Clark v. State

693 So. 2d 927, 1997 WL 229565
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedMay 8, 1997
Docket93-KA-00897-SCT
StatusPublished
Cited by57 cases

This text of 693 So. 2d 927 (Clark 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
Clark v. State, 693 So. 2d 927, 1997 WL 229565 (Mich. 1997).

Opinion

693 So.2d 927 (1997)

Jerry CLARK
v.
STATE of Mississippi.

No. 93-KA-00897-SCT

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

May 8, 1997.

*929 James L. Davis, III, Gulfport, for appellant.

Michael C. Moore, Attorney General, W. Glenn Watts, Special Asst. Atty. Gen., Jackson, for appellee.

Before PRATHER, P.J., and PITTMAN and McRAE, JJ.

McRAE, Justice, for the Court:

Jerry Clark appeals his May 26, 1993 conviction for murder by a jury of the Harrison County Circuit Court for the shooting death of his child's mother, Lollie Meunier. The evidence does not support a lesser charge of manslaughter and that the circuit court properly admitted a transcript of the victim's desperate 911 call while Clark was shooting at the door behind which he knew she was hiding. Accordingly, we affirm Clark's conviction and sentence of life imprisonment.

I.

Jerry Clark and Lollie Meunier lived together from 1978 until 1991. One child was born to them during this time. In 1990, the relationship began to deteriorate and Meunier moved into her own home. In response to his frustrations at work and his problems with Meunier, Clark started using illicit drugs.

Clark began calling Meunier at the convenience store where she worked. On June 22, 1992, Clark went to the store to see her. The two argued and Meunier locked herself in the office. Clark became belligerent and Meunier refused to open the door. Clark went to his car and returned with a shotgun and Meunier called Emergency 911.

Clark shot the door several times in an attempt to enter the room. The shots hit Meunier at close range and killed her. Dr. Paul McGarry, the forensic pathologist who performed the autopsy, testified that she died of a close range shotgun blast to her right breast. He also found wounds in her left arm and across her face.

Officer Phillip Cullota of the Gulfport Police Department testified that he went to the convenience store in answer to a 911 call placed at 3:46 a.m. on June 22, 1992, and saw Clark come from behind the counter into the customer area of the store. Officers Cullota and Claud Guinn, a detective with the Gulfport Police Department, arrested Clark at the scene. In Clark's recorded statement to police, he claimed that he was just trying to shoot the knob off the door to gain access to the room where Meunier was hiding.

A jury trial was held on May 25 and 26, 1993. At the close of the State's case, Clark moved for a directed verdict in his favor and in the alternative, that the case go to the jury solely on the issue of manslaughter. His motion was overruled by the circuit court. Although the jury was instructed on the lesser-included offense of manslaughter, Clark's Instructions D-4 and D-8 on the issue of "culpable negligence" pursuant to Miss. Code Ann. § 97-3-47 (1972) were denied. The jury found Clark guilty of murder and he was given a life sentence in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections. Clark's motion for a new trial, or in the alternative, for j.n.o.v., was denied by the circuit court on July 16, 1993.

II.

Clark first contends that the circuit court erred in failing to grant a directed verdict or j.n.o.v., asserting that he was guilty merely of manslaughter through "culpable negligence," and not murder. Raising the same arguments, he further asserts that there was insufficient evidence to support a murder conviction and that the verdict was against the evidence.

*930 Manslaughter is defined in Miss. Code Ann. § 97-3-35 (1972) as "[T]he killing of a human being, without malice, but in a cruel or unusual manner, or by the use of a dangerous weapon, without the authority of law, and not in necessary self-defense."

In Scott v. State, 183 Miss. 788, 185 So. 195, 196 (1938), this Court defined "culpable negligence" as "that degree of negligence or carelessness which is denominated as gross negligence, and which constitutes such a departure from what would be the conduct of an ordinarily careful and prudent man under same circumstances as to furnish evidence of indifference to consequences."

Murder, on the other hand, is defined in Miss. Code Ann. § 97-3-19 (1972) as the

"killing of a human being without the authority of law by any means or in any manner ... in the following cases:
(b) When done in the commission of any act eminently dangerous to others and evincing a depraved heart, regardless of human life, although without any premeditated design to effect the death of any particular individual."

In Windham v. State, 602 So.2d 798, 801 (Miss. 1992), this Court distinguished "depraved heart" murder and "culpable negligence" by holding that "depraved heart murder involves a higher degree of recklessness from which malice or deliberate design may be implied."

Clark testified that he did not intend to kill Meunier, but that he was merely shooting at the door knob to gain access to the room so that he could talk to her. He perceives the act of shooting through a steel door to gain entry to an office where his former paramour was hiding as devoid of malice. Thus, he relies on Wells v. State, 305 So.2d 333, 339-340 (Miss. 1974), for the proposition that where no malice is shown from the evidence, the case should go to the jury for a determination of manslaughter alone. He neglects to note however, that in a "depraved heart" murder, malice can be inferred from the circumstances if the actions involved a very high degree of carelessness evincing a reckless indifference to the danger to human life. Windham, 602 So.2d at 802.

In Clark's own statement to the police, he admitted the following:

CLARK — ... [S]o I went out there (inaudible) the gun. I gone shoot the door knob off, that's what, it's only thing was shot was the door knob over there. I says open the door. That's all I was trying to do. That's all.
GUINN — What kinda gun?
CLARK — It's a twelve gauge.
GUINN — How many times did you shoot?
CLARK — The t-, well I shot the, I shot the first the door, the door knob off, well, I shoot the first time the door knob fell off. I thought I could open it and then it still wouldn't open so I said get out of the way. I shot it. I shot the door down again, it still wouldn't open.

Clark's statement acknowledges that the door knob fell off the steel door behind which Meunier was hiding after the first shot. Moreover, the transcript of the 911 emergency call made by the victim clearly indicates Clark's indifference to the danger he posed to Meunier's life.

EPPERSON — 911
FEMALE CALLER — Please help, I'm down at Conoco. There's a crazy man out here, he's got a gun.
EPPERSON — Ma'am, ma'am, ma'am, don't hang up the phone. Don't hang up the phone.
FEMALE CALLER — Please help me! Please!
EPPERSON — What's the problem, ma'am?
FEMALE CALLER — There's a man out here with a gun, he's tryin' to kill me.

A few seconds later:

UNKNOWN MALE — Open that fuckin' door or I'll kill you now!
FEMALE CALLER — Oh, God, please! Please send somebody please!

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Bluebook (online)
693 So. 2d 927, 1997 WL 229565, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/clark-v-state-miss-1997.