Jones v. State

797 So. 2d 922, 2001 WL 302114
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 29, 2001
Docket1999-KA-01095-SCT
StatusPublished
Cited by37 cases

This text of 797 So. 2d 922 (Jones 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
Jones v. State, 797 So. 2d 922, 2001 WL 302114 (Mich. 2001).

Opinion

797 So.2d 922 (2001)

Kenneth Earl JONES, Sr. a/k/a Kenneth Earl Jones, Jr.
v.
STATE of Mississippi.

No. 1999-KA-01095-SCT.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

March 29, 2001.

*923 William Wendell Martin, Warren Leon Conway, Gulfport, Attorneys for Appellant.

Office of the Attorney General by Scott Stuart, Jackson, Attorneys for Appellee.

EN BANC.

SMITH, Justice, for the Court:

¶ 1. Kenneth Earl Jones appeals to this Court from the Circuit Court of the Second Judicial District of Harrison County where a jury found him guilty of capital murder, and he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Jones's motion for directed verdict at the close of the State's case was denied by the trial court. The motion was re-urged after Jones rested his case and once again denied. Jones filed a motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict, or alternatively, motion for a new trial which was denied. *924 Aggrieved by the judgment, Jones timely perfected his appeal to this Court. Since the trial judge committed reversible error by failing to give the proper "two-theory" jury instruction in this wholly circumstantial evidence case, Jones's conviction of capital murder and sentence of life in prison are reversed, and this case is remanded for a new trial consistent with this opinion.

FACTS

¶ 2. On May 25, 1996, Tanya Stallworth went to the home of Tammy and Jimmy Jones' in Gulfport, Mississippi, to attend a birthday party. She brought her three children to the party—Akeem, Sammy, and her youngest child, 13-month-old Edmond.

¶ 3. Around 1:00 p.m., Kenneth Earl Jones ("Jones"), the brother of Jimmy Jones, arrived at Jimmy's home to clean and prepare for party guests. Tammy testified that Jones started drinking beer around 1:00 p.m. She claims that she saw Jones drinking beer, daiquiris, and brandy over the course of the afternoon and evening. Jones, however, stated that he began drinking around 4:30 that afternoon. Regardless of which testimony is more accurate, Jones testified that by the end of the evening, he was so drunk that he could not walk.

¶ 4. Tanya Stallworth knew Jones well because they had once lived together and were once romantically involved. According to Tanya's testimony, she went to Tammy and Jimmy's home, with her three children, at one or two o'clock in the afternoon on May 25, 1996. She stayed at their home for a couple of hours and then took the boys over to her mother's home around four or five o'clock in the afternoon. Tanya returned to the party around six or seven o'clock by herself. At the party, Tanya drank two beers and talked to Kenneth Earl Jones and others. A little while later, Tanya's mother called her and told her to come and pick up the children. Tanya left the party, picked up her three children from her mother's home, and took two of her boys, Akeem and Sammy, to her father's home.

¶ 5. Tanya returned to the party around nine or ten o'clock that evening with her youngest child, 13-month-old Edmond. From the time Tanya picked Edmond up from her mother's home earlier in the evening until the time they left the party, Edmond had not appeared to be in any pain or to be hurting. In fact, Edmond was aware of his surroundings, as indicated by the fact that he sat in his mother's lap and ate. Edmond was very attached to his mother, and while they were at the party, Jones took Edmond away from his mother to show people how much of a "mama's boy" Edmond was. Whenever Jones would take Edmond away from his mother, the child would cry.

¶ 6. By the time Tanya had returned to the party with Edmond, the party was starting to wind down. She stayed at the party for another thirty minutes and left. Tanya, Edmond, and Jones, went to Jones's home. They brought Edmond inside the home, went into Jones's bedroom for several minutes, and Jones asked Tanya to spend the night. Tanya agreed to this, and left to go to her father's home to pick up the other two children. Tanya left Edmond in the bedroom with Jones and went to her father's home. At the time Tanya left, Edmond was awake, was not in any pain, and had started crying because his mother was about to leave. Jones testified that during this time, he was in the bathroom, went to the living room to watch television, and did not know where Edmond was located. Tanya arrived at her father's apartment, saw the two boys asleep, decided not to bring them to *925 Jones's home, and carried them to her apartment. From the time she left Jones's home, went to her father's apartment, got the two boys, took them to her apartment, and walked back to Jones's home, Tanya testified this took about twenty to thirty minutes.

¶ 7. According to Tanya, when she arrived at Jones's house, Jones answered the door, handed Edmond to her and said, "Get your baby." Edmond was lifeless and his limbs were limp. In her testimony, Tanya stated that after asking Jones what was wrong with her baby, Jones replied, "Nothing, just sleeping." Jones further stated that he had just bathed Edmond and that nothing was wrong with him. Jones then took the lifeless boy from Tanya and brought him into Jones's bedroom. There, Jones placed the boy on his bed. Tanya became concerned that Edmond was not breathing, so Jones started to perform CPR on the boy.

¶ 8. Tanya called her mother, and her mother left to come over to Jones's apartment to take them to the hospital. A few minutes later, Tammy and Jimmy Jones arrived at Jones's home. While Jones went inside to get some clothes on, Tammy, Jimmy, and Tanya left him, so he ran to his sister's house to catch a ride to the hospital.

¶ 9. When Jones got to his sister's home, he telephoned to find out to which hospital the baby was taken. While he was on the phone, his sister left him at her home and went to the hospital. Tammy and Jimmy dropped Tanya off at her apartment so she could get her other two children, and Tammy and Jimmy drove on to the hospital with Edmond. Tanya awoke her two boys, and they started walking to the hospital because they had been left. Tanya's mother drove by, picked them up, and took them to the hospital. From the time Edmond had stopped breathing until the time he got to the hospital, approximately fifteen to twenty minutes had passed.

¶ 10. Jimmy, Tammy, and Edmond arrived at Garden Park Hospital in Gulfport at approximately 1:45 a.m. Edmond had no signs of life when he arrived at the hospital, and he was pronounced dead at 2:36 a.m.

¶ 11. When the Garden Park Hospital emergency room doctors asked Tanya what had happened to Edmond, she lied to them stating that when she got home from the party, she tried to give Edmond a bath to break his 103 degree fever. She further stated that while she was trying to give him a bath, Edmond's eyes rolled into the back of his head, and he gasped for air. She also said that Edmond had diarrhea earlier in the day. At approximately 4:10 a.m., the police came to Tanya's mother's home to interview Tanya. She told the police the same story as she had told the doctors at Garden Park Hospital. She was also interviewed again at the police department, where she told the same story. Later in the morning, the police found Jones at his sister's home and interviewed him. He gave three statements in all, and in each statement Jones told investigators that he did not do anything to Edmond or know what had happened to him.

¶ 12. After the police interviewed Jones, Police Investigator Steven Schlicht went back to see Tanya. In this third interview, Tanya came forward with the truth.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Jeffrey Martin v. State of Mississippi
266 So. 3d 652 (Court of Appeals of Mississippi, 2018)
Xavier Collins Johnson v. State of Mississippi
235 So. 3d 1404 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 2017)
States v. State
88 So. 3d 749 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 2012)
McInnis v. State
61 So. 3d 872 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 2011)
McInnis v. State
61 So. 3d 906 (Court of Appeals of Mississippi, 2010)
Goff v. State
14 So. 3d 625 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 2009)
Teston v. State
44 So. 3d 977 (Court of Appeals of Mississippi, 2008)
King v. State
994 So. 2d 890 (Court of Appeals of Mississippi, 2008)
Johnson v. State
999 So. 2d 360 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 2008)
Johnny McInnis v. State of Mississippi
Mississippi Supreme Court, 2008
Hughes v. State
983 So. 2d 270 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 2008)
Charles Lamar Johnson v. State of Mississippi
Mississippi Supreme Court, 2007
Brown v. State
961 So. 2d 720 (Court of Appeals of Mississippi, 2007)
Yasmine Hughes v. State of Mississippi
Mississippi Supreme Court, 2006
Boone v. State
964 So. 2d 512 (Court of Appeals of Mississippi, 2006)
Rubenstein v. State
941 So. 2d 735 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 2006)
Joseph Bishop Goff v. State of Mississippi
Mississippi Supreme Court, 2005
State v. McMurry
906 So. 2d 43 (Court of Appeals of Mississippi, 2004)
Wortham v. State
883 So. 2d 599 (Court of Appeals of Mississippi, 2004)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
797 So. 2d 922, 2001 WL 302114, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jones-v-state-miss-2001.