Alexander v. State

841 So. 2d 1138, 2002 WL 31831715
CourtCourt of Appeals of Mississippi
DecidedJanuary 8, 2002
Docket2000-KA-00706-COA
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 841 So. 2d 1138 (Alexander v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Mississippi primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Alexander v. State, 841 So. 2d 1138, 2002 WL 31831715 (Mich. Ct. App. 2002).

Opinion

841 So.2d 1138 (2002)

Tyrone ALEXANDER, Appellant,
v.
STATE of Mississippi, Appellee.

No. 2000-KA-00706-COA.

Court of Appeals of Mississippi.

January 8, 2002.
Rehearing Denied December 10, 2002.
Certiorari Denied April 3, 2003.

*1140 R. David Ford, Ripley, attorney for appellant.

Office of the Attorney General by: W. Glenn Watts, attorney for appellee.

EN BANC.

MODIFIED OPINION ON MOTION FOR REHEARING[1]

IRVING, J., for the court.

¶ 1. Tyrone Alexander is before this court on direct appeal from a jury verdict in the Tippah County Circuit Court finding him guilty of embezzlement. He submits several assignments of error which we quote verbatim below:

A. The evidence presented at trial was insufficient to establish the crime of embezzlement and the verdict of the jury was against the overwhelming weight of the evidence and the trial court committed reversible error in denying the Appellant's motion for JNOV and for a new trial.

1. The State failed to establish that Tyrone Alexander was an "employee" of "James E. Dees" as charged in the indictment, argued by the State during trial, and instructed to the jury.

2. The State failed to establish any fiduciary-type relationship or other relationship and entrustment of property.

3. The State failed to establish that Tyrone Alexander had the requisite intent to embezzle.

B. The trial court committed reversible error in refusing to grant Appellant's jury instruction number D-7.

C. The Appellant's right to an initial appearance was violated and the trial *1141 court committed reversible error in denying his motion to quash the indictment.

D. The Appellant's right to a speedy trial under the United States Constitution and under the Mississippi Constitution and the Appellant's right to be tried within 270 days of his arraignment were violated and the trial court committed reversible error in denying his motion to dismiss.

1. Tyrone Alexander's Rights to a speedy trial under the United States Constitution and under the Mississippi Constitution were violated and the trial court committed reversible error in denying his motion to dismiss based upon such violation.

2. Tyrone Alexander's right to be tried within 270 days of his arraignment was violated and the trial court committed reversible error in denying his motion to dismiss based upon such violation.

E. The Appellant received ineffective assistance of counsel.

¶ 2. In his motion for rehearing, Alexander noted that we did not in our original opinion address one of his issues. We do so in this modified opinion but find no error in any of the arguments that he raises. Therefore, we affirm.

FACTS

¶ 3. On April 10, 1998, James Dees, Circuit Clerk of Tippah County, arrived at his office at the courthouse around 6:00 a.m. Alexander entered Dees's office offering to wash Dees's car for forty dollars. Dees agreed to allow Alexander to wash his car. Dees paid Alexander in advance with a forty-dollar check drawn from the expense account of the circuit clerk and instructed Alexander to return Dees's car by 9:00 a.m. that same morning. Alexander testified that he picked up Tangy Prather and his intentions were to smoke crack cocaine, have sex with Prather, wash the car, and return the car to Dees. When the car was not returned at 9:30 a.m., Dees called Jeff Medlin with the Ripley Police Department and explained that his car was to be returned by 9:00 a.m. and that if the police spotted Alexander to tell him to return the car to Dees. In the meantime, Alexander had traveled to Benton County. That afternoon, Alexander was apprehended by the Benton County Sheriff's Department. Prather was not with him at the time of his arrest.

ANALYSIS AND RESOLUTION OF THE ISSUES

1. Weight and Sufficiency of the Evidence

¶ 4. Alexander asserts that the State did not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he committed the act of embezzlement. Alexander's primary argument is that the State never proved that he was an employee of Dees. The indictment charged that:

Tyrone Alexander ... did unlawfully, willfully and feloniously embezzle and fraudulently secrete, conceal and convert to his/her own use a 1990 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme ... which had come into his/her possession and had been entrusted to his/her care and keeping by virtue of his/her position as an employee with the said James E. Dees, and did afterwards, then and there, without the consent of the said James E. Dees, unlawfully, willfully, fraudulently convert the same to feloniously embezzle the same and fraudulently convert the same to his/her own use....

(emphasis added). Alexander was indicted under section 97-23-19 of the Mississippi Code of 1972 as annotated and amended. This section provides:

*1142 If any director, agent, clerk, servant, or officer of any incorporated company, or if any trustee or factor, carrier or bailee, or any clerk, agent or servant of any private person, shall embezzle or fraudulently secrete, conceal, or convert to his own use, or make way with, or secrete with intent to embezzle or convert to his own use, any goods, rights in action, money, or other valuable security, effects, or property of any kind or description which shall have come or been intrusted to his care or possession by virtue of his office, place, or employment, either in mass or otherwise, he shall be guilty of embezzlement, and, upon conviction thereof, shall be imprisoned in the penitentiary not more than ten years, or fined not more than one thousand dollars and imprisoned in the county jail not more than one year, or either.

Miss.Code Ann. § 97-23-19 (Rev.2000).

¶ 5. When evaluating the denial of a motion for JNOV or in the alternative for a new trial, the reviewing court must consider the evidence in a light most favorable to the prosecution. Gavin v. State, 473 So.2d 952, 956 (Miss.1985). The contentions made by the State should be taken as true. Id. Additionally, the State is entitled to all favorable inferences that can be reasonably taken from the evidence introduced. Id. If the evidence is of a nature that fair minded reasonable men could not have found the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, then this Court must reverse. Id.

¶ 6. Alexander says the term "employee" is not a term included in the embezzlement statute. We agree that the word "employee" is not included in the statute. However, we do not find this fact dispositive of the issue before us. Fairchild v. State, 258 So.2d 254, 256 (Miss. 1972), sets forth the test to be applied:

[T]he term "agent" as employed in such statutes imports a principal and implies employment, service, and delegated authority to do something in the name and stead of the principal an employment by virtue of which the money or property embezzled came into the agent's possession. The question whether an agency has been created is ordinarily a question of fact which may be established the same as any other fact, either by direct or by circumstantial evidence; and whether an agency has in fact been created is to be determined by the relations of the parties as they exist under their agreements or acts, with the question being ultimately one of intention. The question is to be determined by the fact that one represents and is acting for another.

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841 So. 2d 1138, 2002 WL 31831715, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/alexander-v-state-missctapp-2002.