Jones v. State

756 So. 2d 852, 2000 WL 157636
CourtCourt of Appeals of Mississippi
DecidedFebruary 15, 2000
Docket1999-KA-00415-COA
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 756 So. 2d 852 (Jones 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
Jones v. State, 756 So. 2d 852, 2000 WL 157636 (Mich. Ct. App. 2000).

Opinion

756 So.2d 852 (2000)

Dedrick JONES, Appellant,
v.
STATE of Mississippi, Appellee.

No. 1999-KA-00415-COA.

Court of Appeals of Mississippi.

February 15, 2000.
Certiorari Denied May 25, 2000.

*854 John D. Watson, West Memphis, AR, Attorney for Appellant.

Office of the Attorney General by Jean Smith Vaughan, Attorney for Appellee.

EN BANC.

ON MOTION FOR REHEARING

MOORE, J., for the Court:

¶ 1. The motion for rehearing filed in this matter is denied. The original opinion issued in this case is withdrawn, and the following opinion is substituted therefore.

¶ 2. Appellant Dedrick Jones was indicted by a Desoto County grand jury for simple assault upon a law enforcement officer. *855 Following a trial, the jury found Jones guilty of the crime charged. The circuit court sentenced Jones to five years imprisonment in the custody and control of the Mississippi Department of Corrections, said sentence to run consecutively to any sentences Jones was currently serving and any other previously imposed. Aggrieved, Jones cites the following issues on appeal:

I. WHETHER THE TRIAL COURT ERRED IN DENYING JONES'S MOTION TO DISMISS ON SPEEDY TRIAL GROUNDS;
II. WHETHER THE TRIAL COURT ERRED IN DENYING JONES'S MOTION FOR DIRECTED VERDICT;
III. WHETHER THE TRIAL COURT ERRED IN DENYING JONES'S PEREMPTORY INSTRUCTION AND GRANTING THE STATE'S S-1 INSTRUCTION; AND
IV. WHETHER THE VERDICT WAS AGAINST THE OVERWHELMING WEIGHT OF THE EVIDENCE.

STATEMENT OF THE FACTS

¶ 3. October 22, 1997, Sergeant Chris Sing, a shift supervisor for the Hernando Police Department, was out on a routine patrol when he noticed Appellant Dedrick "Deck" Jones acting suspiciously. Sgt. Sing approached Jones who then walked up to a residence. Jones stopped in the threshold of the residence and turned around to look back at Sgt. Sing. His suspicions aroused, Sgt. Sing radioed his communications officer to determine whether Jones had an outstanding arrest warrant. The communications officer informed Sgt. Sing that Jones had a warrant out for his arrest. After responding to an unrelated alarm call, Sgt. Sing saw Officer Steve Atkinson, a patrolman for the Hernando Police Department, and asked him to help execute the warrant for Jones's arrest. Sgt. Sing and Officer Atkinson each drove his own patrol car.

¶ 4. Sgt. Sing and Officer Atkinson drove back to the vicinity where Sgt. Sing last saw Jones. They saw Jones on Park Street, in the same area where he was before. Sgt. Sing and Officer Atkinson both parked their patrol cars. Sgt. Sing advised Jones that he had a warrant for his arrest. Jones ran. Officer Atkinson pursued Jones on foot through a woman's backyard. Sgt. Sing returned to his patrol car and drove around the block to cut Jones off. Officer Atkinson chased Jones down a hill into a wooded lot. Officer Atkinson testified that when he reached the bottom of the hill, Jones stopped and took an aggressive posture with his fists raised. Hoping to knock Jones off balance, Officer Atkinson tried to run into Jones. Jones did not fall, but Officer Atkinson fell forward. Officer Atkinson testified that Jones then got behind him and hit him in the back several times. Officer Atkinson was not wearing his bulletproof vest. According to Officer Atkinson, he and Jones scuffled for a few seconds, and he got Jones down in a kneeling posture. Officer Atkinson held Jones by the jacket, who then slipped his arms out of the jacket and took off running again. At this point, Sgt. Sing had arrived on the scene. Sing and Atkinson together apprehended Jones who had tripped and fallen over some bushes.

¶ 5. Sgt. Sing did not witness the scuffle between Officer Atkinson and Jones. He did, however, observe that both Atkinson and Jones were breathing hard and Atkinson's uniform was in disarray. Sgt. Sing also noticed that Officer Atkinson's finger was bleeding profusely.

¶ 6. Jones's version of the events differed somewhat. He denied that Sgt. Sing told him that he had a warrant for his arrest. He admitted, however, that he ran from Sgt. Sing and Officer Atkinson. Jones stated: "I didn't have no [sic] reason for running. You know, he told me to come here, so I just fleed [sic]." Jones testified that he fell when Officer Atkinson caught up with him, that Atkinson grabbed him by the jacket, and that he slipped out of the jacket and ran again. Jones testified *856 that there was no physical contact between Atkinson and him. Jones emphatically denied hitting Officer Atkinson in the back.

¶ 7. Officer Atkinson testified that he injured his finger at some point during his fight with Jones. Atkinson sought medical attention for his injured finger, but did not seek attention for his back. Officer Atkinson did not miss any work due to his injured finger or his back. He testified that he experienced back pain on the day Jones hit him but that the pain had disappeared by the next day. Jones was arrested and charged with simple assault upon a law enforcement officer.

LAW AND ANALYSIS

I. DID JONES RECEIVE HIS CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT TO A SPEEDY TRIAL?

¶ 8. Jones asserts the State violated his right to a speedy trial under U.S. Const. amend. VI and Miss. Const. art. 3, § 26.[1] To determine whether Jones's constitutional rights were observed, this Court must examine Jones's case under the four factors listed in Barker v. Wingo, 407 U.S. 514, 530, 92 S.Ct. 2182, 33 L.Ed.2d 101 (1972). These factors are length of the delay, reason for the delay, the defendant's assertion of his speedy trial right, and prejudice to the defendant resulting from the delay. Id. at 533, 92 S.Ct. 2182. "The weight given each [factor] necessarily turns on the peculiar facts and circumstances of each case, the quality of evidence available on each factor and, in the absence of evidence, identification of the party with the risk of non-persuasion. No one factor is dispositive." Jaco v. State, 574 So.2d 625, 630 (Miss.1990). See Skaggs v. State, 676 So.2d 897, 900 (Miss. 1996); Taylor v. State, 672 So.2d 1246, 1258 (Miss.1996).

¶ 9. The relevant procedural history follows: Jones was arrested for simple assault upon a law enforcement officer on October 22, 1997. He posted a bond the same day and was released from prison. On October 27, 1997, Jones was arrested on two charges of cocaine possession. He was incarcerated December 17, 1997; the record is not clear why he was incarcerated on this date. On March 26, 1998 the Desoto County grand jury indicted Jones for simple assault of a law enforcement officer. Jones waived arraignment and pled not guilty on April 28, 1998. Also, on April 28, 1998 Jones's parole on a prior criminal conviction was revoked due to the cocaine possession charges. On May 5, 1998 a jury convicted Jones for possession of cocaine, and the trial court sentenced him on the same day. On June 17, 1998 the judge who revoked Jones's parole for the drug charges, amended his revocation order naming as additional revocation grounds a subsequent charge against Jones for capital rape. On July 7, 1998 Jones filed a demand for speedy trial in the present case. On August 31, 1998 Jones filed a motion to dismiss on speedy trial grounds, and the circuit court heard and denied the motion. On September 24, 1998 the case was tried before a jury, and Jones was convicted of simple assault upon a law enforcement officer.

A. Length of Delay

¶ 10.

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Related

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Bluebook (online)
756 So. 2d 852, 2000 WL 157636, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jones-v-state-missctapp-2000.