Vaughn v. State, 96-KA-00659-SCT

• Decision Date: 16 April 1998
• Docket Number: No. 96-KA-00659-SCT,96-KA-00659-SCT
• Parties: Johnny VAUGHN a/k/a Johnny Easterling v. STATE of Mississippi.
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court

Page 721

712 So.2d 721

Johnny VAUGHN a/k/a Johnny Easterling v. STATE of Mississippi.

No. 96-KA-00659-SCT.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

April 16, 1998.

A. Randall Harris, Jackson, for Appellant.

Michael C. Moore, Atty. Gen., Jeffrey A. Klingfuss, Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen., Jackson, for Appellee.

Before SULLIVAN, P.J., and McRAE and SMITH, JJ.

SULLIVAN, Presiding Justice, for the Court:

¶1 This case is an appeal from Johnny Vaughn's murder conviction and sentence to life imprisonment without possibility of parole. Vaughn and Vanessa Givens were indicted by the Hinds County Grand Jury during the January Term, 1995, for the murder of Albert Shields on or about November 27, 1994. Givens pled guilty to the murder charge and was sentenced to life imprisonment. Vaughn pled not guilty and proceeded to trial on April 8, 1996, before Circuit Court Judge James E. Graves, Jr. Based primarily upon the testimony of Givens and five other eyewitnesses, the jury found Vaughn guilty of murder. After the State presented proof of Vaughn's prior convictions at the sentencing hearing, Judge Graves sentenced Vaughn to life imprisonment in the Mississippi Department of Corrections as a habitual offender. On April 18, 1996, Vaughn filed his motion for a new trial or for judgment notwithstanding the verdict, which Judge Graves overruled in an order dated April 19, 1996. Vaughn perfected his appeal to this Court, assigning as error the overwhelming weight of the evidence against the verdict and the replacement of a juror with the alternate. Because we find that there was sufficient evidence to at least convict Vaughn of aiding and abetting in Shields's murder, and that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in replacing the absconding juror, we affirm Vaughn's conviction and sentence.

STATEMENT OF THE FACTS

¶2 On the morning of November 27, 1994, Vanessa Givens went to Johnny Vaughn's house and woke him up to take her to Albert Shields's house. Givens testified that she told Vaughn that she needed to "take care of a little business," because Shields had struck Givens's sister, Annie Simmon, and Vaughn's sister, Katie Easterling during a fight at the Gee Gee Club on Woodrow Wilson Avenue in Jackson. Givens stated that Vaughn gave her a gun, took one himself, and told her to "come on." However, Vaughn testified that Givens was drunk and hysterical, and that she took the gun from his house on her own. He maintained that she never told him where they were going or why.

¶3 Vaughn and Givens drove a borrowed truck to Shields's house where they parked behind Leroy Harris, Jr.'s car on Carter Street. Leroy Jr. had driven to Shields's house to drop off his uncle Arthur Mitchell. His father, Leroy Harris, Sr., was in the car with them. Shields, another of Leroy Jr.'s uncles, was standing inside the driver's door talking. Henry Green was talking with his girlfriend, Shields's sister Edna, on the porch. Shields's other sister, Loretha, was watching from the window.

¶4 Vaughn and Givens both exited the truck, and Vaughn approached Shields, while Givens stood between the car and the truck. Testimony from the witnesses established that Vaughn's gun was a 9 mm, and Givens was carrying a .22. Vaughn walked up to Shields and said, "I told you about jumping on my sister." Shields begged him not to shoot, but Givens, Green, Leroy Jr., Leroy Sr., and Loretha all testified that Vaughn fired his gun directly at Shields,who held no weapon. Givens fired her gun a couple of times, but no one was sure whether or not she shot Shields. Vaughn maintained that Givens did all of the shooting, and he never once fired his weapon. After shooting Shields, Vaughn and Givens jumped back in the truck and drove away. When Officer Don Deaton arrived on the scene at 11:38 a.m., Shields was dead.

¶5 The parties stipulated at trial that three .22 shell casings were found at the scene, and a .22 caliber projectile was found in Leroy Jr.'s speedometer dial. John Dial from the Jackson Police Department Crime Lab confirmed that the casings and projectile were .22 caliber and that the three casings were fired from the same gun. Dr. Steven Hayne, who performed the autopsy on Shields, testified that Shields died from a ¶6 Based upon the foregoing evidence, the jury found Vaughn guilty of murder. The State presented evidence of Vaughn's two prior convictions for possession of cocaine with intent to distribute, and Judge Graves sentenced Vaughn to serve a life term as a habitual offender.

single gunshot wound to the right side of his chest. Dr. Hayne was not able to reach any conclusion as to the caliber of the projectile entering Shields's body. He testified that it was probably larger than a .22, but he could not eliminate the possibility that it was a .22. Dr. Hayne stated that the wounds were consistent with the weapon being to Shields's right when fired.

STATEMENT OF THE LAW

I.

THE VERDICT OF GUILTY WAS AGAINST THE OVERWHELMING WEIGHT OF

THE EVIDENCE.

Standard of Review

¶7 To review the sufficiency of the evidence on appeal this Court applies the following standard of review:

When on appeal one convicted of a criminal offense challenges the legal sufficiency of the evidence, our authority to interfere with the jury's verdict is quite limited. We proceed by considering all of the evidence--not just that supporting the case for the prosecution--in the light most consistent with the verdict. We give prosecution the benefit of all favorable inferences that may reasonably be drawn from the evidence. If the facts and inferences so considered point in favor of the accused with sufficient force that reasonable men could not have found beyond a reasonable doubt that he was guilty, reversal and discharge are required. On the other hand, if there is in the record substantial evidence of such quality and weight that, having in mind the beyond a reasonable doubt burden of proof standard, reasonable and fair-minded jurors in the exercise of impartial judgment might have reached different conclusions, the verdict of guilty is thus placed beyond our authority to disturb.

McFee v. State, 511 So.2d 130, 133-34 (Miss.1987).

I.

¶8 Vaughn argues that there were material inconsistencies and a lack of reliability in the State's witnesses' testimony that make the guilty verdict suspect in his case. He maintains that Givens's testimony supported a finding that she alone murdered Shields, because she stated that she was responsible for his death, and because she pled guilty to the murder, indicating that she killed Shields. Vaughn also points to the fact that the only casings found at the scene were .22 caliber, and the testimony showed that Givens was carrying a .22, while his gun was a 9 mm. He tries to discredit the testimony of Leroy Sr., Leroy Jr., Mitchell, and Green, because they all took cover once the shooting began. His argument is that they couldn't have seen what happened, because Leroy Sr. was on the floorboard, Leroy Jr. was underneath the car, Mitchell had run down the street, and Green was hiding behind the bricks. Vaughn contends that Loretha's and Leroy Sr.'s testimony was not reliable, because they stated that Vaughn shot Shields straight in the chest, contrary to Dr. Hayne's findings. Similarly, Vaughn argues that Leroy Jr.'s account of Shields being shot in the back was not creditable since it was contradicted by Dr. Hayne's testimony. Vaughn asks us to find that a reasonable juror could only believe his own testimony that Givens was solely responsible for Shields's murder, and that Vaughn had no knowledge of Givens's intent to kill Shields.

¶9 Vaughn was convicted of murder under Section 97-3-19(1). That statute reads in pertinent part, "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 of any human being." Miss.Code Ann. § 97-3-19(1)(a) (Supp.1997). The jury was properly instructed on the elements of murder in Instruction S1 ¶10 Vaughn's argument fails to recognize one simple important fact--all five eyewitnesses who claimed to have seen the shooting (Givens, Green, Leroy Jr., Leroy Sr., and Loretha) testified that Vaughn fired his gun directly at Shields. The witnesses also stated that Shields was unarmed, the investigating officers found no weapon on the scene to dispute that fact, and Vaughn offered no proof to suggest that Shields was armed. Vaughn was the only witness to claim that he never fired his weapon. The fact that the other witnesses may have been confused about the angle of Vaughn's gun or the position of the victim as he stood by the car does not diminish that overwhelmingly condemning point. The testimony of five eyewitnesses that Vaughn intentionally shot directly at Shields when Shields was unarmed certainly meets the burden of proof to show beyond a reasonable doubt that Vaughn deliberately killed Shields...