determining whether the evidence was sufficient, the critical inquiry is ......
-
Hyundai Motor Am. v. Applewhite
...(internal quotation mark omitted) (quoting Wetz v. State , 503 So. 2d 803, 812 (Miss. 1987), overruled on other grounds by Bush v. State , 895 So. 2d 836 (Miss. 2005) ). ¶53. Our legal system is the envy of the world. We recognize that it is not without blemish or imperfection. While such b......