Riggs v. State

• Decision Date: 22 June 1999
• Docket Number: No. 97-KA-00511-COA.,97-KA-00511-COA.
• Parties: Anthony Roshay RIGGS, Appellant, v. STATE of Mississippi, Appellee.
• Court: Mississippi Court of Appeals

744 So.2d 365

Anthony Roshay RIGGS, Appellant, v. STATE of Mississippi, Appellee.

No. 97-KA-00511-COA.

Court of Appeals of Mississippi.

June 22, 1999.

George F. West, Jr., Natchez, Attorney for Appellant.

Office of the Attorney General by Jean Smith Vaughan, Attorney for Appellee.

BEFORE KING, P.J., BRIDGES, AND LEE, JJ.

LEE, J., for the Court:

¶ 1. This is a criminal appeal seeking relief in the form of setting aside the verdict and the granting of a new trial. Anthony Riggs, the appellant, was found guilty of aggravated assault by shooting and wounding Joel Davis with the felonious intent to harm him and to cause serious bodily injury to him in violation of section 97-3-7 of the Mississippi Code, as amended. We affirm the findings of the Adams County Circuit Court.

STATEMENT OF THE FACTS

¶ 2. On June 3rd, 1995, Joel Davis was at Floyd's Spare Time Lounge in the 200 block of Martin Luther King Boulevard in the downtown area of Natchez, Mississippi. At some time during the course of the evening, Anthony Riggs had an altercation with Keith Minor. Riggs was with Leonard Marsaw and had intentionally spilled a drink onto Minor's shirt. Joel Davis, Vincent Ross and Leonard Marsaw tried to intercede and make peace between the parties by physically restraining Minor. Soon thereafter, Riggs was seen leaving the Lounge.

¶ 3. At approximately 1:30 a.m., Officer Kyle Wilson of the Natchez Police Department was patrolling the 200 block of Martin Luther King Boulevard in his patrol car and was flagged down in front of the Lounge by Maurice Davis. In front of the club, Officer Wilson found that a black male, identified as Joel Davis, had apparently been shot once in the buttocks, and once each in his rear left and right thighs. The officer called for an ambulance and called for another unit as backup, with Officer David Harris responding immediately to the scene.

¶ 4. Many of the patrons were streaming out of the Lounge at this time and several were questioned by the officers as to what had taken place. At that time, both officers were given a similar description of the assailant by several different witnesses, including the victim, as that of a black male known as "Marsaw" who was wearing a red Chicago Bull's jersey, brown pants and white tennis shoes.

¶ 5. Jody Waldrop of the Criminal Investigation Unit also arrived at the scene and subsequently conducted an interview with the victim, Joel Davis, at the hospital. Waldrop testified that Davis told him that he was in an altercation at the night club with people called Marsaws and that one of them shot him. Officer Wilson testified that Davis and others told him that the person who shot Davis was wearing a red Chicago Bulls jersey. Davis testified at trial that he saw Irving Marsaw standing with Riggs at the door of the night club just before the shooting and that Riggs was holding a gun in his right hand by his side. Davis saw Riggs fire the gun and he turned, but he could not move because he had been shot in the buttocks and the back of both thighs in rapid succession.

¶ 6. Officer Waldrop also interviewed Maurice Davis at the hospital and Troy Wiley and Keith Minor at the police station. In all interviews the name of Marsaw recurred. All men gave similar descriptions of the perpetrator as a black male wearing a red Chicago Bull's jersey. Waldrop interviewed the victim again at the hospital at nine the next morning. Joel Davis, the victim, told the officer at that time that the name of the man who shot him was Anthony Riggs. A warrant for Riggs's arrest was then issued. A photo composite of nine suspects was delivered to Davis who then picked Anthony Riggs, the appellant, out of the photo lineup.

¶ 7. At trial, defense witnesses testified that the appellant left the lounge around 11:30 p.m. Defense witnesses Leonard Marsaw and Lillie Mae White both confirmed that Anthony Riggs was definitely seen at the lounge between 11:00 and 11:30 p.m. They saw him leave, but they could not be sure whether he returned.

¶ 8. The defense also questioned the identity of the assailant because the victim misidentified him as "Marsaw" at the time of the shooting. Davis explained that when he was shot, he mistakenly thought that Riggs's name was Marsaw because Riggs was with Leonard Marsaw and others had referred to him as "Marsaw." Only in the hospital did he learn from Maurice Davis that the real name of the assailant was not Marsaw but Riggs, which he told to Officer Waldrop the next morning.

¶ 9. After hearing all of the testimony, the jury weighed the evidence and found that Anthony Riggs was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of the crime of aggravated assault. Riggs was sentenced to twenty years in prison.

ISSUES

¶ 10. The appellant asserts three issues on appeal:

I. THAT THE VERDICT WAS AGAINST THE OVERWHELMING WEIGHT OF THE EVIDENCE

II. THAT THE DEFENDANT DID NOT RECEIVE A SPEEDY TRIAL III. THAT THERE WERE THE JURORS WHO WERE NOT FAIR AND OPEN-MINDED DURING VOIR DIRE OR WHO SHOWED PREJUDICE WHICH LEFT THEM PARTIAL AT TRIAL

DISCUSSION OF THE LAW

I. THAT THE VERDICT WAS AGAINST THE OVERWHELMING WEIGHT OF THE EVIDENCE

¶ 11. Riggs contends that the jury's verdict was against the overwhelming weight of the evidence because of inconsistencies between the State's evidence and the defense's version of what happened. These inconsistencies included an "alibi" as well as a denial by the appellant of any knowledge of the shooting. Riggs contends that because the testimony of the defense was credible, that reasonable doubt exists and the court should have granted a directed verdict after the State rested its case.

¶ 12. Based on the weight and sufficiency of the evidence presented at trial, we find that a reasonable juror could have found that the appellant was guilty of aggravated assault. The resolution of the facts is the jury's function; it is the ultimate trier of fact. A jury may weigh the testimony of each witness in determining the credibility of that witness. This edict was elaborated upon in the early decision of Buckingham v. Walker, 48 Miss. 609, 630 (1873):

The jury is independent of the judge in responding to an issue of fact. The theory of our system assumes their entire capacity to make a true finding of facts, and therefore it belongs to their province to judge of the credibility and weight of the evidence. The court cannot revise and correct error in the verdict. It may, however, set aside when against the clear weight and preponderance of the testimony.

¶ 13. The standard against which a motion for JNOV is adjudged was laid out by the Mississippi Supreme Court in May v. State, 460 So.2d 778, 781 (Miss. 1984), as follows:

Where the defendant had moved for a JNOV, the trial court must consider all of the evidence—not just the evidence which supports the State's case—in the light most favorable to the State. The State must be given the benefit of all the favorable inferences that may be reasonably drawn from the evidence. Glass v. State, 278 So.2d 384, 386 (Miss.1973). If the facts and inferences so considered point in favor of the defendant with sufficient force that reasonable men could not have found beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant was guilty, granting the motion is required. On the other hand, if there is substantial evidence opposed to the motion—that is, evidence of such quality and weight that, having in mind the beyond a reasonable doubt burden of proof standard, reasonable fair-minded men in the exercise of impartial judgment might reach different conclusions—the motion should be denied.

In other words, once the jury has returned a verdict of guilty in a criminal case, we are not at liberty to direct that the defendant be discharged short of a conclusion on our part that given the evidence, taken in the light most favorable to the verdict, no reasonable, hypothetical juror could find beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant was guilty. Pearson v. State, 428 So.2d 1361, 1364 (Miss.1983).

¶ 14. A review of the weight of the evidence as against the jury's verdict has been addressed by the U.S. Supreme Court in Tibbs v. Florida, 457 U.S. 31, 102 S.Ct. 2211, 72 L.Ed.2d 652 (1982). Tibbs held that in reviewing a motion for a new trial based on grounds that the verdict is contrary to the overwhelming weight of the evidence, the reviewing court must determine that a serious miscarriage of justice has occurred, so that the verdict may be set aside and a new trial is granted for reconsideration of the evidence by a new jury. Groseclose v. State, 440 So.2d 297, 300 (Miss.1983) held that a new trial would not be ordered unless the court is convinced that the verdict is "so contrary to the overwhelming weight of the evidence that to allow it to stand would be to sanction an unconscionable injustice."

¶ 15. Such a weighing of the evidence may be presumed here. Miller v. State, 35 So. 690 (Miss.1904) addressed the jury's role in weighing of the witnesses' testimony as the

sole and exclusive judges of the weight of the evidence and the credibility of the witnesses, and, in determining the weight to be given to the testimony of each witness, you may take into consideration the reasonableness or the unreasonableness of the testimony; and, if you believe from the evidence that any witness has willfully sworn falsely to any material matter in this case, then the jury may disregard the whole testimony of such witness or witnesses, if you believe it untrue.

¶ 16. In the case at hand the verdict of guilty of aggravated assault is supported by the testimony of the State's witnesses. Although Riggs claimed that he had an "alibi" at the time of the shooting because he spent the night in the same room with David White, the son of Lillie Mae White, Mrs. White's testimony contradicted that of her son. She testified that Riggs spent the night with them "all the time," whereas David White testified that the night of the shooting was the first time Riggs...