Campbell v. State

580 So. 2d 1312, 1991 Miss. LEXIS 317, 1991 WL 85498
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedMay 22, 1991
DocketNo. 07-KA-59368
StatusPublished

This text of 580 So. 2d 1312 (Campbell 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
Campbell v. State, 580 So. 2d 1312, 1991 Miss. LEXIS 317, 1991 WL 85498 (Mich. 1991).

Opinion

HAWKINS, Presiding Justice,

for the Court:

Lamar Campbell appeals from his conviction in the circuit court of the Second Judicial District of Bolivar County on two counts of burglary and one of grand larceny, and sentence as a recidivist to thirty years without parole and $1,000 fine.

[1313]*1313He challenges the sufficiency of the evidence, claims that the circuit judge encouraged him to testify, and refused to grant him a severance. We find there was sufficient evidence to support the jury’s verdict, and the record does not support the remaining assignments. We affirm.

FACTS

Mr. and Mrs. James H. Milstead lived just outside the corporate limits of Cleveland on Highway 6. Mr. Milstead, a retired postal employee, had a severe brain disorder, needing care and attention by Mrs. Milstead. He could walk around the house, but she had to bathe him, and he was unable to talk on the telephone.

At 5:23 p.m. on Wednesday, January 13, 1988, Mrs. Milstead left their home to go to Family Night Supper and Prayer Meeting at her church, leaving Mr. Milstead in their home. As she pulled out into the highway, she noticed a black man walking, wearing a toboggan (rolled type hat), an army jacket and dark pants which could have been jeans. He was light skinned and about six feet tall.

She returned from church just before 9:00 p.m., and noticed all the lights on in the house, which she attributed to her husband. She then went into the bedroom and noticed a jewelry box upside down on the bed, and another upside down on the dresser. She asked Mr. Milstead if he had done this, which he denied. Then, suspecting something amiss, she went out on their porch, and noticed the bottom part of a storm window had been kicked or knocked out, with the shutter splintered from the window and laying across the couch. She called the sheriff’s office, and Deputy Sheriff Elbert Craig shortly came out to the house.

Mrs. Milstead noticed that a cluster ring was missing. She said the jewelry boxes for the most part contained only costume jewelry.

A few days later Craig telephoned Mrs. Milstead and asked her if she was also missing a man’s ring. She then discovered that a ring given Mr. Milstead when in high school by his father was missing and described it to the sheriff. She said it was a gold ring with a black onyx set and the initial “M.” A ring was then brought to her which she identified as the missing ring even though the ring no longer contained the onyx set. Although she was certain this was her husband’s missing ring, she nevertheless put it on his finger to see if it fit. It did.

L.D. Wall, a retired minister, and his wife also lived just outside Cleveland on the Old Ruleville Road. On January 13, 1988, he and Mrs. Wall were on vacation for several days. Ronnie Wall, their son, was periodically checking on their house while they were away. Just after dark he drove to the house, and as he pulled in to park, he noticed the metal security door was broken off and leaning against his father’s car, a 1987 Chevrolet Caprice, parked in the carport. He then noticed that a window in the kitchen door had been broken.

Wall left the house, went to a nearby store and called the sheriff’s office. He was gone approximately twelve minutes from the house. Deputy Sheriff Elbert Craig received this call at 6:31 p.m., and was at the house within ten minutes. At first he did not know precisely which house was involved and as he was looking, Ronnie Wall returned from the store.

When Wall returned, his father’s car was missing. Craig radioed a description of the car, including the fact that it carried a Disabled American Veteran’s tag.

The two then went into the house, and noticed that it had been ransacked. All the drawers were pulled out. The only thing Wall noticed missing at the time, however, was a .410 gauge single-shot shotgun which his father had given him as a child.

Craig received a call that a Cleveland policeman was following the described vehicle. This officer, Mickey Parrott, followed the car into the Bolivar County Hospital parking lot. He saw a man get out of the car and go into the emergency room of the hospital. He noticed that he was wearing a pull-over cap and an army fatigue jacket. Parrott recognized the man but [1314]*1314could not recall his name at the time. The man did not return to the car.

When Craig and Wall got to the hospital parking lot, Wall identified the car as Reverend Wall’s car, and found the .410 shotgun on the back seat. Neither he nor his father had put the shotgun in the car. The last time either of them had previously seen the gun, it was in the house.

There were two sets of keys to the Chevrolet car. One set was left on the dinette table in the kitchen, the other on a shelf beneath the telephone. When the car was found in the hospital parking lot, it had no keys in it, and the set on the dinette table were missing and never recovered.

On January 19 Craig arrested Campbell in Mound Bayou, and described his behavior as he was being transported handcuffed to the Bolivar County jail:

Q. All right. What, if anything, unusual took place or did you observe anything unusual while you were transporting him down here?
A. Okay. When we was coming from Merigold, he said that the handcuffs was getting tight. Well, I knew that was a story because I had locked the handcuffs so they couldn’t tighten up on him. And he said they was hurting his arm. So I told him we would be there in a few minutes because he was asking me about letting him put them in front of him. I said, “No, we will be there in a few minutes.” So when we got to the office I went around and unlocked the door—
Q. —what was he doing, if anything?
A. Moving and wiggling. I just told him to put his hand in one place and keep them there because that way they won’t hurt him. And I cut the interior light on to make sure, you know, because he was moving so much.
Q. All right. He was squirming around?
A. Right.
Q. Where was he sitting?
A. On the front seat on the passenger side.
Q. Okay. He was sitting by you in the front seat?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Was it dark?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. And I understand that you cut the light on to see why he was moving so much?
A. Yes, sir, that is when he told me that the handcuffs was hurting him.
Q. All right. When you handcuffed him earlier up at Mound Bayou, was he wearing any jewelry?
A. Yes, sir, he had a ring on his finger. Of course, it didn’t mean nothing to me at that time. But when I got him inside the sheriff’s department, I started to take the handcuffs off of him and I noticed that he didn’t have the ring on anymore and I asked him what did he do with that ring that he had on his finger. He said he throwed it away but he first said, “What ring. What are you talking about?” I said the ring that you had on your finger when I put the handcuffs on you.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Culberson v. State
412 So. 2d 1184 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 1982)
Cooper v. State Farm Fire & Cas. Co.
568 So. 2d 687 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 1990)
Nathan v. State
552 So. 2d 99 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 1989)
Toncrey v. State
465 So. 2d 1070 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 1985)
Mason v. State
440 So. 2d 318 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 1983)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
580 So. 2d 1312, 1991 Miss. LEXIS 317, 1991 WL 85498, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/campbell-v-state-miss-1991.