Knox v. State

805 So. 2d 527, 2002 WL 89733
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 24, 2002
Docket1999-DP-01812-SCT
StatusPublished

This text of 805 So. 2d 527 (Knox 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
Knox v. State, 805 So. 2d 527, 2002 WL 89733 (Mich. 2002).

Opinion

805 So.2d 527 (2002)

Steve KNOX a/k/a Steve Michael Knox
v.
STATE of Mississippi.

No. 1999-DP-01812-SCT.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

January 24, 2002.

*529 Gus Grable Sermos, Summit, for Appellant.

Office of the Attorney General by Marvin L. White, Jr., Judy T. Martin, for Appellee.

EN BANC.

SMITH, Presiding Justice, for the Court.

¶ 1. This case comes to our Court on appeal of Steve Knox from the Circuit Court of Amite County. Knox was convicted of the capital murder of Ella Mae Spears and sentenced to death. He argues that the State presented insufficient evidence to prove the underlying felony of robbery and, therefore, the charge of capital murder; that the evidence is insufficient to support a jury instruction regarding the "heinous, atrocious or cruel" aggravating factor; and that the language of the instruction is constitutionally inadequate. This Court finds that all issues raised by Knox are without merit. Therefore, his conviction and sentence are affirmed.

FACTS

¶ 2. On October 22, 1998, Ella Mae Spears was scheduled to travel from Liberty to Fayette, Mississippi, to babysit the children of her niece, Guy Alice Spears Green. When Ms. Spears failed to arrive in Fayette as scheduled, Green contacted Spears's son, Albert McKnight, who, in turn, contacted Amite County Sheriff Gene McClendon. McKnight and McClendon then went to Spears's residence in Liberty.

¶ 3. When they arrived at approximately 2 p.m., the back door of the house leading to the garage was closed but unlocked, and Spears could not be found. Her purse was on a table inside the house, and her car was in the carport. McClendon discovered dark stains on the floor of the carport which appeared to be a blood trail leading to the rear of Spears's car. When he could not locate the car keys, McClendon contacted the dealership from which the car was purchased and obtained a duplicate key, which was used to open the trunk. Inside was the deceased body of Spears, covered with a quilt. Autopsy results indicated that Spears's death was consistent with manual strangulation.

¶ 4. After discovering the body, Chief Deputy Sheriff Donald Butler left the *530 scene to interview people in the community to "develop a suspect." Phillip Brown gave him information that Steve Knox was involved in Ms. Spears's death. Butler and McClendon then began searching for Knox based on the description given to them by Brown.

¶ 5. The officers found Knox walking on the side of a road approximately one-quarter of a mile from his parents' house, where Knox lived and which is located across a field from Spears's house. Butler questioned Knox about Spears, and Knox denied knowing her. Butler testified that he then noticed some small "brownish reddish" spots on Knox's left thigh and decided to take Knox to the sheriff's station. While he was being "frisked," Knox broke away and attempted (unsuccessfully) to flee. In the patrol car Knox proclaimed his innocence and refused to speak to the investigators. At the station, Butler found a set of keys in Knox's back pocket, which were later determined to be Spears's missing house and car keys.

¶ 6. At approximately 6 p.m. on October 22, 1998, investigators went to Knox's parents' house and were given consent to search. There they found clothing belonging to Knox, including a shirt and a pair of jogging pants, which were stained with wet, "reddish brown" spots. The next day, Butler confronted Knox with the clothing.

¶ 7. Knox admitted that he owned the clothes, and he gave the following account. Knox said he woke up at approximately 7 a.m. on October 22 and went outside in a field to relieve himself. He said the next thing he remembered was waking up in the field about mid-morning with blood on his clothes. He then went to his grandfather's house nearby and went to the bathroom, where he became nauseated and then saw blood on his shirt, which he attempted to wash off. Knox said he could not remember how the blood got on his shirt. He then went to his own residence where he changed clothes.

¶ 8. When Butler asked Knox about the keys in his pocket, Knox said he did not remember how he got them, but that the jogging pants did not have pockets. He admitted to remembering putting the keys in the pocket of the blue jeans he was wearing at the time he was taken into custody. He continued to deny knowing Spears.

¶ 9. The Amite County Grand Jury returned an indictment against Knox in October, 1998, charging him with capital murder while in the commission of a robbery pursuant to Miss.Code Ann. § 97-3-19. Following a change of venue, Knox was tried September 27-29, 1999, in the Franklin County Circuit Court. The jury found that Knox killed Ella Mae Spears, without justification, while in the act of robbing her on October 22, 1998, and sentenced him to death.

¶ 10. Franklin County Circuit Judge Forrest A. Johnson entered the sentencing order on the jury verdict on September 29, 1999, and on October 1, 1999, transferred the case back to the Amite County Circuit Court. On October 7, 1999, Knox filed a Motion for a New Trial, or, In the Alternative, for Judgment Notwithstanding the Verdict. The Amite County Circuit Court denied the motion. Knox timely filed his notice of appeal.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

¶ 11. Death sentences must be reviewed under what has been labeled "heightened scrutiny." Flowers v. State, 773 So.2d 309, 317 (Miss.2000). All genuine doubts are to be resolved in favor of the defendant because "what may be harmless error in a case with less at stake becomes reversible error when the penalty is death." Balfour v. State, 598 So.2d 731, *531 739 (Miss.1992) (quoting Irving v. State, 361 So.2d 1360, 1363 (Miss.1978)).

DISCUSSION

I. THE TRIAL COURT ERRED IN DENYING KNOX'S MOTION FOR DIRECTED VERDICT OR JUDGMENT NOTWITHSTANDING THE VERDICT AS TO THE CAPITAL MURDER AND THE UNDERLYING FELONY OF ROBBERY.

¶ 12. Knox contends that the State presented insufficient evidence to prove the underlying felony of robbery and, therefore, the charge of capital murder. When reviewing the sufficiency of the evidence, this Court looks to all of the evidence before the jurors to determine whether a reasonable, hypothetical juror could find, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the defendant is guilty. Jackson v. State, 614 So.2d, 965, 972 (Miss.1993). All of the evidence must be considered in the light most favorable to the verdict, and the credible evidence consistent with guilt must be accepted as true. Gleeton v. State, 716 So.2d 1083, 1087 (Miss.1998) (citing Franklin v. State, 676 So.2d 287, 288 (Miss.1996); Wetz v. State, 503 So.2d 803, 808 (Miss.1987)). "The prosecution must be given the benefit of all favorable inferences that may reasonably be drawn from the evidence." Id.

¶ 13. Knox does not argue that the jury was not adequately instructed by the trial court on the questions of law involved in a felony murder. The trial court fully instructed the jury on the statutory definition of robbery:

Every person who shall feloniously take the personal property of another in his presence or from his person and against his will, by violence to his person or by putting such person in fear of some immediate injury to his person, shall be guilty of robbery.

Miss.Code Ann. § 97-3-73 (2000) (emphasis added).

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Bluebook (online)
805 So. 2d 527, 2002 WL 89733, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/knox-v-state-miss-2002.