Esco v. State

9 So. 3d 1156, 2008 WL 4401428
CourtCourt of Appeals of Mississippi
DecidedSeptember 30, 2008
DocketNo. 2006-KA-01787-COA
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 9 So. 3d 1156 (Esco v. State) 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
Esco v. State, 9 So. 3d 1156, 2008 WL 4401428 (Mich. Ct. App. 2008).

Opinion

ROBERTS, J.,

for the Court.

SUMMARY OF THE CASE

¶ 1. A jury sitting before the Madison County Circuit Court found Feriando Esco guilty of (1) aggravated assault, (2) armed robbery, (3) conspiracy to commit aggravated assault, (4) conspiracy to commit armed robbery, (5) possession of a firearm by a prior convicted felon, and (6) felony evasion. The circuit court sentenced Esco as a habitual offender to five concurrent life sentences and one consecutive life sentence.

¶ 2. Aggrieved, Esco appeals and claims the circuit court erred: (1) in allowing the prosecution to submit the entire guilty plea colloquy of a co-defendant; (2) in failing to give a sua sponte limiting instruction regarding the co-defendant’s guilty plea; (3) in allowing the prosecution to submit evidence of a prior conviction; (4) in allowing the prosecution to ask him, during cross-examination, whether several law enforcement officers had lied when they testified; (5) in allowing law enforcement officers to vouch for their own credibility during the prosecution’s rebuttal case; (6) in allowing the prosecution to submit a list of E sco’s incoming and outgoing cell phone calls, and; (7) in consulting with the jury prior to sentencing Esco. Finding no error, we affirm the judgment of the circuit court.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

¶ 3. Esco’s conviction is the result of a botched attempt to rob William Curtis James, Jr., at the McDonald’s restaurant in Madison, Mississippi during which James was shot. As of June 2005, James owned and operated a landscaping and house-washing business. The record reflects that James operated his business on a cash basis, and it was common knowledge that James usually had a large amount of money.

¶ 4. The day before he was shot, James received a phone call from an unidentified male who wanted to utilize James’s business services. James and the unidentified caller arranged to meet the following day at McDonald’s in Madison. The next day, James went to McDonald’s as planned. James later testified that he noticed two men inside McDonald’s. James described one man as black with dread locks, and the other as a “bright-skinned” man on a telephone. James testified that the “bright-skinned” man nodded at James. The man with dread locks left McDonald’s while James was still eating.

¶ 5. James’s meeting with the unidentified caller never took place. The unidentified caller contacted James on James’s cell phone and told him that an unexpected emergency arose, and he would not be able to meet at McDonald’s that day. James finished his lunch, left McDonald’s, and walked across the parking lot to his Chevrolet Suburban SUV. As James got into his Suburban, he realized that the man with dread locks was in his backseat.

¶ 6. The man with dread locks was armed with a pistol. He ordered James to start the SUV. Before James could start the SUV, the “bright-skinned” man ran around to the front of James’s SUV. By James’s description, the “bright-skinned” man “was trying to get in and push [him] on over.” According to James, the “bright-skinned” man said, “[S]hoot the f-,” and the man with dread locks shot James. James fell out of his SUV and staggered inside McDonald’s. James was [1159]*1159seriously, if not critically injured, but after a long and difficult recovery, he survived.1

¶ 7. The man with dread locks and the “bright-skinned” man ran across the parking lot and got into a white Ford Mustang where a driver was waiting for them. Darwin Freeman, an employee of the Madison Public Works Department, was at the intersection of Highway 51 and Main Street that day when he noticed the two men run across the parking lot and jump into the white Mustang. Freeman contacted the Madison Police Department and relayed what he saw. As the Mustang fled the scene, it passed through a road construction area. The Mustang almost hit one construction worker, and another construction worker saw someone throw a pistol from the Mustang.

¶ 8. Law enforcement officers stopped a white Mustang on Rice Road, but as the officers approached the Mustang, the driver sped away. During the pursuit, the Mustang moved into oncoming traffic and nearly hit a motorcycle patrolman head on. The patrolman was able to avoid a collision with the Mustang by virtue of a radio warning from pursuing officers.

¶ 9. Officers were not able to stop the Mustang again. However, authorities quickly centered them pursuit on the Parc Apartments in Ridgeland, Mississippi where a white Mustang was spotted. Law enforcement officers quickly converged on the Parc Apartments and apprehended the man with dread locks, later identified as Isaiah Sanders. Esco was questioned, but he was not arrested at that time. Law enforcement officers found a revolver in a bush near McDonald’s, as well as a semiautomatic pistol and a baseball hat on the side of Old Canton Road.

¶ 10. Months later, James received a call from Joann Rogers. Rogers was in McDonald’s the day that James was attacked. Rogers told James that on that day, she saw Esco sitting in a car in the McDonald’s parking lot. Rogers also told James that Esco was on the phone. James took Rogers to meet with Investigator Mike Brown of the Madison Police Department. As a result, an arrest warrant was issued for Esco; however, Esco could not be found in Mississippi. Esco had disobeyed the requirements of his federal probation, left the southern district of Mississippi, and fled to Tennessee. However, United States marshals apprehended Esco as he left a Wal-Mart in Clarksville, Tennessee.

¶ 11. On September 8, 2005, a Madison County grand jury returned an indictment against Esco and charged him with (1) aggravated assault, (2) armed robbery, (3) conspiracy to commit aggravated assault, (4) conspiracy to commit armed robbery, (5) possession of a firearm by a prior convicted felon, and (6) felony evasion. Esco pled not guilty, and in August 2006, he went to trial.

¶ 12. The prosecution called twenty-one witnesses, but the witness who arguably was most damaging to Esco was the “bright-skinned” man — Michael Johnson.2 Johnson testified that on June 14, 2005, [1160]*1160Esco picked him up in a white Cadillac Escalade. Afterwards, they picked up Sanders. According to Johnson, their specific plan was to “hit a lick,” meaning they planned to rob someone. Sanders had a nine-millimeter pistol, but they wanted another weapon, so they went to Sanders’s house to pick up a revolver. Afterwards, they borrowed a white Ford Mustang from Esco’s friend.

¶ 18. Johnson testified that Esco did not plan to take part in the robbery. Instead, Esco planned to wait in the car and drive when Johnson and Sanders were finished robbing James. Esco drove around and ended up in the parking lot of McDonald’s and Winn Dixie. When they saw James go inside McDonald’s, Esco moved the Mustang over to a nearby parking lot. Johnson and Sanders went inside McDonald’s. Johnson sat down, and Sanders went to the bathroom. While Johnson was inside McDonald’s, he and Esco talked over the phone.

¶ 14. According to Johnson, Sanders left McDonald’s before James and got in James’s SUV. When James left McDonald’s, Johnson followed him. At the point that James reached his SUV, Sanders already was waiting for him in the backseat. James and Sanders struggled, and Sanders shot James. At that point, Johnson and Sanders ran to the Mustang, and Esco drove away.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
9 So. 3d 1156, 2008 WL 4401428, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/esco-v-state-missctapp-2008.