State v. Martin, 25093.
| Decision Date | 27 March 2000 |
| Docket Number | No. 25093.,25093. |
| Citation | 340 S.C. 597,533 S.E.2d 572 |
| Court | South Carolina Supreme Court |
| Parties | The STATE, Respondent, v. Michael Anthony MARTIN, Appellant. |
Chief Attorney Daniel T. Stacey, of South Carolina Office of Appellate Defense, of Columbia, for appellant.
Attorney General Charles M. Condon, Chief Deputy Attorney General John W. McIntosh, Assistant Deputy Attorney General Donald J. Zelenka, Assistant Attorney General Robert E. Bogan, all of Columbia; and Solicitor Robert M. Ariail, of Greenville, all for respondent.
The opinion heretofore filed in this case, Opinion No. 25093, filed March 27, 2000 is withdrawn and the attached opinion is substituted in its place. The third paragraph of the Law/Analysis section in the initial opinion has been modified. Furthermore, the last three paragraphs of that section have been deleted. Respondent's petition for rehearing is denied.
/s/ Jean H. Toal, C.J. /s/ Ernest A. Finney, Jr., C.J. /s/ James E. Moore, J. /s/ John H. Waller, Jr., J. /s/ E.C. Burnett, III, J.
Appellant Michael Martin ("Defendant") and Pierre Wilson ("Co-defendant Wilson") were convicted of murder. Defendant has appealed. We reverse.
Dwayne Cobb ("Victim") was found dead in his apartment on October 16, 1996. Victim's body was found face down in a bucket of water. Drowning was the official cause of death. No time of death was established, but Victim was last seen alive around 2:00 a.m. to 2:15 a.m. The coroner testified that Victim had eaten a fish sandwich within 2 hours prior to his death, but when Victim ate the sandwich is unknown. His body was not discovered until around noon the following day.
Victim was a barber who regularly gave haircuts both at his place of employment and at his apartment. On October 15, 1996, the day before his murder, Defendant and Co-defendant Wilson were both at Victim's apartment between 11:30 a.m. and noon so that Co-defendant Wilson could get a haircut. During the haircut, Victim's friend Shannon Cobb1 arrived at the apartment. Both defendants left the apartment after the haircut. Victim and Shannon Cobb then left to run errands and take Cobb to work. Cobb testified that Victim discussed with Defendant and Co-defendant Wilson his plans to travel to New York to do some shopping.
During the afternoon, Victim visited his friend Derrick Haygood in Clemson and they played with their pet dogs. Around 6:00 p.m., Victim and Haygood left Clemson and went to Seneca. Later that night, Victim picked up Shannon Cobb from work at 11:30 p.m. The two then went by the Steak and Waffle to get take-out food to eat. Victim took Cobb to her apartment, stayed a few minutes, got a beep on his beeper from Derrick Haygood, used the phone, and left. An unknown amount of time after leaving her apartment, Victim called Shannon Cobb to tell her the Steak and Waffle had given him a fish sandwich instead of the chicken sandwich he ordered. Derrick Haygood and his girlfriend Annitra Robinson testified that Victim stopped by his apartment in Clemson around 2:00 a.m. the morning of his murder. Victim stayed for a only a brief period of time and left. Victim's home is about a 5 minute drive from Haygood's trailer.
Defendant and Co-defendant Wilson shared an apartment in Pendleton with each other and Defendant's girlfriend Marsha Bhagwandin, an entertainer at a Greenville bar named Nepal's. Bhagwandin testified that around 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. on the day before the murder Defendant and Co-defendant Wilson took her to work. They kept Bhagwandin's car, a 1996 black Mustang with tinted windows which had an air freshener and parking pass hanging from the rear view mirror. They were to pick her up at 2:00 a.m. when she got off work. When they were late picking Bhagwandin up from work, she left Nepal's and went to a bar called The Hourglass on Laurens Road in Greenville. Defendant and Co-defendant Wilson arrived at The Hourglass around 3:45 a.m. to take Bhagwandin home. When asked why they were late, Bhagwandin testified that Defendant replied "some shit happened" and that Co-defendant Wilson added "somebody may have died tonight." The three went home to Pendleton and stayed there the rest of the night.
Witness Kalita Owens testified that she left a friend's apartment between 2:00 a.m. and 3:00 a.m. the day of the murder. The friend's apartment was only two doors down from Victim's apartment. Owens testified that in front of the apartment building was a dark colored sports car with tinted windows that had something hanging from the rear view mirror. She testified it caught her attention because she had never seen it there before even though she was at her friend's apartment almost daily.
On October 16, 1996, Victim was to take his friend Shannon Cobb to get the tires changed on her car. When Victim didn't show up or answer his pager, Cobb went to his apartment. Around 11:45 a.m., when Victim did not answer his door, Cobb got a maintenance worker to let her into the apartment. Victim's body was discovered on the floor of the apartment face down in a pot of water. The maintenance worker called the police. The cause of Victim's death was drowning, although the pathologist discovered Victim had a black eye and a bloody nose as well.
Around 11:00 a.m. on the morning of the murder, the manager of T-Bones Restaurant in Greenville noticed several bags of garbage in the store's dumpster. T-Bones is located on the same Laurens Road in Greenville as The Hourglass bar where Defendant and Co-defendant Wilson picked up Bhagwandin the night before. The manager found in the trash several items including a cell phone, jewelry, and a photograph of Victim's apartment that Victim's uncle identified as personal items belonging to Victim. Also in the trash were dark colored clothes, a pair of female underwear, and a pair of large sneakers. Latex gloves where also found in the trash that the uncle did not identify as Victim's. Bhagwandin testified that she had bought similar latex gloves to use while cleaning her dog and apartment before moving in with Defendant and Co-defendant Wilson.
According to the testimony of Sylvia Jimenez and her son Jesse Jimenez, two black men named Michael and Pierre stopped by Sylvia's daughter's apartment in Seneca around 12:30 a.m. and stayed for about 15 minutes the morning of the murder. Jesse testified that the two were wearing black clothes and driving a black mustang with tinted windows. The clothing color is significant because the articles of clothing found in the dumpster behind T-Bones along with the Victim's belongings were black clothes.
The State entered Co-defendant Wilson's statement to the police into the record. Co-defendant Wilson stated:
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... ... State v. Martin, 340 S.C. 597, 602, 533 S.E.2d 572, 574 (2000) (citing State v. Williams, 321 S.C. 327, 468 S.E.2d 626 (1996) ). Still other cases indicate some ... ...
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State v. Cherry
... ... State v. Martin, 340 S.C. 597, 602, 533 S.E.2d 572, 574 (2000) (citing State v. Williams, 321 S.C. 327, 468 S.E.2d 626 (1996) ). Still other cases indicate some ... ...
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... ... Buckmon, 347 S.C. 316, 555 S.E.2d 402 (2001); State v. Al-Amin, 353 S.C. 405, 411, 578 S.E.2d 32, 35 (Ct.App.2003); see also State v. Martin, 340 S.C. 597, 533 S.E.2d 572 (2000) (stating where the evidence is circumstantial, a trial court has the duty to submit a case to jury so long as ... ...
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State v. Zeigler
... ... Buckmon, 347 S.C. 316, 555 S.E.2d 402 (2001) ; Al-Amin, 353 S.C. at 411, 578 S.E.2d at 35 ; see also State v. Martin, 340 S.C. 597, 533 S.E.2d 572 (2000) (stating trial court has duty to submit case to jury where evidence is circumstantial, if there is substantial ... ...