Haley v. State

737 So. 2d 371, 1998 WL 813106
CourtCourt of Appeals of Mississippi
DecidedNovember 24, 1998
Docket97-KA-00616 COA
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 737 So. 2d 371 (Haley 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
Haley v. State, 737 So. 2d 371, 1998 WL 813106 (Mich. Ct. App. 1998).

Opinion

737 So.2d 371 (1998)

Arbarkarra Keith HALEY, Appellant,
v.
STATE of Mississippi, Appellee.

No. 97-KA-00616 COA.

Court of Appeals of Mississippi.

November 24, 1998.
Rehearing Denied February 23, 1999.
Certiorari Denied May 13, 1999.

*372 Jeffrey Loewer Hall, Attorney for Appellant.

Office of the Attorney General by Jolene M. Lowry, Attorney for Appellee.

Before McMILLIN, P.J., and COLEMAN and PAYNE, JJ.

PAYNE, J., for the Court:

¶ 1. Appellant, Arbarkarra Keith Haley, was convicted after a jury trial in the Circuit Court of Forrest County, the Honorable Richard W. McKenzie presiding, of one count of armed robbery and one count of aggravated assault. The trial court sentenced Haley to serve consecutive terms of fortyfour years on the armed robbery count and twenty years on the aggravated assault count. Subsequently, the trial court overruled Haley's motion for JNOV or, in the alternative, a new trial. Feeling wronged by the outcome of his case, Haley filed this appeal. Upon careful review of the record and the relevant precedents, we find each of Haley's assignments of error to be without merit. Accordingly, we sustain his conviction and sentence.

*373 FACTS

¶ 2. On the night of January 4, 1996, Haley and three other individuals, Rayfield Johnson, Kenneth Williams, and Tangelia Conerly, left Conerly's mother's home in a Chevrolet Chevette driven by Williams destined for the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Ultimately, the trip turned into an excursion of criminal mischief from which this appeal flows.

¶ 3. The quartet stopped at the Corner Truck Stop/Fuel Center on U.S. 49 south of Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Mr. Gilbert Archuleta, an over-the-road truck driver from Colorado, had stopped at the establishment to refuel, eat, and make some telephone calls and had parked his rig in the back of the truck stop. Archuleta was approached by Conerly, who sought to get a ride from him. Agreeing, Archuleta opened the passenger door of his truck at which time he was attacked by Williams, who was wearing a white hockey mask, and Haley. The victim was drug from his truck, severely beaten about the head and shoulders requiring emergency treatment, and robbed of various personal items, including a wallet and $22, a leather jacket, and a ring.

¶ 4. The perpetrators left the crime scene and proceeded north on Highway 49. Forrest County Deputy Sheriff Mike Woodward, acting on a bulletin issued describing the suspect vehicle and its occupants, effected a traffic stop of the quartet. On approaching the suspect vehicle, Deputy Woodward noticed a white hockey mask through the window in the back of the car, as well as Conerly's attire, a flowered dress. Based on the consistency of his observations with the information contained in the bulletin on which he had effected the stop, Deputy Woodward ordered the suspects out of the car and handcuffed them. Suspect Johnson informed Deputy Woodward that there was a gun in the vehicle on the passenger side. In locating the weapon, Deputy Woodward discovered a man's wallet on the ground outside the vehicle, at which time the car was secured as a crime scene. Later recovered from the scene and from the perpetrators by the Forrest/Lamar County Crime Scene Unit was a Ruger semiautomatic handgun, a box of Ruger ammunition, a white plastic hockey mask, a brown leather wallet containing the identification of the victim, a black leather jacket, a ring, a casino chip, a pocket watch, and a pink slip of paper from a message pad. Detective Danny Rigel testified that the casino chip and the ring, later identified by the victim as being his property, were recovered from Haley's pants pocket.

¶ 5. On April 1, 1996, Haley and his cohorts were indicted for armed robbery and aggravated assault. Subsequently, Haley was convicted by a jury of these offenses and was sentenced to serve, consecutively, a forty-four year term on the robbery count and a twenty year term on the aggravated assault count.[1] After reviewing the record and relevant legal authority, we find Haley's arguments to be without merit. Accordingly, we affirm his conviction and sentence in this matter.

ISSUES PRESENTED

¶ 6. Haley raises four issues in this appeal:

I. WHETHER THE TRIAL COURT ERRED IN DENYING HALEY'S MOTION FOR DIRECTED VERDICT AT THE CLOSE OF THE PROSECUTION'S CASE-IN-CHIEF AND AT THE CLOSE OF THE TRIAL.
II. WHETHER THE TRIAL COURT ERRED IN DENYING HALEYS MOTION FOR JNOV.
III. WHETHER THE TRIAL COURT ERRED IN ALLOWING CERTAIN ITEMS INTO EVIDENCE PRIOR TO THE ESTABLISHMENT *374 OF THE CHAIN OF CUSTODY BY THE PROSECUTION.
IV. WHETHER THE TRIAL COURT ERRED, UNDER M.R.E. 404(B), IN DENYING HALEY'S MOTION FOR A MISTRIAL WHEN, ON DIRECT EXAMINATION, A PROSECUTION WITNESS AND ACCOMPLICE OF HALEY TESTIFIED ABOUT OTHER CRIMES CONTEMPLATED BY HALEY AND HIS COHORTS.

Finding no merit in these assignments of error, we overrule them and affirm the lower court's decision in this case.

DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS
I. WHETHER THE TRIAL COURT ERRED IN DENYING HALEY'S MOTION FOR DIRECTED VERDICT AT THE CLOSE OF THE PROSECUTION'S CASE-IN-CHIEF AND AT THE CLOSE OF THE TRIAL.
II. WHETHER THE TRIAL COURT ERRED IN DENYING HALEY'S MOTION FOR JNOV.

¶ 7. In his first two assignments of error, Haley alleges that the trial court erred in denying his motions for a directed verdict and his motion for JNOV. As each of these allegations challenge the sufficiency of the evidence, we dispose of both here. Finding no error in the trial court's denial of these motions, we overrule Haley's assignments of error on these issues.

¶ 8. Our standard of review with regard to motions challenging the sufficiency of the evidence is well-established. A challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence requires consideration of the evidence before the court when made, so that this Court must review the ruling on the last occasion when the challenge was made at the trial level. McClain v. State, 625 So.2d 774, 778 (Miss.1993). In this case, this occurred with the circuit court's denial of Haley's motion for JNOV. Further, with challenges to the sufficiency of the evidence, we must sustain a trial court's decision if we find that there was sufficient evidence to support the jury's verdict. Collier v. State, 711 So.2d 458, 461(¶ 11) (Miss.1998); McClain, 625 So.2d at 778; Esparaza v. State, 595 So.2d 418, 426 (Miss.1992); Wetz v. State, 503 So.2d 803, 808 (Miss.1987); Harveston v. State, 493 So.2d 365, 370 (Miss.1986). This Court must consider the evidence presented at trial in the light most favorable to the prosecution, accepting as true all credible evidence introduced by the prosecution coupled with all reasonable inferences flowing therefrom. Noe v. State, 628 So.2d 1368, 1369 (Miss.1993); Heidel v. State, 587 So.2d 835, 838 (Miss.1991); Wetz, 503 So.2d at 808; Hammond v. State, 465 So.2d 1031, 1035 (Miss.1985).

¶ 9. Based on our review of the record in this case and given our narrow scope of review, we cannot say that the trial court erroneously overruled these motions. First, at the end of the prosecution's case-in-chief, testimony had been provided by Tangelia Conerly placing Haley at the scene of the crime.

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Bluebook (online)
737 So. 2d 371, 1998 WL 813106, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/haley-v-state-missctapp-1998.