State v. Miller
| Decision Date | 18 September 2020 |
| Docket Number | No. W2019-00197-CCA-R3-DD,W2019-00197-CCA-R3-DD |
| Parties | STATE OF TENNEESSEE v. URSHAWN ERIC MILLER |
| Court | Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals |
Appeal from the Circuit Court for Madison County
Defendant, Urshawn Eric Miller, was convicted by a Madison County jury of premeditated first degree murder, felony first degree murder, attempted especially aggravated robbery, attempted second degree murder, aggravated assault, employing a firearm during the commission of a dangerous felony, evading arrest, and resisting arrest. The trial court merged the felony murder conviction into the premeditated murder conviction and the aggravated assault conviction into the attempted second degree murder conviction. The jury sentenced Defendant to death for the first degree murder conviction. For the remaining convictions, the trial court imposed an effective sentence of thirty years, to be served concurrently with his death sentence. On appeal, Defendant raises the following issues, as renumbered and reorganized by this Court: (1) the evidence was insufficient to sustain his convictions; (2) the trial court erred in ruling on various challenges during jury selection; (3) the trial court erred in admitting a video of his prior aggravated robbery during the penalty phase; (4) the death penalty is unconstitutional; (5) the aggravating factors did not outweigh the mitigating factors beyond a reasonable doubt; and (6) the death penalty is disproportionate in this case. Having carefully reviewed the record before us, we affirm the judgments of the trial court. However, we remand the case to the trial court for the correction of a clerical error.
Tenn. R. App. P. 3 Appeal as of right; Judgments of the Circuit Court Affirmed; Case Remanded
THOMAS T. WOODALL, J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which NORMA MCGEE OGLE and ALAN E. GLENN, JJ., joined.
George Morton Googe, District Public Defender, and Gregory D. Gookin, Assistant Public Defender, for the appellant, Urshawn Eric Miller.
Herbert H. Slatery III, Attorney General and Reporter; Nicholas W. Spangler, Senior Assistant Attorney General; Jody Pickens, District Attorney General; and Shaun A. Brown and Al Earls, Assistant District Attorneys General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee.
OPINIONOn November 25, 2015, the night before Thanksgiving, the victim in this case, twenty-four-year-old Ahmad "Mike" Dhalai, was working the cash register at the Bull Market, located on the corner of Arlington Avenue and Hollywood in Jackson, Tennessee. Abdul "Eddie" Saleh, whose brother owned the Bull Market and who was a cousin of the victim, was also working that evening, along with Lawrence Austin and Mr. Saleh's fourteen-year-old son, Foad. Mr. Saleh was in the back of the store near the restrooms when he heard a "loud pop" followed by two more "pops." He yelled, "What's going on?" as he came toward the front of the store. Mr. Saleh saw the victim on the floor with blood around his head. Mr. Saleh also saw a person standing in front of the cash register by the victim's feet. Mr. Saleh described the person as being tall and wearing dark clothing with a hoodie, mask, and gloves. Mr. Saleh went back toward the office because he was scared. When the person left, Mr. Saleh went to the victim. He saw a hole in the victim's head and blood everywhere. Mr. Saleh tried to stop the bleeding with paper towels while he called 911. Mr. Saleh handed the store's gun to Mr. Austin in case the assailant came back before the police arrived.
Surveillance cameras from the Bull Market recorded the shooting from various angles. The videos were entered into evidence and played for the jury. In the videos, the victim can be seen behind the cash register assisting Timothy Sinclair, Sr., a customer, and then assisting a female customer. Mr. Austin can also be seen mopping the floors nearby. A person wearing black clothing, gray gloves, and a white face covering enters the store. The person puts one hand up toward Mr. Austin while pointing a gun in his other hand toward the victim. The person approaches the victim and says, "Drop that shit off or I'ma shoot you dead in the head." The person looks back toward Mr. Austin, then again says to the victim, "Drop that shit off." The victim flinches as the person fires a shot that narrowly misses the victim's head. The victim turns and starts to walk away as the person continues saying, The person then shoots the victim in the back of the head. The victim immediately falls to the ground, dropping his phone. The person turns and fires one shot in the direction of Mr. Austin, who is backing away towards one of the coolers. The person then jumps over the counter andbriefly bangs on the cash register with his elbow. The person then jumps back over the counter and flees the store. The entire incident lasts less than twenty-five seconds.
Mr. Austin testified that he had been working at the Bull Market for more than ten years, primarily cleaning and restocking. On November 25, 2015, he was mopping the floor and getting ready for closing. When a man came in with something covering his face, Mr. Austin did not pay much attention to it because the weather was getting cool. Mr. Austin believed that the person was black because he could see part of the person's face around his eyes. Mr. Austin then heard a voice say, "Drop it off." Although he did not see a gun, Mr. Austin heard a gunshot. Mr. Austin kept mopping, trying not to attract attention to himself, while he moved toward a refrigerator for cover. He then saw the gun when the person pointed it at him and fired. Mr. Austin hid behind one of the refrigerators. When he looked out, he saw the person jumping over the counter and running out of the door. Mr. Austin ran after him but did not see which way he went. Mr. Austin then went back in the store, asked Mr. Saleh if the victim had been hit, and saw "all this blood and stuff."
Foad Saleh, who was sixteen at the time of trial, testified that around 11:00 p.m. on November 25, 2015, he was riding his bike around the parking lot of the Bull Market when he heard two or three gunshots. Foad saw a black man wearing a black hoodie and pants come out of the store. The man was wearing a white mask over his face. The man ran toward Arlington Avenue around the corner of the store and jumped over a small ledge. Foad went into the store, where he saw blood on the floor and was told that his uncle had been hurt. Foad provided a description of the suspect and his direction of travel to the police when they arrived.
Timothy Sinclair, Sr., testified that he regularly shopped at the Bull Market. On the night of November 25, 2015, he drove to the store in his burgundy Tahoe in order to purchase a bag of ice and some beverages. He had parked his vehicle by the front door. As Mr. Sinclair was placing his purchased items in the back of his vehicle, he saw a person coming around the side of the building. The person was a black male wearing dark-colored clothes, a hoodie, and something white across his face. Mr. Sinclair saw a gun in the person's hand as the person entered the store. When the person fired two shots inside of the store, Mr. Sinclair quickly backed his vehicle into the street trying to get away. The person then came out of the store and went around the side of the building in the same direction from which he had come. Mr. Sinclair pulled his vehicle back into the parking lot and called 911. The police arrived on the scene very quickly.
The first officer on the scene was Officer Kevin Livingston, who was less than a mile away when the call came in at 10:55 p.m. Officer Livingston arrived on the scene in less than two minutes. When he arrived, he saw Officer Livingston wentinside the store and saw a man kneeling behind the counter putting pressure on the victim's head. The victim, who had a "pretty massive exit wound" on the upper left side of his head, was not moving but was still making shallow "gurgling" sounds. Officer Livingston described that "[t]here was blood, brain matter on the floor around [the victim]." Officer Livingston checked for a pulse but could not find one.
Other officers also quickly arrived on the scene, including Lieutenant Shane Beaver, the shift commander for the patrol division. After securing the scene, Lieutenant Beaver obtained a description of the suspect and a direction of travel. Lieutenant Beaver testified that there were approximately twenty officers in the area because it was shift change, and he directed them to set up a perimeter. K9 Officer Jeremy Stines and his dog, a German Shepherd named Pax, began to track the suspect. The dog led officers toward an old bowling alley and a wooded area near Lion's Field. At the top of an incline, Pax led the officers to a shirt and a pair of pants. Pax then led them toward a wooded area near the outfield fence of the baseball field. Officer Stines heard some rustling in the bushes and gave a warning that he had a dog.
As Lieutenant Beaver crossed the baseball field, he spotted an individual "just inside the wood line" near the scoreboard and the outfield fence. This person turned out to be Defendant. Lieutenant Beaver "began to issue verbal challenges" to Defendant by saying "something to the effect of [']police, come out with your hands up[.']" Defendant responded, Defendant had a shirt wrapped around his hand, and Lieutenant Beaver was concerned that he was concealing a weapon. Defendant was pacing back and forth in the wood line and shouting expletives. Lieutenant Beaver testified that Defendant said, "You might get me, but I'm going to take one of you mother [expletive] with me," and "you're going to have to kill...
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