State v. Franks
| Decision Date | 12 August 2020 |
| Docket Number | Appellate Case No. 2016-002244,Opinion No. 5758 |
| Citation | 849 S.E.2d 580,432 S.C. 58 |
| Court | South Carolina Court of Appeals |
| Parties | The STATE, Respondent, v. Deshanndon Markelle FRANKS, Appellant. |
Chief Appellate Defender Robert Michael Dudek, 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 David Matthew Stumbo, of Greenwood, for Respondent.
On January 31, 2014, Atrayel Williams called 911 after she discovered the bodies of Nikesha James and Sammie Darryl Leake in the living room of James's mobile home. James had been shot in the chest, and Leake had been shot in the head and neck. Police later identified Deshanndon Markelle Franks as a suspect, and he was indicted for and convicted of the murders of James and Leake.
Franks appeals his convictions and sentence of forty-five years’ imprisonment for two counts of murder and possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime, arguing the trial court erred by (1) qualifying the State's witness as an expert and (2) instructing the jury it could infer malice from the use of a deadly weapon. We conclude the trial court did not abuse its discretion in qualifying the State's witness as an expert, and any error in the court's jury charge was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. For these reasons, we affirm Franks's convictions.
At the outset of his jury trial, Franks moved to suppress his Verizon Wireless cell phone records, which contained cell site location information (CSLI), arguing they were the product of a warrantless search.1 The trial court denied Franks's motions.
Laquesha Currenton, Leake's cousin and a close friend of James's,2 testified she last spoke to James around 11:00 p.m. or 12:00 a.m. on January 30. Williams, another of James's close friends, testified she last spoke to James around 9:00 p.m. on the 30th and could not reach her when she called around 10:30 a.m. the next morning. That afternoon, Williams and Currenton drove to James's home in Cross Hill, where they found the bodies of James and Leake, and Williams called 911.
Lavashtia Pulley testified she saw Franks and a man named Tevin Hill (Tevin) at a liquor house called "Wash" earlier on the evening of January 30. She recalled she spoke to Franks around 11:00 p.m. and he seemed "hyped" and "pumped, amped, whatever." Pulley testified she had "never seen him like that" before. She explained that while they were talking, Franks pulled out a few things from his coat, including a gun, which he said was "a Ruger." She described the gun as "black ashy kind of like." Pulley stated Franks wore a tan "overall suit," "[l]ike a hunting suit," that night. At trial, she identified a State's exhibit as the overalls she saw him wearing. Pulley stated she did not speak to Tevin or see him together with Franks. Pulley recalled she received a text message from Franks the next morning, but he did not mention the deaths of James or Leake.
Tamia Kinard, another friend of James's, testified she, her aunt, and her baby went to James's house around 8:00 p.m. on January 30, and Leake arrived sometime thereafter. Kinard explained her aunt left later in the evening, and Franks and Tevin came over to James's sometime afterwards. She estimated they arrived around 12:15 a.m. Kinard testified Franks had on a brown overall jumpsuit "like a hunting suit" that night and some type of red sweater over the jumpsuit. She recalled that when Franks arrived, he asked James "about something that she put on Facebook" and "asked her to come back in the bedroom to talk [to] him." Kinard stated they went into the bedroom and "had a discussion." She estimated they were in the bedroom for about ten or fifteen minutes and when they came out, "[t]hey w[ere] laughing and talking normal, like it wasn't a problem."
Around 1:00 a.m., Kinard asked Tevin to drive her home "because [Franks] was being loud" and her baby was asleep. When asked how Franks behaved that night, Kinard stated he was She stated that when she and Tevin left, Franks, James, and Leake were still present at James's home.
Kinard explained Tevin's route took them behind her uncle's, Milton Grant's, mobile home. Grant testified he lived about three houses down from James on John Grant Street. Grant recalled that that around 1:00 a.m., he was awakened by headlights shining through his bedroom window. He stated he could not fall back asleep, and around 3:00 a.m., he heard gunshots that sounded like they came from very close. Grant testified he jumped up and went to the window and saw someone come out of James's front door. He saw the person walk down the front steps, walk back up, turn the porch light off, close the door, and then continue walking up and down the steps before eventually disappearing. Grant stated the person "had something brown on."
Tevin testified that in January 2014, he lived at his grandmother's house on John Grant Street in Cross Hill. He stated that on the night of January 30, he met up with Franks around 8:00 p.m., and they went to "a liquor house" called "the Wash" or "Washes," where they stayed for about three hours. He remembered seeing Pulley there, and he assumed she and Franks talked because he saw them walk outside together. Tevin testified Franks was wearing brown overalls that night and identified a State's exhibit as the same overalls he saw Franks wearing. He stated that around midnight he and Franks left and went to James's, which was "where everybody used to hangout." Tevin recalled that when they arrived, Franks was acting Tevin testified James, Leake, Kinard, and Kinard's baby were at James's when they arrived. He recalled Franks and James "went to the back of the house" to talk that night but he could not hear their discussion.
Tevin stated he drove Kinard home a short while later and Franks, James, and Leake all stayed behind. Tevin recalled he drove past Grant's home with his bright headlights on, which shined on Grant's home. He stated he arrived home around 2:00 or 3:00 a.m. after dropping Kinard off and sometime after that, Franks called and told him to come outside. Tevin explained he went outside and saw Franks walking up the road, away from James's house. Tevin stated Franks was "shaky" and "not normal" and said "stuff went bad." He testified Franks then asked him for a ride, stating he "had some females up the road like in Greenville" but once they neared Fountain Inn, Franks told Tevin to drive him to Rodrigus Scurry's house. Tevin testified they stayed at Scurry's until about 8:00 a.m. and then went back to Cross Hill. He recalled that during the car ride back, Franks said "we got to get the guns out the house or something," but Tevin did not know what he was talking about. Tevin stated he went home after dropping Franks off at his grandmother's home and a short time later, he heard police arrive at James's house. He received a call from his cousin, Deputy Rakeisha Hill, who asked him to come to the scene and bring Franks. He explained Franks "act[ed] like he didn't want to go" and then told Tevin what to tell the police. Tevin testified Franks told him to say Franks got in the car after he dropped Kinard off and then they drove to Greenville. Tevin explained he wrote this in his first statement to police, but it was a lie. He denied seeing Franks with a gun that night but stated he had seen him with a gun before that looked like the gun in the photo on Franks's phone. Tevin acknowledged he was also charged with murder and the State agreed to drop the murder charges if he cooperated in the disposition of Franks's case.
Scurry testified Franks called him around 3:00 a.m. on January 31 and said he was on his way home from Greenville but could not make it home because he had been drinking. He stated Franks called again around 4:00 a.m. when he and Tevin arrived. Scurry testified he showed them where to sleep and went back to bed. He stated Franks contacted him the next day and asked if he had talked to the police.
Officer Bryant Cheek testified he responded to the scene on January 31. He noted he encountered Tevin, who was nearby, on his way to the scene. Officer Cheek explained he recognized Tevin from coaching basketball and spoke to him briefly before proceeding to the scene. Upon arriving at the scene, Officer Cheek interviewed bystanders who had gathered there. He stated Franks was asked to come to the scene after law enforcement learned he was at James's home the night of the shooting. Officer Cheek questioned Franks and took his statement. The trial court admitted the statement into evidence over Franks's objection. Franks stated he was at James's the night before with Kinard, Tevin, James, and Leake. Franks stated that after Tevin left to take Kinard home, he stayed and talked to James and Leake until he called Tevin. According to Franks, Tevin then picked him up "at the top of the driveway" and they drove to Greenville. Franks stated he "[c]alled a girl he was going to see" but when she did not answer, he called Scurry and spent the night at Scurry's in Fountain Inn.
Franks and Tevin turned over their phones to law enforcement, who obtained search warrants to extract the data from the phones. A digital photo of a handgun was retrieved from Franks's phone. Law enforcement also obtained Franks's cell phone records from Verizon Wireless and searched his grandmother's home, where they found a pair of brown overalls, a backpack, and an elongated magazine for a firearm. The trial court admitted this evidence over Franks's renewed objections.
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