Burleson v. State

166 So. 3d 499, 2015 Miss. LEXIS 243, 2015 WL 3544898
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedMay 21, 2015
DocketNo. 2013-KA-00772-SCT
StatusPublished
Cited by31 cases

This text of 166 So. 3d 499 (Burleson v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Burleson v. State, 166 So. 3d 499, 2015 Miss. LEXIS 243, 2015 WL 3544898 (La. 2015).

Opinions

WALLER, Chief Justice,

for the Court:

¶ 1. Charles David Burleson II appeals his conviction and sentence for capital murder with the underlying felony of robbery. Finding that the trial court erred in amending Burleson’s indictment to charge him as a violent habitual offender and in denying Burleson’s proffered circumstantial-evidence instruction, we reverse Burle-son’s conviction and sentence and remand this case for a new trial.

FACTS & PROCEDURAL HISTORY

¶ 2. On Saturday, May 15, 2010, Donnie Holley returned to his home in Thrasher, Mississippi, after a fishing trip with his son Scott. As he was checking his mail, he noticed a white car driving off his property and away from his house. When he entered his house, he found his son Steven lying on the floor in the living room. Steven was completely unresponsive, and a pool of blood had collected under his head. [503]*503Donnie immediately called 9-1-1. Steven was taken to the hospital, but doctors were unable to revive him, and he died from his injuries five days later.

¶ 3. Officer Derrick Hester of the Pren-tiss County Sheriffs Department and his partner Officer Tammy Johnson were the first to respond to Donnie’s 9-1-1 call. They arrived at the house around 1:00 p.m. After medical personnel arrived to tend to Steven, Officer Hester and Officer Johnson investigated the rest of the house. The bedrooms in the house appeared to have been ransacked. In Steven’s room, clothes were strewn across the floor, dresser drawers had been left open, and the mattress had been thrown off the bed.

¶ 4. Officer Hester called Investigator Roy Ragin of the Prentiss County Sheriffs Department to assist with the crime scene investigation. Upon entering the Holley residence, Investigator Ragin observed blood stains on the couch in the living room, next to where Steven was found. Investigator Ragin collected a knife discovered under Steven’s body, but he did not observe any blood on the knife. Investigator Ragin observed that a medicine cabinet in the house was in disarray, as if someone had rummaged through it. Outside the house, Investigator Ragin found broken glass from the storm door in the Holleys’ carport, and one of the metal bars on the storm door was missing. Investigator Ra-gin interviewed Donnie to find out if anything was missing from the house, and he also spoke to some of the Holleys’ neighbors. Donnie stated that a flat-screen TV, a DVD player, and some prescription medication were missing from the house.

¶ 5. After leaving the Holleys’ house, Investigator Ragin received a call from Joey Clark, a narcotics investigator with the Prentiss County Sheriffs Department. Investigator Clark previously had worked on a case involving Steven, and he offered to help Investigator Ragin locate people who might have been associated with Steven. Investigator Clark met with Investigator Ragin and Officer Hester on the evening of May 15 to discuss the investigation.

¶ 6. At around midnight on May 15, Investigator Clark and Investigator Ragin received a text message from Tammy Cook, who lived approximately twenty miles from the Holleys, asking for'details about Steven. Investigator Ragin went to Cook’s house to interview her. Cook told Investigator Ragin that a man named Jeremy Huguley had been to her house at least twice that day, once early in the morning and again around 1:00 p.m. On his second visit, Huguley had arrived with his girlfriend Kayla Cartwright and another man, later identified as Burleson, whom Cook did not recognize at the time. Hugu-ley, Burleson, and Cartwright had arrived at Cook’s house in a white Oldsmobile. Cook watched Huguley take a metal bar out of the car and throw it into the woods next to her house. Huguley also retrieved a garbage bag from the car and placed it under Cook’s porch. Huguley and Cartwright then left in the white car, but Burleson stayed outside, talking to Cook’s son Max. Shortly thereafter, someone driving a green Ford'Mustang picked up Burleson. Max then retrieved the metal bar that Huguley had thrown into the woods, and Cook retrieved the garbage bag that Huguley had left under her porch. Cook inspected the contents of the garbage bag and found prescription medication information forms with Donnie Holley’s name on them. At that point, Cook contacted Investigator Clark and Investigator Ragin. Cook also told Investigator Clark that Huguley previously had left a gun at her house, hidden in Max’s room. Huguley had come back to her house while [504]*504she was gone and retrieved the gun and took $200 in cash from her son’s room.

¶ 7. Based on Cook’s statements, Investigator Ragin notified the police to be on the lookout for a white Oldsmobile or a green Ford Mustang. Cartwright and Hu-guley were both taken into custody in the early hours of May 16, 2010. Huguley was intoxicated when he was brought to the police station, so he was not interviewed at that time, but Investigator Ragin was able to interview Cartwright. Investigator Ra-gin received Cartwright’s consent to search her home for the items missing from the Holley residence. Cartwright and Huguley were living together at the time. At Cartwright’s home, Investigator Ragin found a flat-screen TV, a comforter, some CDs, an electric drill, two wallets, and a cell phone, all of which belonged to the Holleys. Investigator Ragin also found prescription medication bottles belonging to Donnie Holley in a garbage can outside Cartwright’s house.

¶ 8. Cartwright stated that, before noon on the day of Steven’s attack, she and Huguley had picked up Burleson at a truck stop in Baldwin, Mississippi. After stopping briefly at Cartwright’s house, the trio went to the Holleys’ house in Thrasher. They all rode together in Cartwright’s white Oldsmobile. When they arrived at the Holley residence, Cartwright stayed in the car, while Huguley and Burleson entered the house. Cartwright asked Hugu-ley and Burleson to look for her hair straightener, which she previously had left at the Holley residence. Huguley could not find the straightener, so Cartwright went inside to tell Steven what it looked like. When she entered the house, Steven was sitting on the couch in the living room, and Burleson was sitting across from him on a love seat; Huguley was not in the living room. Cartwright then went back outside and sat in her car while she waited for Huguley and Burleson. Huguley later brought Cartwright her straightener and then went back inside the house.

¶ 9. Shortly thereafter, Cartwright recalled that “[Burleson] came outside with a pole, but I’m not positive that it was David. It might have been [Huguley] that brought it out. And then [Huguley] brought out a TV wrapped in a blanket, and they put it in the back seat.” Cartwright was sure that Burleson and Hugu-ley had each brought an item to the car “because two people can’t really be at one place at the same time.” Either Burleson or Huguley — Cartwright could not remember who — also placed a toolbox in the car. The contents of the toolbox were unknown to Cartwright at the time. When Huguley got in the car, he had a wallet, a cell phone, and some cash, which he had not had earlier in the day. As they were leaving the Holleys’ house, Cartwright saw Donnie checking his mail at the end of the road.

¶ 10. After leaving the Holley residence, Cartwright, Huguley, and Burleson went to Cook’s house in Jumpertown. Cartwright observed Huguley speaking with Cook’s son Max, holding the metal bar from the Holleys’ storm door in his hands. When Huguley returned to the car, he did not have the metal bar anymore.

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Bluebook (online)
166 So. 3d 499, 2015 Miss. LEXIS 243, 2015 WL 3544898, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/burleson-v-state-la-2015.