Adams v. State, No. 2001-KA-00353-COA.

• Decision Date: 03 December 2002
• Docket Number: No. 2001-KA-00353-COA.
• Citation: 851 So.2d 366
• Parties: Mary Ann ADAMS and John W. Barrett, Appellants, v. STATE of Mississippi, Appellee.
• Court: Mississippi Court of Appeals

851 So.2d 366

Mary Ann ADAMS and John W. Barrett, Appellants, v. STATE of Mississippi, Appellee.

No. 2001-KA-00353-COA.

Court of Appeals of Mississippi.

December 3, 2002.

Rehearing Denied March 4, 2003.

Certiorari Denied July 17, 2003.

James A. Williams, Charles W. Wright, Jr., Meridian, attorneys for appellants.

Office of the Attorney General by W. Glenn Watts, attorney for appellee.

Before KING, P.J., IRVING and BRANTLEY, JJ.

KING, P.J., for the court.

¶ 1. Mary Ann Adams and her brother, John Barrett, were tried together and convicted of murder by a Lauderdale County Circuit Court jury. They were each sentenced to life in prison. Following the denial of their post trial motions each has perfected an appeal in which they have asserted various allegations of error. Finding no reversible error, this Court affirms their convictions and sentences.

FACTS

¶ 2. The body of Mary Ann Woolf, was found lying face down in a creek bed in Lauderdale County. Her automobile was perched on an embankment about fifteen feet above the location of her body. Law enforcement authorities immediately suspected that the scene had been staged to look like an accident. Woolf's automobile was dusted and processed for fingerprints and an autopsy was performed on her body. The state medical examiner who performed the autopsy testified that the cause of Woolf's death was fresh water drowning. He testified that, in his professional opinion, the manner of death indicated a homicide. He testified that certain marks and bruising on the body were evidence that Woolf had been forcibly held under water when she drowned. Also, there was expert testimony that there was very little damage to Woolf's car and the minor impact of the car going down the embankment was not enough to have caused Woolf to be ejected from the automobile.

¶ 3. Adams was the last person known to have seen the victim alive and came under early suspicion. Fingerprints found on the victim's car were later matched to Adams's brother and co-defendant, John Barrett. Other facts pertinent to the resolution of the issues will be presented in the discussion of those issues.

DISCUSSION OF THE ISSUES

¶ 4. Adams makes the following allegations of error:

I. The trial court erred in overruling her motions for directed verdict, JNOV, judgment of acquittal and alternative motion for new trial.

II. The trial court abused its discretion by overruling her on the following:

(a) Motion in limine concerning evidence of the Sherron Walters incident;

(b) Admission of her statement into evidence;

(c) motion for severance (d) Request to admit Sherron Walters' polygraph results into evidence; and

(e) Her cross-examination of witnesses Todd, Robinson, Franklin, Peter and Paul Clark.

I. Motions for directed verdict, JNOV, judgment of acquittal and alternative motion for new trial.

¶ 5. Adams alleges that the State's case against her is insufficient in fact and law to support a murder conviction, therefore it was reversible error for the trial court to deny her motion for a directed verdict, and judgment notwithstanding the verdict.

¶ 6. The standard of review for denial of a judgment notwithstanding the verdict and a directed verdict are identical. Sperry-New Holland v. Prestage, 617 So.2d 248, 252 (Miss.1993). Under that standard, this Court considers all of the evidence in the light most favorable to the State and gives the State the benefit of all favorable inferences that may reasonably be drawn from the evidence. If the facts so considered point so overwhelmingly in favor of the appellant that reasonable men could not have arrived at a guilty verdict, this Court is required to reverse and render. On the other hand, if there is substantial evidence in support of the verdict of such quality and weight that reasonable and fair minded jurors in the exercise of impartial judgment might have reached different conclusions, this Court is required to affirm. American Fire Protection, Inc. v. Lewis, 653 So.2d 1387, 1391 (Miss.1995).

¶ 7. Even though Adams makes the allegation that it was error for the trial court to deny her motions for directed verdict and JNOV, she offers no legal support or reasoned argument for her allegation. As this Court has stated on previous occasions, failure to support an allegation of error with any reasoning or application of the law to the facts bars this Court from considering this issue on the merits. Thornton v. State, 724 So.2d 1003, 1006 (¶ 17) (Miss.Ct.App.1998).

¶ 8. Procedural bar notwithstanding, when we consider all of the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict and give the State the benefit of all reasonable inferences that can be drawn from the evidence we do not find that the evidence points so overwhelmingly in favor of Adams that reasonable jurors could not have arrived at a guilty verdict.

¶ 9. Adams alleges further that the verdict was against the overwhelming weight of the evidence, and therefore the trial court erred in denying her motion for a new trial. Adams's sole argument in support of this contention consists of the following list of things that she says the State failed to prove:

1. No eyewitness placing Mary Ann Adams at the scene.

2. No eyewitness identified Mary Ann Adams with Mary Ann Woolf that night.

3. No physical evidence at the scene found at Mary Ann Adams's house or car.

4. No search of her house or car for mud, soil, drugs, muddy clothes, etc., no match for hair or fiber to victim's car or scene.

5. No fingerprints of Mary Ann Adams on car.

6. No testimony of conspiracy.

7. No evidence of motive.

8. No evidence of hate or ill will.

¶ 10. Conspicuously absent from Adams's brief, however, is any reference to facts or evidence tending to provide proof of her innocence. The Mississippi Supreme Court wrote in Clark v. State, 503 So.2d 277, 280 (Miss.1987), that there is a presumption that the judgment of the trial court is correct, and the burden is on the appellant to demonstrate some reversible error. Additionally, the appellant has the duty to make more than mere assertions and should set forth reasons for her arguments and cite authorities in their support. Id.

¶ 11. 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. A new trial is the proper remedy in those instances where the verdict is so contrary to the overwhelming weight of the evidence that to allow it to stand would sanction an unconscionable injustice. Baker v. State, 802 So.2d 77, 81 (¶ 14) (Miss.2001). When this Court accepts as true the evidence which supports the verdict in the case at bar we are in no wise left with the conviction that to allow it to stand would sanction an unconscionable injustice.

II(a). Adams's motion in limine concerning evidence of the Sherron Walters incident

¶ 12. Appellant Mary Ann Adams had befriended the murder victim, Mary Ann Woolf, over a period of time. Both women were nurses and worked together at the University of Mississippi Medical Center at Jackson. They became very close, car-pooled to work, and spent a good deal of time together both on and off the job. When Woolf began having difficulty with her teenaged daughter, Andrea, Adams generously offered to have Andrea come and live with her while the mother and daughter tried to work things out. It was during this time that Woolf, at the suggestion of Adams, contacted an insurance agent and purchased a life insurance policy. In what the insurance agent testified was a very unusual and rare occurrence, Woolf had Adams named as the beneficiary of the policy rather than her two adult sons or her daughter, Andrea. The face amount of the policy was $200,000 and contained a double indemnity rider that paid double that amount in the event of an accidental death. Six months after the policy went into effect Woolf's body was discovered in a creek bed. The last person known to have seen her alive was Adams.

¶ 13. A few years earlier, Adams had befriended another woman, Sherron Walters, in pretty much the same fashion. Walters was single with two children and was down on her luck and having quite a hard time of it when Adams invited Walters to live in her home. Walters accepted the invitation and lived with Adams for about two and a half months. In a matter unrelated to the case at bar, Walters later testified in federal court that Adams arranged for an insurance agent to come and see her about obtaining what Walters thought was health insurance. Walters admitted talking to the agent and signing an application but testified that she never paid any premiums and always believed that she was applying for health insurance.

¶ 14. At some later point in time Adams and Walters took a trip together by automobile. They started out on the trip in separate vehicles but ended up together in the same car. Walters testified that initially she was driving the car the two ended up in together, and that Adams asked her to stop at a liquor store where Adams purchased alcohol and at a grocery store where Adams purchased fruit juice. Walters testified that while she drove the car Adams made drinks, and when Adams finished with the drinks and at Adams's urging, they switched drivers and she drank while Adams drove. Walters testified that Adams eventually drove up to a gate and began honking the car horn. That was the last thing she remembered before she woke up in the hospital.

¶ 15. In the hospital Walters learned that the automobile she was in had been struck by a train as it sat on the railroad tracks with its lights and ignition turned off and its doors locked. Walters also learned that she had been alone in the car. When she attempted to file a claim under the insurance policy she had applied for she learned that she had been sold life insurance, not health insurance, and that Adams was the sole beneficiary. The face amount of the policy was $250,000 with an additional...