Owens v. State
| Decision Date | 06 December 2022 |
| Docket Number | 2021-KA-00887-COA |
| Parties | RONALD OWENS A/K/A DO IT APPELLANT v. STATE OF MISSISSIPPI APPELLEE |
| Court | Mississippi Court of Appeals |
DATE OF JUDGMENT: 05/19/2021
COAHOMA COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT HON. CHARLES E. WEBSTER JUDGE
ATTORNEY FOR APPELLANT: OFFICE OF STATE PUBLIC DEFENDER BY JUSTIN TAYLOR COOK
ATTORNEY FOR APPELLEE: OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL BY: BARBARA WAKELAND BYRD
DISTRICT ATTORNEY: BRENDA FAY MITCHELL
BEFORE CARLTON, P.J., LAWRENCE AND SMITH, JJ.
¶1. Ronald Owens was indicted for burglary of a business. After a jury trial, Owens was convicted. Owens appeals his conviction claiming it was against the weight of the evidence. After review, we affirm the judgment of conviction.
¶2. On Saturday, October 7, 2017, at approximately 8:11 a.m., an alarm at Henderson's Economy Pharmacy was triggered. The alarm company contacted the Clarksdale Police Department, and two officers were dispatched to the pharmacy. The officers scanned the building but found no evidence of a burglary and left the scene.
¶3. On Monday morning, October 9, 2017, the pharmacist and owner of Economy Pharmacy, Val Soldevila, came to work and noticed the back door to the pharmacy was unlocked. Soldevila entered the pharmacy and noticed a ladder in his office. Soldevila noticed the alarm system was no longer operating. Clarksdale Police Officer William "Whit" Read would later testify it appeared the video surveillance system in Economy Pharmacy had been disabled; either the wire had been cut or had been unplugged. Soldevila also found the narcotics cabinet had been "pried open, . . . [and] most of the narcotics were missing." Soldevila called 911. Clarksdale Police Officer Norman Starks arrived at Economy Pharmacy and began processing the scene.
¶4. Read also arrived at the scene and began investigating by walking the perimeter of the pharmacy to determine what businesses nearby had cameras that may have recorded the burglary. One business that had security camera footage from October 7, 2017, was Neveah Hospice. The footage showed the officers arriving in response to the call on Saturday October 7, 2017, and then leaving. The video later showed a suspect wearing a backpack, walking out of the back door of Economy Pharmacy. The suspect then walked down the highway toward the Double Quick gas station and out of view of the camera. Having reviewed the footage, Read would later testify,
¶5. After obtaining the video from Neveah Hospice, Read contacted the Double Quick gas station to obtain security camera footage of the time in question. After watching the footage, Read took a photograph of a black male standing at a food station in the gas station. Read felt that the male matched the description of the male suspect seen in the Neveah Hospice video. Read sent the photograph to officers at the police department to see if anyone could identify the suspect. Officer Daryll Taylor identified the suspect in the photograph as Ronald Owens. Officers then obtained a warrant for Owens' arrest and went to his home and place of employment but could not locate him. Owens turned himself in to police later that day.
¶6. After Owens' arrest, officers obtained a warrant and searched Owens' home. Officers found a red and black bag, a prescription pill bottle for Lortab with Owens' name on it from a different pharmacy, and a prescription medicine bottle without Owens' name on it, which had an Economy Pharmacy label and a red X on it. The Economy Pharmacy bottle was a "supply bottle" that was used to fill prescriptions. On January 6, 2018, a grand jury indicted Owens for burglary of a business. On March 17 and 18, 2018, a trial was held.
¶7. The State's first witness was Officer Starks. He testified that when he arrived at Economy Pharmacy, he walked through the pharmacy with Soldevila. The entire walkthrough was recorded on Officer Starks' body camera. That footage was admitted into evidence and played for the jury. In the video, Soldevila told Starks, Soldevila told Starks that whoever burglarized the pharmacy left their ladder in his office and unplugged the pharmacy's security cameras. Soldevila stated that he believed the burglar went into the ceiling to unplug the video system.
¶8. The video continued: while Starks took photographs of the scene, Soldevila stood next to his office chair and asked him, "Y'all want a footprint?" Starks stated that the print looked like an "Air Force One"[1] and took a photograph of the chair. Starks also climbed the ladder to look in the attic. He noted that there was a large hole in the pharmacy's roof that was big enough for a person to slide in.
¶9. After the video ended, the direct examination of Starks resumed. Starks testified that he determined the burglar's point of entry was "on top of the roof, and they actually came down in that far corner of the office through the ceiling." Starks testified that nothing was collected as to the footprint for testing at the lab. Starks also testified that he did not see any red bags or duffle bags while he was in the pharmacy.
¶10. The State's next witness was Darryl Johnson, the CEO of Neveah Hospice. Johnson testified that he allowed officers to look at the hospice center's surveillance footage. During his testimony, the security footage from Neveah Hospice was admitted and played for the jury. The footage was very grainy. At 15:18 minutes, the suspect exited the building through the back door. The suspect had on a black shirt, jeans, and white shoes. The suspect also put a black bag on his back and walked off-screen.
¶11. The State then called Kalista Vincent as a direct witness. Vincent was employed as a theft-prevention employee with the Double Quick. Vincent testified that the police asked her to view and pull the video from the Double Quick from October 7, 2017. Vincent testified she obtained the video from the Double Quick during the time requested and provided it to the police.
¶12. Officer Read testified next, stating that he walked the perimeter of the pharmacy to see if any neighboring businesses had security footage of October 7, 2017. Read noted that Neveah Hospice had cameras. Read testified that he could tell the suspect "has black pants, kind of white colored shoes, top." Further, Read added that as the suspect got near the street, the suspect started in a northerly direction, toward the Double Quick. Read testified the suspect in the footage had on a backpack. Read stated that Saldovila told him the pharmacy gave its customers red and black backpacks. Read stated that after seeing the hospice footage, he began looking for other businesses with cameras in the direction the suspect walked.
¶13. Read testified that he knew the Double Quick was in the area the suspect walked, so he contacted Vincent to request camera footage from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. or 11:00 a.m. on October 7, 2017. Read testified that in the video from the Double Quick, he could see a figure with a backpack that looked similar to the one he had seen with the person leaving the pharmacy and walking into the Double Quick's parking lot. Read testified that he tracked the movement of the suspect and saw the suspect stop at the area where the Double Quick sold chicken and french fries. Read took a still shot of the suspect from the Double Quick video. Read testified that he disseminated that photograph to the police department in hopes of someone identifying the suspect. After Read sent the photograph out, he handed the case over to Investigator Eddie Earl.
¶14. On cross-examination, Read agreed that he could not say for certain that the suspect in the Neveah Hospice video and the suspect in the Double Quick video was the same person. Read also agreed that he could not see the suspect from the Neveah Hospice video walk the entire distance to get to the Double Quick. Read stated that he determined it was the same person because both had backpacks.[2] Read testified that he did not know whether the backpack or any of the stolen narcotics were ever recovered, he did not know whether fingerprints were "lifted" from the scene, and he did not know if there was any DNA or physical evidence linking Owens to the burglary.
¶15. Officer Eddie Earl, a criminal investigator for the Clarksdale Police Department, testified next. Earl stated that Starks contacted him to investigate a burglary at Economy Pharmacy. After Starks contacted him, Earl contacted Read and learned Read was looking at surveillance footage from October 7, 2017. Earl also went to Economy Pharmacy and spoke with Soldevila, who showed Earl a "prying tool" that had been left behind by the burglar. Earl testified that he did not know whether the tool had ever been tested at the crime lab. Earl stated that Read sent him a "still shot" of an individual at the Double Quick, and Earl asked officers in the police department if they knew the suspect. Another officer, Taylor, identified the individual as Owens. Earl prepared an arrest warrant. Earl testified that he went to Owens' home to arrest him, but Owens was not there. Earl stated that he also went to Owens' place of employment, but Owens was not there either. Later that day, Owens turned himself in to the Clarksdale police.
¶16. Earl testified that after Owens' arrest, he executed a search warrant on Owens' home. The search yielded a red and black bag, a prescription pill bottle with Owens' name on it, and a prescription medicine bottle without Owens' name on it. Earl testified that the prescription medicine...
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