Jones v. State

872 So. 2d 53, 2003 WL 22889376
Court of Appeals of Mississippi·Decided December 9, 2003·No. 2002-KA-01528-COA·Published·Cited by 2 cases

Opinion

872 So.2d 53 (2003)

Willie B. JONES, Appellant,
v.
STATE of Mississippi, Appellee.

No. 2002-KA-01528-COA.

Court of Appeals of Mississippi.

December 9, 2003.
Rehearing Denied March 30, 2004.

*54 Bennie L. Jones, West Point, attorney for appellant.

*55 Office of the Attorney General by Scott Stuart, attorney for appellee.

Before KING, P.J., IRVING and GRIFFIS, JJ.

GRIFFIS, J., for the Court.

¶ 1. Willie B. Jones appeals his conviction for the crime of embezzlement. On appeal, Jones asserts that the trial court erred in denying his motion for directed verdict, in denying the motion for new trial, in not giving a cautionary instruction to the jury, and in removing a juror.

FACTS

¶ 2. Derrick Leslie was employed by Johnny Johnson's Furniture Store, located in Rienzi. On December 8, 2000, Leslie drove to Johnston Tombigbee Furniture Manufacturing Company (Johnston Tombigbee), located in Columbus, to pick up furniture ordered by Johnny Johnson.

¶ 3. When he arrived at Johnston Tombigbee, Leslie drove his truck to the loading dock where he encountered Willie B. Jones. Jones was a supervisor of the loading dock at Johnston Tombigbee. Jones instructed certain Johnston Tombigbee employees to load the ordered furniture on the truck Leslie was driving.

¶ 4. At trial, Leslie testified that when he arrived at the Johnston Tombigbee loading dock, he asked Jones for some additional furniture and that Jones sold him a twenty-five hundred series bedroom set, an $800 value, for $200 in cash. Leslie testified that he placed two one hundred dollar bills in Jones's pocket, and Jones then loaded the furniture onto Leslie's truck.

¶ 5. Lee Roy Scott, the security guard, testified that he stopped Leslie at the gate and inspected the truck. Scott testified that he found that seven items of furniture were not properly tagged.

¶ 6. Marion Gillis, the Johnston Tombigbee plant manager, testified that he was called to the gate by Scott and that there were seven pieces on Leslie's truck that were not purchased by Johnny Johnson's Furniture Store and were not authorized to leave Johnston Tombigbee. Gillis sent the truck back to the dock. He retrieved the appropriate paperwork and after examining the paperwork and the furniture in question, Gillis confirmed that the twenty-five hundred series bedroom set, consisting of seven pieces, was unauthorized and should not have been on Leslie's truck.

¶ 7. Officer Wayne McLemore, of the Columbus Police Department, testified that he found four one hundred dollar bills on Jones after the incident. The money was copied, and the photocopy of the cash was then entered into evidence.

¶ 8. Tony Colvin testified that Jones was the only other employee present at the time Leslie's truck was loaded. Colvin testified that he was called away soon after loading the authorized furniture. Colvin also testified that Jones was the only person who had authority to go into the warehouse and retrieve furniture on his own. However, Colvin could not testify that he saw Jones receive any money from Leslie or that he saw Jones place the unauthorized furniture on the truck. Colvin did not see Leslie load any furniture onto the truck.

¶ 9. Laderriel Hunter testified that two individuals, Charles Montgomery and Colvin, assisted Jones in loading Leslie's truck. He further testified that Montgomery was the forklift driver and that Jones authorized the forklift operator to retrieve the furniture from the warehouse. Hunter also testified that it is not possible that an entire bedroom set could accidentally be loaded onto a truck.

*56 ¶ 10. Montgomery testified that he never knew Jones to load furniture that was not authorized. He further testified that he helped Jones and Colvin that day and that he did not specifically recall bringing a twenty-five hundred series bedroom set from the warehouse to Leslie's truck.

¶ 11. Jones testified and denied the accusations.

¶ 12. After deliberations, the jury returned a verdict finding Jones guilty of the crime of embezzlement. The Circuit Court of Lowndes County sentenced Jones to three years in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections and three years of post-release supervision.

LEGAL ANALYSIS

1. Whether the trial court erred in denying Jones's motion for directed verdict.

¶ 13. Jones attacks the sufficiency of the State's evidence alleging that the only proof of the elements of guilt is the testimony of Derrick Leslie. A request for a directed verdict implicates the sufficiency of the evidence. Our standard of review on the question of the legal sufficiency of the evidence is clearly defined. In Manning v. State, 735 So.2d 323, 333 (¶ 10) (Miss.1999), the Mississippi Supreme Court held:

When on appeal one convicted of a criminal offense challenges the legal sufficiency of the evidence, our authority to interfere with the jury's verdict is quite limited. We proceed by considering all of the evidence—not just that supporting the case for the prosecution—in the light most consistent with the verdict. We give [the] prosecution the benefit of all favorable inferences that may reasonably be drawn from the evidence. If the facts and inferences so considered point in favor of the accused with sufficient force that reasonable men could not have found beyond a reasonable doubt that he was guilty, reversal and discharge are required. On the other hand, if there is in the record substantial evidence of such quality and weight that, having in mind the beyond a reasonable doubt burden of proof standard, reasonable and fair-minded jurors in the exercise of impartial judgment might have reached different conclusions, the verdict of guilty is thus placed beyond our authority to disturb.

¶ 14. We begin our consideration with the statutory language defining the crime of embezzlement. Mississippi Code Annotated Section 97-23-19 (Rev.2000) provides:

If any director, agent, clerk, servant, or officer of any incorporated company ... shall embezzle or fraudulently secrete, conceal, or convert to his own use, or make way with, or secrete with intent to embezzle or convert to his own use, any goods, rights in action, money, or other valuable security, effects, or property of any kind or description which shall have come or been intrusted to his care or possession by virtue of his ... employment, either in mass or otherwise, he shall be guilty of felony embezzlement.

¶ 15. The jury is the sole judge of the weight and worth of testimony. Brown v. State, 726 So.2d 248, 250(¶ 8) (Miss.Ct.App.1998). The jury may draw any reasonable inferences from the evidence. Tolbert v. State, 407 So.2d 815, 820 (Miss.1981). We look to the evidence that was considered by the jury and to what inferences could have been drawn by the jury. Here, we find that there was sufficient evidence for the jury to find that Jones made an unauthorized sale of furniture, owned by Johnston Tombigbee, to Leslie and kept the money for himself, *57 thereby converting Johnston Tombigbee's property for his own use.

¶ 16. An examination of the record reveals that Leslie testified that Jones sold him a twenty-five hundred series bedroom set for $200. Leslie further testified that he placed two one hundred dollar bills in Jones's pocket, and Jones then loaded the furniture onto Leslie's truck. Lee Roy Scott, the security guard, testified that he stopped Leslie from leaving the facility and inspected the truck.

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Jones v. State, 872 So. 2d 53, 2003 WL 22889376 (Mich. Ct. App. 2003).

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