Conner v. State, 90-DP-927
| Decision Date | 02 December 1993 |
| Docket Number | No. 90-DP-927,90-DP-927 |
| Citation | 632 So.2d 1239 |
| Parties | Ronnie Lee CONNER v. STATE of Mississippi. |
| Court | Mississippi Supreme Court |
James W. Craig, Jackson, Tim Wilson, Meridian, Jane Tucker Lambert, Andre de Gruy, Jackson, for appellant.
Michael C. Moore, Atty. Gen., Marvin L. White, Jr., Asst. Atty. Gen., Charlene R. Pierce, Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen., Jackson, for appellee.
En Banc.
McRAE, Justice, for the Court:
Ronnie Lee Conner was tried in the Circuit Court of Lauderdale County, Mississippi, on a charge of capital murder, and was found guilty. In a separate hearing he was sentenced to death by lethal injection. Finding no reversible error in both the record of Conner's guilt trial and sentence hearing, we affirm his conviction and sentence.
About mid-afternoon on New Year's Day of 1990, a group of children spotted a light green car parked beside a dirt road on the outskirts of Meridian, Mississippi. Upon peering inside, they saw an elderly white female slumped over on the passenger side. The woman, with slashed throat, was dead.
One of the children immediately informed his mother who in turn called the police. Emergency personnel arrived on the scene shortly after 3:00 p.m. The body of the victim, later identified as Celeste Brown, was still warm. The police collected several items from the interior of the car including: (1) a four-inch, blood stained knife blade without a handle which was lying on the front floorboard; (2) a brown purse, open, with its contents strewn on the front floorboard; and (3) several shopping bags, one of which contained a receipt from Wal-Mart generated at 1:02 p.m. on New Year's Day, 1990. After talking with Celeste Brown's family, the police learned that the victim was wearing a diamond cluster ring and carrying approximately two hundred dollars in cash on the day of the murder. Both the ring and the cash were missing. Brown was supposed to have picked up a friend at the Meridian Amtrak station around 2:30 p.m.
Dr. Steven Hayne, a pathologist and forensic scientist, conducted an autopsy and concluded that the neck wound, which perforated Brown's jugular vein and entered her oral cavity, caused the death. At trial, Hayne testified that given Brown's posture and the location of the injury, blood would have flowed from the wound at a relatively slow rate. Brown could have lived, in Hayne's opinion, for five to ten minutes after the attack. Hayne further thought that the wounds were inflicted by a small knife with a single edge.
The following day, a black male named Earnest Stevens came to the Meridian Police Headquarters and gave a statement implicating Ronnie Conner in the murder. On the afternoon of January 2, 1990, the police procured a warrant and searched Conner's apartment. They seized as possible evidence a tan corduroy jacket and a multicolored shirt along with an aluminum can and two lengths of pipe which appeared to be crack cocaine paraphernalia.
The jacket, the shirt, and several items taken from Celeste Brown's car were forwarded to the State Crime Lab. The crime lab found no blood on the seized clothing, but a hair of Caucasian origin was recovered from the corduroy coat. The hair was insufficient for comparison purposes. Several fragments of Negroid hair were recovered from the passenger seat of Celeste Brown's car and from the victim's clothing. These fragments were insufficient for comparison purposes.
The spot where Celeste Brown was found dead in her car is about 2.2 miles from the Amtrak station and only a very short distance from Eastern Gardens, an apartment complex where Ronnie Lee Conner lived.
Conner was carried to the police station for questioning immediately following the search. He categorically denied any knowledge of the crime and, according to Officer James Brown, gave an account of his whereabouts Frank Blair testified that he encountered Ronnie Conner at the Greyhound bus station on New Year's Day at about 10:00 a.m. He testified that while he and Conner were drinking wine, Conner told him that he needed some money and that "I got to get hold of a little something." Blair responded, "You ain't got to go through all of that, man." According to a written statement taken three days after the murder, Blair also told Conner, "Man, you only have a few more days before you get your check." Blair testified at trial that he could not remember saying anything about a check. Blair further testified that he saw Conner again on January 2 at the Plasma Center. Conner told him, "Man, I got into some shit." According to Blair, Conner appeared nervous.
the previous day. Conner stated that he had awakened around 10:00 a.m. on New Year's Day and did not leave his apartment until sometime between 10:00 and 11:00 a.m. He then proceeded to the bus station where he met "Frank." He and Frank went to the Terminal Cafe and sat around drinking wine for about half an hour. Conner stated that upon leaving the Terminal Cafe, he walked to the Davis Court area and from there to the Red Line area where he stayed for about an hour. At some point after lunch, he walked back to Eastern Gardens and slept until after dark. Conner was unable to provide the names of anyone who might have seen him during his excursions
Earnest Stevens testified that sometime prior to 1:00 p.m. on New Year's Day, Conner came to the Union Hotel where Stevens had been living with Jessie Dubose. At approximately 1:00 p.m., Stevens and Conner left Dubose's apartment. While walking down the stairs, Conner showed Stevens a "blade" which looked like a silver steak knife. While standing in front of the Union Hotel, the two observed "a dude called Snuff" coming up the street. As Snuff approached, Conner told Stevens that he was "fixing to get him up" (meaning Snuff) and see if he had any money. After Snuff had passed, Stevens "talked him out of that" by telling him there "ain't no use in getting in trouble." According to Stevens, Conner then walked down the street toward the Terminal Cafe and Stevens followed a few minutes later. Stevens, Conner, and "Frank" sat in front of the Cafe and talked for about ten or fifteen minutes. Frank then left.
About that time, a light green car pulled up across the street at the Amtrak station, and an old lady got out. According to Stevens, Conner walked across the street and approached the lady. After the two talked for a moment, the lady reached in her purse and gave Conner something. Conner then "put something to her in the back and just made her get off into her car." Conner then climbed into the driver's seat, and drove away.
Another witness for the prosecution was Darryl Barfield, a clerk at Smitty's Grocery, a combination package/grocery store located across the street from Eastern Gardens apartments. Barfield testified that he was working the evening shift in the package store on New Year's Day, 1990. Ronnie Conner came into the package store while it "was still day." Conner showed Barfield a ring and asked him if he thought it was real. According to Barfield, the ring looked real, but it had no carat markings. He told Conner to check with a jewelry store or pawn shop.
Evelyn Cole, also a clerk at Smitty's, agreed that Conner came into the store on the afternoon of January 1, 1990, at "like about three o'clock or three-thirty or somewhere along there or four o'clock." She recalled selling him some beer.
Vicky Gulley, another prosecution witness, testified that on New Year's Day, 1990, she had gone to visit her uncle, Charlie Clark, at Eastern Garden apartments, the same apartment complex where Ronnie Conner lived. At some unspecified point later in the afternoon, she encountered Conner who asked her if she wanted to drink some beer. He had two quarts in a paper bag. She and Conner went inside her uncle's apartment where the three of them sat around drinking the beer for about half an hour. Gulley observed that Conner had blood on his hand, and Conner explained that he had gotten hurt at work. Gulley testified that Conner was wearing a brown corduroy coat but that the coat did not appear to have any blood on it.
According to Gulley, Conner produced "a gold ring with a diamond on top." He said he had found it at work. Gulley and her uncle teased Conner about the ring not being real. Apparently convinced the ring was a fake, Conner told Gulley that she "could have the ring, because it wasn't going to do him no good if it wasn't real." Gulley also testified that in addition to the ring, Conner was carrying a large amount of cash which included "a hundred dollar bill, a fifty and some twenties."
Gulley further testified that Conner asked her if she wanted to "get high," and that she agreed to do so. Conner told her that he first had to go take a shower and wash up. When asked if there was anything unusual about Conner's appearance other than the blood on his hand, Gulley responded, "He was breathing hard like he was tired or something, I don't know."
After Conner walked over to his own apartment, Gulley left with a "male friend" to go to Davis Court apartments where she hoped to trade the ring Conner had given her for some cocaine. She recalled that it was beginning to get dark when she left Eastern Gardens. Gulley eventually wound up at the Chantiki Club where she sold the ring to Fred Parnell, the club owner, for fifteen dollars.
Gulley used the fifteen dollars to buy a rock of crack cocaine. Afterwards, she returned to Eastern Gardens and went to Conner's apartment. At Conner's apartment she found Conner, Will McNeil, and "Rex, a guy that sells the cocaine." The air was thick with cocaine smoke. According to Gulley, Conner then boasted about committing murder that day.
Q. Now, what happened or what did y'all do when you got to Ronnie's house?
A. I asked Ronnie did he have any more dope left and Ronnie had you [sic] rock left. So, we started smoking rock. So I took a hit....
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