Butler v. State

102 So. 3d 260, 102 A.L.R. 6th 775, 2012 Miss. LEXIS 599, 2012 WL 6062143
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 6, 2012
DocketNo. 2011-KA-01435-SCT
StatusPublished
Cited by43 cases

This text of 102 So. 3d 260 (Butler 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
Butler v. State, 102 So. 3d 260, 102 A.L.R. 6th 775, 2012 Miss. LEXIS 599, 2012 WL 6062143 (Mich. 2012).

Opinion

CARLSON, Presiding Justice,

for the Court.

¶ 1. Ahmad Butler was convicted of manslaughter by a jury in the Circuit Court of Lincoln County. He was sentenced to twenty years in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections. Butler appeals, claiming that pretrial photo lineups were overly suggestive, that identifications were unreliable, and that the trial judge erred in denying his motion for a new trial. Butler’s arguments are without merit, and the trial court’s judgment of conviction and sentence is affirmed.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

¶ 2. On the evening of June 16, 2010, Anthony Nichols and his girlfriend, Haley Brooke Terrell, and their friend, Jarrón Pappas, traveled from McComb to Brook-haven to sell a pit bull dog. The trio first talked to Pappas’s friend, Brent Fells, about purchasing the dog. During this conversation, a friend of Fells approached and expressed an interest in the dog; he also asked for a ride. The man told the trio that his name was “Little Black.” During the ride, Little Black gave Nichols drugs in exchange for the dog. Little Black gave Nichols his phone number and told him that if he needed anything else to give him a call. Nichols programmed the number into his cell phone under the contact name “Black.”

¶ 3. The next evening, Nichols, Terrell, and Pappas returned to Brookhaven to [263]*263purchase more drugs from Little Black. On this trip, the trio was accompanied by Cory Harris and Dorothy Crawford. Pap-pas pulled up to the designated location, Happy Food Mart, and Little Black approached the vehicle. Little Black instructed Pappas to “kill the car and turn off the lights.” Little Black then walked to a nearby car, returned with drugs, and handed them to Nichols. When Nichols tried to show the drugs to Pappas, Little Black reached for money that was in Nichols’s lap and then pulled out a gun, demanding that Nichols give him the money. Little Black and Nichols began to tussle, and Little Black shot Nichols in the head. Pappas drove Nichols to the hospital, and he later died from his injuries.

¶ 4. The four eyewitnesses — Pappas, Harris, Terrell, and Crawford — were asked to identify the shooter from photo lineups. Pappas was shown a one-page photo lineup, and he identified the defendant, Ahmad Butler, as the shooter. The suspects in the lineup were pictured standing beside a height marker. Butler was the only suspect within six inches of the height description that Pappas supposedly had given the police. Harris was shown a different one-page photo lineup, and he also picked Butler as the shooter. Harris later told Pappas that he was not sure he had identified the right person. Terrell was shown an array of single photos, from which she first chose Butler, then changed her mind and chose another suspect. Crawford could not identify the shooter from a photo lineup.

¶ 5. Detective Bobby Bell was the primary investigator in this case; he testified at trial and at a pretrial hearing on a motion to suppress the identifications of Butler. Detective Bell testified that the witnesses had referred to the shooter as “Black.” Pappas and Terrell testified at trial that they knew the shooter as “Black.” Contrary to the testimony of the State’s witnesses, the defense witnesses (Butler’s mother and two of her friends) testified at trial that Butler’s nickname had been “Shod,” and that they never had heard him referred to as “Little Black” or “Black.” Although Fells was not present when Nichols was shot, he testified that Butler was present at the dog sale the night before the murder. Fells also testified that the day after the murder, Butler admitted to Fells that he had shot the “dude that had the dog.” Detective Bell asked Fells to look at a photo lineup to identify the man he had introduced to Nichols the night before the shooting, who was the same man who had told Fells that he had shot the “dude that had the dog.” Fells identified Butler. Fells had known Butler for about nine years prior to the incident.

¶ 6. Butler was indicted for depraved-heart murder. Trial was held a year after the shooting. All four eyewitnesses — Pap-pas, Harris, Terrell, and Crawford — positively identified Butler in open court as the person who had shot Nichols. When the State rested, the defense moved for a directed verdict, which was denied. A jury found Butler guilty of manslaughter; and he was sentenced to twenty years in prison. Butler filed a motion for a judgment notwithstanding the verdict, or alternatively, for a new trial. In the one-paragraph motion, Butler averred that the verdict was against the overwhelming weight of the evidence; that the trial court had erred in failing to give a peremptory instruction to the jury requiring it to return a verdict of not guilty; and that the prosecution had failed to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt.' No evidence was provided in support of Butler’s claims. The motion was denied. Butler now appeals to this Court.

[264]*264DISCUSSION

¶ 7. Butler presents two issues on appeal: (1) whether certain pretrial photo lineups were impermissibly suggestive, resulting in unreliable identifications; and (2) whether the trial court erred by failing to grant Butler’s motion for a new trial on the ground that the verdict was against the overwhelming weight of the evidence. Butler claims that the pretrial photo lineup shown to Pappas was unconstitutionally suggestive and that Pappas’s identification of Butler was not admissible. Butler also takes issue with the pretrial identification made by Terrell, because she first identified Butler, then chose another suspect. Butler asserts that the in-court identifications made by both Pappas and Terrell were unreliable.

I. Whether the pretrial identification made by Jarrón Pappas was the result of an unconstitutionally suggestive photo lineup, such that it should have been suppressed.

¶ 8. Butler argues that the trial judge erred in denying his motion to suppress Pappas’s pretrial identification of Butler, because the photographic lineup shown to Pappas was unconstitutionally suggestive. “The standard of review for suppression hearing findings in ... pretrial identification cases is whether or not substantial credible evidence supports the trial court’s findings that, considering the totality of the circumstances, in-court identification testimony was not impermissibly tainted.” Gray v. State, 728 So.2d 36, 68 (Miss.1998)(internal citations omitted). This Court will not disturb a lower court’s decision on the suppression of evidence unless “there is an absence of substantial credible evidence supporting it.” Id. For an identification (made out of court or in court) to be excluded, it must be the result of an impermissibly suggestive lineup and the identification must be unreliable. York v. State, 413 So.2d 1372, 1383 (Miss.1982). We find that the photo lineup shown to Pappas was suggestive, but Pap-pas’s pretrial and in-court identifications were reliable; thus, the trial judge did not err in denying Butler’s motion to suppress.

A. The photo lineup shown to Pappas was impermissibly suggestive.

¶ 9. A lineup or series of photographs is impermissibly suggestive if “the accused, when compared with the others, is conspicuously singled out in some manner from the others, either from appearance or statements by an officer[.]” Id.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
102 So. 3d 260, 102 A.L.R. 6th 775, 2012 Miss. LEXIS 599, 2012 WL 6062143, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/butler-v-state-miss-2012.