Beckum v. State

917 So. 2d 808, 2005 WL 3372808
CourtCourt of Appeals of Mississippi
DecidedDecember 13, 2005
Docket2004-KA-00420-COA
StatusPublished
Cited by24 cases

This text of 917 So. 2d 808 (Beckum 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
Beckum v. State, 917 So. 2d 808, 2005 WL 3372808 (Mich. Ct. App. 2005).

Opinion

917 So.2d 808 (2005)

Marvin Lewis BECKUM, Jr., Appellant
v.
STATE of Mississippi, Appellee.

No. 2004-KA-00420-COA.

Court of Appeals of Mississippi.

December 13, 2005.

*811 Jonathan Michael Farris, attorney for appellant.

Office of the Attorney General by John R. Henry, attorney for appellee.

Before KING, C.J., BRIDGES and GRIFFIS, JJ.

BRIDGES, J., for the Court.

PROCEDURAL HISTORY

¶ 1. On November 17, 2003, a jury sitting before the Forrest County Circuit Court found Marvin Beckum, Jr. guilty of robbery. The circuit court sentenced Beckum, a habitual offender, to thirty years without the possibility of parole. On January 7, 2004, Beckum filed an unsuccessful motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict or, alternatively, a new trial. Aggrieved, Beckum appeals and advances the following issues, listed verbatim:

I. THE TRIAL COURT ERRED IN DENYING [BECKUM'S] MOTION FOR JUDGMENT NOTWITHSTANDING THE VERDICT AND/OR MOTION FOR NEW TRIAL AND IN REFUSING TO GRANT THE PEREMPTORY INSTRUCTION.
II. THE TRIAL COURT ERRED IN REFUSING TO GRANT [BECKUM'S] REQUEST FOR A CONTINUANCE.
III. THE TRIAL COURT ERRED IN DENYING [BECKUM'S] BATSON OBJECTION.
IV. THE TRIAL COURT ERRED IN DENYING [BECKUM'S] MOTION FOR RECUSAL.

Finding no error, we affirm.

FACTS

¶ 2. Beckum stood accused of robbing Mr. Robert Nimocks. At trial, Mr. Nimocks testified to the following events. Around 7:30 p.m. on September 1, 2003, someone rang the doorbell at Mr. Nimocks's house in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Mr. Nimocks, then eighty-eight years old, answered the door. A young man stepped inside Mr. Nimocks's house and asked Mr. Nimocks for a glass of water. Mr. Nimocks recognized the young man. Mr. Nimocks also remembered that, several years prior, the young man washed the windows at Mr. Nimocks's house.

¶ 3. Mr. Nimocks gave the young man a glass of water and they discussed whether Mr. Nimocks had any chores that the young man could perform. Mr. Nimocks did not have any work for the young man. Mr. Nimocks inserted some money into his wallet. As Mr. Nimocks went to put his wallet in his back pocket, the young man attacked and robbed him. According to Mr. Nimocks's testimony:

[T]he young man tackled me around the neck, and I don't know just how it happened, but I ended up on the floor with my head skint, my glasses turned up, and he was sitting straddling me wanting to know where my money was or where my billfold was, and all the time he was asking for it, he was reaching for it, and he grabbed it out of my hand, and he sat on my back, and counted the money.

¶ 4. Not content with Mr. Nimocks's money, the man ripped Mr. Nimocks's phone out of the wall and demanded the keys to Mr. Nimocks's car. Mr. Nimocks complied. The young man took Mr. Nimocks's keys and left in Mr. Nimocks's gray 1984 Ford. Mr. Nimocks then called 911.

¶ 5. Five minutes later, Officer Tony Fontaine, a member of the Hattiesburg Police Department, arrived at Mr. Nimocks's house. Mr. Nimocks told Officer *812 Fontaine that the young man took his car and his money. Because the attacker knocked Mr. Nimocks's glasses off, Mr. Nimocks could only recall that the man had a round face, short hair, and wore sweat pants. Officer Fontaine reported the description of the suspect, Mr. Nimocks's car, and Mr. Nimocks's license plate.

¶ 6. Around midnight, Edward Biters, a police officer employed by the Forrest General Hospital, patrolled the hospital grounds. Officer Biters, aware of the descriptions provided by Officer Fontaine, saw a car that matched Officer Fontaine's description. Officer Biters followed the car, observed the license plate, and confirmed that the car was still listed as stolen. Officer Biters continued to follow the car. Officer Fontaine and Detective William McCormick, also with the Hattiesburg Police Department, joined Officer Biters in his pursuit.

¶ 7. The officers attempted to stop the car, but the driver sped up and attempted to evade them. The officers chased the car for seven to ten miles before the driver stopped at a house. When the driver stopped, he got out of the car and ran into the woods. Officer Fontaine got out of his car and chased the driver on foot. Officer Fontaine caught the driver approximately seventy-five to one hundred yards from the point at which he stopped Mr. Nimocks's car. The driver, Marvin Beckum, Jr., wore white tennis shoes, blue jean shorts, and a light colored shirt.

¶ 8. On September 2, 2003, Detective McCormick returned to Mr. Nimocks's house. During that visit, Detective McCormick showed Mr. Nimocks a photograph line up that contained five photographs and asked Mr. Nimocks whether he could identify the young man that robbed him. Mr. Nimocks picked out Beckum's picture.

¶ 9. At trial, the prosecution called five witnesses: Officer Fontaine, Mr. Nimocks, Officer Biter, Detective McCormick, and Jeffery Byrd, a crime scene investigator. Beckum did not present any evidence of his own. As mentioned, the jury convicted Beckum and Beckum filed unsuccessful motions for JNOV and for a new trial.

ANALYSIS

I. THE TRIAL COURT ERRED IN DENYING [BECKUM'S] MOTION FOR JUDGMENT NOTWITHSTANDING THE VERDICT AND/OR MOTION FOR NEW TRIAL AND IN REFUSING TO GRANT THE PEREMPTORY INSTRUCTION.

¶ 10. In this issue, Beckum requests our review of three dispositions in the circuit court: (1) the circuit court's decision to overrule his motion for JNOV; (2) the circuit court's decision to overrule his motion for a new trial; and (3) the circuit court's decision to overrule his request for a peremptory instruction. A request for peremptory instruction and a motion for JNOV both challenge the legal sufficiency of the evidence. McClain v. State, 625 So.2d 774, 778 (Miss.1993). A motion for a new trial challenges the weight of the evidence. Carr v. State, 774 So.2d 469(¶ 15) (Miss.Ct.App.2000).

A. WAS THE EVIDENCE AGAINST BECKUM INSUFFICIENT TO SUPPORT THE JURY'S VERDICT?

¶ 11. Beckum's peremptory challenge and his motion for JNOV both challenged the sufficiency of the evidence at the time Beckum raised them. McClain, 625 So.2d at 778. This Court must review Beckum's last challenge. Id. Beckum last challenged the sufficiency of the evidence when he raised his motion for JNOV. Id.

*813 In appeals from an overruled motion for JNOV the sufficiency of the evidence as a matter of law is viewed and tested in a light most favorable to the State. The credible evidence consistent with [Beckum's] guilt must be accepted as true. The prosecution must be given the benefit of all favorable inferences that may be reasonably drawn from the evidence. Matters regarding the weight and credibility of the evidence are to be resolved by the jury. We are authorized to reverse only where, with respect to one or more of the elements of the offense charged, the evidence so considered is such that reasonable and fair-minded jurors could only find the accused not guilty.

Id. (citations omitted).

¶ 12. Beckum claims that the circuit court should have granted his motion for JNOV because the State presented insufficient evidence that Beckum was the young man who robbed Mr. Nimocks. To support his claim, Beckum notes that, on the day of trial, Mr. Nimocks could not identify him as his attacker. Beckum also submits that no evidence places him at Mr. Nimocks's house on September 1, 2003.

¶ 13.

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Bluebook (online)
917 So. 2d 808, 2005 WL 3372808, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/beckum-v-state-missctapp-2005.