Graham v. State, 90-KA-0289
| Decision Date | 05 June 1991 |
| Docket Number | No. 90-KA-0289,90-KA-0289 |
| Citation | 582 So.2d 1014 |
| Parties | Michael David GRAHAM v. STATE of Mississippi. |
| Court | Mississippi Supreme Court |
Jim W. Rose, Gulfport, for appellant.
Mike C. Moore, Atty. Gen., John R. Henry, Jr., Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen., Jackson, for appellee.
Before HAWKINS, P.J., and ROBERTSON and SULLIVAN, JJ.
Michael Graham and Adrienne Klasky Graham were married in 1980. In 1986, Adrienne received a divorce from Michael on the grounds of irreconcilable differences and was awarded custody of the couple's two sons.
Michael's family said that Michael changed in personality after the divorce. Michael's father developed aneurysms of the head and stomach in September of 1988. Michael would visit his father in the hospital and would talk to him but he would not talk to the rest of the family. He became withdrawn. His mother described Michael as arrogant and angry during the three-year period after the divorce.
On Christmas of 1988, Michael's family gathered at his parents' home located next door to Michael's. His three brothers and their families were all there since that Christmas would be his father's last. Mrs. Graham went next door to Michael's and asked him to come join the family. Michael told her that he did not have the time; he was too busy.
Michael's brothers, Wayne, John, and Charles, noticed the change in Michael. He became withdrawn and rejected his family and friends. Once, Michael and his young nephews started throwing rocks at each other and Michael went into the house and called the police.
Michael was represented by several lawyers during and after the divorce. Michael hired attorney Donald Sigalas to represent him in the divorce proceeding and in subsequent proceedings. Sigalas had known Michael for most of Michael's life. Sigalas also noticed a change in Michael after the divorce. According to Sigalas, he became withdrawn.
Michael hired attorney Richard Hamilton in October of 1987 to file a petition to try to get Michael visitation with his children. Adrienne responded by filing a counter-petition asking that Michael be held in contempt for unpaid child support and asking that the amount of child support be modified. Before a hearing was held on the matter, the judge met with the attorneys and indicated what he felt was a proper amount of child support. When Hamilton relayed this to Michael, Michael told him that he did not want Hamilton to represent him any more. During Hamilton's representation of Michael, Michael expressed anger toward his former wife and her father. In fact, he threatened their lives.
Sigalas filed a petition on behalf of Michael asking that Adrienne be held in contempt for refusing Michael his visitation rights. In a hearing on this matter, the court held that Adrienne's was not a willful violation. Sigalas also represented Michael when Adrienne filed a petition asking that Michael be held in contempt for nonpayment of child support. Michael, in that instance, was held to be in contempt.
Sigalas knew of one instance where Michael had hit Adrienne. That occurred one day when Michael went to Adrienne's to pick up the children and Adrienne refused him visitation. They argued, Adrienne slapped Michael, and he hit her.
Adrienne asked the court for a protective order on two occasions. Michael would show up unannounced at Adrienne's. He also made threatening phone calls to Adrienne. The court issued a protective order and enjoined Michael from harassing Adrienne. The second time Adrienne asked for a protective order, Michael was sentenced to serve ninety days in the Adult Detention Center. Michael actually served thirty days of that sentence.
Adrienne and her two sons eventually moved in with her parents because she was afraid of Michael. Adrienne worked for her father at Brumfield's Department Store in Pascagoula as a merchandise manager and buyer.
On April 3, 1989, Michael was served with process. He was ordered to appear in the Jackson County Chancery Court on May 5, 1989, to show cause as to why he should not be held in contempt as alleged by the complaint filed by Adrienne.
On April 4, 1989, two of Michael's brothers, Wayne and Charles, went to the courthouse and signed papers to have Michael picked up on a lunacy charge so that he could be evaluated. Michael was never picked up on the charge.
On the morning of April 7, 1989, Adrienne worked on some orders at home until she left for work around 10:00 a.m. On her way to work, she dropped her mother off at the beauty shop on Jackson Avenue.
Adrienne stopped at a traffic light on Jackson and Pascagoula Streets. Witnesses stopped at the light saw a gray Dodge pickup headed in a westerly direction coming up in the eastbound lane. The truck stopped beside Adrienne's car and witnesses saw the driver pick up a gun and point it at the car. The witnesses heard a shotgun blast and saw the glass in the car windows shatter.
The truck then drove off and turned south on Pascagoula Street. Two of the witnesses, Robert Auth and Craig Taylor, who were in a van owned by Jackson County Maintenance, after seeing that there was nothing they could do to help, went to see if they could find the truck. They saw the truck at the light on Convent Street. They took down the license plate number and then returned to the scene of the shooting.
Another witness to the shooting, Joseph Bourgeois, wrote down a description of the truck and what he thought was the tag number. The witnesses identified Michael Graham as the driver of the truck.
Officer Eric Rayborn with the City of Pascagoula was on duty that morning. He was on Market Street when he was advised that a shot had been fired on Jackson Avenue close to Pascagoula Street. When he arrived on the scene, he saw a black Lincoln parked in the road heading west. He noticed that both of the front windows were broken out of the car. Inside the car, he saw a female sitting in the driver's seat with her head back against the headrest. She had a gun blast to her left temple. Four witnesses told Officer Rayborn what had happened. The woman's driver license identified her as Adrienne Graham.
Michael proceeded to the office of Donald Sigalas. Michael told Sigalas that he thought he had shot Adrienne. He said that it had happened on Market Street. Sigalas offered to take him to the police department. When they turned on Pascagoula Street, Michael said that he did not want to go that way, so Sigalas took him to the sheriff's department instead.
Detective Sergeant David Tucker of the Pascagoula Police Department heard on the police radio that the truck involved in the shooting had been located in front of Donnie Sigalas' office on Market Street. Tucker proceeded to Market Street and saw the pickup. Inside the truck on the front seat, he found an ax handle and a cartridge hull. He also saw the barrel of what he thought was a high-powered rifle on the floorboard in front of the bench seat. A towel was thrown over the butt of the gun and when he flipped the towel back, he saw that it was a shotgun. The gun was identified as a twelve gauge, Remington 1100, semiautomatic, serial number M269805V.
Officer James Hunter with the Pascagoula Police Department ran a check on the tag number of the truck located in front of Sigalas' office. The truck was registered in the name of Michael D. Graham.
John Michael Allen, a forensic scientist specializing in firearm and tool mark evidence examined the shotgun hull in order to determine if it was fired from the shotgun found in the truck. He made test comparisons and gave as his opinion that the shotgun hull was indeed fired from the gun.
Dr. Paul McGarry, a forensic pathologist, performed an autopsy on Adrienne Graham. He determined that the cause of death was due to a shotgun wound to the head which entered the left temple and exited the right temple, massively disrupting her brain. He found two buckshot inside her head. She had extensive powder stippling around the entry wound indicating that the shot was at close range, from three to five feet.
Sergeant Glen Veil with the Pascagoula Police Department participated in taking a witness statement and fingerprinting Michael Graham. Sergeant Veil turned the fingerprints over to Lieutenant Hunter. Lieutenant Hunter lifted fingerprints from the shotgun. He sent those fingerprints along with the print card he had received from Sergeant Veil to the Mississippi Crime Lab.
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