Passons v. State
| Decision Date | 21 November 1960 |
| Docket Number | No. 41707,41707 |
| Citation | 239 Miss. 629,124 So.2d 847 |
| Parties | Robert Earl PASSONS v. STATE of Mississippi. |
| Court | Mississippi Supreme Court |
Hugh L. Bailey, Rupert Ringold, Winona, for appellant.
Joe T. Patterson, Atty. Gen., by G. Garland Lyell, Jr., Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellee.
Appellant Robert Earl Passons, was convicted in the Circuit Court of Montgomery County of robbery with firearms. Miss.Code 1942, Rec., Sec. 2367. He was sentenced to ten years in the state penitentiary, and appeals.
The evidence was sufficient to support the conviction. Mr. and Mrs. G. C. Castle operated a motel in Winona. On the night of January 8, 1959, Mrs. Castle was keeping the office. Her husband was ill and had retired. Around 11:35 p. m. two men entered the office and one of them, the leader, pointed a pistol at Mrs. Castle, required her to open the safe, and took from her about $125 in cash. The crime took place over a period of about twenty five minutes, while the robbers were threatening Mrs. Castle in order to get her to open the safe. Her testimony is the only evidence connecting defendant with the crime. We have examined it carefully. Mrs. Castle made an intelligent and perceptive witness. She was with defendant and his accomplice, according to her testimony, around twenty five minutes, and had ample time to observe and remember his appearance. She was positive in her identification of Passons, stating she could not 'possibly be mistaken,' and was 'just as positive as a person can be.' Her eyesight was good, she did not wear glasses, and certainly her powers of perception and memory appeared to be sound. The the was amply warranted in accepting her testimony identifying defendant as one of the robbers.
Defendant denied he was guilty, and said that on that night he was with Jerry L. Knotts and Billy Polk in Jackson, about ninety miles from Winona. However, Knotts testified that he saw Passons early that afternoon, and no later; and Polk said he did not see defendant after 8 to 8:30 p. m. Mrs. Strong, another witness for defendant, stated on cross-examination that she saw Passons two days after the robbery occurred. He was going to Vicksburg and then to California, and told her, 'I am hot, I've got to get out of town,' that he had written some bad checks. In short, the witnesses for defendant do not support his asserted alibi, since they do not place him in Jackson any later than three hours before the crime occurred. Moreover, the testimony of Mrs. Castle was exceptionally strong, and amply warranted the jury in accepting her identification of Passons as the guilty man, and rejecting defendant's assertion he was somewhere else.
The character and adequacy of evidence of identification of an accused in a criminal case is primarily a question for the jury, provided the evidence could reasonably be held sufficient to comply with the requirement of proof beyond a reasonable doubt. The jury need not be controlled by the number of witnesses testifying to the identification of an accused. Identification based on the testimony of...
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Henry v. State
...for the determination of the jury. Prisock v. State, Miss., 141 So.2d 711; Cobb v. State, 235 Miss. 57, 108 So.2d 719; Passons v. State, 239 Miss. 629, 124 So.2d 847. The former judgment reversing this case for a new trial is hereby set aside and a judgment will be entered affirming the jud......
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York v. State, 53048
...beyond a reasonable doubt. The weight and credibility of any identification, however, were left solely to the jury. Passons v. State, 239 Miss. 629, 124 So.2d 847 (1960). In February, 1967, the United States Supreme Court in three decisions initiated an indepth search of the inherent proble......
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Young v. Herring
...proper weight and credibility to be given that testimony. York v. State, 413 So.2d 1372, 1374 (Miss.1982) (quoting Passons v. State, 239 Miss. 629, 124 So.2d 847 (1960)); McNeal v. State, 405 So.2d 90 (Miss.1981); Chambers v. State, 402 So.2d 344, 347 (Miss.1981). In the instant case, the M......
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Conner v. State
......State, 835 So.2d 14, 22 (Miss.2003))). Likewise, the sufficiency of the evidence used to identify the accused “is primarily a question for the jury, provided the evidence could reasonably be held sufficient to comply with the requirement of proof beyond a reasonable doubt.” Passons v. State, 239 Miss. 629, 634, 124 So.2d 847, 848 (1960). ¶ 8. The Court of Appeals primarily relied on the proximity between the location of the burglary and where Officer Kinne spotted a vehicle matching the description provided by Campbell. This circumstantial evidence turns on ......