Craft v. State

832 So. 2d 467, 2002 WL 31391454
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 24, 2002
Docket2001-KP-01239-SCT
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 832 So. 2d 467 (Craft 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
Craft v. State, 832 So. 2d 467, 2002 WL 31391454 (Mich. 2002).

Opinion

832 So.2d 467 (2002)

Albert Junior CRAFT
v.
STATE of Mississippi.

No. 2001-KP-01239-SCT.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

October 24, 2002.
Rehearing Denied December 12, 2002.

Tom Sumrall, Pro Se, attorneys for appellant.

Office of Attorney General by Charles W. Maris, Jr., attorney for appellee.

Before McRAE, P.J., EASLEY and CARLSON, JJ.

EASLEY, J., for the Court.

PROCEDURAL HISTORY

¶ 1. Albert Junior Craft (Craft) was convicted in the Circuit Court of the First Judicial District of Harrison County of the crimes of (1) aggravated assault with a deadly weapon against Raymond Hubbard (Hubbard), a fireman, for shooting Hubbard and (2) possession of a firearm by a felon. He was thereafter sentenced as a habitual offender, to serve concurrent terms of twenty years and three years, respectively, day for day without parole, in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections. The trial court denied Craft's motion for a new trial. Feeling aggrieved by the judgments thus entered against him, Craft appealed. His counsel, Tom Sumrall (Sumrall), however, believing that the appeal is frivolous, filed a brief in *468 compliance with the Turner v. State, 818 So.2d 1186 (Miss.2001). Craft has also filed his own pro se supplemental brief.

FACTS

¶ 2. Craft's attorney, Sumrall, represents to this Court that in his opinion the trial record does not support an appeal. Sumrall sets out that he thoroughly scoured the record three times and considered all possible issues that might be raised on appeal without finding an issue for appeal. Sumrall filed a notice of appeal to this Court on August 6, 2001, and subsequently filed a brief setting out an abstract of the trial record indicating the testimony of all the State's witnesses insofar as they relate to the elements of the crime. Sumrall found nothing at all in the record to support an arguable basis for an appeal. Sumrall notified Craft of his rights and his right to file a pro se supplemental brief.

¶ 3. The facts set out by Sumrall in his brief are as follows:

The first witness called by the state was [Hubbard], the victim. Hubbard testified that he knew Craft and he identified him in the courtroom. Hubbard said that on December 12, 1999, there was a cookout and present at the cookout was Craft, Nelson Craft [Nelson] ( [Craft's] brother), Edwina Craft [Edwina] (Craft's ex-wife), another man whom he did not name, Terry Brown [Brown] and Tracy Marshall [Marshall]. Hubbard stated that Craft asked him if Derrick was messing with his old lady and Hubbard replied that Derrick didn't know his old lady. Hubbard continued saying that before he could ever sit down good, he was laying on the ground. He said that the reason he was laying on the ground is that Craft shot him with a.38. He shot him in the chest on the left side a little beneath the collarbone and while he was still on the floor, Craft shot him in the back. Craft then put the pistol to the head of [Brown] and Hubbard asked Craft why he shot him. Craft's response to that question was "He told me to squash it." Hubbard further stated that [Nelson] and [Brown] took him to the hospital. In relation to Hubbard's testimony, the state offered into evidence a Nautica shirt that Hubbard was wearing at the time of the shooting. The shirt has tears in it and blood on it that were not present at the time of shooting.
[Brown] was the second witness that the state called and Brown stated that he knew Craft and identified him in the courtroom. Brown said that he saw Craft on December 12, 1999, at a baby shower. According to Brown, Craft stood up and asked Hub [Hubbard] "was his cousin messing with his wife?" and Hub stood up and said "no, he wasn't." Brown continued that Craft shot Hubbard in the chest and then he shot him again in the back after Hubbard had fallen to the floor. Brown said that Craft then put the gun to his head. It was a .38 handgun. He further stated that he and [Nelson] took Hubbard to the hospital.
The next witness called by the state was [Edwina], [Craft's ex-wife]. According to her, she was in attendance at the party on December 12, 1999, at [Marshall's]. Craft asked Hubbard if his cousin was [f_____g] his wife?". Then Craft shot Hubbard.

The next witness to testify on behalf on the state was [Nelson]. Craft's brother. He said that his brother ... came to his house for a baby shower in December of 1999. He said when he arrived he was disturbed. He thought that Hubbard and Edwina were having a fling or something like that. He continued *469 and said that [Craft] stood up and said to Hubbard "I heard you been messing with my woman," and then pulled the gun out and shot him. He put the gun to the head of [Brown]. [Nelson] stated that he got his brother, [Craft] off Terry and then Craft shot [Hubbard] again. He said that he and [Brown] took [Hubbard] to the hospital.

The next witness called by the state was [Marshall] who testified that she was present at the shooting incident. She was in the kitchen, heard a gunshot and ran out the back door. She stated that [Nelson], [Craft], [Hubbard] and [Brown] were in the living room at that time. She did not see anything she only heard the shots.
Keith Gardner [Gardner] was the next witness to testify on behalf on the state. Gardner stated that he had known Craft since they were kids and he identified Craft in the [c]ourtroom. He stated that he saw Craft on December 12, 1999, at his home late in the evening. Craft told him he was in trouble or something. The state called Ray Miller [Miller], a deputy sheriff with the Harrison County Sheriff's Department. Miller heard a dispatch broadcast that Craft was wanted on an [a]ggravated [a]ssault charge. He spotted Craft in the north Gulfport area. When he passed, the subject that matched dressing of Craft ... saw him and stepped in the back door of a residence. He drove by and called for backup and approached the residence. Officers stopped Craft as he was running out the front door of the house. Miller arrested him. The next witness called by the state was Eric Baker [Baker], a registered nurse working in the emergency room at Gulfport Memorial Hospital. Baker stated that he was on duty on December 12, 1999, and he saw Hubbard in the emergency room. He had two gunshot wounds and he described the treatment given Hubbard and stated that one bullet was in the area of the shoulder and one was lower down in the chest cavity, "kind of in the kidney area".
The last witness called by the state was Joey Tracy [Tracy], a Harrison County Sheriff's Deputy, who was an investigator. Tracy responded to the crime scene apartments on 34th Avenue in Gulfport to document the crime scene. He took numerous photographs using a 35mm camera. Tracy authenticated Exhibits 1, 2, 3 and 4, which the state had marked for identification and they were admitted into evidence through Tracy's testimony.
It should be noticed that counsel for Craft made numerous objections throughout the trial, some of which were overruled but in the opinion of counsel would not be of such magnitude to warrant reversal of the trial. It should be further noted that although several witnesses testified that the victim was shot with a .38 caliber weapon, no weapon was ever produced at the trial. However, counsel does not believe that this is a significant issue in this appeal. The cases are numerous in which convictions are affirmed and also in which the weapon, which was the instrument of the crime, was never produced in Court.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
832 So. 2d 467, 2002 WL 31391454, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/craft-v-state-miss-2002.