State v. Williams

• Decision Date: 29 August 1983
• Citation: 657 S.W.2d 405
• Parties: STATE of Tennessee, Appellee, v. Laron Ronald WILLIAMS, Defendant-Appellant. 657 S.W.2d 405
• Court: Tennessee Supreme Court

Page 405

657 S.W.2d 405

STATE of Tennessee, Appellee, v. Laron Ronald WILLIAMS, Defendant-Appellant.

657 S.W.2d 405

Supreme Court of Tennessee at Nashville.

Aug. 29, 1983.

Rehearing Denied Oct. 3, 1983.

James F. Butler, Billy Jack Goodrich, Charles Patterson, Jackson, for defendant-appellant.

William M. Leech, Jr., Atty. Gen. and Reporter, Kymberly Lynn Anne Hattaway, Asst. Atty. Gen., Nashville, George W. Hymers, Dist. Atty. Gen., James G. Woodall, Asst. Dist. Atty. Gen., Jackson, for appellee.

OPINION

DROWOTA, Justice.

The Defendant, Laron Ronald Williams, appeals his conviction of first degree murder, for which he was sentenced to death, and his conviction of first degree burglary, for which he was sentenced to no less than ten nor more than fifteen years in the state penitentiary. He presents to this Court several issues for review, all of which we have carefully studied and found to be without merit.

Since the Defendant challenges the sufficiency of the evidence for his convictions, we summarize the evidence presented at trial. On Friday, May 15, 1981, at about 8:20 a.m., ¹ Father John Jay Jackson was found dead inside the rectory of St. Mary's Catholic Church in Jackson, Tennessee. The pockets of his clothing were pulled out, and coins were scattered on the floor of the den and in the hallway. A sliding glass door which opened onto a screened-in porch had been shattered; and scattered papers and an overturned potted plant on a coffee table indicated there had been a struggle. In addition, the drawers of a desk located in the bedroom area of the rectory had been pulled out and thrown on top of the desk with their contents in disarray. Outside, the footprints of someone wearing tennis shoes led from the rectory to a nearby dumpster, then across the Highway 45 Bypass to a building called Watkins Tower.

The pathologist and medical examiner testified that Father Jackson died between 8:00 and 8:30 p.m. on Thursday, May 14. The autopsy revealed he died as a result of a gunshot wound to the back of the right shoulder. There was a second, nonfatal gunshot would in the left shoulder. Scrapes on the body indicated the priest had struggled with his assailant, and lacerations on the priest's head were consistent with blows from a blunt instrument such as a gun.

On Thursday night, May 14, Father Jackson ate dinner with the Timby family and left between 8:00 and 8:10 p.m. It takes approximately three minutes to walk from the Timby residence to the rectory. Ed Bendoski, a resident of St. Mary's Manor, a home for retired persons located next to the rectory, testified that at 8:22 p.m. on the evening of May 14, he and his wife looked outside the window of an eighth floor lounge at the manor, which faces the Highway 45 Bypass. He saw a car parked in the southwest corner of the parking lot of Watkins Tower across the highway from the Manor. Noting that it was unusual to see a car parked in that area after business hours, Bendoski and his wife proceeded to their apartment located on the eighth floor of the manor. At approximately 8:24 p.m., while looking from a window in the hallway of the eighth floor, Bendoski saw a tall black man approach the dumpster located on the ground. This man lifted up both of the lids to the dumpster, took a box out of the dumpster, reached under his belt or shirt and then placed something into the box. Then he walked "in a big hurry" toward the bypass. Police later found a cardboard box containing two coins just off the corner of the Watkins Tower parking lot, across the Bypass from St. Mary's Manor.

Bendoski testified that at the time he saw the man at the dumpster, it was dusk. However, the area surrounding St. Mary's Manor, from the dumpster to the highway, is well lighted and was illuminated at the time he saw the man. As Bendoski stood 50 to 55 feet from the ground and the dumpster was 50 to 60 feet from the building, he observed the man at the dumpster at an angle. The man wore a cap with a bill, a jacket, and dark pants and shoes. His hair was long. At trial, Bendoski positively identified the Defendant as the man he had seen.

On cross-examination, Bendoski testified he watched the man for approximately four or five minutes. During that period of time, he saw the Defendant's face from the side on two or three occasions, some seven to eight seconds each time. When the Defendant walked around the dumpster, Bendoski was able to see the Defendant's face from the front. Bendoski told an investigator that he could identify the man he saw at the dumpster, but apparently this information didn't register with the investigator for the police never made an attempt to ascertain whether he could identify the Defendant or anyone else from photographs or a lineup.

On Friday evening, May 15, the Defendant sold a .38 Smith & Wesson revolver to Evan Chapman, owner of Chat's market and Cafe, in Jackson. Chapman testified the Defendant was wearing blue jeans, a short jacket, tennis shoes, and a little hat. The Defendant indicated he acquired the pistol as a security guard in California and that he wanted to sell it because he needed the money. He asked for sixty to seventy dollars for the gun, which was worth between two and three hundred dollars on the open market. Chapman gave the Defendant only half the amount he asked for, pending a police check of the gun. In addition to selling Chapman the unloaded gun, the Defendant gave him four rounds of ammunition. When the check revealed that the gun was one missing from the Memphis Police Department, ² the police had Chapman identify the man who sold him the gun from six photographs. On the morning of May 17, the police arrested the Defendant, who was wearing a jacket, pants and tennis shoes.

Ballistics tests revealed that the bullets taken from the fatal wound and from the wall in the rectory had been fired from the revolver sold to Chapman. Hairs taken from the Defendant's jacket were indistinguishable from Father Jackson's hair. ³ The hairs recovered from the Defendant's jacket had been forcibly removed. None of the fingerprints found inside the rectory, however, matched the Defendant's fingerprints. Investigators did discover impressions which appeared to have been made by gloved fingers on several pieces of the glass from the broken sliding door and on the door itself. None of the shoeprints found by the police matched the Defendant's tennis shoes. The police were unable to locate the tennis shoes which they believed made the shoeprints.

The Defendant presented alibi witnesses. Howard Williams testified he and the Defendant were together on Thursday May 14, from 6:00 to 10:30 p.m. They played pool, drank and danced at the Carousel Club and Chat's Place. An employee of Chat's Place remembered the Defendant being there between 8:00 and 9:00 p.m., or perhaps a little later, because a dispute arose between the Defendant and another person over a pool game. At trial, the state read a statement by the Defendant denying any knowledge of the crime or the gun and telling of his activities on May 14. The Defendant's statement to the police was inconsistent with his witnesses' alibi testimony. In the statement, the Defendant said he was with a guy called "Hambone" most of that night. The Defendant did not testify.

Roderick Elmore, an inmate of the Shelby County Jail awaiting trial on a charge of armed robbery, came into contact with the Defendant when they were both incarcerated in June of 1981. At that time, Elmore overheard portions of a conversation between the Defendant and an unnamed individual. During the course of this conversation, the Defendant stated he had been driven to Jackson by his girlfriend. The Defendant also stated he was on the grounds of the rectory and that he had sold a pistol to someone in Jackson. Elmore, who could not hear the entire conversation, did not hear the Defendant say what time he was at the rectory, whether anything happened to him at the rectory, whether he came into contact with anyone at the rectory or whether he obtained anything of value while he was at the rectory. Elmore testified he made no deals with the prosecution in Memphis or in Jackson in exchange for his testimony at the instant trial. Though he could not see the Defendant as he spoke, Elmore was positive the voice was the Defendant's.

The only proof introduced at the sentencing hearing was two certified copies of Defendant's convictions for first degree murder in Shelby County and second degree murder in Davidson County. These documents were stipulated to by the State and defense counsel.

I

The Defendant's first four issues concern whether there is sufficient proof to sustain his convictions. The principles which govern our review of a conviction by jury are settled. A jury verdict approved by the trial judge accredits the testimony of the witnesses for the State and resolves all conflicts in favor of the State's theory. State v. Hatchett, 560 S.W.2d 627 (Tenn.1978); State v. Townsend, 525 S.W.2d 842 (Tenn.1975). On appeal, the State is entitled to the strongest legitimate view of the evidence and all reasonable or legitimate inferences which may be drawn therefrom. State v. Cabbage, 571 S.W.2d 832 (Tenn.1978). A verdict against the Defendant removes the presumption of innocence and raises a presumption of guilt on appeal, State v. Grace, 493 S.W.2d 474 (Tenn.1973), which the Defendant has the burden of overcoming. State v. Brown, 551 S.W.2d 329 (Tenn.1977).

Where the sufficiency of the evidence is challenged, the relevant question for an appellate court 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 beyond a reasonable doubt. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979); Rule 13(e), T.R.A.P. Moreover, a conviction may be based entirely on circumstantial evidence where the facts are "so clearly...