Conners v. State

• Decision Date: 19 July 2012
• Docket Number: No. 2011–KA–00406–SCT.,2011–KA–00406–SCT.
• Parties: James Richard CONNERS, Jr. a/k/a Jim v. STATE of Mississippi.
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court

92 So.3d 676

James Richard CONNERS, Jr. a/k/a Jim

v.STATE of Mississippi.

No. 2011–KA–00406–SCT.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

July 19, 2012.

Office of Indigent Appeals by Mollie Marie McMillin, attorney for appellant.

Office of the Attorney General by Billy L. Gore, attorney for appellee.

Before CARLSON, P.J., LAMAR and CHANDLER, JJ.

CHANDLER, Justice, for the Court:

¶ 1. A Pike County jury convicted James Richard Conners Jr. of two counts of murder and two counts of possession of a firearm by a felon. The Circuit Court of Pike County imposed two life sentences for the murder convictions and two ten-year sentences for the possession-of-a-firearm-by-a-felon convictions, with all sentences to run consecutively. Conners appeals, arguing that the admission of two forensic reports at his trial violated his right of confrontation under the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution and constituted plain error. He also argues that he received ineffective assistance of counsel due to counsel's failure to make a Confrontation Clause objection to the admission of the forensic reports, and due to counsel's failure to object to gruesome photographs and evidence of Conners's past criminal activity and gang affiliation.

¶ 2. This Court finds that the trial court erred by admitting the forensic test reports without live testimony from the analysts who performed the tests, but that the error was harmless. We further find that Conners did not receive ineffective assistance of counsel, because he cannot show that he was prejudiced by any deficient performance by counsel. Therefore, we affirm.

FACTS

¶ 3. On the morning of January 20, 2010, Kathleen Theriot called her grandmother, Sandra Conners. Sandra lived with her husband, Kenneth Conners, and his brother, Conners. The only functional telephone in their trailer was a land line. Although Kathleen lived in Houma, Louisiana, and Sandra lived in Pike County, Mississippi, the two spoke on the phone daily. On this occasion, Sandra told Kathleen she was going to sleep and would call Kathleen back later. However, Sandra never returned Kathleen's call. Kathleen called Sandra's house many times that day and the next, with no answer. On January 22, 2010, Kathleen got in touch with a friend's mother who lived in Pike County, Jennifer Brooks. Brooks agreed to check on Sandra.

¶ 4. When Brooks arrived, she knocked on the side of the trailer and heard a dog barking inside. When no one came out, she walked around the outside of the trailer. She left and informed Kathleen. Kathleen drove up with her husband and uncle, Albert Touzet, arriving at the trailer at about 4:30 or 5:00 p.m. They noticed that all the occupants' vehicles were parked outside. Kathleen gave Touzet the set of keys that was kept in a nearby RV, but he was unable to unlock the trailer door. Kathleen and her husband walked around the outside of the trailer, yelling and banging on it. They heard a dog barking inside, the sound of a television, and then the sound of footsteps moving quickly from one side of the trailer to the other. At that point, they called the police.

¶ 5. Lieutenant Mike Milholen with the Pike County Sheriff's Department responded. He walked around the trailer, banged on it, and yelled “Sheriff's Department,” but no one came out. He opened an unlocked window, moved the blinds and curtain, and saw a body in the living room lying beside the front door. Chief Detective Davis Haygood arrived with other officers, and forced entry to the trailer by kicking in the front door. Detective Haygood testified that the dead bolt of the front door had been locked from the inside.

¶ 6. Once inside, the officers found the bodies of Kenneth and Sandra Conners. Kenneth's body was just inside the front door. Kenneth had sustained multiple shotgun wounds, including one that almost had severed his neck. Sandra's body was in the kitchen. She had sustained a single shotgun wound to the back that had severed her spinal cord. The investigating officers determined from the position of Kenneth's body that it had been moved to that location. They discovered blood under the front porch of the trailer and damage from shotgun blasts both outside and inside the trailer that indicated Kenneth had been shot as he stood in the front door. A sawed-off Mossberg 12–gauge shotgun was found on a table near Kenneth's body.

¶ 7. The investigators also encountered a chihuahua dog running around the inside of the trailer, barking. Several officers then traveled down a short hallway and through a bedroom door that was tied open with a string. In the room they found Conners lying on a bed watching “Seinfeld” on television. Conners told them that, two days previously, two men from Louisiana had arrived to buy drugs from Kenneth and Sandra. Conners said he was in his bedroom with the door closed when he heard gunshots. He left his bedroom and encountered one of the men in the hall. The man hit him in the ribs and then in the mouth, dragged him to his room, and forced crushed pills down his throat. Conners stated that he had passed out from the pills and did not awaken until the police broke down the door two days later. Conners was very ill and was sent to the emergency room of a nearby hospital, where he spent several days in the intensive care unit being treated for conditions including low blood pressure, kidney failure, pneumonia, and pancreatitis.

¶ 8. The investigators found a 9mm handgun in a drawer in Conners's nightstand and many knives located throughout his bedroom. They also found a damp shirt and pair of pants that had been laid out to dry in Conners's room. Testing did not reveal blood on these items. Testing conducted on wet rags found in a trash can in the kitchen revealed a partial DNA profile. Blood found on the door of Conners's bedroom was determined to be Kenneth's. A gunshot-residue test of Conners's hands was consistent with gunshot residue, although other sources for the particles could not be excluded. Finally, the officers found a gun case in Conners's bedroom that was compatible with the 12–gauge shotgun. The case had shotgun shells inside that were found to be consistent with several spent shells collected in the living room and kitchen. While there were no fingerprints on the shotgun, DNA was found on the shotgun, and testing showed neither Conners nor Sandra could be excluded.

¶ 9. Two neighbors testified that, at 4:00 p.m. or 5:00 p.m. on the afternoon of the murders, they had heard about four gunshots in rapid succession. They did not call the police, because they thought it was someone hunting. One of these neighbors stated that she had seen Kenneth checking the mail at about 10:30 a.m. or 11:00 a.m. that morning. Kenneth had picked up prescriptions from the pharmacy at 2:00 p.m. on the afternoon of the murders. The defense established that, although several days before the murders, multiple prescriptions for oxycodone and Oxycontin had been filled for Conners and Sandra, no controlled substances were found at the scene.

¶ 10. After Conners's release from the hospital, he gave a three-hour statement to the police in which he recounted the same version of events he had told at the scene. This tape was played for the jury at trial. Conners first said he had never seen the sawed-off shotgun, but later said he had cleaned it for Kenneth. Conners said that no weapon had ever been stored in the gun case. He stated that he was undergoing pain management treatment with opiate drugs due to several old gunshot wounds and motorcycle injuries. He admitted that he had over-medicated himself on the morning of the murders by taking double his prescribed dose of morphine, along with a muscle relaxer and his blood-pressure medication. He thought the crushed-up drugs that the drug dealers had shoved down his throat had been opiates. When asked if it was possible that he could have committed murders, he said he did not think so.

¶ 11. Throughout his statement, Conners was adamant that he had been asleep from the time the drug dealers had departed until being awakened by the police. This contention was undermined by the evidence. Conners said the drug dealers had arrived at 11:30 a.m. or 12:00 p.m., and had stayed for about an hour. However, the State showed that Kenneth had been alive at 2:00 p.m. when he picked up prescriptions, and neighbors had heard gunshots at 4:00 p.m. or 5:00 p.m. The dead bolt had been locked from the inside. Kathleen testified that Conners's bedroom door was always tied open in the position in which it was found by police, although Conners claimed the drug dealers had shut the door when they left. Conners did not explain why he did not arm himself with the handgun or a knife before leaving his room to confront the armed drug dealers who had just shot his family. Conners was clean-shaven when the police found him, although he claimed he had been asleep for two and a half days. Conners had damp laundry in his room, indicating recent laundering. Kathleen and her family testified they had heard footsteps inside the trailer when they knocked. A neighbor testified she had heard hammering coming from the trailer on January 21, 2010. Investigator Bruce Fairburn testified that, although there was a dog inside the house with Conners, no urine or feces were present, indicating someone had been letting the dog out. Also, photographs of the dog's full food and water bowls were admitted into evidence. Conners was unable to explain these discrepancies in the interview. His only defense witness was the physician who had treated Conners at the hospital, who testified that he did not see any injuries to Conners's chest.

¶ 12. The parties stipulated that Conners was a prior convicted felon. The jury found Conners guilty of two counts of felon-in-possession-of-a-firearm, based on his possession of the shotgun and the 9–mm handgun. The jury also found Conners guilty of two counts of murder. The trial court...