State v. Clayton
| Decision Date | 31 July 2019 |
| Docket Number | No. W2018-00386-CCA-R3-CD,W2018-00386-CCA-R3-CD |
| Parties | STATE OF TENNESSEE v. JORDAN CLAYTON, CARLOS STOKES and BRANDEN BROOKINS |
| Court | Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals |
Appeal from the Criminal Court for Shelby County
Defendants, Jordan Clayton, Carlos Stokes, and Branden Brookins, were convicted of first degree murder, conspiracy to commit first degree murder, attempt to commit first degree murder, two counts of employing a firearm during the commission of a dangerous felony, and reckless endangerment after a jury found them guilty of the murder of a seven-year-old female child. Defendant Clayton was also convicted of being a felon in possession of a firearm. On appeal, Defendants challenge the trial court's refusal to sever the cases for trial, the admissibility of a recording of a preliminary hearing and a written statement of a witness with memory loss, and the sufficiency of the evidence. We determine that the trial court did not abuse its discretion by denying a motion to sever or by admitting the preliminary hearing recording and written statement into evidence. Additionally, we determine that the evidence was sufficient to support the convictions. Consequently, we affirm the judgments of the trial court with respect to the convictions for first degree murder, attempted first degree murder, employing a firearm during the commission of a dangerous felony, and reckless endangerment. However, we reverse the judgments of the trial court with respect to the conspiracy to commit first degree murder convictions because the trial court improperly merged the conspiracy convictions with the first degree murder convictions. On remand, the trial court should reinstate the judgments for conspiracy to commit first degree murder.
TIMOTHY L. EASTER, J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which THOMAS T. WOODALL, and JOHN EVERETT WILLIAMS, P.J., joined.
Juni Ganguli (at trial) and Laurie W. Hall (on appeal), Memphis, Tennessee, for the appellant, Jordan Clayton.
Nykedra Jackson (at trial) and Murray B. Wells (at trial and on appeal), Memphis, Tennessee, for the appellant, Carlos Stokes.
Claiborne Ferguson, Memphis, Tennessee, for the appellant, Branden Brookins.
Herbert H. Slatery III, Attorney General and Reporter; Jonathan H. Wardle, Assistant Attorney General; Amy P. Weirich, District Attorney General; and Neal Oldham and Colin Campbell, Assistant District Attorneys General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee.
OPINIONOn April 10, 2015, seven-year-old Kristan Williams was shot and killed in a drive-by shooting while she was playing outside with her friends after school on Durby Circle in Memphis. After a police investigation, Defendants Clayton, Stokes, Brookins were indicted, along with Carl Johnson,1 for their involvement in the victim's death. An indictment was returned by the Shelby County Grand Jury in September of 2015 charging Defendants with one count of first degree murder. In October of 2016, a superseding indictment was returned by the Shelby County Grand Jury charging Defendants with one count of first degree murder, one count of conspiracy to commit first degree murder, two counts of attempted first degree murder, two counts of employing a firearm during the commission of a dangerous felony, and one count of reckless endangerment. The indictment also charged Defendant Clayton with one count of felon in possession of a firearm.
Prior to trial, Defendant Clayton filed a motion to sever his case from that of Defendant Brookins.2 The trial court held a hearing on the motion, during which counsel for Defendant Stokes joined the motion orally. The trial court denied the motion to sever.
At trial, Alexis Hawkins testified that her daughter was four years old at the time of the shooting. She and her daughter lived on Durby Circle. Her daughter was friends with the victim. On April 9, 2015, she heard a gunshot while her "kids [were] in the tub"and she was in the "back room [of the house] getting their clothes situated for school." The shot shattered one of the windows of her house and sounded like it was fired from a close distance. Shortly thereafter, she got a telephone call from the victim's mother, asking if everyone in the house was safe. After her boyfriend arrived at the house, they called the police to report the shot.
The next morning, Ms. Hawkins got up to go to work as usual. She and the victim's mother took turns driving the children to and from school—ordinarily the victim's mother took the children to school in the morning and Ms. Hawkins picked the children up from school in the afternoon. April 10th was no different. Ms. Hawkins picked the children up that afternoon at school before she took her boyfriend to work, stopped at a friend's house, and headed home. Ms. Hawkins's mother, Angela Bibbs, was parked on the street in her car when Ms. Hawkins arrived home from picking the children up at school. When they pulled up to the houses on Durby Circle, Ms. Hawkins parked her white "truck" in the driveway of her home. The victim "jumped out the car" because she wanted to drop her backpack off with her grandmother, who was at the victim's house. Ms. Hawkins "was taking [the kids] to the mall cause it felt good" outside. Ms. Hawkins stood on the curb next to her mother's car and talked to her mother through the window while she waited for the victim to take her school things to her grandmother. At that point, nothing seemed amiss. The kids were "running around the truck playing." All of the sudden, Ms. Bibbs started yelling, "get the kids, they shooting." Ms. Hawkins looked up, saw a burgundy vehicle coming down the street, and "a young man hanging out the car" from the back seat behind the driver. Ms. Hawkins saw the man hanging halfway out of the window, leaning over the top of the car with a gun in his hand. The man was shooting over the top of the car while hanging on to the luggage rack as the car drove by. Ms. Hawkins heard about six shots as the car drove down the street. The car did not stop. Ms. Bibbs saw a hand sticking out of the passenger side window of the vehicle holding a gun. She heard two gunshots but was unable to identify anyone inside the vehicle.
Ms. Hawkins "hollered" the victim's name and told her to "get down," but by the time the victim looked at her, [Ms. Hawkins] knew "something was wrong." The victim had been shot in the head. Ms. Hawkins saw the victim try to get up from the driveway. Ms. Hawkins told the victim to stay still and yelled for the victim's grandmother.
Ms. Hawkins explained that she saw the shooter for approximately two seconds as the vehicle was driving away. She was taken to the police station and shown a photographic lineup on the night of the shooting. From that lineup, Ms. Hawkins identified one person as the shooter. Two days later, Ms. Hawkins identified a different man, Defendant Clayton, as the shooter. The individual chosen by Ms. Hawkins in the first lineup had similar facial characteristics to Defendant Clayton.
Carl Johnson testified for the State. He was indicted along with Defendants Clayton, Stokes, and Brookins but was not on trial. Mr. Johnson admitted that he told authorities several versions of the activity of the Defendants prior to the victim's death but agreed to testify truthfully at the trial of his codefendants in the hope that he would receive leniency. Mr. Johnson testified at trial that he was driving around in his mother's burgundy Chevrolet Trailblazer with Defendant Clayton on the day prior to the victim's death. He "took [Defendant Clayton] to go sell somebody [named 'White Boy'] some pills" on Durby Circle, next door to Ms. Hawkins's home. According to Mr. Johnson, when they arrived, "White Boy" came out along with "six more other dudes." The men stood near the car Mr. Johnson was driving and in which Defendant Clayton was a passenger. When they pulled up to the location, some of the men were standing on the passenger side of the car and "one dude was walking around the back of the car." When Defendant Clayton "sold 'White [B]oy' the pill, ['White Boy's' brother Rico] had tried to grab [Defendant Clayton's] gun or something and they were tussling and [Defendant Clayton] shot [Rico] in the chest." Mr. Johnson heard but did not see Defendant Clayton shoot Rico. Defendant Clayton immediately told Mr. Johnson "to pull off real fast." As they were pulling away someone shot at the back of the truck that Mr. Johnson was driving.
"White Boy" called Defendant Clayton on the phone as Mr. Johnson and Defendant Clayton were driving away from Durby Circle. Mr. Johnson could hear the conversation and overhead "White Boy" ask Defendant Clayton why he shot his brother. Defendant Clayton claimed that Rico robbed him "in front of Carlos['s] house back in November, December, and he was like he was trying to pull the same move, [Rico] was trying to rob me again." So, Defendant Clayton shot him.
In the early morning hours of the next day, April 10th, Defendant Stokes's fifteen-year-old sister was killed in a drive-by shooting. In the afternoon of April 10th, Mr. Johnson was again riding around in the burgundy Trailblazer. He was by himself when Defendant Clayton called him and asked if he could "come take him to serve 'Big Nunu' and 'Pooh-Loo' some pills." "Big Nunu" was later identified as Theodis Turner. Mr. Johnson picked Defendant Clayton up and took him to a house "in a cove" near Robin Hood Lane "going towards East Memphis." Mr. Johnson claimed that he did not go inside or "to the back" of the house. While he and Defendant Clayton were at this location, Defendant Stokes arrived in a "silver, four-door Infiniti."
Defendant Stokes parked and got out of the car and asked to talk to Defendant Clayton. Defendant Clayton got out of the car that he...
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