State v. Bell
| Decision Date | 08 July 2020 |
| Docket Number | Appellate Case No. 2017-001500,Opinion No. 5742 |
| Citation | 845 S.E.2d 514,430 S.C. 449 |
| Parties | The STATE, Respondent, v. Jermaine Marquel BELL, Appellant. |
| Court | South Carolina Court of Appeals |
Appellate Defender David Alexander and Appellate Defender Sarah Elizabeth Shipe, both of Columbia, for Appellant.
Attorney General Alan McCrory Wilson, Deputy Attorney General Donald J. Zelenka, Senior Assistant Deputy Attorney General Melody Jane Brown, and Senior Assistant Attorney General W. Edgar Salter, III, all of Columbia; and Solicitor Randy E. Newman, Jr., of Lancaster, for Respondent.
Jermaine Bell appeals his conviction of murder, for which he was sentenced to life imprisonment. Bell argues the circuit court erred in allowing the decedent's husband and daughter to testify regarding statements purportedly made by the decedent indicating that she believed Bell was stealing from her. We reverse.
The decedent, Judy Lindsay, and her common law husband, Mitchell Mayfield, lived in Chester County. Judy and Mayfield had one son, two daughters, and several grandchildren. Their youngest daughter, Jessica, lived at home with Judy, Mayfield, and Jessica's children. The family was well known in their neighborhood, and people would often gather to socialize on the family's front porch. One such person was Jermaine Bell, who was friends with Jessica and her brother. The family had a unique relationship with Bell, as they often ran him off or told him not to come around, only to invite him over later or allow him back, oftentimes after he procured sodas or other drinks for the family.
During the weekend of Judy's death, Bell, who was transient, spent the night of Friday, September 11, 2015, on the family's couch. On Saturday, September 12, 2015, Bell was gone before anyone else woke up. That same day, Judy and Jessica attended a funeral before Judy went to church to sing with the choir. After returning from church, Judy changed into a pair of pants and a t-shirt. Judy joined Jessica, who had been drinking alcohol,1 on the porch to smoke a cigarette. Mayfield also joined them on the porch before going to bed around 11:00 or 11:30 p.m.2 At some point, Jessica telephoned Bell and invited him to join them on the porch. When Bell arrived, Jessica gave him a shot of liquor.
After socializing on the porch for a while, Jessica called her cousin and asked him to take her to get something to eat. When she returned about fifteen to twenty minutes later, Judy and Bell were still on the porch, and Bell was still drinking. Upon finishing her food, Jessica smoked a cigarette and went to bed around 12:30 or 12:45 a.m. As Jessica was heading to bed, Judy indicated that she was going to stay on the porch until she finished her cigarette. Bell was still on the porch with Judy when Jessica went to bed.
On Sunday, September 13, 2015, Mayfield woke up around 5:00 or 6:00 a.m. As part of his usual morning routine, Mayfield made himself some coffee, emptied his trash, and burned his trash in a burn barrel. Mayfield did not see Judy that morning, but assumed she was sleeping in the room with Jessica. However, while he was burning his trash, Mayfield noticed Judy's socks, shoes, and scarf were strewn around the yard. Believing that the grandkids had thrown Judy's clothes into the yard, Mayfield woke Jessica up and told her to get up and have the kids clean the yard.3 Jessica asked Mayfield if he knew where Judy was, and Mayfield responded that he did not but indicated that Jessica should get up and try to locate Judy.
After waking up, Jessica went outside and began panicking when she could not find Judy. Jessica started calling family members to ask if they had seen Judy. Additionally, Jessica tried to call Bell because she knew he was the last person to see Judy. When that proved unsuccessful, Jessica and a family friend drove to Herman "Bo" Weldon's house, where Bell was supposedly staying, but no one answered the door. However, while on the porch, Jessica spotted the black shoes Bell had been wearing the night before and noticed that they were covered in mud. At some point, Jessica finally got a hold of Bell and asked if he knew what happened to Judy, to which Bell responded, "Ask Mango.[4 ]" Thereafter, Jessica returned home to continue looking.
When Mayfield and Jessica went back into the yard, Mayfield noticed what appeared to be drag marks. He attempted to follow the drag marks but could not follow them once they led into the tall grass. Mayfield then looked around the neighbor's yard and found one of Judy's shirts and her keys. At that point, Mayfield informed Jessica that he was calling the police.
Around 9:35 a.m., Officer John Kelly of the Chester County Sheriff's Office was dispatched to investigate a reported missing person. Officer Kelly arrived on the scene at 9:41 a.m. and was met by Mayfield and Jessica, who explained that Judy was last seen on the porch with Bell. Mayfield took Officer Kelly to the side of the house where he found Judy's clothes. Once in the yard, Officer Kelly noticed the drag marks, noting that they went through the dirt, around the back side of the house, and into the next-door neighbor's yard. Mayfield then offered to show Officer Kelly where he had found Judy's shirt and keys, but Officer Kelly decided to call for detectives and a dog. Officer Kelly taped off the crime scene and continued talking with Mayfield and Jessica.5 At some point, Mayfield pointed out that Bell was walking down the street towards the crime scene, and Officer Kelly made contact with him. Bell gave detectives his version of the night's events, indicating that he left the house after Judy went to bed around 12:30 or 1:00 a.m. Bell then agreed to be interviewed, and a detective placed him in a squad car and transported him to the Chester County Sheriff's Office.6 Prior to the interview, Bell consented to a buccal swab.
Around 10:55 a.m., Officer Randy Clinton of the York County Sheriff's Office's K-9 Division received a call in reference to using a bloodhound to track a missing person. Officer Clinton arrived on scene and "scented" the dog off a pair of Judy's socks. The dog led Officer Clinton through Judy and Mayfield's yard, past their neighbor's house, around a fence and rosebush, past Judy's shirt and keys, and to the backyard of an abandoned house. The dog continued to lead Officer Clinton to the back side of a tin storage shed behind the abandoned house. Officer Clinton then found Judy's naked body lying face down behind the storage shed.
Following the discovery of Judy's body, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) was contacted to assist on the case. Thereafter, three SLED agents arrived on scene at 1:31 p.m. While on the scene, the SLED agents collected or marked multiple pieces of evidence, including Judy's orange t-shirt and several footwear impressions. Additionally, the agents took a buccal swab from Mayfield. After spending most of the day on site, law enforcement cleared the scene and took down the crime scene tape around 7:20 p.m.
After clearing the murder scene, law enforcement investigated several other locations, including Weldon's house. Once there, officers collected a pair of black Coogi shoes based on Jessica's tip that they were the same shoes Bell had worn the night before. However, by the time officers found the shoes, they were wet and appeared to have been washed. Meanwhile, at the crime scene, Mayfield and his sister7 were walking around the yard to see if they could find any more items. Mayfield testified that while walking near the location where Judy's body was found, the two found a plastic bag filled with Judy's underwear and a missing ashtray. Upon finding the bag, Mayfield contacted law enforcement, and SLED agents arrived back on scene around 8:27 p.m. The items were then turned over to law enforcement, who did not find any latent fingerprints on the plastic bag or its contents.
During Bell's interview at the Chester County Sheriff's Office, SLED Agent Lee Boan used several interview tactics in an attempt to gain information, including telling Bell that Judy had died of a heart attack and claiming that officers had matched Bell's DNA to evidence on scene. Despite Agent Boan's tactics, Bell maintained his innocence throughout the interview. However, during this interview and a follow-up interview conducted on September 15, 2015, Bell offered several inconsistent statements.
First, Bell claimed that he spent the night of Judy's death at two different houses before finally conceding that he spent the night on Weldon's porch. Second, Bell claimed that on the night of the murder, he stepped off the porch and walked directly down the road. Bell then indicated that he had gone into the side yard to urinate before leaving. Finally, officers asked Bell what he was wearing the night of the murder, and Bell indicated that he had worn a black shirt, jeans, and Coogi shoes. Bell further claimed that he had slept in his clothes and had not showered or changed before walking to the crime scene and agreeing to be interviewed. Despite these claims, Bell was not wearing the same clothes during the interview and ultimately claimed that he did change clothes and shower.
On September 14, 2015, Dr. Kim Collins conducted Judy's autopsy. Dr. Collins noted that Judy had an abrasion on her forehead and the area from Judy's collarbone up had a reddish-purple discoloration resulting from bruising. Dr. Collins indicated that such discoloration was consistent with manual strangulation, and swabs of Judy's neck area were taken to test for touch DNA. As she continued, Dr. Collins discovered blood in Judy's mouth resulting from Judy biting into the deep muscle of her tongue, scratches on the inside of her lips resulting from the pressure placed onto her teeth from her lips, and pinpoint hemorrhages on her inner lips resulting from ruptured blood vessels in her mouth....
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
State v. Ostrowski
...argue to this court that the admission of a significant portion of that evidence constitutes harmless error. See State v. Bell , 430 S.C. 449, 473, 845 S.E.2d 514, 527 (2020) ("[B]ecause the State continuously stressed the improper statements in its closing argument, ‘it is impossible under......
-
State v. Williams
... ... a yellow plastic bag that Williams had directed them to, ... saying it contained the money. We also note that here, unlike ... Ellis, the State did not refer to Deputy Brown's ... disputed testimony in its closing argument. Cf. State v ... Bell, 430 S.C. 449, 473, 845 S.E.2d 514, 527 (Ct. App ... 2020) (noting the admission of improper testimony was not ... harmless where "the State continuously stressed the ... improper statements in its closing argument"). The trial ... court instructed the jury on constructive ... ...