Lyndon C. Myers v. State of Mississippi

153 So. 3d 581, 2014 Miss. LEXIS 446, 2014 WL 4361332
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedSeptember 4, 2014
Docket2013-KA-00610-SCT
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 153 So. 3d 581 (Lyndon C. Myers v. State of Mississippi) 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
Lyndon C. Myers v. State of Mississippi, 153 So. 3d 581, 2014 Miss. LEXIS 446, 2014 WL 4361332 (Mich. 2014).

Opinions

RANDOLPH, Presiding Justice,

for the Court:

¶ 1. Lyndon Myers was charged and convicted on multiple counts of armed robbery, inter alia. See infra ¶¶ 6, 9. Myers [583]*583claims error on five issues. Finding no error, we affirm Myers’s convictions and sentences.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

¶ 2. Myers was employed at the Dollar Tree store located in the Grandview shopping center, Madison, Mississippi. On May 16, 2012, Myers was scheduled to work until closing at 10:00 p.m. However, according to the assistant manager Jasmine Wilson, Myers asked her “three or four times” if he could “leave at 9:00 because his baby’s mother was coming ... to pick him up from work, and that if he wasn’t out there, that she was going to leave.... ” Wilson had Myers “sit in ... and verify the money with [her].... [0]nce [she] finished the bank deposit for that part of the night, [she] let him clock out and go home” at 9:00 p.m.

¶ 3. Later that night, Chamon Williams, Myers’s co-employee, exited the Dollar Tree. Upon exiting, Williams was confronted by Earnest Johnson, Myers’s cousin. Johnson displayed a gun and told Williams to “give him the money.” Williams told Johnson that she had no money. Another Dollar Tree employee opened the store door to check on Williams. Johnson then took Williams’s cell phone and forced her back into the store with him.

¶ 4. Johnson went straight to the manager’s office. Johnson pointed the gun at the window of the office “and t[old] [her] to open the door” or “he was going to hurt [her] employees.” Wilson opened the of-' fice door. Johnson entered and told Wilson “to open the safe up and to get the petty cash out.”1 Wilson complied. Johnson had Williams place the money in a Dollar Tree bag. He then took Wilson’s cell phone, and, after threatening to kill anyone who tried to leave the store, Johnson exited.

¶ 5. Johnson was picked up by “a red Grand Am” traveling “at a fast rate of speed[.]” Subsequently, after receiving a “be on the lookout[,]” a Madison County sheriffs deputy stopped a red Grand Am traveling north on Interstate 55 near the Nissan plant. Myers was driving. When the deputy stopped the vehicle, “before [he] exited, both subjects put their hands on the roof of the car.” After Myers and Johnson were removed from the vehicle, the vehicle was searched and the stolen money and a gun were found in a Dollar Tree bag located in the trunk of the red Grand Am. Myers’s coemployees testified that Myers drove a red Grand Am.

¶ 6. In July 2012, Myers and Johnson were coindicted for three counts of armed robbery, one count of conspiracy to commit armed robbery, and one count of possession of burglary tools.2 Myers additionally was indicted for possession of a firearm by a prior convicted felon.

¶ 7. Myers’s trial began on November 13, 2012. Johnson testified at Myers’s trial.3 Johnson testified that it was Myers’s [584]*584idea to rob the Dollar Tree. They formulated the plan approximately three weeks before the robbery. Johnson testified that, after Myers left work that night, Myers and his wife picked up Johnson and went to their house. Myers “gave [Johnson] a black shirt, and he brought the gun back out and put it in the trunk.” Myers then drove Johnson to Madison and “dropp[ed][him] off across the street” from the Dollar Tree. Myers told Johnson that the remaining employees “were supposed to [leave] at 11:00” and told him where the safe was located in the store. Johnson’s description of the robbery was consistent with Wilson’s and Williams’s testimony.

¶ 8. Following the armed robbery, Johnson exited the store and proceeded to where Myers was supposed to pick him up, but Myers was not there.4 Johnson called Myers, who told him, “[c]uz, I’m on my way.” Myers arrived momentarily traveling “fast.” Johnson got in the red Grand Am, and the two sped out of the parking lot and “got on the interstate.” Johnson “threw the [stolen] phones” and “the black shirt” out of the window. After traveling a few miles north on the interstate, Myers pulled over and “put the money and gun in the trunk[,]” because “he [had] license and insurance.... [I]f they were pulled over they [ (the police) ] won’t search the car....”

¶ 9. The jury convicted Myers of three counts of armed robbery, conspiracy to commit armed robbery, and possession of a firearm by a prior convicted felon. The trial court later sentenced Myers to thirty-five years on each of the armed-robbery counts, and to five years for conspiracy to commit armed robbery. The trial court ordered that those sentences be served concurrently. The trial court also sentenced Myers to ten years for felon in possession of a firearm, but, after “serving] a term of One (1) days(s) in the custody of the MDÓC, [Myers] shail be released” and “serve a term of five (5) years(s) on supervised post-release supervision.” The trial court ordered that sentence to be served consecutively to the sentences imposed for armed robbery and conspiracy to commit armed robbery. Myers also was ordered to pay “court costs, fees and assessments in the amount of one thousand, six hundred, two dollars and fifty cents ... within ninety days [of] release from custody.”

¶ 10. Within weeks of Myers’s trial, Johnson handwrote a third and fourth letter 5 (signed affidavit) recanting the sworn testimony he offered at his plea hearing6 and Myers’s trial. Subsequently, Myers filed a “Motion for Judgment Notwithstanding the Verdict, or, in the alternative, Motion for New Trial.” Attached to that motion were Johnson’s most recent letters. The trial court conducted a hearing on Myers’s motion, and Johnson testified. Finding Johnson’s recantation lacked credibility, the trial court denied Myers’s motion. Thereafter, Myers filed a “Notice of Appeal.”

ISSUES

¶ 11. On appeal, Myers raises the following issues, restated as follow:

[585]*585I. Whether the trial court erred in denying Myers’s alibi instruction.

II. Whether the trial court erred in denying Myers’s necessity instruction.

III. Whether the trial court erred in allowing the State to question Myers regarding his prior felony conviction.

IV. Whether the trial court erred by denying Myers’s motion for a new trial.

V. Whether the trial court sentenced Myers to a term in excess of his present life expectancy.

ANALYSIS

I. Whether the trial court erred in denying Myers’s alibi instruction.

¶ 12. This Court reviews the grant or denial of jury instructions for abuse of discretion. Watkins v. State, 101 So.3d 628, 633 (Miss.2012). A defendant is entitled to have the jury instructed on his “theory of the case — so long as that theory constitutes a legal defense to the charged offense, is not repetitious, and is supported by the evidence.” Flowers v. State, 51 So.3d 911, 913-14 (Miss.2010).

¶ 13. Prior to trial, Myers filed a “Written Notice of Alibi Defense” pursuant to Uniform Rule of Circuit and County Court 9.05. See URCCC 9.05. That notice stated, “[a]t the time of the robbery ...

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
153 So. 3d 581, 2014 Miss. LEXIS 446, 2014 WL 4361332, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lyndon-c-myers-v-state-of-mississippi-miss-2014.