Dampier v. State

973 So. 2d 221, 2008 WL 191969
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 24, 2008
Docket2006-KA-01792-SCT
StatusPublished
Cited by62 cases

This text of 973 So. 2d 221 (Dampier 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
Dampier v. State, 973 So. 2d 221, 2008 WL 191969 (Mich. 2008).

Opinion

973 So.2d 221 (2008)

Deandre DAMPIER
v.
STATE of Mississippi.

No. 2006-KA-01792-SCT.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

January 24, 2008.

*223 Kelsey Levoil Rushing, Ramel Lemar Cotton, Jackson, attorneys for appellant.

Office of the Attorney General by Ladonna C. Holland, attorney for appellee.

Before SMITH, C.J., CARLSON and RANDOLPH, JJ.

RANDOLPH, Justice, for the Court.

¶ 1. Deandre Dampier was charged with the capital murder of Harry McGuffee, Jr. ("McGuffee") during the commission of a robbery. Dampier was found guilty by a jury. The circuit court sentenced him to serve a term of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, as Dampier was a minor.

FACTS

¶ 2. According to Dampier's July 23, 2004, statement, Jermaine Rogers ("Jermaine"):

called me [on July 6, 2004] and he told me that he wanted me to come help him pick up these cars. . . . [H]e said Five Star, [Auto Sales ("Five Star")]. . . . Then I said how you gonna get `em and he said I'm gonna buy `em. . . . Then he said, [h]ow we gonna do is, I'm gonna get you to drive me up there, then I'm gonna get you to go to the store and park the car. Naw, that my [Dampier's] girlfriend [Tamesha McClendon] stays close over. I said take the cars to her house which is Indian Creek Apartments.

On July 7, 2004, Mark Dwayne Hankins loaned his .22 pistol to Jermaine, his neighbor at Eastside Manor Apartments in Magee. Hankins testified that Jermaine claimed he needed the gun because "he was going fishing and there were snakes and alligators where he was going."

¶ 3, Clarissa Rogers ("Clarissa"), Jermaine's wife, testified that on July 8, 2004, at approximately 9:30 a.m., Jermaine stated he was going to apply for a new job and left in their Toyota Corolla. From there, Jermaine drove to Dampier's residence.[1] When Dampier observed the gun on Jermaine, he asked "why'd you got your pistol with you? He said no reason." Dampier then drove the Corolla to Five Star with Jermaine in the passenger seat.

¶ 4. McGuffee owned and operated Five Star, a used car dealership located on Highway 49. At 11:04 a.m., McGuffee made a phone call to his wife, Charlotte *224 McGuffee ("Charlotte"), from Five Star. According to Charlotte:

[w]e were talking about what the plans were for the day, and I heard the alarm go off. Someone had pulled right into the driveway.[2] . . . I said, "I'd better let you go because it sounds like you have a customer."

Captain Andrew Barrett of the Florence Police Department testified that in Dampier's July 9, 2004, interview, he stated "at Five Star . . . he went to turn into the parking lot, and [Jermaine] told him, `. . . you need to stop right here at this gate,' blocking the gate." Thereafter:

Dampier stated . . . that [Jermaine] got out of the vehicle, went inside the building, came back out with Mr. McGuffee, and they were standing there looking at the green [Ford] Mustang. They had lifted the hood on the green Mustang,[3] and [Dampier] stated that [Jermaine] waved at him, indicating, "roikay, you can leave," and that he drove [the Corolla] from there back to [McClendon's] . . . apartment at Indian. Creek Apartments, which is south on 49 from. Five Star Auto . . .[4] [H]e waited there until [Jermaine] showed up in the green Mustang.

¶ 5. According to Dampier's July 9, 2004, statement, at McClendon's apartment, he:

told her about what was goin' on down there[, Jermaine] wanted me to come get these cars for him and stuff, I told her that he had a pistol.[5] I didn't know he say what he was gonna do with it, he said he wouldn't gonna do nothing with it, so within no time, [Jermaine] came back, he picked me up [in the Mustang].

Upon arriving back at Five Star, Dampier stated that:

I'm th[i]nking everythang's alright . . . I got . . . the Jeep and we drove off, got ready to drive off and [Jermaine] closed the gate and . . . he told me that the man, was . . . in a hurry so I'm th[i]nking the man was in a hurry, whatever so [Jermaine] closed the gate so we leave . . .

Joe Ishee testified that he drove past Five Star at around 11:25 a.m. and noticed "a big colored man closing the gate. When I come by there he was closing that white gate, and he went through there. And there was an SUV, a dark-colored vehicle there." Jermaine then drove off the car lot in the Mustang and Dampier followed him southbound on Highway 49 in the Jeep.

¶ 6. Surveillance video subsequently was retrieved by law enforcement from Hot Wheels Auto, which is located south of Five Star, on the southbound side of Highway 49.[6] That video was sent to Richard *225 Vorder Bruegge, Ph.D., who works in the Forensic Audio Video and Image Analysis Unit of the FBI in Quantico, Virginia. At trial, Dr. Vorder Bruegge was accepted as an expert in forensic image analysis and video analysis. After reviewing the video, Dr. Vorder Bruegge limited his focus to southbound traffic, as the video quality severely limited any conclusions regarding northbound vehicles.[7] Regarding the green Mustang, Dr. Vorder Bruegge concluded that if it "came down in that period from 11:00 to 12:00, then it was at . . . 11:25:32."[8] As to the black Jeep, Dr. Vorder Bruegge "found two instances in which there was a vehicle that was consistent. . . . One of them is at 11:25:42, and the other one was at 11:23." Ultimately, Dr. Vorder Bruegge concluded that if the black Jeep followed the green Mustang, as Dampier claimed, it did so at 11:25:42.

¶ 7. In Dampier's July 23, 2004, statement, he noted that Jermaine pulled over to the side of the road soon after leaving Five Star, followed by Dampier, and "took the tag off the Jeep and the Mustang and put both of em in the trunk of the Mustang." Soon thereafter, Jermaine pulled off the road again, claiming that the car was running hot, and proceeded to the home of Claude Holloway. Dampier stated that Holloway was not home, therefore, they left the Mustang there and returned to Eastside Manor Apartments in the Jeep.[9]

¶ 8. Allen Lewis discovered McGuffee's lifeless body. Lewis's emergency call was received at 11:50 a.m., and the first dispatch unit arrived by 12:01 p.m. According to Barrett, McGuffee "had two gunshot wounds to the forehead, an exit wound to his cheek, . . . a gunshot wound in his left eye, and another one in the back of his head that was the entrance wound." An autopsy confirmed four gunshot wounds caused McGuffee's death. Upon arriving at the scene, Charlotte informed the police that the Mustang was missing from the car lot, and Barrett then determined that keys were missing to "[a] green Ford Mustang and a black Jeep Cherokee."[10]

¶ 9. Clarissa testified that Jermaine arrived at Eastside Manor Apartments with Dampier at approximately 12:30 p.m. According to Clarissa:

I asked Jermaine where were the keys to my car so that I could go ahead and leave for work. And he pulled a key out of his pocket and he kind of threw it on the couch, but it had a yellow tag on it. I read the tag, and it said that it was a 1996 Jeep Cherokee that was black. . . .
So I looked out the window at the vehicle, and I said, "[w]here did you get this from?" I said, "Lylou didn't steal this, did you?"
He said, "[n]o."[11] He said, "[m]y aunt was going to help me get a loan and she *226 did to get you a better vehicle."

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
973 So. 2d 221, 2008 WL 191969, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dampier-v-state-miss-2008.