Ford v. State

• Decision Date: 22 September 2016
• Docket Number: NO. 2015-KA-00691-SCT,2015-KA-00691-SCT
• Parties: Daner FORD a/k/a Danner Ford a/k/a Dana Ford v. STATE of Mississippi
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court

206 So.3d 486

Daner FORD a/k/a Danner Ford a/k/a Dana Ford

v.STATE of Mississippi

NO. 2015-KA-00691-SCT

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

September 22, 2016

ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLANT: MERRIDA COXWELL, CHARLES RICHARD MULLINS

ATTORNEY FOR APPELLEE: OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL BY: LISA L. BLOUNT

BEFORE RANDOLPH, P.J., COLEMAN AND MAXWELL, JJ.

COLEMAN, JUSTICE, FOR THE COURT:

¶1. A jury found Daner Ford guilty of acting in concert to bring about the death of Marvin Stuckett, for a firearm enhancement, and for being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm. The trial court sentenced him as a habitual offender to a term of life imprisonment in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections. Aggrieved, Ford appeals. Discerning no error, we affirm.

FACTS

¶2. At approximately 3:00 a.m. on September 7, 2008, Marvin Stuckett was fatally shot outside his home on Stockton Drive, in Greenville, Mississippi. Witnesses testified that the sounds of the gunshots indicated two weapons: a semi-automatic rifle and a large-caliber pistol.

One witness saw what looked like a white Chevy Caprice driving outside, but witnesses otherwise could not identify the shooters. Stuckett was found lying in his neighbor's carport. First responders transferred him to the hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries.

¶3. Officer Terence Wigfall and Sergeant Elton Foster of the Greenville Police Department arrived first on the scene. They interviewed witnesses, observed the scene, and began to collect evidence. In particular, Foster collected from the ground three shells of the type fired from semi-automatic assault rifles and one round of the type fired from pistols. An assault rifle and rifle magazine were found inside a nearby vehicle and taken into evidence. At trial, witness testimony and ballistics established that the rifle and magazine had not been used in the shooting.

¶4. Interviews subsequent to Stuckett's murder revealed that the shooting had been the culmination of longstanding tension between two groups of men that had come to a head earlier that evening at a nightclub in town named Southern Whispers, where an acquaintance of all the parties was having a birthday party. Daner Ford and Carlos Smith had years of friction between them and the two men had a terse verbal exchange at the club. Stuckett was a friend of Smith's and was at the nightclub that evening, along with their other friends Nick Harmon and David Shanklin. Daner Ford was accompanied at the club by his cousins Stevenson Ford and Jessie Lee and his other friends Jonathan Robinson and Freddie Harris. Smith testified at Daner Ford's trial that before Daner Ford left Smith and Smith's friends, Daner Ford said that he was "going to kill one of you."

¶5. Later in the evening, Daner Ford and Carlos Smith "got to tussling," resulting in club security breaking the fight up and separating the two men. Stevenson Ford also engaged in a physical altercation with Smith and Harmon. Harmon testified that when security kicked out of the club Stuckett, Stevenson Ford, Robinson, and himself, Daner Ford was still outside, shirt off, shouting threats about "killing one of them "n–––––s" before running off into the night. Stuckett was outside when the threats were shouted.

¶6. Stuckett remained in Harmon's company for a while before parting ways with him and heading toward his house on Stockton Drive in his vehicle. He was shot to death soon after. Witness statements and tips called in to police led the investigators to locate and arrest Jessie Lee at a gas station in the early morning hours of September 7, 2008. Lee confessed his role in the shooting on Stockton Drive and named several others involved: Daner Ford and Stevenson Ford, Harris, Robinson, and Kendrick Johnson. According to Lee, he was driving his blue Chevy with Stevenson Ford, Robinson, and Johnson as his passengers. He was following Harris, who had Daner Ford as his passenger in his green Chevy. The two cars of men allegedly were on their way to another club when a third car ran a red light. Harris made a U-turn through a nearby gas station to follow it. Stevenson Ford told Lee to follow Harris, so Lee made a similar U-turn and followed. Lee thought that the men were now headed toward Harris's mother's house, but they ended up on Stockton Drive, where Stevenson Ford told Lee to pull over and stop, despite Harris's vehicle being somewhere else up the road and out of sight.

¶7. Lee testified that Daner Ford approached his car from the front, and that Daner Ford was carrying a rifle. Daner Ford crossed in front of the car, went into a nearby yard, and then Lee heard gunshots from behind him. Lee ducked his head, as he thought the shots were "right behind [his] head." When he raised his head again, he saw that Stevenson Ford had exited the car and was shooting "back towards the way we just came in." Lee heard somebody shout, "Don't do it, OJ,"¹ but didn't recognize the voice. Lee testified that he heard five to ten gunshots, and then Stevenson Ford and Daner Ford climbed into Lee's car. Daner Ford brought the rifle with him into the back seat, joking that Stevenson Ford nearly had shot him in the head, and telling the other passengers to forget that they had seen him.

¶8. After dropping his passengers at Stevenson Ford's house, Jessie Lee parked at his grandmother's house for about half an hour and then went to a Double Quick to get gas. By this time, Stuckett had been transported to the hospital, and Officer Tisaby had been alerted that a vehicle associated with the shooting was parked at the Double Quick. Soon after his arrest at the Double Quick, Lee gave a statement to the police and ultimately pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact.

¶9. Daner Ford gave a recorded statement to the police during the daytime hours of September 7, 2008. Detective Erica Brown conducted the interview and testified that she noticed an abrasion on Ford's nose, which Daner Ford told her was from the fight with Smith at Southern Whispers. In the recorded interview, Daner Ford recounted the altercation with Smith and stated that, after leaving Southern Whispers, Daner Ford went to Stevenson Ford's house and "laid out." He walked to his own home around 4:00 or 4:30 a.m. Daner Ford stated that he did not have a problem with Stuckett; that his problem was with Smith. The police then allowed Daner Ford to leave the station.

¶10. On Monday, September 8, 2008, the police department issued warrants for Daner Ford, Stevenson Ford, Harris, and Robinson. Stevenson Ford, Harris, and Robinson were arrested at Stevenson Ford's residence. Investigator Delano Wilson contacted T. George Kelly, Ford's attorney, and Kelly said that he would try to get Daner Ford to turn himself in. Kelly never made contact with Daner Ford. The police used a trap and trace and, on September 15, 2008, received a signal from Daner Ford's cell phone near his mother's house. Daner Ford's brother consented to a search of the house. The police discovered Daner Ford in the attic, where he was taken into custody.

¶11. On March 2, 2009, a grand jury indicted Ford on two counts within a three-count indictment. Count I alleged that Stevenson Ford, Daner Ford, Jonathan Robinson, Freddie Harris, and Jessie Lee, "each acting in concert with the other, ... did unlawfully, willfully, feloniously, and of their malice aforethought, then there kill and murder" Marvin Stuckett. Count I further alleged that Daner Ford had displayed a firearm during Stuckett's murder, in violation of Section 97–37–37 of the Mississippi Code. Count II alleged that Ford, a previously convicted felon, was in possession of an assault rifle. Count III concerned only Robinson. On August 7, 2009, the Circuit Court of Washington County severed the trials of the co-defendants. On November 16, 2010, the trial judge entered an order amending Daner Ford's indictment to charge him as a habitual offender.

¶12. At trial, the State presented as witnesses Jessie Coats, Tyrone Smith, Sergeant Foster, Officer Wigfall, Carlos Smith, Nick Harmon, Christopher York, Officer Tisaby, Detective Brown, Dr. Thomas Deering, Starks Hathcock, Jessie Lee, and Delando Wilson. After the State rested, Daner Ford moved for a directed verdict, which the court denied. The defense rested without presenting any witnesses. The jury found Daner Ford guilty as charged. On Daner Ford's request, the trial court polled the jury.

¶13. On November 29, 2010, Daner Ford moved for judgment notwithstanding the verdict or, in the alternative, for a new trial. The trial court denied the motion with a written opinion. On April 20, 2015, the circuit court granted Ford's motion to re-open the appeal deadline. Ford thereafter timely filed his notice of appeal.

ANALYSIS

I. The trial court did not err when it denied Daner Ford's motion for a mistrial and instead instructed the jury to disregard improper witness testimony.

¶14. Daner Ford's first assignment of error is that the State purposefully elicited prejudicial testimony from Smith and that the trial court erred when it denied his motion for a mistrial and instead instructed the jury to ignore Smith's statement. The Court reviews the denial of a motion for a mistrial for abuse of discretion. Flora v. State , 925 So.2d 797, 804 (¶ 5) (Miss.2006) (citing Spann v. State , 771 So.2d 883, 889 (Miss.2000) ).

This Court has held that a trial judge is best suited to determine the prejudicial effect of an objectionable remark and is given considerable discretion in deciding whether the remark is so prejudicial as to merit a mistrial. Roundtree v. State , 568 So.2d 1173, 1177 (Miss.1990). Unless "serious and irreparable damage" results from an improper comment, the judge should "admonish the jury then and there to disregard the improper comment." Johnson v. State , 477 So.2d 196, 210 (Miss.1985). While deference is given to decisions of trial judges, each case must stand on its own facts in order to determine whether a particular

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