Eddie Williams v. State of Mississippi

206 So. 3d 552, 2016 Miss. App. LEXIS 807
CourtCourt of Appeals of Mississippi
DecidedDecember 13, 2016
DocketNO. 2015-KA-00517-COA
StatusPublished

This text of 206 So. 3d 552 (Eddie Williams v. State of Mississippi) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Mississippi primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Eddie Williams v. State of Mississippi, 206 So. 3d 552, 2016 Miss. App. LEXIS 807 (Mich. Ct. App. 2016).

Opinions

[553]*553IRVING, P.J.,

FOR THE COURT:

¶ 1. Eddie Williams appeals the judgment of the Lowndes County Circuit Court denying his motion for a new trial, arguing that the jury’s verdict was against the overwhelming weight of the evidence.

¶ 2. Finding no error, we affirm.

FACTS

¶ 3. Between December 7, 2012, and January 16, 2013, five burglaries were reported in Lowndes County. The burglaries occurred during the daytime hours and shared similarities in the method of the break-in, items stolen, and property damage. On January 31, 2013, Lieutenant Greg Wright of the Lowndes County Sheriffs Department went home for lunch and, as he was returning to work, noticed an unfamiliar vehicle at his neighbor’s home. Being suspicious, Lieutenant Wright glanced under his neighbor’s carport and saw a male individual that was not his neighbor. Lieutenant Wright made a block around the neighborhood, and when he returned, the man and the vehicle were gone. As he continued on his way to work, he noticed the same vehicle parked off the road, next to a shop. He decided to investigate further. As he approached the vehicle, the driver, Steven Blevins, exited and told Lieutenant Wright that he was having car trouble. Lieutenant Wright also spoke with Williams, the passenger, who stated that the GPS was not working properly. Still suspicious, Lieutenant Wright called dispatch to run Blevins’s and Williams’s information.

¶ 4. While Lieutenant Wright waited on dispatch to respond, Lieutenant Sims with the sheriffs department arrived and alerted Lieutenant Wright that the vehicle’s licence-plate number was of interest in the ongoing investigation of one of the recent burglaries. Both men were arrested and searched. The deputies also searched the vehicle. Williams’s search revealed that he had latex gloves in one of his pockets. The deputies later made consensual searches of Blevins’s home, Williams’s home, and Williams’s sister’s home, which was the address Williams had given to police the last time he was arrested. In the searches of the vehicle and homes, the deputies recovered weapons and several stolen items from each of the previously mentioned burglaries.

¶ 5. Williams was indicted on five counts of burglary of a dwelling (counts A-E) and one count of attempted burglary of a dwelling. The State initially tried Williams on the attempted-burglary-of-a-dwelling charge, and the jury found him not guilty of that charge. The State then tried Williams on the remaining five counts of burglary of a dwelling in one proceeding. The jury found him guilty of each count. The circuit court sentenced Williams to consecutive terms of ten years on counts A-D, respectively, and a consecutive term of fifteen years, with five years suspended, on count E.

It 6. Following his convictions, Williams filed a motion for a new trial, which the circuit court denied. This appeal followed.

DISCUSSION

II7. Our standard of review is succinctly addressed in Bush v. State, 895 So.2d 836, 844 (¶ 18) (Miss. 2005):

When reviewing a denial of a motion for a new trial based on an objection to the weight of the evidence, we will only disturb a verdict when it is so contrary to the overwhelming weight of the evidence that to allow it to stand would sanction an unconscionable injustice. We have stated that on a motion for new trial, the court sits as a thirteenth juror. The motion, however, is addressed to the discretion of the court, which should be [554]*554exercised with caution, and the power to grant a new trial should be invoked only-in exceptional cases in which the evidence preponderates heavily against the verdict.
However, the evidence should be weighed in the light most favorable to the verdict. A reversal on the grounds that the verdict was against the overwhelming weight of the evidence, unlike a reversal based on insufficient evidence, does not mean that acquittal was the only proper verdict. Rather, as the thirteenth juror, the court simply disagrees with the jury’s resolution of the conflicting testimony. This difference of opinion does not signify acquittal any more than a disagreement among the jurors themselves. Instead, the proper remedy is to grant a new trial.

(Internal quotations and citations omitted).

¶ 8. Williams contends that the jury’s verdict was against the overwhelming weight of the evidence and that he is entitled to a new trial. He makes the following arguments: the evidence presented by the State only linked his codefendant, Blevins, to the crimes as there was no physical evidence against Williams; he was never identified as being present during any of the burglaries; no fingerprints were recovered; he was not personally in possession of any stolen items; and no stolen items were recovered from his home. He asserts that the stolen items found at his sister’s home could have been placed there by anyone, as many people had access to the home, including Blevins, and that his sister testified that she did not lock her back door, nor did she lock the shed where some of the stolen items were recovered. As such, he argues that the only evidence the State relied on to connect him to the crimes was the fact that he was riding in the car with Blevins the day of their arrest.

¶ 9, The State responds that it proved that Williams committed the burglaries through circumstantial evidence, and the jury’s verdict was not contrary to that evidence. Several items from each of the burglaries were found in Williams’s sister’s home, and the State argues that based on her testimony, Williams had unfettered access to her home. The State also argues that Williams used his sister’s address as his home address and he is the most likely individual to have stored the stolen property in her home.

¶ 10. The State further argues that Williams had gloves on his person when he was arrested, and the police concluded that the burglars more than likely wore gloves. In addition, the State notes that after the police searched the car in which Williams was a passenger with Blevins, they found: a knife on the passenger floorboard, a gun under the passenger seat, and a gun in the glove compartment. Consequently, the State contends that the breadth of evidence connecting Williams to the crimes was overwhelming; therefore, the jury’s verdict was not improper.

¶ 11. The Mississippi Supreme Court has held that “we will only disturb a verdict when it is so contrary to the overwhelming weight of the evidence that to allow it to stand would sanction an unconscionable injustice.” Bush, 895 So.2d at 844 (¶ 18). The State presented sufficient evidence for the jury to find Williams guilty. Our supreme court has also “consistently held that the State may prove a crime solely by circumstantial evidence.” Walton v. State, 642 So.2d 930, 932 (Miss. 1994). Although Williams contends that the verdict was contrary to the evidence presented, this Court agrees that there was credible evidence from which the jury could reasonably conclude that Williams was guilty of the burglaries as charged. At the same time, we do not disagree with Williams’s [555]*555argument that the loot found at his sister’s home, which was also his home, could have been placed there by someone else. However, it just as well could have been placed there by Williams.

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Related

Walton v. State
642 So. 2d 930 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 1994)
Bush v. State
895 So. 2d 836 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 2005)
Hughes v. State
43 So. 3d 526 (Court of Appeals of Mississippi, 2010)

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Bluebook (online)
206 So. 3d 552, 2016 Miss. App. LEXIS 807, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/eddie-williams-v-state-of-mississippi-missctapp-2016.