State v. Hughes

• Decision Date: 08 July 1996
• Docket Number: No. 22978,22978
• Court: West Virginia Supreme Court
• Parties: STATE of West Virginia, Plaintiff Below, Appellee, v. James HUGHES, Defendant Below, Appellant.

Page 189

476 S.E.2d 189

197 W.Va. 518

STATE of West Virginia, Plaintiff Below, Appellee, v. James HUGHES, Defendant Below, Appellant.

No. 22978.

Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia.

Submitted Jan. 10, 1996.

Decided July 8, 1996.

Syllabus by the Court

1. "The function of an appellate court when reviewing the sufficiency of the evidence to support a criminal conviction is to examine the evidence admitted at trial to determine whether such evidence, if believed, is sufficient to convince a reasonable person of the defendant's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Thus, the relevant inquiry is whether, after viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime proved beyond a reasonable doubt." Syl.Pt. 1, State v. Guthrie, 194 W.Va. 657, 461 S.E.2d 163 (1995).

2. "A criminal defendant challenging the sufficiency of the evidence to support a conviction takes on a heavy burden. An appellate court must review all the evidence, whether direct or circumstantial, in the light most favorable to the prosecution and must credit all inferences and credibility assessments that the jury might have drawn in favor of the prosecution. The evidence need not be inconsistent with every conclusion save that of guilt so long as the jury can find guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Credibility determinations are for a jury and not an appellate court. Finally, a jury verdict should be set aside only when the record contains no evidence, regardless of how it is weighed, from which the jury could find guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. To the extent our prior cases are inconsistent, they are expressly overruled." Syl.Pt. 3, State v. Guthrie, 194 W.Va. 657, 461 S.E.2d 163 (1995).

3. Due to the penal nature of the Home Confinement Act, West Virginia Code §§ 62-11B-1 to -12 (1993), when a circuit court, in its discretion, orders an offender confined to his home as a condition of bail, the offender must be an adult convicted of a crime punishable by imprisonment or detention in a county jail or state penitentiary or a juvenile adjudicated guilty of a delinquent act that would be a crime punishable by imprisonment or incarceration in the state penitentiary or county jail, if committed by an adult.

4. When a person who has been arrested, but not yet convicted of a crime, is admitted to pre-trial bail with the condition that he be restricted to home confinement pursuant to West Virginia Code § 62-1C-2(c) (1992), the home confinement restriction is not considered the same as actual confinement in a jail, nor is it considered the same as home confinement under the Home Confinement Act, West Virginia Code §§ 62-11B-1 to -12 (1993). Therefore, the time spent in home confinement when it is a condition of bail under West Virginia Code § 62-1C-2(c) does not count as credit toward a sentence subsequently imposed.

Dawn E. Warfield, Deputy Attorney General, Charleston, for Appellee.

J.B. Rees, Chief Public Defender, Fayetteville, for Appellant.

WORKMAN, Justice:

This case is before the Court upon the appeal of James Hughes from the September 14, 1994, final order of the Circuit Court of Fayette County sentencing the Appellant to one year in the Southern Regional Jail for his jury conviction of involuntary manslaughter. The Appellant argues that the trial court erred: 1) in denying his motion for judgment of acquittal on the grounds that the jury's verdict is manifestly against the weight of the evidence presented at trial; and 2) in denying his motion for credit for time served upon home confinement which was a condition of bail. Based upon a review of the record, the parties' briefs and all other matters submitted before this Court, we find that the lower court committed no error and, accordingly, affirm.

I.

Around 3:00 p.m. on August 20, 1993, the victim, Brad Wilkerson, along with his grandmother, Gladys Wilkerson and his sister, Kim Wilkerson, picked up a case of beer and went to the home of one of Gladys Wilkerson's friends, Andy Maynard. Upon arriving at Mr. Maynard's house, both Mr. Maynard and Brad began drinking the beer. Gladys Wilkerson testified that she left the house for a while and when she returned, her grandson was inebriated. Ms. Wilkerson stated that while she did not know exactly how much Brad had to drink, there was only one can of beer left from the case and her grandson took it with him when they left. ¹

Later that evening, between 9:30 and 10:00 p.m., Gladys Wilkerson was driving her grandson back to her house, when he jumped out of her car as she was turning into her driveway, and went across the road to the Appellant's residence in order to see his former girlfriend, Dora Bailey, who was also the Appellant's stepdaughter. Once inside the residence, Ms. Bailey testified that Brad was staggering, drunk and rowdy. She stated that she offered to mend the cut over Brad's eye, which he had sustained earlier in the day. They proceeded to the bathroom for this purpose, and Ms. Bailey testified that while they were in the bathroom, Brad made improper advances to her and proceeded to grab her breast. Ms. Bailey scolded him and they returned to the living room. There was no evidence that Brad's advances were made known to anyone else in the residence at the time.

Next, Brad and the Appellant began arguing over Brad's dog, which happened to be a pit bull. According to Ms. Bailey and her brother, Mike Bailey, during the course of the argument, the Appellant threatened to kill Brad's dog. Ms. Bailey testified that the argument escalated and Brad acted like he was going to hit the Appellant. At that point, the Appellant "grabbed him [Brad] by the throat and shoved him and told him to get out." Instead of leaving as requested, Brad hit the Appellant, as well as Mike. Brad also threatened Mike's girlfriend, who was also present, stating "shut up, bitch, or I'll kick your ass too...." The Appellant and his stepson threw Brad out of the trailer several times, but he kept returning. The Appellant and his stepchildren testified that after Brad was thrown out of the house, he was banging on the front door, and yelling at the Appellant to "[c]ome outside and fight like a man you redheaded son-of-a-bitch" and "come outside[,] I'll kick all your all's asses."

During the altercation, Ms. Bailey called the police and told the Appellant that the police were on their way. Further, both the Appellant and Ms. Bailey yelled across the road for Brad's grandmother to come and get her grandson. According to Ms. Wilkerson, the Appellant yelled to her "[i]f you don't come down her and get this G.D. little son-of-a-bitch, ... I'm going to kill him." The Appellant then went to a bedroom to retrieve his gun.

When Brad's grandmother arrived, the Appellant and Brad were yelling at each other through a screen door, with Brad on the outside and the Appellant on the inside. Ms. Wilkerson told the Appellant to close the door and her grandson would go home with her. She testified that the Appellant did as she requested; however, after she and her grandson had taken only about five steps toward her house, the Appellant threw open the wooden door to the trailer and "yelled out again and said, your G.D. daddy is going to have to pay about a thousand dollars for this door." Brad turned around and once again returned to the Appellant's house. Ms. Wilkerson testified that at no time did she witness Brad banging on the Appellant's door. She once again asked the Appellant to close the door. Ms. Wilkerson stated that right after the Appellant complied with her request, the Appellant fired a shot through the door that struck Brad in the eye. According to Ms. Wilkerson, at the time her grandson was shot, he was not standing on the steps leading to the Appellant's door, but rather was about a foot away from the steps. Moreover, she did not hear him threaten either the Appellant or his family prior to being shot.

The evidence established that prior to the shot witnessed by Ms. Wilkerson, the Appellant had already fired a shot once in the bottom of the screen door in an attempt to scare Brad away from the door. The Appellant testified that he told Brad to go home five or six more times after firing the warning shot and then closed the wooden door upon Ms. Wilkerson's request. ² The Appellant testified that while Brad was banging on the door, he shot again, this time aiming "kind of high" at the wooden door because he "was going to try and just scare him and never dreamed it would hit him." The Appellant testified that he fired this second shot out of his concern that if Brad were to gain reentry into his home, "he was going to hurt me, and I didn't want to be hurt. I was scared of him." The Appellant expressed this concern even with the knowledge that the police were en route and even though Brad was drunk to the point of staggering and had no weapons. The second bullet went through the door and hit Brad, who was standing outside the door, in the left eye. ³ Brad later died from this wound.

II.

The first issue is whether the trial court erred in denying the Appellant's motion for judgment of acquittal. The Appellant argues that a review of the evidence clearly indicates that the jury's verdict was contrary to the evidence and that the State's evidence was insufficient to convince impartial minds of the Appellant's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. The Appellant asserts that the evidence produced at trial clearly shows that he was not the aggressor and that he, along with others in the home, were placed in fear of imminent danger of death or serious bodily injury from the victim. ⁴ Further, the Appellant contends that the only evidence presented by the State that the victim was not an unlawful intruder threatening the occupants of his home was provided by the testimony of the victim's grandmother, Ms. Wilkerson. The Appellant maintains that her testimony was so...