Evans v. State

899 So. 2d 890, 2004 WL 1879304
CourtCourt of Appeals of Mississippi
DecidedAugust 24, 2004
Docket2002-KA-01618-COA
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 899 So. 2d 890 (Evans 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
Evans v. State, 899 So. 2d 890, 2004 WL 1879304 (Mich. Ct. App. 2004).

Opinion

899 So.2d 890 (2004)

Paul EVANS, Jr., Appellant
v.
STATE of Mississippi, Appellee.

No. 2002-KA-01618-COA.

Court of Appeals of Mississippi.

August 24, 2004.
Rehearing Denied January 11, 2005.
Certiorari Denied April 21, 2005.

*892 Michael Duane Mitchell, Pamela Lynn Huddleston, attorneys for appellant.

Office of the Attorney General by Jeffrey A. Klingfuss, attorney for appellee.

EN BANC.

*891 GRIFFIS, J., for the Court.

¶ 1. Paul Evans was convicted of two counts of murder and sentenced to consecutive life sentences. After the denial of post-trial motions, Evans filed this appeal and raises the following issues:

ISSUE 1: The trial court erred in finding probable cause and allowing Defendant's statements admitted into evidence after he was taken into custody, handcuffed, and interrogated at a time when the probable cause did not exist for Defendant's arrest.

ISSUE 2: The trial court erred in allowing the plea agreement reached between the Defendant and the District Attorney after the Defendant had detrimentally relied upon the plea agreement, and signed a sworn confession to committing the murders with which he had been charged, in reliance upon the plea agreement.

ISSUE 3: The trial court erred by participating in plea negotiations, and subsequently by denying Defendant's Motion to Recuse.

ISSUE 4: The Defendant was denied effective advocacy at trial because his lead trial counsel was confronted with a conflict of interest when the trial court denied defense counsel's ex parte motion to withdraw as counsel and denial of effective assistance denied appellant of his rights under the Fifth, Sixth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments, the corresponding provisions of the Mississippi Constitution, and Mississippi law.

ISSUE 5: The Trial Court erred in failing to grant the Defendant's motion for continuance when the District Attorney's office provided one-hundred seventy-five (175) pages of supplemental discovery information to defense counsel five days prior to trial when the material contained new, previously undisclosed witnesses and other possibly exculpatory information.

ISSUE 6: The Trial Court erred in denying the Defendant's motion for a mistrial during the testimony of Tyrone Stewart.

¶ 2. The Court finds no merit to any of the issues raised and affirms the conviction and sentence.

FACTS

¶ 3. Evans and Nate Townsend were riding around with two girls in Jones County, smoking pot and cruising the roads. At some point Evans pulled a gun from under the seat of the car and threatened the girls until they were crying and afraid for their lives. Evans made them get out of the car and kneel down in the ditch. Evans walked behind each girl and shot her in the back of the head. Both girls died instantly from their head wounds. Evans and his friend then got back into the car which belonged to one of the girls and drove to a convenience store where they bought food.

¶ 4. Evans and Townsend were originally indicted for two counts of capital murder and one count of grand larceny, based on the shooting deaths of the two girls and the stealing of one of the girl's car. The *893 district attorney made a plea offer to Evans in which the capital murder charges would be dismissed in favor of a guilty plea to two counts of manslaughter if Evans signed a statement admitting firing the fatal shots. The trial court refused to accept the plea and Evans went to trial on the capital murder charges.

¶ 5. The court granted a severance of the trials of Evans and Townsend and a change of venue. The jury was selected from the voting rolls of Greene County and the trial took place in Jones County.

¶ 6. Nate Townsend provided the only eyewitness testimony to the shootings. Another witness for the State, Greg Longmire, testified that he had ridden around with Evans, Townsend and the two girls on the night in question but got out of the car prior to the events contained in the indictment but saw Evans and Townsend later that same evening at a Texaco station in Laurel in one of the girl's car and without the girls.

¶ 7. Lee Gerald Moore also testified for the State that Evans and Townsend came to his house early in the morning and Evans gave him a gun and asked him to get rid of a car. Moore testified that he took the gun but refused to get rid of the car.

DISCUSSION

ISSUE 1: The trial court erred in finding probable cause and allowing Defendant's statements admitted into evidence after he was taken into custody, handcuffed, and interrogated at a time when the probable cause did not exist for Defendant's arrest.

¶ 8. At the suppression hearing, Detective Tyrone Stewart testified that he went to Evans' home prior to the murders and spoke with Evans' parents about a missing.38 caliber revolver. After the murders Stewart met with an unnamed informant who provided information implicating Townsend and Evan in the murder. Stewart then went to Evans' home and asked him to come to the police station for questioning. Evans was placed in handcuffs and taken downtown where he was given Miranda warning prior to any questioning.

¶ 9. Evans made two statements to Stewart in which he claimed that he was innocent of the murders and implicated Townsend for the crimes. According to Stewart, Evans stated that he "was not the one that put the s---- to their head."

¶ 10. The Court found that there was probable cause for the questioning of Evans and allowed the testimony at trial.

¶ 11. There is every indication that Evans went with Stewart voluntarily and that Evan was given Miranda warnings prior to any questioning. Stewart testified that Evans was not under arrest at the time he was taken in for questioning. In Blue v. State, 674 So.2d 1184, 1202 (Miss.1996)b (overruled on other grounds), the court stated:

In the present case, "[a]n arrest with the meaning of the criminal law is the taking into custody of another person by an officer or a private person for the purpose of holding him to answer an alleged or suspected crime." Smith v. State, 229 So.2d 551, 556 (Miss.1969). "One who voluntarily accompanies an officer to a place where he may be interviewed is not under arrest." Id.

¶ 12. Even if Evans was under arrest at the time that Stewart questioned him, there was probable cause to support such an arrest. The supreme court in Blue went on to say

An arrest is valid if the arrest officer has "`probable cause' to believe that a felony has been committed, and probable cause to believe the suspect to be *894 arrested committed the felony." Abram v. State, 606 So.2d 1015, 1026 (Miss. 1992) ... "Probable cause" means less than evidence which would justify condemnation, but more than bare suspicion." Henry v. State, 486 So.2d 1209, 1212 (Miss.1986). Furthermore, [t]he existence of "probable cause" or "reasonable grounds" justifying an arrest without a warrant is determined b factual and practical considerations of everyday life on which reasonable and prudent men, not legal technicians, act. The determination depends upon the particular evidence and circumstances of the individual case.

Blue, 674 So.2d at 1202.

¶ 13. In this case, Evans was taken into custody for questioning based on information from a confidential informant with a history of having given reliable information. Stewart was also aware that Evans was possibly connected to a missing gun.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
899 So. 2d 890, 2004 WL 1879304, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/evans-v-state-missctapp-2004.