Barfield v. State

• Decision Date: 03 December 2009
• Docket Number: No. 2008-KA-01606-SCT.,2008-KA-01606-SCT.
• Citation: 22 So.3d 1175
• Parties: Jonathan BARFIELD v. STATE of Mississippi.
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court

22 So.3d 1175

Jonathan BARFIELD v. STATE of Mississippi.

No. 2008-KA-01606-SCT.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

December 3, 2009.

Office of Indigent Appeals by Benjamin Allen Suber, Leslie S. Lee, attorneys for appellant.

Office of the Attorney General by Lisa Lynn Blount, attorneys for appellee.

Before WALLER, C.J., RANDOLPH and CHANDLER, JJ.

CHANDLER, Justice, for the Court.

¶ 1. Jonathan Barfield was indicted for the murder of Tiffany Deanna Talley. On July 3-10, 2008, Barfield was tried in the Circuit Court of the First Judicial District of Harrison County for the December 27, 2006, shooting of Talley. The jury convicted Barfield of the lesser offense of manslaughter for Talley's death. The trial court sentenced Barfield to twenty years in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC). Barfield now appeals from that conviction. Finding no error, we affirm the jury verdict and sentence of twenty years in the custody of the MDOC.

FACTS

¶ 2. Barfield testified on his own behalf at trial. According to Barfield, he met Talley while the two attended high school. They dated for approximately two years before Talley's death. At the time of the shooting, Barfield was living in his father's FEMA trailer in a park near Canal Road in Gulfport, Mississippi. He kept two guns in the trailer because he thought the trailer park was "pretty scary," and the police visited the park at least three times a week.

¶ 3. On December 27, 2006, after finishing basketball practice at Gulfport High School, Talley made several telephone calls to Barfield. Despite testimony to the contrary, Barfield denied that he and Talley had broken off their relationship on December 26, 2006, the day before the shooting. Barfield stated that as he was taking a shower, he answered Talley's telephone call. While speaking to Talley, Barfield heard banging on his front door. He wrapped himself in a towel and headed to the door. Barfield told Talley to "hold on" and put the telephone down on a table. Upon reaching the door, Barfield saw that someone was twisting the door knob and attempting to get into the trailer. The bottom lock was unlocked, while the top lock was locked. Barfield grabbed his .22 revolver from the table, and he planned to "surprise" whomever was at the door. He never looked out the window or tried to see who was trying to get into the trailer. Barfield had the revolver cocked and ready when he opened the door. Then, he saw Talley. According to Barfield, he was trying to uncock the revolver as Talley entered the trailer. Talley was not in the door "a good 30 seconds" when she bumped Barfield, which caused the pistol to accidentally fire. Barfield said he was so shocked by the bang from the gun that he stepped outside and threw the revolver into an adjoining field. When questioned, Barfield stated that when he was trying to uncock the gun, the gun was angled upward, and when Talley had bumped into him, his hand was knocked upward as well.

¶ 4. When Barfield returned to the trailer, he saw Talley on the ground and thought that she had fallen to the ground to cover herself. He called Talley and told her to get up from the floor. At that point, Barfield stated, he saw blood. Barfield tried to stop the bleeding with a sweatshirt that Talley had given him for Christmas. At that point, Barfield called his father and then called 911.

¶ 5. Deputy Joseph Fore was the first law enforcement officer to respond to the 911 call. When he arrived, Barfield told him that "It was an accident. I didn't mean to shoot her, and I threw the gun over the fence." According to Deputy Fore, Barfield also stated that he and Talley had "got into a little argument, nothing big, and that they were playing with the gun. He said he had the gun cocked by his leg, pointed at the ground and they had bumped into each other and the gun went off and shot her in the face." Deputy Fore also described Barfield's demeanor as similar to "talking about the weather." Deputy Fore stated that Deputy Glen Roe, who arrived shortly after him, placed Barfield in handcuffs while Deputy Fore checked on Talley. When Deputy Fore entered the trailer, he observed Talley face down in a pool of blood. On a nearby coffee table in the living room, Deputy Fore saw two boxes of .22 gun shells. On cross-examination, Barfield denied telling Deputy Fore that the gun was pointed toward the floor. In fact, he stated that the gun was pointed in an upward direction.

¶ 6. While in the police car, Edward Twomey, former criminal investigator for the Harrison County Sheriff's Department, questioned Barfield about the shooting. Barfield told Twomey that Talley had stopped by his house before work, that she had shoved Barfield as she walked by him, and the gun fired. Later that day, Twomey conducted a second interview with Barfield, which included a taped statement. Twomey characterized Barfield's interview as "inconsistent." According to Twomey, Barfield told him that when he had seen Talley at the door, Barfield had lowered the gun down by his side, and had the gun pointing at the floor. When Talley bumped Barfield, he heard an explosion as the gun fired.

¶ 7. When confronted with the location of Talley's wound, Barfield then told Twomey that he "must have dropped the gun because he was holding it lightly, and that it must have hit the floor and went off." Also, Twomey testified that Barfield initially stated that someone was banging loudly and knocking on the door, but later stated that someone just turned the knob to see if the door was open. Barfield also gave inconsistent information concerning the disposal of the weapon, according to Twomey. Barfield first stated that he had disposed of the gun after he had shot Talley, but later stated that he had disposed of the gun after calling his father and before the paramedics arrived at the scene. Barfield told Twomey that he threw the gun because, "that's what had killed Talley."

¶ 8. At trial, there was conflicting testimony as to whether Barfield and Talley were together and the nature of their relationship. A question arose concerning whether Barfield and Talley had broken up on December 26, 2006, the day before the shooting. According to Barfield, the relationship between the two of them was "just fine," and they had been still together on December 27, 2006. Barfield described their relationship as "[p]retty much a regular relationship like anybody else, you have ups and downs, but for the most part everything was okay."

¶ 9. Felicia Shaw, Talley's aunt, testified at trial that she had spoken to Talley on the telephone the morning of her death.¹ According to Shaw, Talley was taking something over to "Johnny's" (Jonathan Barfield's) house. Talley said they had broken off their relationship. Talley told Shaw that she was taking this item back to Barfield to show him that it was over for sure this time.² Shaw stated that Talley and Barfield had broken off their relationship on more than one occasion in the past. When Shaw asked Talley if the relationship was over this time, Talley replied "Yes, this is it. This is the last time."

¶ 10. Walter Jackson, a former co-worker of Talley's, testified about the status of Barfield's relationship with Talley. Jackson had worked with Talley at the Nike Outlet Store in Gulfport. He had known Talley six or seven months prior to her death. He said Talley had described her relationship with Barfield as being "rocky" and that "there was a lot of on and off." Talley also told Jackson that she was still with Barfield because she was scared to leave him and because she was unsure of what he was going to do. When asked what she meant by that, Talley told Jackson that Barfield had said that if he could not have her, then, no one could have her. She made this statement approximately one week or so before her death.

¶ 11. Julisia Taylor, Talley's friend since the sixth grade, testified about Talley's relationship with Barfield. Julisia saw Talley at basketball practice the morning Talley was shot. At basketball practice, Talley told Julisia that she and Barfield had broken up and that it was serious this time. Talley did not tell Julisia that she was going to see Barfield later that day.

¶ 12. Dr. Paul McGarry, a forensic pathologist, testified about the injuries that Talley sustained and her cause of death. He described Talley's injury as a gunshot wound that entered her face at the center of her right cheek in line with the tip of her nose. The bullet went backward and upward at a forty-five degree angle and leftward at a twenty-five degree angle toward the top left of her head. The bullet was recovered from Talley's brain. Around the entry wound, Dr. McGarry found stippling on the skin, or powder particles embedded in the skin. According to Dr. McGarry, stippling is indicative of a close-range gunshot wound. Dr. McGarry estimated that the gun would have had to be twelve to eighteen inches away from Talley to cause the stippling. The stippling was in an upward oval pattern, which indicated that the bullet entered the head in an upward direction and went leftward and backward. With the type of injury Talley sustained, Dr. McGarry estimated that she would have lived only minutes. He stated that the cause of death, within a reasonable degree of medical certainty, was a close-range gunshot wound that entered her right cheek, perforating her brain and causing massive hemorrhaging and aspiration on her own blood.

DISCUSSION

I. Photographs.

¶ 13. Barfield argues that the photographs admitted into evidence were gruesome and unfairly prejudicial. In particular, Barfield argues that the trial court erred by admitting State's Exhibit 6 into evidence. State's Exhibit 6 was an enlarged photograph of the injuries to Talley's head, with an inserted probe showing the trajectory of the bullet. Barfield's claim, however, is procedurally barred for failure to object to the introduction of the photograph into...