Dampier v. State

• Decision Date: 04 October 2022
• Docket Number: 2021-KA-00280-COA
• Parties: DE'ANDRE DAMPIER A/K/A DEANDRE DAMPIER APPELLANT v. STATE OF MISSISSIPPI APPELLEE
• Court: Mississippi Court of Appeals

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DE'ANDRE DAMPIER A/K/A DEANDRE DAMPIER APPELLANT v. STATE OF MISSISSIPPI APPELLEE

No. 2021-KA-00280-COA

Court of Appeals of Mississippi

October 4, 2022

DATE OF JUDGMENT: 03/01/2021

RANKIN COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT HON. DEWEY KEY ARTHUR, TRIAL JUDGE

ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLANT: OFFICE OF STATE PUBLIC DEFENDER BY GEORGE T. HOLMES TAMARRA A. BOWIE

ATTORNEY FOR APPELLEE: OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL BY ALEXANDRA RODU ROSENBLATT

DISTRICT ATTORNEY: JOHN K. BRAMLETT JR.

EN BANC

CARLTON, P.J.

¶1. On July 8, 2004, Harry McGuffee Jr. was shot and killed at his business, Five Star Auto Sales. Two cars were stolen from his car lot. De'Andre Dampier and Jermaine Rogers were indicted for capital murder and conspiracy to commit murder. Dampier was sixteen years old on the date of the crime, and Rogers was twenty-one. Rogers subsequently pleaded guilty. Dampier was tried before a Rankin County Circuit Court jury and was convicted of capital murder. The Rankin County Circuit Court sentenced Dampier to life imprisonment without eligibility for parole in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC). Dampier's conviction and sentence were affirmed by the Mississippi Supreme Court. Dampier v. State, 973 So.2d 221, 237 (¶44) (Miss. 2008).

¶2. Following the United States Supreme Court's decision in Miller v. Alabama, 567 U.S. 4607 (2012), the supreme court granted Dampier leave to file a motion for post-conviction relief (PCR)^[1] in the Rankin County Circuit Court based on Miller. The circuit court subsequently entered an agreed order vacating Dampier's sentence and setting the case for a Miller sentencing hearing. Dampier moved for jury sentencing with respect to that hearing, which the circuit court denied. Dampier also filed motions for funds for a mitigation investigator and a psychologist to assist in his preparation for the Miller sentencing hearing. The circuit court granted the motions in part.

¶3. After an evidentiary hearing, the circuit court assessed the Miller factors and found they weighed in favor of a sentence of life without parole. The circuit court therefore denied Dampier's request to be re-sentenced to a term of life imprisonment with eligibility for parole.

¶4. On appeal, Dampier asserts that the circuit court's decision must be reversed because (1) he has a statutory right to be re-sentenced by a jury; (2) his life-without-parole sentence is disproportionate as a matter of law; (3) his Sixth and Fourteenth Amendment rights were violated when the circuit court denied adequate funding for an investigator; (4) the circuit court applied the "wrong legal standard" in sentencing him to life without parole; and (5) sentencing a minor to life without parole is "categorically" unconstitutional in all cases. For the reasons explained below, we conclude that Dampier's assignments of error are without merit and that the judgment of the circuit court must be affirmed.

STATEMENT OF FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

I. The Crime, Trial, and Direct Appeal

¶5. McGuffee was shot and killed at his car dealership, Five Star Auto, and two cars were stolen from the lot. The crime occurred on July 8, 2004. On February 9, 2005, Dampier, who was sixteen years old at the time of shooting, was indicted along with twenty-one-year old Rogers for capital murder and conspiracy to commit murder for McGuffee's death. Rogers pleaded guilty; Dampier's case was tried before a Rankin County jury beginning August 29, 2006.

¶6. At trial, the State presented two statements that Dampier gave to police shortly after the shooting (dated July 9 and July 23, 2004), in which Dampier described his involvement in the crime at Five Star Auto. In his July 23, 2004 statement, Dampier said:

[Rogers] called me [on July 6, 2004] and he told me that he wanted me to come help him pick up these cars . . . . [H]e said Five Star [Auto Sales] . . . . Then I said how you gonna get 'em and he said I'm gonna buy 'em . . . . Then he said, [h]ow we gonna do is, I'm gonna get you to drive me up there, then I'm gonna get you to go to the store and park the car. Naw, that my [Dampier's] girlfriend [Tamesha McClendon] stays close over. I said take the cars to her house which is Indian Creek Apartments.

¶7. Dampier stated that on the morning of July 8 (the day of the shooting), Rogers came to Dampier's house and said, "Ready? Alright good . . . so I put my shirt on. He went outside to the car, ready." As Dampier was walking outside toward the car, he said he saw that "[Rogers], he'd got his gun and he'd put it inside his pants. And he putting his shirt over it so I went on and got in the car. So we drove off . . . and so I asked him, . . . Maine, why'd you got your pistol with you?^[2] He said: No reason." "So," Dampier said, "I didn't say nuttin' else about it."

¶8. Dampier said he drove the car (a blue Toyota Corolla) to Five Star Auto because "it had been a while since I had drove a stick." When they got to Five Star Auto, Dampier said he "was about to turn in and [Rogers] said: "N'aw, don't pull in, pull right here which is right there in front of the place," blocking the gate.^[3] Dampier said that he then "let [Rogers] out. So [Rogers] walked inside the building [on the car lot]. Then him and the man [McGuffee] came out and checked out the Mustang." Dampier said that no one other than McGuffee was at the car lot at the time.

¶9. Dampier sat in the car (in front of the entrance gate) and could see that McGuffee and Rogers had "[o]pened the door [of the green Mustang] and popped the hood," and then "[Rogers] pulled his hand up for me to leave and go to Indian Creek apartments." Rebecca Wood testified that she drove past Five Star Auto "around 11:00 [a.m.]" She said that she "was going to make a payment," but when she "got to Five Star, there was a medium blue[-]colored car parked in the driveway that was kind of cross-ways[, so] . . . I didn't stop, I just kept going." She also testified that "Mr. McGuffee was standing out front of a Mustang with the hood up with a black gentleman's back to [Highway] 49." Wood said that the black gentleman was "about 5'10" or 5'11"." Investigator Eklund of the Rankin County Sheriff's Office testified that according to the booking sheets for Rogers and Dampier, "[t]he height of Mr. Rogers is 5'6", recorded weight of 210 pounds. The recorded height of Mr. Dampier is 6'0"[,] . . . 200 pounds."

¶10. As noted, Dampier said he left Five Star Auto after Rogers waved him on and went to Indian Creek apartments. Indian Creek apartments are located on Highway 49 south of Five Star Auto. Dampier's girlfriend, McClendon, lived there.

¶11. In his July 9, 2004 statement, Dampier said that when he got to his girlfriend's apartment, he "told [McClendon] about what was goin' on down there[, Rogers] wanted me to come get these cars for him and stuff, I told her that he had a pistol. I didn't know he say what he was gonna do with it, he said he wouldn't gonna do nothing with it[.]"

¶12. Then, according to Dampier, "within no time, [Rogers] came back, he picked me up [in the Mustang]." Dampier accompanied Rogers back to Five Star Auto in the green Mustang, Rogers gave him a key to a black Jeep Cherokee on the lot, and Dampier got in it. Dampier said that after they drove through the entrance as they were leaving (Rogers driving the Green Mustang and Dampier following him driving the black Jeep Cherokee), Rogers stopped, got out of his car, and closed the entrance gate. Dampier asked Rogers, "[W]hat'd you close the gate for? He said, "Dude, this dude's in a hurry and [Rogers] had the keys and [McGuffee] wanted me to lock up after I get the Jeep.'" Joe Ishee testified that he drove past Five Star Auto at around 11:25 a.m. and noticed "a big colored man closing the gate. When I come by there he was closing that white gate, and he went through there. And there was an SUV, a dark-colored vehicle there."

¶13. Upon leaving Five Star Auto, Dampier said he followed Rogers southbound on Highway 49 to Rogers's apartment. At trial, Richard Vorder Bruegge, Ph.D., was accepted as an expert in forensic image analysis and video analysis. He reviewed surveillance video retrieved by law enforcement from a business south of Five Star Auto on the southbound side of Highway 49. Bruegge limited his focus to southbound traffic, explaining that the video quality was too poor for him to reach any conclusions about northbound vehicles.

¶14. Bruegge concluded that both the green Mustang and the black Jeep Cherokee traveled southbound on Highway 49 only one time between 11:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. on July 8, 2004. As to the green Mustang, Bruegge testified that, if it "came down [Highway 49] in that period from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., then it was at . . .11:25:32." Regarding the black Jeep Cherokee, Bruegge "found two instances in which there was a vehicle that was consistent with the black Jeep . . . . One of them is at 11:25:42, and the other one was at 11:23." Bruegge concluded that if the black Jeep Cherokee followed the green Mustang, as Dampier described in his statements, it did so at 11:25:42.

¶15. Dampier stated that when they got to Rogers's apartment Rogers asked him to fill out the title applications for the Mustang and the Cherokee "cause his wife knew his handwriting." After Dampier completed the title applications, Dampier said that Rogers signed McGuffee's name on both of them. While they were at the apartment, Rogers received a phone call. Dampier said that after Rogers got off the phone, Rogers told him that McGuffee "had been shot. And so like . . . I [said], what'd they kill him for. He told me that they found some drugs on him and they had stole a Crown Vic from his lot." Later that day, Dampier confronted Rogers and said, "[N]ow...