Clark v. State, 93-KA-00897-SCT
| Decision Date | 08 May 1997 |
| Docket Number | No. 93-KA-00897-SCT,93-KA-00897-SCT |
| Citation | 693 So.2d 927 |
| Parties | Jerry CLARK v. STATE of Mississippi. |
| Court | Mississippi Supreme Court |
James L. Davis, III, Gulfport, for appellant.
Michael C. Moore, Attorney Genral, W. Glenn Watts, Special Asst. Atty. Gen., Jackson, for appellee.
Before PRATHER, P.J., and PITTMAN and McRAE, JJ.
McRAE, Justice, for the Court:
Jerry Clark appeals his May 26, 1993 conviction for murder by a jury of the Harrison County Circuit Court for the shooting death of his child's mother, Lollie Meunier. The evidence does not support a lesser charge of manslaughter and that the circuit court properly admitted a transcript of the victim's desperate 911 call while Clark was shooting at the door behind which he knew she was hiding. Accordingly, we affirm Clark's conviction and sentence of life imprisonment.
Jerry Clark and Lollie Meunier lived together from 1978 until 1991. One child was born to them during this time. In 1990, the relationship began to deteriorate and Meunier moved into her own home. In response to his frustrations at work and his problems with Meunier, Clark started using illicit drugs.
Clark began calling Meunier at the convenience store where she worked. On June 22, 1992, Clark went to the store to see her. The two argued and Meunier locked herself in the office. Clark became belligerent and Meunier refused to open the door. Clark went to his car and returned with a shotgun and Meunier called Emergency 911.
Clark shot the door several times in an attempt to enter the room. The shots hit Meunier at close range and killed her. Dr. Paul McGarry, the forensic pathologist who performed the autopsy, testified that she died of a close range shotgun blast to her right breast. He also found wounds in her left arm and across her face.
Officer Phillip Cullota of the Gulfport Police Department testified that he went to the convenience store in answer to a 911 call placed at 3:46 a.m. on June 22, 1992, and saw Clark come from behind the counter into the customer area of the store. Officers Cullota and Claud Guinn, a detective with the Gulfport Police Department, arrested Clark at the scene. In Clark's recorded statement to police, he claimed that he was just trying to shoot the knob off the door to gain access to the room where Meunier was hiding.
A jury trial was held on May 25 and 26, 1993. At the close of the State's case, Clark moved for a directed verdict in his favor and in the alternative, that the case go to the jury solely on the issue of manslaughter. His motion was overruled by the circuit court. Although the jury was instructed on the lesser-included offense of manslaughter, Clark's Instructions D-4 and D-8 on the issue of "culpable negligence" pursuant to Miss.Code Ann. § 97-3-47 (1972) were denied. The jury found Clark guilty of murder and he was given a life sentence in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections. Clark's motion for a new trial, or in the alternative, for j.n.o.v., was denied by the circuit court on July 16, 1993.
Clark first contends that the circuit court erred in failing to grant a directed verdict or j.n.o.v., asserting that he was guilty merely of manslaughter through "culpable negligence," and not murder. Raising the same arguments, he further asserts that there was insufficient evidence to support a murder conviction and that the verdict was against the evidence.
Manslaughter is defined in Miss.Code Ann. § 97-3-35 (1972) as "[T]he killing of a human being, without malice, but in a cruel or unusual manner, or by the use of a dangerous weapon, without the authority of law, and not in necessary self-defense."
In Scott v. State, 183 Miss. 788, 185 So. 195, 196 (1938), this Court defined "culpable negligence" as "that degree of negligence or carelessness which is denominated as gross negligence, and which constitutes such a departure from what would be the conduct of an ordinarily careful and prudent man under same circumstances as to furnish evidence of indifference to consequences."
In Windham v. State, 602 So.2d 798, 801 (Miss.1992), this Court distinguished "depraved heart" murder and "culpable negligence" by holding that "depraved heart murder involves a higher degree of recklessness from which malice or deliberate design may be implied."
Clark testified that he did not intend to kill Meunier, but that he was merely shooting at the door knob to gain access to the room so that he could talk to her. He perceives the act of shooting through a steel door to gain entry to an office where his former paramour was hiding as devoid of malice. Thus, he relies on Wells v. State, 305 So.2d 333, 339-340 (Miss.1974), for the proposition that where no malice is shown from the evidence, the case should go to the jury for a determination of manslaughter alone. He neglects to note however, that in a "depraved heart" murder, malice can be inferred from the circumstances if the actions involved a very high degree of carelessness evincing a reckless indifference to the danger to human life. Windham, 602 So.2d at 802.
In Clark's own statement to the police, he admitted the following:
CLARK--... [S]o I went out there (inaudible) the gun. I gone shoot the door knob off, that's what, it's only thing was shot was the door knob over there. I says open the door. That's all I was trying to do. That's all.
GUINN--What kinda gun?
CLARK--It's a twelve gauge.
GUINN--How many times did you shoot?
CLARK--The t-, well I shot the, I shot the first the door, the door knob off, well, I shoot the first time the door knob fell off. I thought I could open it and then it still wouldn't open so I said get out of the way. I shot it. I shot the door down again, it still wouldn't open.
Clark's statement acknowledges that the door knob fell off the steel door behind which Meunier was hiding after the first shot. Moreover, the transcript of the 911 emergency call made by the victim clearly indicates Clark's indifference to the danger he posed to Meunier's life.
FEMALE CALLER--Please help, I'm down at Conoco. There's a crazy man out here, he's got a gun.
EPPERSON--Ma'am, ma'am, ma'am, don't hang up the phone. Don't hang up the phone.
FEMALE CALLER--Please help me! Please!
EPPERSON--What's the problem, ma'am?
FEMALE CALLER--There's a man out here with a gun, he's tryin' to kill me.
A few seconds later:
UNKNOWN MALE--Open that fuckin' door or I'll kill you now!
FEMALE CALLER--Oh, God, please! Please send somebody please!
EPPERSON--Ma'am, we've got the officers on the way.
FEMALE CALLER--(Inaudible) please! Please (inaudible) hurt me!
EPPERSON--Ma'am?
FEMALE CALLER--(Inaudible) hurt me!
UNKNOWN MALE--Open the door!
FEMALE CALLER--Okay! (Screams)
EPPERSON--Ma'am? Ma'am?
UNKNOWN MALE--I'll kill you!
FEMALE CALLER--Okay, I'm opening it, please!
FEMALE CALLER--(Screams)
FEMALE CALLER--Please! Okay! I'll open it!
FEMALE CALLER--(Screams)
UNKNOWN MALE--I see you on the floor. Open the door now! Open it now! Open the door, Lollie, please! Open it or I'll kill you now!
In denying Clark's motion for a directed verdict, the circuit court found that the State had presented sufficient evidence to establish that Clark had acted with deliberate design in killing Meunier. The standard for determining the sufficiency of the evidence for a directed verdict motion is that the evidence and all reasonable inferences therefrom should be viewed in the light most favorable to the State and evidence favorable to the defendant disregarded. Noe v. State, 616 So.2d 298, 302 (Miss.1993); Clemons v. State, 460 So.2d 835, 839 (Miss.1984). If sufficient evidence to support a guilty verdict exists, the motion for a directed verdict should be denied. Id.; Brown v. State, 556 So.2d 338, 340 (Miss.1990). The trial court's findings were supported by Clark's statement to the police following the incident, the transcript of the 911 emergency call, and the testimony at trial, all of which indicate a sufficient degree of recklessness and indifference to human life pointing to a conviction, at the very least, for manslaughter or murder, and not culpable negligence. Malice too may be inferred when such a high degree of recklessness is involved, raising the level of crime from "culpable negligence" manslaughter to "depraved heart" murder. The circuit court, therefore, cannot be held in error for denying the motion for a directed verdict.
The circuit court granted an instruction for the lesser-included offense of manslaughter as well as the State's requested instruction for murder. The jurors obviously resolved the fact questions in favor of the State. Clark, however, submits that the circuit court erred in not granting his motion for j.n.o.v. Once a case is submitted to the fact finder, "any factual disputes are properly resolved by the jury and do not mandate a new trial." Johnson v. State, 642 So.2d 924, 928 (Miss.1994). This Court will only reverse where "reasonable and fair minded jurors could only find the accused not guilty." Id. at 927. Based on the evidence in the record, "reasonable and fair minded jurors" could hardly have found Clark not guilty. The circuit court therefore properly denied the motion for j.n.o.v. Clark's motion for a new trial was within the discretion of the trial judge. We will not reverse the denial of a motion for a new trial "unless we are convinced that the verdict is so contrary to the overwhelming weight of the evidence that to allow it to stand would sanction...
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