Manning v. State, 96-DP-00943-SCT.

Decision Date31 March 1999
Docket NumberNo. 96-DP-00943-SCT.,96-DP-00943-SCT.
Citation735 So.2d 323
PartiesWillie Jerome MANNING a/k/a "Fly" v. STATE of Mississippi.
CourtMississippi Supreme Court

Mark Williamson, Starkville, Clive A. Stafford Smith, New Orleans, LA, Attorneys for Appellant.

Office of the Attorney General by Leslie S. Lee, Attorneys for Appellee.

EN BANC.

SULLIVAN, Presiding Justice, for the Court:

¶ 1. On January 18, 1993, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, at approximately 8:30 p.m., some children noticed the bodies of Emmoline Jimmerson and Alberta Jordan lying on the floor in their apartment at Brooksville Gardens in Starkville, Mississippi. Ms. Jimmerson, who was sixty years old, was the daughter of Ms. Jordan, who was ninety years old. One of the boys kicked the door open, and Nancy Elliott, Ms. Jimmerson's niece, entered the apartment to find the bodies of Ms. Jimmerson and Ms. Jordan lying in pools of blood.

¶ 2. The last time that witnesses were able to verify that the women were alive was around 5:30 to 5:45 p.m., when Ms. Jimmerson left Vanessa Williams's apartment, went downstairs, and spoke to Ms. Elliott on the telephone. County Medical Examiner Orville Musgrove estimated the time of death to be approximately 8:00 p.m., a conclusion disputed by Officer Stanley Sisk with the Mississippi Highway Patrol and Officer Jeff Curtis with the Starkville Police Department.

¶ 3. Both women had been severely beaten about the head with an iron discovered on the scene, and each had sustained slash wounds to the front of the neck which went all the way to the backbone. Officers Sisk and Curtis investigated the crime scene. In addition to the bloodcovered iron, they found a bloody kitchen knife wrapped in a curtain on a loveseat in the dining room area. There were no identifiable prints on either weapon, and the only identified print taken from the apartment belonged to Ms. Jordan. Dr. Steven Hayne, who performed the autopsies in this case, testified that the cause of death in both women was the slash wounds, which resulted in severe external bleeding and inhalation of blood. Dr. Hayne stated that the victims essentially drowned in their own blood.

¶ 4. Kevin Lucious testified that he saw Willie "Fly" Manning at Brooksville Gardens around 6:30 p.m. on the day of the murders. Manning was tipsy from drinking beer, and the two men had a conversation during which Manning mentioned that he needed some money. After their conversation, Lucious went back to his apartment and saw Manning go to Ms. Jimmerson and Ms. Jordan's apartment. Lucious watched Manning knock on the door, and when one of the women opened the door, he pushed the door open, went in and closed the door behind him. Lucious never saw Manning leave within the next twenty to forty-five minutes.

¶ 5. A couple of weeks after the murders, Lucious saw Manning at Club Essex. Manning had been drinking and said that if he'd known "they" only had twelve dollars, he wouldn't have done anything to "them." Manning's brother Marshon told him to shut up, and Manning told Marshon that he'd kill him, too. Manning then described pushing his way into the "old ladies'" apartment and said that when he went in one of them was in the living room and the other was in the back room, but came up front. Marshon told him to shut up again, which Manning did. Two or three days after the incident at Club Essex, Lucious saw Manning and Marshon at Brooksville Gardens again. Manning was waving a .25 automatic around "saying that it ain't nothing to kill somebody and you know, sometimes you have to kill people in order to get your respect that you deserve." Herbert Ashford testified that two or three weeks after the murders, he overheard Manning tell Lucious that he should have done more than he did to the ladies.

¶ 6. Manning gave a statement to police on March 10, 1994, in which he denied being at Brooksville Gardens on the day of the murders. He claimed that he went to town with his mother intending to march in the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day parade, but decided to go home when it started raining between 10:00 a.m. and noon. Manning also said that he had known the two old ladies since he was fourteen and did not know anyone who would want to hurt them. Manning's statement was refuted by the testimony of Kevin Lucious, Herbert Ashford, Nancy Elliott, Barbara Duck, and Larry Harris, who were all able to place Manning at Brooksville Gardens on January 18, 1993.

¶ 7. Manning's defense theory was that Emmoline Jimmerson's son, James Lee Jimmerson, was the actual perpetrator in this case. Jimmerson had been in an argument over the telephone with his mother on the morning of the murders. Based upon Dr. Hayne's testimony that one of the slash wounds on Ms. Jordan's neck was cut from her right to her left with a significant amount of force, the defense proposed that Jimmerson, being left-handed, was more likely to have committed the murders than Manning, who is right-handed. Defense attorney Mark Williamson's theory was that the perpetrator stood behind the victims and cut their throats as they lay on the floor. However, as the prosecutor pointed out during closing argument, Dr. Hayne was unable to determine whether the perpetrator stood behind, in front of, or to the side of the victims to slash their throats, and it would be possible for either a right-handed or left-handed person to inflict the wound in question. The defense also relied on the inconsistent statements of Shantay Lee, Jimmerson's girlfriend, regarding Jimmerson's whereabouts on the day in question. Police initially investigated Jimmerson as a suspect in the case, but found no evidence connecting him to the murders. Everyone they interviewed confirmed Jimmerson's alibi that he was at home at the time of the murders. Eventually, the focus of the investigation shifted to Manning, who was indicted in the Circuit Court of Oktibbeha County on two counts of capital murder.

¶ 8. Based upon the above evidence, the jury returned a verdict of guilty on both counts of capital murder on July 24, 1996. The sentencing phase of the trial was held on July 25, 1996, and the jury voted that the death penalty should be imposed in both counts. On July 30, 1996, Circuit Court Judge John M. Montgomery entered his orders of conviction and sentence, ordering that Manning be put to death by lethal injection on September 5, 1996. Manning perfected his appeal to this Court and assigns as error the following:

I. THE CASE MUST BE REVERSED AND RENDERED SINCE THE EVIDENCE DOES NOT EXCLUDE THE REASONABLE POSSIBILITY THAT WILLIE MANNING IS INNOCENT OF THE CRIMES.

II. IN A CASE THAT HINGED TOTALLY ON TWO HIGHLY QUESTIONABLE SNITCHES, THE JURY SHOULD HAVE BEEN INSTRUCTED TO VIEW THE TESTIMONY OF INFORMANTS WITH CAUTION.

III. WHERE WILLIE MANNING'S OTHER DEATH SENTENCE WAS COMMON KNOWLEDGE IN THE COMMUNITY, IT WAS ERROR TO REFUSE TO ALLOW THE DEFENSE TO VOIR DIRE MEANINGFULLY ON THIS CRITICAL ISSUE.

IV. WILLIE MANNING WAS DENIED HIS RIGHT TO EFFECTIVE COUNSEL AT THE PENALTY PHASE OF HIS TRIAL.

V. THE FAILURE TO GIVE A CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE INSTRUCTION VIOLATED WILLIE MANNING'S RIGHTS.

VI. WILLIE MANNING WAS DENIED A FAIR TRIAL BECAUSE THE STATE ONCE AGAIN ABUSED ITS PEREMPTORY CHALLENGES TO STRIKE BLACK JURORS IN VIOLATION OF BATSON v. KENTUCKY.

VII. THE GRUESOME PHOTOGRAPHS IN THIS CASE NOT ONLY PREJUDICED WILLIE MANNING, BUT RENDERED HIS JURY PARTIAL.

VIII. WITNESSES WHO TESTIFIED FOR THE STATE SHOULD

NOT HAVE BEEN ALLOWED TO SPECULATE OR OFFER OPINIONS REGARDING ISSUES WITHIN THE JURY'S SOLE PREROGATIVE.

IX. THE TRIAL COURT ERRED IN LIMITING DEFENSE COUNSEL'S INQUIRY CONCERNING THE SCOPE OF THE POLICE INVESTIGATION INTO THIS OFFENSE.

X. THE PROSECUTOR'S MISCONDUCT DURING THE COURSE OF CLOSING ARGUMENT VIOLATED MANNING'S RIGHT TO A FAIR TRIAL AND WARRANTS REVERSAL.

XI. THE AGGRAVATING CIRCUMSTANCES IN THIS CASE WERE IMPROPERLY APPLIED.

XII. THE SENTENCING INSTRUCTIONS INADEQUATELY INSTRUCTED THE JURY ON THE MANNER IN WHICH THEY SHOULD CONSIDER MITIGATING AND AGGRAVATING CIRCUMSTANCES.

XIII. THE DEFENSE WAS DENIED THE RIGHT TO MEANINGFUL INVESTIGATIVE ASSISTANCE.

XIV. VARIOUS MOTIONS SHOULD HAVE BEEN GRANTED PRIOR TO TRIAL.

XV. THE ACCUMULATION OF ERROR IN THIS CASE REQUIRES THAT THE DEATH SENTENCE BE SET ASIDE.

¶ 9. We find no errors requiring reversal of Manning's convictions in this case. However, because the trial court erred in overruling Manning's Batson objection to the second venire, we must remand to the Oktibbeha County Circuit Court for the sole purpose of conducting a Batson hearing.

STATEMENT OF THE LAW GUILT PHASE
I.

THE CASE MUST BE REVERSED AND RENDERED SINCE THE EVIDENCE DOES NOT EXCLUDE THE REASONABLE POSSIBILITY THAT WILLIE MANNING IS INNOCENT OF THE CRIMES.

¶ 10. Manning argues that the trial court erred in denying his motions for a directed verdict, because the evidence was insufficient to support the verdict. Specifically he points to the inconsistency and lack of credibility of the State's key witnesses, Kevin Lucious and Herbert Ashford, and the lack of evidence supporting the underlying felony of robbery. Manning requests that this Court reverse his convictions and discharge him.

When on appeal one convicted of a criminal offense challenges the legal sufficiency of the evidence, our authority to interfere with the jury's verdict is quite limited. We proceed by considering all of the evidence—not just that supporting the case for the prosecution—in the light most consistent with the verdict. We give [the] prosecution the benefit of all favorable inferences that may reasonably be drawn from the evidence. If the facts and inferences so considered point in favor of the accused with sufficient force that reasonable men could not have found beyond a reasonable doubt that he was guilty, reversal and discharge are required. On the other hand, if there is in the record substantial evidence of such quality and weight that, having in mind the beyond a
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