Jones v. State

743 So. 2d 415, 1999 WL 308932
Court of Appeals of Mississippi·Decided May 18, 1999·No. 97-KA-01619-COA·Published·Cited by 4 cases

Opinion

743 So.2d 415 (1999)

Rodney Laron JONES a/k/a Rodney Loron Jones, Appellant,
v.
STATE of Mississippi, Appellee.

No. 97-KA-01619-COA.

Court of Appeals of Mississippi.

May 18, 1999.

*416 William C. Stennett, Tupelo, Attorney for Appellant.

Office of the Attorney General by Deirdre McCrory, Attorney for Appellee.

*417 BEFORE McMILLIN, C.J., DIAZ, IRVING, AND PAYNE, JJ.

DIAZ, J., for the Court:

¶ 1. Rodney Laron Jones appeals the decision of the Lee County Circuit Court convicting him of armed robbery. Jones raises the following issues in this appeal: (1) whether the trial court erred in denying his motion for a directed verdict both at the close of the State's case, after the close of the entire case, and for denying the JNOV, (2) whether the evidence presented at trial was sufficient to establish the crime of armed robbery and whether the jury's verdict was against the overwhelming weight of the evidence, (3) whether the court erred in not suppressing his statement, (4) whether the court erred in allowing the testimony of Sherry Watkins about a telephone conversation she had with him, and (5) whether the trial court erred in refusing to grant a cautionary jury instruction with respect to accomplice testimony. Finding no error, we affirm.

FACTS

¶ 2. On July 20, 1996, Kashun Bougard, the manager of the Captain D's restaurant, was robbed at gunpoint at closing time. Bougard testified that he gave the money to a masked assailant because he feared for his life because a gun was pointed at his neck during the crime.

¶ 3. Billy Ray Collins, a master sergeant with the Tupelo Police Department, was working at his part-time job on this particular night as a paramedic with an ambulance service. Collins testified that Wesley Williams and he were driving the ambulance south on Gloster Street when they noticed an altercation in the parking lot of Betty's Restaurant. Collins stated that they pulled over, and he asked his dispatcher to notify the police that an altercation was in progress. At that point, Collins stated that a man pulled up next to his parked ambulance and told him that he thought Captain D's was being robbed.

¶ 4. Collins testified that he continued driving south and parked in front of an office adjacent to Captain D's. Collins stated that from this vantage point, he could see someone standing at the drive-through window wearing a ski mask, a dark colored shirt, and light colored gloves. Collins switched channels on his radio in order to speak directly with the police dispatcher. He informed them of his location. Collins noticed that the suspect was walking to the rear of the store, so he tracked him on foot around to the back of the Captain D's where they nearly collided. At this point, Collins and the suspect looked at each other, and the suspect threw his gloves and mask down and ran towards the back of Betty's Restaurant. Collins pursued the suspect until he fled west toward Van Buren Street.

¶ 5. Collins returned to Captain D's to protect the crime scene. By radio communication, he was informed that a patrol officer was in pursuit of a vehicle that was leaving Van Buren Street. Collins also noticed that the crime scene had changed considerably since he had chased the first suspect towards Betty's. He found broken glass on the ground at the north side of the building and money drifting around the parking lot.

¶ 6. While Collins was chasing the first suspect, Williams walked to the access door in the rear of the building where the employees enter and exit. As he approached the northwest corner of the building, Williams heard a crash and saw a tall, slender man jump out of a window and start running westward. Williams testified that the suspect pointed a weapon at him and threatened his life. Williams did not pursue him, although he observed the suspect run behind Captain D's, behind an office building, and toward a retaining wall.

¶ 7. Collins remained at Captain D's until Lieutenant Bobby Stubbs and Detective Brian Jones arrived. Collins then went to where a vehicle had been stopped immediately *418 after the armed robbery and identified the suspect as the person he chased from the scene. This particular suspect was identified as Patrick Watkins.

¶ 8. Officer John Clark testified that as he approached Van Buren Street in his patrol car it was broadsided by a blue Cadillac that exited from the rear of an office adjacent to Captain D's. Officer Clark stated that he pursued the vehicle until it stopped suddenly. The occupants emerged from the car and attempted to flee on foot. Officer Clark's vehicle collided with the suspects's parked car. Officer Clark briefly chased Watkins into a residential district, and then he returned to the wrecked Cadillac to secure the scene. Although the other occupant had fled the scene, Officer Clark recovered money from the floorboard of the car, money outside the passenger side of the vehicle, and gloves and an automatic handgun on the roadway. Watkins was apprehended under a carport on Mitchell Street.

¶ 9. Sherry Watkins, Patrick Watkins's mother, testified that her son was at her house between 9:30 and 10:00 that night. Watkins's friend and the defendant herein, Rodney Laron Jones, drove a blue Cadillac to the Watkins residence that night. Sherry Watkins said she did not see Jones or her son again that night. However, she stated that Jones telephoned her the next day and told her that Watkins and he had tried to rob Captain D's. Sherry Watkins also stated that Jones told her he could not come over to talk about the incident because the police had wrecked his car.

¶ 10. Captain Billy Murphy, a shift captain for the Tupelo Police Department, testified that he received three telephone calls from an informant on the night of the armed robbery. Acting on information received from these calls, Captain Murphy and Lee County deputies went to an apartment complex in Guntown to look for Jones. Jones was found under a bed, arrested pursuant to a warrant, and taken into custody. Thereafter, Jones gave a confession about his involvement in the robbery to Detective Bart Aguirre.

¶ 11. At trial, Jones's defense was that he was at his stepmother's, Joanne Jones, house. She testified that Jones was at her house on the evening of the robbery. This was corroborated by Joanne Jones's twelve year old son and the brother of Jones. However, she acknowledged that she was asleep between 10:00 p.m. and 2:00 a.m. Joanne Jones also testified that she was currently married to Sherry Watkins's ex-boyfriend which elicited some harsh feelings in the beginning of the relationship but that they were all cordial toward one another now.

¶ 12. Latonya Edwards, Jones's girlfriend, testified that she saw Jones at Joanne Jones's house on the morning after the robbery. Edwards stated that she did not notice any cuts or scratches on his body.

¶ 13. Jones took the stand and testified that he was at home with his mother and little brother at the time of the robbery. He stated that he allowed Watkins to borrow his car. He also denied giving the police a confession. During cross-examination, Jones conceded that he had told the arresting officers that he had been somewhere other than his mother's house at the time of the robbery.

¶ 14. This case was tried before a jury in Lee County Circuit Court. Jones's motion for a directed verdict at the close of the State's case-in-chief was denied. After Jones presented his defense, he made a motion to renew his motion for a directed verdict which was denied by the trial court. The jury returned a guilty verdict against Jones for armed robbery.

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Jones v. State, 743 So. 2d 415, 1999 WL 308932 (Mich. Ct. App. 1999).

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