BROWN v. State of Miss.

• Decision Date: 26 August 2010
• Docket Number: No. 2009-KA-00960-SCT.,2009-KA-00960-SCT.
• Citation: 42 So.3d 540
• Parties: Drexel BROWN v. STATE of Mississippi.
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court

42 So.3d 540

Drexel BROWN v. STATE of Mississippi.

No. 2009-KA-00960-SCT.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

August 26, 2010.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED.

Office of Indigent Appeals by Brenda Jackson Patterson, attorney for appellant.

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

Before CARLSON, P.J., RANDOLPH and KITCHENS, JJ.

CARLSON, Presiding Justice, for the Court:

¶ 1. Drexel Brown was convicted by a jury for the crime of sale of cocaine in the Circuit Court for the Second Judicial District of Jones County, Judge Billy Joe Landrum presiding, and sentenced as a drug recidivist to sixty years, with fifteen years suspended, in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections. Judge Landrum subsequently denied Brown's Motion for New Trial, and Brown perfected this appeal, alleging errors at the trial-court level. Finding Brown's assignments of error to have no merit, we affirm the judgment of conviction and sentence entered by the Circuit Court for the Second Judicial District of Jones County.

FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS IN THE TRIAL COURT

¶ 2. During a traffic stop, Anthony Jones was arrested by Officer Vince Williams for being in possession of a crack cocaine pipe.¹ In return for dropping the possession charge, Jones agreed to work as a confidential informant with the Laurel Police Department. Jones also was paid for his work with the department.²

¶ 3. On November 12, 2008, Jones was contacted by the Laurel Police Department and went to the Narcotics Division to arrange a cocaine purchase from Brown. Once Jones arrived, he was fitted with recording and audio devices, and both he and his vehicle were searched to ensure that no other narcotics or currency were present. Officer Williams issued Jones $35 in official funds to purchase the cocaine from Brown. Jones also was given a cellular phone to stay in contact with Officer Williams. However, according to Jones and Officer Williams, once Jones got into his car, he placed the seat belt over the camera he was wearing, causing the screen or view to be blank for some time. Officer Williams and Officer Ted Ducksworth followed three to four blocks behind Jones at all times and stayed about that same distance from Brown's house during the transaction. Officer Williams also testified that, en route to Brown's house, they pulled up beside Jones to tell him to turn on the cellular phone that he had been given. After the drug transaction, Jones called to inform the officers that he had the cocaine and was on his way back to the Narcotics Division office. The officers watched Jones leave the area but tried not to follow too closely at this point for fear of Jones being identified as an informant.

¶ 4. Upon return to the Narcotics Division office, Officer Williams removed the equipment from Jones and obtained the cocaine from him. Officer Williams also tagged as evidence the videotape of the transaction which, according to Williams, clearly showed Brown as the one selling the cocaine to Jones. Officer Williams conducted a post-buy search which revealed no contraband, narcotics, or currency on Jones or in Jones's vehicle.

¶ 5. Officer Williams further testified that, after he received the cocaine from Jones, he field-tested it, placed it in an evidence bag, sealed and initialed the evidence bag on the back, and secured the bag in his evidence locker. Thereafter, Lieutenant Ken Williams of the Laurel Police Department's Narcotics Division took the cocaine to the Mississippi Crime Laboratory in Meridian. Keith McMahan, a forensic scientist assigned to the Meridian Branch of the Mississippi Crime Laboratory, identified the substance delivered to the lab as less than 0.1 grams of cocaine.

¶ 6. Brown was tried and convicted by a jury in the Circuit Court of the Second Judicial District of Jones County for sale of cocaine. The trial court sentenced Brown to serve a term of sixty years, with fifteen years suspended, and forty-five years to serve in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections.³ Brown was also assessed costs of $260.50 and ordered to reimburse Jones County for the use of a public defender in the amount of $750.00. Brown filed his Motion for New Trial, which the trial court denied. From his conviction and sentence, Brown appealed to this Court.⁴

DISCUSSION

¶ 7. Brown presents two issues for this Court's consideration: (1) whether the evidence was sufficient to support Brown's conviction for sale of cocaine, and (2) whether the trial court erred in admitting an unauthenticated water bill. The issues are restated for the sake of today's discussion.

I. WHETHER THE EVIDENCE WAS SUFFICIENT TO SUPPORT BROWN'S CONVICTION.

¶ 8. Brown argues that the evidence was insufficient to determine where Jones had obtained the cocaine, and thus, reasonable jurors could not have found beyond a reasonable doubt that Brown was guilty of the sale of cocaine. "[I]n considering whether the evidence is sufficient to sustain a conviction in the face of a motion for directed verdict or for judgment notwithstanding the verdict, the critical inquiry is whether the evidence shows `beyond a reasonable doubt that [the] 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.'" Bush v. State, 895 So.2d 836, 843 (Miss.2005) (quoting Carr v. State, 208 So.2d 886, 889 (Miss. 1968)). The essential inquiry 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." Id. (citing Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 315, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979)). This Court has stated further:

If the facts and inferences so considered point in favor of the defendant on any element of the offense with sufficient force that reasonable [jurors] could not have found beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant was guilty, granting the motion is required. May v. State, 460 So.2d 778, 781 (Miss.1984). On the other hand, if there is substantial evidence opposed to the motion—that is, evidence of such quality and weight that, having in mind the beyond a reasonable doubt burden of proof standard, reasonable fair-minded [jurors] in the exercise of impartial judgment might reach different conclusions on every element of the offense—the motion should be denied.

Edwards v. State, 469 So.2d 68, 70 (Miss. 1985).

¶ 9. In today's case, the State's burden was to prove that Brown knowingly or intentionally sold or transferred cocaine (less than 0.1 grams), a Schedule II controlled substance, to Jones, for a sum of money. See Miss.Code Ann. § 41-29-139 (Rev.2003). Jones testified that he had agreed to serve as an informant and that he had gone to Brown's residence on Joe Wheeler Avenue to purchase cocaine. He testified that Brown was indeed the person from whom he had purchased the cocaine for $35 and that he had known Brown for about a year and a half. Jones stated that before the sale or transfer, he had asked Brown "if there was anything going on, meaning was there any crack there for sell (sic)." He further testified that Brown had responded "yeah." This Court has stated that a person may be...