Strong v. State
| Decision Date | 20 May 1992 |
| Docket Number | No. 89-KA-0742,89-KA-0742 |
| Citation | 600 So.2d 199 |
| Parties | Ronnie Ray STRONG v. STATE of Mississippi. |
| Court | Mississippi Supreme Court |
Willie J. Perkins, Sr., Greenwood, for appellant.
Michael C. Moore, Atty. Gen., W. Glenn Watts, Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen., Jackson, for appellee.
Before ROY NOBLE LEE, C.J., and PRATHER and SULLIVAN, JJ.
This ill fated marriage had its beginning and its end at the State Penitentiary at Parchman. Ronnie Ray Strong and Charlene Meeks met at the penitentiary in 1986 while Strong was an inmate, serving time for armed robbery, and Meeks was a guard. The two were married in April of 1988 and lived in Itta Bena, Mississippi.
From the very beginning the marital relationship was rocky and Strong believed that Charlene was seeing someone else within months of their marriage.
On the night of September 10, 1988, the suspicions erupted into violence and resulted in the death of Charlene Meeks and Ronnie Ray Strong's subsequent conviction for murder and sentence to life imprisonment in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections.
Strong's version of the events of that fatal night are that he and Charlene left Itta Bena for Greenwood around 7:00 or 7:30 p.m. Johnny Pollard came by the house just as they were leaving but did not stay. Strong, Charlene, Robert Clayton, and the youngest of Charlene's children went to Greenwood, leaving Charlene's two older children with Tondolyn Meeks, Charlene's niece, at the house. After about an hour the group returned from Greenwood and Bessie Meeks, Tondolyn's mother, was at their home when they arrived.
Strong testified that when they came back from Greenwood, he stayed outside the house and Charlene went inside. The phone rang, Bessie Meeks answered it and was handing the phone to Charlene but Bessie hung it up when she saw Strong come into the house. Bessie and Charlene then went into the bathroom; Strong went back outside. When Strong returned to the house he saw Charlene leave the bathroom and head for the bedroom, but when Charlene saw him she went back to the bathroom. When Strong passed the bathroom he saw Bessie put what he took to be a letter in her bosom.
Strong sat in the bedroom for a minute and then he went back outside and he and Robert Clayton went to the store. When Strong and Clayton returned from the store, Charlene's uncle had arrived at the house and Bessie Meeks was gone. Strong asked Charlene if she wanted him to take Tondolyn's friend home when he took her uncle home. Charlene said no, that she would take the friend home. Strong took Charlene's uncle home and when he returned Bessie Meeks was back sitting in the door. Charlene then asked for the car to take Tondolyn's friend home and pick up a hair dryer from her sister.
Strong claimed that Charlene said that she would only be gone ten or fifteen minutes but was in fact gone for an hour and a half. When Charlene and Tondolyn returned, Strong was sitting in the living room with Johnny Pollard and the children. Strong and Pollard had been drinking beer and when they went outside they smoked two joints. Strong told Pollard that he thought something was not right, meaning that Charlene had been out with another man, and asked to use Pollard's gun. Strong went to Pollard's car and got the .22 calibre pistol.
When Strong got the gun from Pollard's car, Charlene went in to take a shower. Strong thought that this was odd as she had taken a shower earlier before she left the house. Strong took Pollard's gun, which only had two (2) .22 calibre bullets in it, into the bedroom and put two (2) additional bullets into the chamber.
Charlene and Strong began arguing about where she had been and what she had been doing and this argument continued for some thirty to forty minutes. According to Strong at some point Charlene pulled brass knuckles from her purse and Strong pulled the pistol and they began "tussling." As they struggled the gun went off for the first time and Charlene fell back toward the couch. Strong fired three more times. After shooting Charlene, Strong ran from the house and claimed that he was in the process of turning himself in when he was arrested.
On cross-examination Strong stated that after Charlene was hit she fell back and grabbed her throat. She then tried to grab the gun again but she fell and rolled over on her back. Strong then shot her three more times.
The jury returned with a verdict of guilty as charged and the trial court sentenced Strong to life in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections.
Strong argues that the trial court erred in not granting his motion for a directed verdict at the conclusion of the State's case, asserting that the State failed to meet its burden of proof, as it had not shown evidence of intent, premeditation, or malice aforethought. Strong further argues that the trial court erred in not granting Instructions D-1, and D-2, which are basically peremptory instructions, because there was no witness who contradicted his version of the shooting. He also contends that the trial court erroneously refused to grant instructions D-6, D-7, and D-10, which are self-defense instructions.
Our standard of review when considering a motion for a directed verdict and request for peremptory instructions requires that the prosecution's evidence be taken as true, together with all reasonable inferences that may be drawn from that evidence, and if the evidence is sufficient to support the guilty verdict, then the motions were properly overruled by the trial court. Lewis v. State, 573 So.2d 713, 714 (Miss.1990).
Strong was indicted for murder under Miss.Code Ann. Sec. 97-3-19(1), which provides:
(1) That the killing of a human being without the authority of law by any means or in any manner shall be murder in the following cases:
(a) When done with deliberate design to effect the death of the person killed, or any human being;
* * * * * *
Miss.Code Ann. Sec. 97-3-19(1)(a) (Supp.1991).
"Deliberate design" to cause the death of a person is a necessary element of murder. In regard to "deliberate design," we have stated:
As defined by dictionaries the word "deliberate" always indicates full awareness of what one is doing, and generally implies careful and unhurried consideration of the consequences. "Design" means to calculate, plan, contemplate. These are general and accepted meanings of these words.
While it is no doubt true that a deliberate design to kill a person may be formed very quickly, and perhaps only moments before the act of consummating the intent, it is a contradiction in terms to state that a "deliberate design" can be formed at the very moment of the fatal act. Moreover, it is possible for a deliberate design to exist and the slaying nevertheless be no greater than manslaughter. See Bangren v. State, 196 Miss. 887, 897, 17 So.2d 599, 600 (1944).
Windham v. State, 520 So.2d 123, 126 (Miss.1988).
The evidence before the trial court was that Strong and Charlene were arguing over Charlene being gone so long. Johnny Pollard testified that Strong knew that he kept a gun in his car and that he discovered it missing after he left Strong's house. Tondolyn Meeks testified that she saw Strong go out to Johnny Pollard's car "get something and put it into his pants." Jim Clayton saw Strong pull the pistol on Charlene. Clayton and Tondolyn Meeks heard the first shot. Tondolyn heard another shot and then saw Strong stand over Charlene as she lay on the floor and fire two more times.
Chief of Police Banks testified that he found no weapons when he searched the area around Charlene's body and the kitchen area. Neither Tondolyn nor Jim Clayton testified to seeing any brass knuckles. Accepting this evidence and the reasonable inferences that flow from it in favor of the prosecution, it is clearly sufficient to support a guilty verdict. Strong got the gun from Pollard's car, put two more bullets in the chamber and took it with him when he talked to Charlene. He pulled the gun on her and stood over her after she was wounded and fired three more times. That is sufficient evidence for the jury to find deliberate design.
Strong cites Weathersby v. State, 165 Miss. 207, 147 So. 481 (1933), but that argument is without merit as Strong was not the only eyewitness to the shooting. The Weathersby...
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