Coleman v. State

• Decision Date: 01 November 2005
• Docket Number: No. 2004-KA-00346-COA.,2004-KA-00346-COA.
• Citation: 947 So.2d 964
• Parties: W.A. COLEMAN, Appellant v. STATE of Mississippi, Appellee.
• Court: Mississippi Court of Appeals

947 So.2d 964

W.A. COLEMAN, Appellant v. STATE of Mississippi, Appellee.

No. 2004-KA-00346-COA.

Court of Appeals of Mississippi.

November 1, 2005.

Rehearing Denied February 21, 2006.

David M. Holly, Greenwood, attorney for appellant.

Office of the Attorney General by Scott Stuart, attorney for appellee.

EN BANC.

ISHEE, J., for the Court.

¶ 1. Petitioner appeals his conviction for embezzlement. Finding insufficient evidence to sustain the conviction, we reverse and render.

STATEMENT OF FACTS

¶ 2. W.A. Coleman and James Brown were deacons at the Pillow Chapel Missionary Baptist Church in Greenwood, Mississippi. As deacons, they were responsible for collecting the monthly tithes from the church members, depositing the funds in the church's bank account, and paying for authorized maintenance and repairs to the church facilities. Between January and July 2001, Coleman wrote checks payable to cash and drawn on the church's bank account totaling approximately $1,600.

¶ 3. When Brown became aware of Coleman's conduct, he notified the police and an investigation ensued. As a result, Coleman was indicted for embezzlement pursuant to Mississippi Code Annotated § 97-23-19 (Rev.2000).

¶ 4. In January 2004, the matter went to trial. Coleman testified that he had written those checks to compensate himself for payments he had made from his own funds for repairs done to the church's property. Coleman testified that the repairs included plumbing and electrical work, as well as maintenance to the church's lawn mower. The church's pastor, however, testified that before any authorized work could be done for the church, the deacons must have received prior approval from the congregation. Furthermore, the pastor testified that the plumbing work which had been done was minor, and that there had been no electrical work done at the church. The pastor testified emphatically that the limited repairs performed on the church were nowhere near $1,600 worth.

¶ 5. At the completion of the State's case-in-chief, Coleman made a motion for a directed verdict. He argued that the State had failed to prove that the money had been embezzled from a "corporation" or a "private person" as required by Mississippi Code Annotated § 97-23-19. Coleman further argued that the State had failed to prove any misappropriation for personal use. After hearing the parties' respective arguments, the trial court denied the motion. The jury subsequently found Coleman guilty of embezzlement, and he was later sentenced to a ten-year term of incarceration and ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $2,255.

¶ 6. Aggrieved by his conviction, Coleman appeals asserting the following: (1) whether the trial court erred in denying Coleman's motion for a directed verdict; (2) whether the trial court erred in limiting Coleman's cross-examination of James Brown; (3) whether the trial court erred in failing to grant a circumstantial evidence instruction; (4) whether the trial court erred in denying Coleman's motion for a directed verdict or, in the alternative, a judgment notwithstanding the verdict; and (5) whether the trial court erred in denying Coleman's motion for a new trial as the verdict was against the overwhelming weight of the evidence.

DISCUSSION

I. Whether the trial court erred in denying Coleman's motion for a directed verdict.

¶ 7. We begin our discussion with the standard of review. The Mississippi Supreme Court has consistently held that when reviewing a challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence, an appellate court must consider all of the evidence in the light most consistent with the verdict, and the State must be given the benefit of all inferences favorable to the verdict. Taylor v. State, 672 So.2d 1246, 1255 (Miss.1996). Furthermore, when the record evidence is such that reasonable jurors could have found the defendant guilty, the verdict is beyond the reviewing court's authority to disturb. Id. "[T]he critical inquiry is whether the evidence shows `beyond a reasonable doubt that [the] accused committed the act charged, and that he did so under circumstances that every element of the offense existed. . . .'" Bush v. State, 895 So.2d 836, 843(¶ 16) (Miss.2005) (quoting Carr v. State, 208 So.2d 886, 889 (Miss.1968)). If the evidence points in favor of the defendant on any element of the offense such that a reasonable juror could not have found the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, the motion for a directed verdict must be granted. Edwards v. State, 469 So.2d 68, 70 (Miss.1985).

¶ 8. Coleman maintains that the trial court erred in denying his motion for a directed verdict at the close of the State's case-in-chief. He asserts that there was insufficient evidence to sustain his conviction as to the issue of who owned the money. Coleman was indicted under Mississippi Code Annotated § 97-23-19 which defines embezzlement by agents, bailees, servants and persons generally as follows:

if any director, agent, clerk, servant, or officer of any incorporated company, or if any trustee or factor, carrier or bailee, or any clerk, agent or servant of any private person, shall embezzle . . . or convert to his own use, any . . . money . . . which shall have . . . been intrusted to his care or possession by virtue of his office, place, or employment . . . shall be guilty of embezzlement . . . .

(Emphasis added).

¶ 9. When Coleman offered his motion for a directed verdict at trial, he argued that the State had failed to prove that the funds were embezzled from either a corporation or a private person. In opposition to the motion, the State, admitting that the church was not incorporated, argued that the church was a private person. Further, the State argued that in a church of that size, the trustees are considered the owners. The State asserted that since Brown was a trustee, he was an owner, thereby satisfying the statute's private person requirement.

¶ 10. Coleman countered that the evidence offered by the State did not support that conclusion. The checking account on which the funds were drawn was in the church's name. The State offered no evidence that the money belonged to Brown. Furthermore, the record reflects that the pastor testified that the deacons had to have the congregation's prior approval before spending any of the church's money. Finally, Coleman and Brown were both church deacons and were equally accountable for the church's money. Coleman maintains that this evidence negates the State's assertion as to Brown's ownership of the funds.

¶ 11. The trial court subsequently denied Coleman's motion for a directed verdict. The trial court, while admitting that it's decision might be wrong, relied on State v. Journey, 105 Miss. 516, 62 So. 354 (1913) as the basis for its ruling. The defendant in Journey had been indicted for embezzling from a corporation. Id. The defendant's motion to dismiss was subsequently granted by the trial court. Id. The trial court ruled that the applicable embezzlement statute, which was the predecessor to Mississippi Code Annotated § 97-23-19, had no application whatsoever to a corporation. Id. The trial court concluded that the statute referred only to embezzlement from a private person. Id. The Mississippi Supreme Court reversed the trial court's ruling and held that "the language employed by the [l]egislature refers to trustees, factors, carriers, or bailees of both artificial and natural persons." Id.

¶ 12. In this appeal, the State argues that, based on Journey, the church should be considered an artificial person for the purposes of the embezzlement statute. However, the Mississippi legislature, has amended the embezzlement statute a number of times since the Journey decision. The current version includes corporations as the sole type of artificial persons who may be the object of embezzlement. See Miss.Code Ann. § 97-23-19. We are reminded that where the language used by the legislature in a statute is plain and unambiguous, and conveys a clear and definite meaning, there is no occasion to resort to the rules of statutory interpretation. State v. Heard, 246 Miss. 774, 781, 151 So.2d 417, 420 (1963). Therefore, we conclude that Journey has been superceded by the current statute and that it does not provide a sufficient basis for denying Coleman's motion for a directed verdict.

¶ 13. The Mississippi Supreme Court has enumerated the requisite elements of embezzlement, and this Court has updated the elements to reflect the language in the current statute. These elements are:

(1) an agent or trustee of a private person or [corporation]; (2) embezzling or converting to his own use; (3) rights in action, money, or other valuable security, effect or property of any kind; (4) which have been intrusted to his care or possession by virtue of his position or employment.

May v. State, 240 Miss. 361, 363, 127 So.2d 423, 425 (1961).

¶ 14. After an analysis of the statute and the relevant case law, this Court finds that implicit in these elements is the requirement that the State present proof beyond a reasonable doubt to establish the specific person or corporation that owned the embezzled money. A conviction for embezzlement requires proof of the identity of the corporation or private person whose goods and money the accused has embezzled. Bunkley v. State, 495 So.2d 1, 3-4 (Miss.1986). Proof as to ownership of the money and the extent of the agency relationship which existed are essential to distinguishing embezzlement from larceny. See Jackson v. State, 211 Miss. 828, 832, 52 So.2d 914, 915 (1951).

¶ 15. Returning to the record facts, it is clear from the undisputed testimony that the church was not a corporation. Therefore, this Court focuses on the issue of whether there was sufficient evidence for a reasonable juror to conclude that Coleman embezzled funds from Brown, the private person named in the indictment. Even after considering all of the evidence in the light most consistent with the...