Burrill v. State

328 So. 2d 334
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 2, 1976
Docket48882
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 328 So. 2d 334 (Burrill v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Burrill v. State, 328 So. 2d 334 (Mich. 1976).

Opinion

328 So.2d 334 (1976)

Edward J. BURRILL
v.
STATE of Mississippi.

No. 48882.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

March 2, 1976.
Rehearing Denied March 30, 1976.

*335 Daniel, Coker, Horton, Bell & Dukes, Alben N. Hopkins, Gulfport, for appellant.

A.F. Summer, Atty. Gen. by John C. Underwood, Jr., Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen., Jackson, for appellee.

Before INZER, P.J., and SMITH and SUGG, JJ.

SMITH, Justice:

Edward J. Burrill was indicted for the murder of one Vicky Sue Aigner. He was tried on that charge in the Circuit Court of Harrison County, convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Burrill undertook to give a ride in his automobile to Vicky Sue Aigner, a young woman, from New Orleans, Louisiana, to Miami, Florida, and it is not disputed that the trip was duly begun and progressed at least as far as Gulfport, Mississippi.

On December 20, 1973, a man named Thompson, driving from Bay St. Louis, Mississippi to Hattiesburg, Mississippi on U.S. Highway 49, stopped to relieve himself. Leaving the road for that purpose, Thompson discovered the nude body of a woman, later identified as Vicky Sue Aigner, lying just past a fence about sixty feet from the highway. Her throat had been deeply slashed, photographs in the record showing that her head had been almost severed from her body. An earring remained in one of the victim's ears.

The Harrison County Sheriff's Department was notified and conducted an examination of the area. A Blue Cross Blue Shield card and a fragment of a small yellow card were found, each of which bore Burrill's name.

On December 26, 1973, Burrill employed an attorney to represent him in connection with a traffic charge in Foxboro, Massachusetts. When Burrill's attorney contacted the sheriff's office there about the charge, he was informed that the authorities wished to talk to Burrill about an incident which had occurred in Mississippi. At about 3:00 o'clock in the afternoon of that same day, Massachusetts State Trooper Kilpeck arrived at the attorney's office and, in the presence of his attorney, informed Burrill of his constitutional rights as required by Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966). The attorney explained to Burrill as each of these "rights" was read to him what it meant. On his way back with State Trooper Kilpeck to the Massachusetts State Police Barracks at Foxboro, Massachusetts, Burrill told Kilpeck that he had left his automobile parked at an airport in Orlando, Florida, describing it as a maroon and white Ford with a Massachusetts license plate.

After arriving at the barracks Burrill told Kilpeck that on December 15, 1973, a young woman at a New Orleans bar had asked him to give her a ride to Miami, Florida, and that he had agreed to do so. According to Burrill, this woman was about 24 years of age, with brown hair, and was wearing blue jeans and a jacket. He told Kilpeck that near Gulfport, Mississippi, the woman started crying and asking to be let out of the car. Burrill said he stopped and dropped her off at the Gulfport exit on Highway 10 and continued for about another 100 miles along that highway before discovering that his wallet was missing. He said he had last seen it as it lay on the seat of his car, between him and the woman. Trooper Kilpeck relayed the information as to Burrill's car to the sheriff of Harrison County, Mississippi.

At the request of Mississippi authorities, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement then located Burrill's car at the McCoy Jetport in Orlando, Florida and subjected it to a thorough examination.

*336 Blood and traces of blood were found in numerous places inside the car. Blood was identified on the right door support, front seat, both sides of the rear of the front seat, on the left rear armrest and underneath the right rear armrest and gear shift knob. Stains on the right rear door panel, right rear seat and right rear armrest were in sufficient quantity to be classified and were identified as human blood, Type O, RH Positive. It was established that Burrill and the victim both had blood which fell within that classification.

Several articles were found in the car on which human blood Type O, RH Positive, was identified, including a sideview mirror, a black robe, a blue shirt, a green shirt and a cardboard box. Human blood was also found on a part of an earring and a swimming fin which were in the car. The part of the earring found in the car consisted of the gold loop by means of which the earring is affixed to a pierced ear and was similar to that part of the single earring found in the ear of the victim when her body was discovered. Fingerprints of Vicky Sue Aigner, and a substance appearing to be blood, were identified on the sideview mirror. Burrill's fingerprints were identified on a silver goblet found in the car.

On December 28, 1973, Deputy Sheriff Smith of the Harrison County Sheriff's Department, interviewed Burrill in Foxboro, Massachusetts in the presence of Burrill's attorney, Trooper Kilpeck and various other Massachusetts officials. This was done with the consent of Burrill's attorney and prior thereto Burrill's Miranda rights were explained to him for the second time. Burrill consented to the interview and signed a "Warning and Consent to Speak Form," which was witnessed by his attorney. In the course of the interview, Burrill identified a picture of Vicky Sue Aigner, taken before her death, as his passenger on the trip from New Orleans and his version was, in substance, the same as previously given to Massachusetts State Trooper Kilpeck. The interview was terminated by Burrill's attorney when Harrison County Deputy Sheriff Smith pointed out to Burrill that it would have been impossible for him to have driven on along Highway 10 for about another 100 miles, as he said he had done, after putting Vicky Sue Aigner out of his car at Gulfport.

The sufficiency of the evidence to support the conviction is challenged. It is pointed out that much of the evidence against Burrill was circumstantial and, that being so, it was necessary that it exclude every reasonable hypothesis save that of Burrill's guilt. Burrill did not testify upon the trial of the case on its merits, and his version of the case, therefore, appears only from his statements testified to by the officers and from his testimony on the motion to suppress. Notwithstanding the fact that the evidence may be circumstantial, the jury, as the trier of fact, remains the judge of its weight. The credibility of the witnesses also is a matter which lies peculiarly within the province of the jury. Payne v. The State, 57 Miss. 348 (1879); Pearson v. State, 248 Miss. 353, 158 So.2d 710 (1963); Smith v. State, 278 So.2d 408 (Miss. 1973).

It does not appear that anyone saw the actual commission of the homicide. Therefore, if the killer is to be brought to justice in a case of this kind, the ultimate fact of his guilt must be derived from circumstances proven. In this case the evidence of Burrill's guilt, although circumstantial, is quite strong. A careful scrutiny of the record makes it apparent that the facts proved were sufficient to support the inference of guilt drawn from them by the jury as triers of fact and amply justified the conclusion on the part of the jury that, in logic and reason, the evidence did exclude every reasonable hypothesis save that of Burrill's guilt.

We are forced to conclude that the evidence, outlined briefly above, was ample to support Burrill's conviction. Under the circumstances in evidence, the

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328 So. 2d 334, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/burrill-v-state-miss-1976.