State v. Millens

• Court: Missouri Court of Appeals
• Writing for the Court: Lisa White Hardwick, Judge
• Citation: State v. Millens, 648 S.W.3d 784 (Mo. App. 2022)
• Decision Date: 17 May 2022
• Docket Number: WD 84274
• Parties: STATE of Missouri, Respondent, v. Jeffery Jerome MILLENS, Jr., Appellant.

648 S.W.3d 784

STATE of Missouri, Respondent,

v.Jeffery Jerome MILLENS, Jr., Appellant.

WD 84274

Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District.

Filed: May 17, 2022

Motion for Rehearing and/or Transfer to Supreme Court Denied June 21, 2022

Application for Transfer Denied August 30, 2022

Samuel E. Buffaloe, Columbia, for appellant.

Evan J. Buchheim, Jefferson City, for respondent.

Before Division One: Lisa White Hardwick, Presiding Judge, Alok Ahuja and Mark D. Pfeiffer, Judges

Lisa White Hardwick, Judge

Jeffery Millens appeals from his convictions of second-degree murder, armed criminal action, and the unlawful possession of a firearm. Millens contends there was insufficient evidence to support his convictions. He further argues the circuit court erred in granting the State's motion to quash a post-trial subpoena duces tecum for a juror who allegedly committed misconduct. Lastly, he asserts the court erred in entering a written sentence for second-degree murder that differs from the court's pronounced sentence. For reasons explained herein, we affirm, conditioned upon a limited remand with instructions to correct the written judgment to reflect the actual sentence imposed.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

In the light most favorable to the verdict, the following facts were adduced at trial: On December 31, 2016, Millens attended a party at Georden Qualls's home. At the time, Millens was wearing a red coat and had shoulder length dreadlocks. The home was sparsely lit. At some point, Qualls observed Quonterio Davis fighting with a man who appeared to have dreadlocks and was wearing a red coat. Qualls further testified that, "when the fight broke out," he heard someone say Millens's name. Qualls saw a gun "as much as he wanted to see it," and heard gunshots, which caused Qualls to flee to another room.

Dimitri Barnes, who was in a relationship with Davis and who shared a child with Millens, was in a separate room when the shooting occurred. After the shooting stopped, Kristen Andrews, Millens's cousin, warned Barnes to hide because "it's Jeff [Millens]." Barnes assumed that Andrews had warned her to hide because she and Millens had been on bad terms since the birth of their child.

Andrews was also in another room when she heard arguing and heard Millens say "bitch," which prompted her to run towards the argument. As she reached an entrance to the room where the fight was happening, she saw muzzle flashes and heard gunshots. In the confusion, she collided with another party guest. After Andrews reoriented herself, she saw Millens with his arms raised standing near Davis, who was on the floor "gasping for air." Millens looked at Andrews but said nothing, and "[Millens] left, but he didn't run. He didn't – he just looked at [Andrews]."

Andrews informed officers that Millens was the shooter, and officers arrested Millens later that night. Millens initially told detectives that he was at his girlfriend's house and had a flat tire, but he eventually admitted that he attended the party. He further denied knowing Davis, which he also later recanted. Officers attempted to perform a test to determine if gunshot residue was present on Millens, but he resisted. The test was eventually performed, and the results showed elements consistent with gunshot residue. One of Millens's dreadlocks had also fallen off and was recovered in the room where the shooting occurred.

Millens was charged with second-degree murder, armed criminal action, and illegal use of a firearm. A jury trial was held. During voir dire, Millens's trial counsel asked if any potential jurors had previously known Millens. Juror number 23 remained silent. After trial, Millens filed a motion for a new trial in which he argued, in part, that juror number 23 committed misconduct by failing to disclose that she knew Millens. Millens's motion contained only general allegations that juror number 23 knew him and that he did not recognize her sooner because she wore a mask in the courtroom. Millens issued a subpoena duces tecum to summon juror number 23 to testify. The State filed a motion to quash the subpoena on the ground that Millens had not alleged facts indicating that the juror actually knew him. At sentencing, Millens's counsel argued that, "[a]fter the trial was concluded, Mr. Millens advised my office that he recognized juror No. 23 and realized that she had been living across the street from him and his mother at one point." The circuit court granted the State's motion to quash the subpoena duces tecum, denied Millens's motion for new trial, and sentenced Millens to consecutive sentences of life imprisonment for second-degree murder, and 10 years each for armed criminal action and the unlawful use of a firearm. Millens appeals.

ANALYSIS

In Points I and II, Millens contends the verdict was unsupported by sufficient evidence that he shot Davis and that he ever shot a firearm. Our review of a challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence to support a conviction is "limited to determining whether there was sufficient evidence from which a reasonable juror might have found the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt." State v. Naylor , 510 S.W.3d 855, 859 (Mo. banc 2017) (internal citation and quotations omitted). "This is not an assessment of whether this [c]ourt believes that the evidence at trial established guilt beyond a reasonable doubt but rather a question of whether, in light of the evidence most favorable to the State, any rational fact-finder could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt." Id. (internal citations and quotations omitted). We do not reweigh the evidence but, instead, accept as true all evidence and inferences supporting guilt and ignore all contrary evidence and inferences. Id. at 858-59.

Millens contends the jury's verdict rests on "unreasonable inference and speculation." He argues the State's witnesses all saw the events surrounding the shooting, but that none could testify that they unequivocally saw him shoot Davis. To support his argument, Millens relies on State v. Lehman , 617 S.W.3d 843, 849 (Mo. banc 2021), a case in which our Supreme Court reversed a conviction based on insufficient evidence. In Lehman , the defendant was charged with loitering within 500 feet of a public park after having been convicted of incest in another State. Id. at 844-45. The only piece of evidence indicating that the defendant was within 500 feet of a public park was a police report indicating that the defendant was at a location "near" a park. Id. at 845. The Court found that the term "near," without support from additional evidence, was too subjective to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant was within 500 feet of a public park. Id. at 849-50.

Millens argues the circumstances of his case are similar to those in Lehman because the State's evidence merely places him near the shooting, which he contends is insufficient to support the verdict. We disagree. Unlike in Lehman , where a single, ambiguous article of evidence was offered to demonstrate the defendant's proximity to the park, the State in this case offered ample evidence that not only indicates that Millens was near the shooting but also allows for the reasonable inference that he was, in fact, the shooter.

Qualls testified that he saw someone matching Millens's description fighting with Davis immediately before the shooting occurred and that someone said Millens's name as the fight broke out. Qualls saw a gun and heard the gunshots that resulted in Davis's death. Qualls's testimony allows for the reasonable inference that Millens was fighting with, and ultimately shot, Davis. Andrews's testimony and statements to police allow for a similar inference. Andrews testified that she heard arguing and that she heard Millens say "bitch" from that area, which allows for the reasonable inference that Millens was involved in the argument. Andrews also testified that she ran into the room during the shooting to see Millens standing with his arms raised near the recently shot Davis. Andrews selected Millens from a photographic lineup as the man standing near Davis with his arm raised.

Additionally, Millens had gunshot residue on his person, allowing for the reasonable inference that he recently shot a firearm, and he had lost a dreadlock in the room where the shooting occurred, indicating his immediate proximity to the shooting. Millens's own conduct after the shooting further supports an inference of guilt as he walked, rather than ran, away from an active shooting, resisted when officers sought to obtain a gunshot residue sample, and he admitted to lying to detectives about his whereabouts that evening. Millens's lack of alarm to the shooting allows for an inference that he was not alarmed because he was the shooter, and his attempt to hide his whereabouts infers a guilty conscience. See State v. Buchli , 152 S.W.3d 289, 297 (Mo. App. 2004) ("Guilt may be inferred when an accused attempts to deceive the police, as in making a false exculpatory statement").

Millens argues at length about the unreasonableness of the inferences drawn from the evidence. In doing so, he asks us to depart from our standard of review and consider adverse evidence and inferences that do not support the verdict. Millens argues that multiple people at the party had dreadlocks and red coats, so any witness identification on those grounds is ineffectual; that Andrews was intoxicated during the party, impeaching her credibility; that, at trial, Andrews recanted her prior identification of him as the shooter; that his lying to detectives about his whereabouts was "understandable" because he was scared; and that the sum of the evidence merely demonstrates that he was "a bystander to the fight." These arguments rely on either evidence or inferences adverse to the verdict, which we may not consider, or they run contrary to the jury's credibility determinations, which we will not disturb on appeal. Naylor ,...