K.N.L. v. State

803 So. 2d 1245, 2002 Miss. App. LEXIS 21
CourtCourt of Appeals of Mississippi
DecidedJanuary 8, 2002
DocketNo. 2000-CA-01956-COA
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 803 So. 2d 1245 (K.N.L. 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
K.N.L. v. State, 803 So. 2d 1245, 2002 Miss. App. LEXIS 21 (Mich. Ct. App. 2002).

Opinion

LEE, J.,

for the Court.

¶ 1. This case is on appeal from the Madison County Youth Court where the appellant, a delinquent minor, was found guilty of shoplifting. The appellant, K.N.L., was a seasonal employee at the McRae’s retail store in the Northpark Mall in Ridgeland; she was fourteen years-old at the time of her employment. The evening of November 21, 1999, two of her friends visited her at the store. One friend left and the remaining girl, K.C., stayed with K.N.L. while she worked. During this time, K.N.L. and K.C. went upstairs to the children’s department and collected several items of children’s clothing. Later, K.C. went back downstairs to a dressing room. While in the dressing room, she placed the baby clothes into a McRae’s bag she had in the dressing room with her. She subsequently left the store and was apprehended in the mall parking lot by a security officer who had monitored her actions on a security camera. K.C. confessed her involvement in the shoplifting scheme and also claimed that K.N.L. had orchestrated the theft; K.N.L. denies any involvement in the scheme.

¶ 2. In an order signed October 2000, K.N.L. was adjudged to be a delinquent child for the shoplifting offense. After a hearing, K.N.L. was ordered to be placed in a state-supported training school for one year, which would be held in abeyance pending her performance of certain other terms. Those terms included that she get no unexcused school absences, that she meet with a youth counselor, pay restitution to the store, and have no contact with K.C. or other persons her parents deemed unsuitable. Among other general restrictions upon her behavior, she was also prohibited from going to the Northpark Mall or to any McRae’s store for one year, prohibited from obtaining her driver’s license without the court’s permission, and was ordered to perform ten hours of community service.

¶ 3. With this appeal, K.N.L. asks this Court to reverse and render a decision in her favor due to insufficiency of evidence or, in the alternative, to void certain restrictions placed upon her behavior because they were beyond the authority of the judge.

DISCUSSION OF THE ISSUES

I. WAS THE EVIDENCE SUFFICIENT TO PROVE THE APPELLANT WAS GUILTY OF THE CRIME OF SHOPLIFTING?

¶ 4. With her first issue, K.N.L. claims that the evidence presented was insufficient to prove her guilt. Our standard of review with regard to the decision of a youth court was described in S.B. v. State, 566 So.2d 1276 (Miss.1990):

[I]n reviewing the evidence we do not proceed de novo. Rather, our scope of review is limited. We consider all of the evidence before the Youth Court in the light most favorable to the State. If the evidence so considered is opposed to the adjudication of the Youth Court with such force that reasonable men could not have found as the Youth Court did beyond a reasonable doubt, we must reverse. On the other hand, if there is substantial evidence in the record supporting the adjudication of the Youth Court, evidence of such quality and weight that, having in mind the beyond a reasonable doubt burden of proof standard, the Youth Court might reasonably have ruled as it did, we must affirm.

[1247]*1247S.B. v. State, 566 So.2d at 1278 (citations omitted). In reviewing whether or not the evidence was sufficient to convict, we look to the specific evidence in this case which consisted primarily of the testimonies of three witnesses: McRae’s Loss Prevention Manager Jeff Caldwell, K.C., the accomplice, and K.N.L. A surveillance video was also introduced into evidence and was played during the testimonies of each witness. The video depicted KN.L.’s and K.C.’s actions as recorded on the video the day of the incident.

¶ 5. We first review the testimony of Jeff Caldwell, the store’s loss prevention manager. Caldwell testified that another employee had previously alerted him that K.N.L. might be shoplifting while she was on duty. Therefore, Caldwell made an effort to watch KN.L.’s actions on the security cameras. Caldwell testified that the day of the theft, K.N.L. and K.C. walked around the store, eventually ending up in the children’s section where each gathered several items of children’s clothing. They returned to the junior’s department where K.N.L. worked, and K.C. then went into the fitting room with the merchandise that both had gathered. When K.C. emerged from the fitting room, she was carrying no merchandise, but did have a McRae’s bag with her. She then left the mall, but was stopped and questioned in the parking lot by a security officer. Both girls were called into Caldwell’s office to explain the disappearance of approximately $519 worth of merchandise. K.C. explained that she had agreed with K.N.L. to take the merchandise for the two to divide later. At that point, K.N.L. denied ever having made such agreement.

¶ 6. K.C. testified that she and K.N.L. went together to the children’s department to pick out clothes for KN.L.’s niece and nephew. The two then went back downstairs to where K.N.L. was working, and K.N.L. gave all the clothes she had gathered to K.C. who then took the clothes into the dressing room. K.C. testified that while she was in the dressing room, K.N.L. came in to give K.C. a McRae’s bag that she presumes came from behind the counter. K.C. also stated that while she was in the dressing room, K.N.L. came in to help her hide the clothes in the bag. K.C. testified that at some point K.N.L. also gave her the keys to her car so K.C. could stash the bag in KN.L.’s car. After she was apprehended outside the store and brought back to the security office, K.C. says she gave K.N.L. her keys back while the two were sitting in the office.

¶ 7. K.N.L. claimed that she had no agreement with K.C. to commit the theft. She testified that she had helped K.C. pick out clothing from the children’s department for KC.’s baby, and that K.C. had brought the clothing back downstairs where she was going to go through all the items they collected and would pick out which items she wanted. As soon as the two arrived downstairs, K.N.L. says they parted ways. K.N.L. denies ever having given her keys to K.C., as K.C. alleges, and also denies giving K.C. the bag in which she placed the clothing.

¶ 8. KN.L.’s argument hinges on the rule that the uncorroborated testimony of an accomplice is sufficient to convict. James v. State, 756 So.2d 850 (¶ 3) (Miss.Ct.App.2000). She claims that K.C.’s incriminating testimony alone is only sufficient to convict if it is reasonable, not improbable, self-contradictory or substantially impeached. See Jones v. State, 740 So.2d 904, 910 (Miss.1999). We recognize this rule of law; however, we also note that K.C.’s testimony was not uncorroborated — Caldwell’s testimony implicated K.N.L. as did the surveillance video which clearly showed KN.L.’s actions. We also have no evidence to show that KC.’s testimony is unreasonable or improbable, as would invalidate K.C.’s testimony for the [1248]*1248purposes of conviction were it standing alone. In addition to Caldwell’s testimony and the presentation of the surveillance video which detailed the actions of the two girls, we recognize that the judge had the opportunity to review the credibility of each witness, plus had the opportunity to review the videotape depicting the actions at the store that evening. Taking all this evidence together in a light favorable to the State, we find that the judge committed no error in reaching the decision that he did. As stated before, we are not to review the evidence de novo,

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Bluebook (online)
803 So. 2d 1245, 2002 Miss. App. LEXIS 21, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/knl-v-state-missctapp-2002.