Brown v. State

• Decision Date: 20 November 2008
• Docket Number: No. 2007-KA-00420-SCT.,2007-KA-00420-SCT.
• Citation: 995 So.2d 698
• Parties: Jureka BROWN v. STATE of Mississippi.
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court

995 So.2d 698

Jureka BROWN v. STATE of Mississippi.

No. 2007-KA-00420-SCT.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

November 20, 2008.

Leslie S. Lee, Jackson, attorney for appellant.

Office of the Attorney General by: Deirdre McCrory, attorney for appellee.

EN BANC.

DIAZ, Presiding Justice, for the Court.

¶ 1. This is a case involving a conviction for the sale of a controlled substance and an ensuing sentence enhancement determined not by a jury but by a trial judge.

¶ 2. On February 8, 2002, in conjunction with the Pearl River Basin Narcotics Task Force (hereinafter "the Task Force"), a police informant made a controlled purchase of crack cocaine from Chastity Cranford. The informant testified at trial that, while at Cranford's apartment, he was taken by Cranford to see Jureka Brown, who was in the bedroom of their apartment. According to the informant, Cranford asked Brown if she could sell crack cocaine to the informant, to which Brown nodded affirmatively. Cranford told Brown that she would have to retrieve the drugs from his car, and Brown handed her the keys. After retrieving a quantity of crack cocaine, Cranford returned to the apartment, broke off a piece, and showed it to Brown. According to the informant, Brown again nodded his head affirmatively. The informant gave $20 to Cranford, who gave the money to Brown.

¶ 3. The substance purchased by the informant was later determined to be 0.1 gram of cocaine.

¶ 4. The Task Force recorded the transaction by way of audio surveillance on the informant's person. The conversation with Cranford appears on the recording; Brown's voice does not.

¶ 5. The jury returned a guilty verdict on the charge of sale of a controlled substance on February 23, 2003. Immediately thereafter, the court moved into a bifurcated hearing outside the presence of the jury to determine whether the crime occurred within 1,500 feet of a church. The sole witness at this hearing was Commander Bobby Patterson of the Task Force, who testified that he had measured a distance of approximately 720 feet between Brown's apartment and the Seventh Day Adventist Church. On cross-examination, Patterson admitted that he was not certain that the church was active—"It looks to be open to me," Patterson said—but told the court on redirect examination that the grounds appeared to have been maintained.

¶ 6. The trial judge determined that the sale of a controlled substance had taken place within 1,500 feet of a church and enhanced Brown's sentence from thirty years to sixty years.

¶ 7. The Court considers three assignments of error in this case. First, Brown argues that the evidence was insufficient as a matter of law to support a guilty verdict. Second, Brown argues that the jury's verdict was against the overwhelming weight of the evidence. Third, Brown argues that his Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial was violated by the trial court's failure to require a jury determination on the sentencing enhancement.

I.

¶ 8. "[J]ury verdicts will not be disturbed except under the most dire of circumstances." Stewart v. State, 986 So.2d 304, 308 (Miss.2008) (quoting Anderson v. State, 904 So.2d 973, 977 (Miss.2004)). When reviewing a case for sufficiency of the evidence, "[t]he relevant question is whether, after viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt." Jones v. State, 904 So.2d 149, 153-54 (Miss.2005) (citing Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 315, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979)). The State must have shown "beyond a reasonable doubt that accused committed the act charged, and that he did so under such circumstances that every element of the offense existed; and where the evidence fails to meet this test it is insufficient to support a conviction." Jones, 904 So.2d at 153 (quoting Carr v. State, 208 So.2d 886, 889 (Miss.1968)). If, keeping in mind the reasonable-doubt standard, "`reasonable fair-minded men in the exercise of impartial judgment might reach different conclusions on every element of the offense,' the evidence will be deemed to have been sufficient." Bush v. State, 895 So.2d 836, 843 (Miss.2005) (quoting Edwards v. State, 469 So.2d 68, 70 (Miss. 1985)).

¶ 9. "When reviewing the sufficiency of the evidence, this Court looks at the lower court's ruling `on the last occasion when the sufficiency of the evidence was challenged.'" Ballenger v. State, 667 So.2d 1242, 1252 (Miss.1995) (quoting Green v. State, 631 So.2d 167, 174 (Miss.1994)). Brown's most recent challenge came at his motion for a new trial; therefore, the entirety of the evidence presented against him at trial is considered "in the light most favorable to the prosecution...." Jones, 904 So.2d at 153.

¶ 10. A guilty verdict under Section 41-29-139 of the Mississippi Code requires the sale of a controlled substance and the intent to have done so. In the immediate case, the State presented evidence (in the form of the informant's testimony) that Brown not only acknowledged but acquiesced to the sale of crack cocaine. Miss.Code Ann. § 41-29-139 (Rev.2005). The informant's testimony was contradicted by the only witness submitted by the defense, Chastity Cranford. But where there is conflicting testimony, "[i]t is not for this Court to pass upon the credibility of witnesses and where evidence justifies the verdict it must be accepted as having been found worthy of belief." Williams v. State, 427 So.2d 100, 104 (Miss.1983) (superseded by statute on other grounds, see Hosford v. State, 560 So.2d 163, 167 (Miss. 1990)). Because such a determination rests within the unique province of the jury, the jury did not act unreasonably by deciding that Cranford's testimony was less credible than the informant's.

¶ 11. A rational jury could have found Brown guilty beyond a reasonable doubt based on the evidence presented, considered in the light most favorable to the prosecution. The guilty verdict was not based on insufficient evidence.

¶ 12. This point of error is without merit.

II.

¶ 13. "In determining whether a jury verdict is against the overwhelming weight of the evidence, this Court must accept as true the evidence which supports the verdict and will reverse only when convinced that the circuit court has abused its discretion in failing to grant a new trial." Herring v. State, 691 So.2d 948, 957 (Miss.1997) (citing Thornhill v. State, 561 So.2d 1025, 1030 (Miss.1989)). During such an inquiry, we afford the State "the benefit of all favorable inferences that may reasonably be drawn from the evidence." Griffin v. State, 607 So.2d 1197, 1201 (Miss.1992). Reversal on these grounds is appropriate only when "the verdict is so contrary to the overwhelming weight of the evidence that to allow it to stand would sanction an unconscionable injustice." Johnson v. State, 642 So.2d 924, 928 (Miss. 1994) (citing, inter alia, McNeal v. State, 617 So.2d 999, 1009 (Miss.1993)). Conflicting testimony does not evince overwhelming evidence; "[w]here the verdict turns on the credibility of conflicting testimony and the credibility of the witnesses, it is the jury's duty to resolve the conflict." Nicholson v. State, 523 So.2d 68, 71 (Miss. 1988) (citations omitted).

¶ 14. As explained under the previous point of error, the jury received conflicting testimony regarding Brown's role in the sale of crack cocaine to the informant. The trial court properly left resolution of that conflict with the jury and did not abuse its discretion in refusing Brown's motion for a new trial.

¶ 15. This point of error is without merit.

III.

¶ 16. Turning from his conviction to his sentence, Brown argues that the trial court's failure to allow a jury to consider his sentence enhancement violated his right to a jury trial under the Sixth Amendment.

¶ 17. Brown faces a procedural bar on this point, but because its discussion rests on important points from the substance of his argument, the substantive issue is addressed first.

A.

¶ 18. "Other than the fact of a prior conviction, any fact that increases the penalty for a crime beyond the prescribed statutory maximum must be submitted to a jury, and proved beyond a reasonable doubt." Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466, 490, 120 S.Ct. 2348, 147 L.Ed.2d 435 (2000). The statute under which Brown was sentenced permits trial courts to levy sentences of up to two times the normally prescribed penalty. Miss. Code Ann. § 41-29-142 (Rev.2005). Although this Court has held repeatedly that Apprendi does not require prosecutors to provide notice to capital defendants of the specific aggravating circumstances to be argued at trial, see, e.g., Thong Le v. State, 967 So.2d 627, 633 (Miss.2007), this Court has not repudiated the general rule of Apprendi. The existence of a church within 1,500 feet of Brown's crime, therefore, is a fact that he was entitled to have determined by a jury. The State concedes as much in its reply brief.

¶ 19. In deciding whether Brown was entitled to a jury hearing on the sentencing enhancement, the trial court relied solely on this Court's decision in Williams v. State, 794 So.2d 181 (Miss.2001). In Williams, this Court addressed the appeal of a defendant convicted of sale of a controlled substance whose sentence had been enhanced by the trial judge because the crime took place within the statutorily prescribed distance of school property. The trial judge in the immediate case appears to have relied on language in Williams that correctly notes that the 1,500-feet fact is not an element of the crime of sale of a controlled substance. See Williams, 794 So.2d at 186.

¶ 20. But to the extent that Williams claims no jury hearing is necessary on the issue of sentencing enhancement pursuant to Section 41-29-142 of the Mississippi Code, it lies in patent conflict with the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Apprendi. We hold today that, "[o]ther than the fact of a prior conviction,...