Mathis v. State
| Decision Date | 03 December 1979 |
| Parties | James Nathaniel MATHIS, Petitioner, v. STATE of Tennessee, Respondent. |
| Court | Tennessee Supreme Court |
Wm. Walker Gwinn, Memphis, for petitioner.
Brooks McLemore, Jr., Atty. Gen., John F. Southworth, Jr., Asst. Atty. Gen., Nashville, Hugh W. Stanton, Jr., Dist. Atty. Gen., David C. Wade, Don A. Dino, Asst. Dist. Attys. Gen., Memphis, for respondent.
We granted certiorari in this criminal action, wherein petitioner was convicted of murder in the second degree and sentenced to thirty-two years confinement in the state penitentiary, in order to determine the sufficiency of the evidence. We find it to be insufficient and reverse and dismiss the case.
Petitioner was jointly indicted and tried with Bobby B. Kimmons, also known as "Skinny Pimp," who received the same sentence. The homicide was actually committed by Kimmons. We denied certiorari in his case because our review of the evidence resulted in our considering it to be sufficient. The conviction of petitioner must rest upon the sufficiency of the evidence to convict him as an aider and abettor.
The State's case against petitioner rests solely upon the insistence that he handed Kimmons the gun used to commit the homicide. We review the evidence and trial proceedings.
Late at night on November 13, 1976, Kimmons, accompanied by petitioner, Terry (Doc) Williams and James (Butch) Gregory, went to the apartment of the victim, Ronald (Shine) Farmer, apparently for the purpose of borrowing his automobile. With Farmer were James Anthony and Fred Jeffries. Only Kimmons and petitioner entered the apartment. Kimmons got into an argument with Farmer stemming from damages done to his automobile on an occasion when he previously used it. Petitioner left, went to his house and later came back. Upon his return the argument had moved outside. It concluded when Kimmons shot and killed Farmer.
The State led off with James Anthony, who was in Farmer's apartment when petitioner and Kimmons arrived. Anthony was a senior at Booker T. Washington High School. According to him, Kimmons entered alone and talked with Farmer about borrowing his car. Farmer demurred because of damage done when he had borrowed it before. During this discussion, petitioner entered, spoke and went back out after staying only a minute or two. After he left, Farmer and Kimmons went out into the hallway and continued the argument in rather heated tones and terms. Anthony and Jeffries went out into the hall, brought Farmer back inside and threw him on the bed.
Subsequently, Farmer, Anthony and Jeffries went out to the car. As they did they came upon Kimmons who started arguing again. Anthony's statement of the critical events follows:
As Shine was getting in the car, me and Fred had already got in the car, and Shine got back out of the car, and went around the car, and they was start (sic) arguing. And, I saw Bobby (Kimmons) Bend over. I don't know exactly what he was bending over for, but they were arguing, and he came around. When he came around, I saw the gun in his hand. And, I tried to tell Mr. Farmer that he had a gun so he would come on and get in the car, so we could go where he was going. And, so they kept on arguing, and Shine was in a swing on Mr. Bobby, and Bobby pushed him back off of him, and shot him. (Emphasis supplied).
He stated positively that he did not see petitioner; that he didn't know where he was; and that he never saw petitioner after he left the apartment.
The State's next witness was Fred Lee Jeffries. He was in Farmer's apartment when Kimmons arrived. He corroborates Anthony on the beginning conversation, the subsequent entry of petitioner, his departure, and generally on the details of the argument in the apartment and hallway and their taking Farmer back into the apartment to "cool him down."
He says that after they left the apartment and as they were going to the car, Kimmons appeared in the hallway and porch and started provoking Farmer. His version of the shooting coincides with Anthony's in the essential details. The following extracts from his testimony on the State's direct examination are significant:
Q. Could you tell whether Bobby Kimmons, Skinny Pimp, had a weapon?
A. Well, before he got up on him, I seen him bend down, and brought something out.
Q. Did you see anyone else around that time?
A. No.
Q. When you saw that (the shooting) was the defendant, James Mathis, standing close by him.
A. No.
At this point the State requested a jury-out hearing. In the absence of the jury, the witness was examined about an alleged statement made by him to the examining Assistant District Attorney General to the effect that petitioner was standing near Skinny Pimp when the shot was fired. It was the witness' insistence that he was referring to the hallway and not the outdoor area at the time of the killing. He maintained that he had been asked by the Assistant District Attorney General whether petitioner was "anywhere around when they were arguing." His response to that inquiry had been in the affirmative.
The witness reiterated that he had not seen petitioner at the time of the shooting but, by affirmative response, said he "saw him just before the shooting." He gave certain distance estimates between petitioner and Mathis but these were clearly during the argument that preceded the shooting.
The jury was returned to the courtroom. Jeffries again stated that he had been an eyewitness to the shooting but did not see petitioner "out there," and that he "was not outside." The jury was again excused. The Trial Judge immediately took over the questioning of the witness and examined and cross-examined him rigidly and closely. The witness reiterated that petitioner was not present at the time of the shooting.
It is apparent from the Trial Judge's questions that he construed the witness' testimony during the jury-out hearing as outlining the distance separating petitioner from Kimmons as relating to the time of the actual shooting. It is equally apparent that the witness had, in fact, related it to the time of the prior argument.
After the Trial Judge had admonished the witness that "if you tell a lie on this witness chair, under oath, about this case, you can go to the penitentiary for perjury," Jeffries again stated that petitioner was not outside and that he last saw him "when they was arguing in the hall." The court graciously acknowledged that perhaps there had been a misunderstanding.
Be these things as they may, it was his clear and unrefuted testimony that the last time he saw petitioner was during the argument in the hall and he saw him at no other time that night. There was no proof to the contrary and we cannot presume the falsity of his statements, absent competent contradictory proof.
On cross-examination by Kimmons' counsel the witness stated that Kimmons took the pistol out of his sock. Before the actual shooting, he warned Farmer that Kimmons had a gun.
The next and last eyewitness called by the State was Tony Williams, who had accompanied petitioner and Kimmons to the Farmer apartment. 1 Upon arrival he remained in the car while Kimmons and petitioner went inside. Subsequently, petitioner came out alone, got in the automobile, drove to his house, got out, went inside and then came out. He had nothing in his hands. They drove back to Farmer's apartment. Petitioner got out but he "didn't pay no more attention to him." The witness remained in the car.
While seated in the car, he saw Farmer and Kimmons and heard them arguing. He saw Farmer advance on Kimmons and heard the shot. At the time Mathis was standing on the other side of a tree but not near Kimmons. He did not see Mathis hand Kimmons anything. As a matter of fact, he did not see the gun.
The State's last witness was Sergeant Kenneth East of the homicide division of the Memphis Police Department. On the night of the murder, as a part of his investigation, but before the investigation had focused on him, he talked with Mathis. Mathis related that he did not see the murder but heard the shot fired. He "didn't have any idea" how Kimmons got the weapon.
This was the State's entire case against petitioner. The State had established that Kimmons shot and killed Farmer. It had proved by two eyewitnesses that petitioner was not even at the scene, and by a third that he had gotten out of a car upon his return to the scene and apparently was somewhere in the vicinity. However, the State did not establish, by that third witness, that petitioner even witnessed the shooting. It had presented witnesses who said Kimmons bent down and removed the gun from his sock. The State's witnesses had affirmatively stated that petitioner did not hand a gun to Kimmons. In short, the State did not prove that petitioner was a participant who had committed, or aided or abetted in the commission of, any crime.
At the conclusion of the State's proof the petitioner moved the court for a directed verdict.
During the course of the argument the State conceded that there was only "slim proof against Mr. Mathis." It only argued a statement allegedly made by Tony Williams that petitioner had told him he had handed Kimmons the gun. It should be noted that Williams admitted to having made this statement to the police after they had represented to him that petitioner had "done this here." On the stand he flatly denied that petitioner had given Kimmons a gun and attributed his statement to confusion and a fear that he was being considered a suspect. He was eighteen years old at the time of the trial. Moreover, the court correctly held this not to be substantive evidence.
The State, in argument, did not dwell on this act at any length. In fact, the State's entire argument on the petitioner's motion is covered in twenty-one lines of the transcript and concludes with the...
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