Mary McQuarters v. State of Mississippi

CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedAugust 5, 2009
Docket2009-KA-01674-SCT
StatusPublished

This text of Mary McQuarters v. State of Mississippi (Mary McQuarters 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
Mary McQuarters v. State of Mississippi, (Mich. 2009).

Opinion

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF MISSISSIPPI

NO. 2009-KA-01674-SCT

MARY McQUARTERS

v.

STATE OF MISSISSIPPI

DATE OF JUDGMENT: 08/05/2009 TRIAL JUDGE: HON. FORREST A. JOHNSON, JR. COURT FROM WHICH APPEALED: ADAMS COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLANT: OFFICE OF INDIGENT APPEALS BY: ERIN ELIZABETH PRIDGEN LESLIE S. LEE ATTORNEY FOR APPELLEE: OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL BY: JEFFREY A. KLINGFUSS DISTRICT ATTORNEY: RONNIE LEE HARPER NATURE OF THE CASE: CRIMINAL - FELONY DISPOSITION: AFFIRMED - 09/30/2010 MOTION FOR REHEARING FILED: MANDATE ISSUED:

BEFORE WALLER, C.J., RANDOLPH AND CHANDLER, JJ.

RANDOLPH, JUSTICE, FOR THE COURT:

¶1. Mary McQuarters called 911 after discovering her boyfriend, Pete Jackson, dead in

their bedroom with a deep cut on his wrist, a gash on the top of his head, and a small cut on

his left eyebrow. When police arrived on the scene, and in a subsequent police statement

later that evening, McQuarters in no way implicated herself in the incident. She suggested

that one of Jackson’s close friends may have been responsible. Only in subsequent police

statements did McQuarters disclose that she and Jackson had engaged in a violent domestic

dispute the night before she discovered his body, and that in self-defense she had cut his forearm and thrown multiple glass objects at him. The coroner and forensic pathologist both

concluded that Jackson died from blood loss resulting from a stab wound to his forearm.

¶2. McQuarters was indicted for the murder of Jackson. At trial, the Circuit Court of

Adams County, Mississippi, granted McQuarters a directed verdict of acquittal on the murder

charge, but allowed the case to proceed on the lesser offense of manslaughter. A jury found

McQuarters guilty of manslaughter. The circuit court sentenced her to twenty years in the

custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC), with fifteen years to serve

and the remaining five years suspended, to be served on formal, reporting, post-release

supervision. Following the denial of her “Motion for a New Trial,” McQuarters filed a

“Notice of Appeal.” On appeal, McQuarters contends that the circuit court should have

applied the Weathersby 1 rule and granted her a directed verdict of acquittal on the

manslaughter charge.

FACTS

¶3. McQuarters and Jackson lived together, on and off, for fourteen years. On September

28, 2007, the couple had just resumed living together. McQuarters testified 2 that Jackson had

arrived home with dinner that evening at around 9:00 or 9:30 p.m. Before they began eating,

Jackson’s friend, Kevin Buchanan, arrived and “asked [Jackson] did he want to go to work

the next morning with him and another friend[,] . . . Clarence Brown . . . .” After Buchanan

1 See Weathersby v. State, 165 Miss. 207, 147 So. 481 (1933). 2 The testimony and attending direct quotes referenced in ¶¶ 3-8 infra, are from McQuarters’s trial testimony.

2 had left, McQuarters and Jackson began arguing because “in the past, [Brown] had always

caused a lot of problems [because] he was a drug dealer and [was] always taking all of

[Jackson’s] money.” Jackson then “got angry, and . . . asked me to stay out of his business,”

at which point she told him that he could move back out “if you’re not going to change your

lifestyle and respect some of my opinions . . . .”

¶4. At that point, Jackson “took a big glass coffee table and pushed it . . . on top of my

foot[,]” shattering the glass. After removing her foot from her shoe, McQuarters attempted

to leave through the front door, but Jackson “took the big floor mount television and pushed

it over to prevent me from leaving . . . .” McQuarters then began running down the hall, but

slipped and fell, and Jackson:

grabbed me and started choking me around my neck, and I was asking him to please let me go, but he wouldn’t and I started getting dizzy, gasping for breath. So I reached over and . . . grabbed a piece of glass . . . with my left hand and stuck . . . him with it,[3 ] but he still didn’t remove his hand.

(Emphasis added.) Jackson released McQuarters’s neck only when she bit his hand. She

then continued to attempt to run down the hall, but Jackson grabbed her leg, stating, “I will

kill you, low down black b****, if you don’t stay out of my business.”4 After McQuarters

3 McQuarters testified that “I was just trying to save my own life because [Jackson] was real different that night. He was not his usual self – [it] was not our usual fight.” 4 Brandy Bernard, the tenant of the duplex adjoining McQuarters’s home, told police officers that she heard “loud noises,” “fussing,” and “the walls kind of bumping” at approximately 9:17 p.m. Bernard testified that the noise continued for “maybe twenty, thirty minutes.” During that time, Bernard stated that the “[o]nly thing I heard was [Jackson], I heard him say, ‘B****, I’ll kill you,’ or something like that.” According to Detective Jerry Ford of the Natchez Police Department, Bernard told him that “she heard [Jackson] cursing

3 began kicking Jackson, he released her and fell against the wall, then “next thing I knew we

were both standing in the kitchen . . . and he . . . showed me his arm and he said, ‘Look, what

you did.’” At that time, Jackson was not bleeding profusely, “[j]ust dripping[,]” and when

McQuarters asked if he needed medical attention he replied that “it will be all right.”

¶5. According to McQuarters, “normally when we fight one of us leaves. . . . So

[Jackson] asked me . . . can I just go ahead on and catch some fresh air and cool off and come

back later.” She agreed, and as she was changing clothes, her nephew, Patrick Conner,

arrived.5 McQuarters “told [Conner] that I did something bad. That . . . [Jackson] and I got

into a big fight, and I think I cut him on the arm.” 6 Before leaving, McQuarters informed

Jackson that Conner’s friend, Dietrich Johnson Singleton, was taking her into town and that

Conner was going to stay at home with him.7 Upon leaving, Jackson “was sitting on the

couch . . . with the wash cloth . . . on his hands[,]” and “said he would be okay . . . .”

saying, ‘You mother****er.’ [Bernard] stated she heard furniture turning over and tumbling as though someone was in a struggle.” Bernard testified further that she had heard a second altercation at McQuarters’s home around 11:47 p.m. 5 Conner had been living at McQuarters’s home for approximately one month. 6 In Conner’s first police statement, he made no mention of McQuarters discussing her altercation with Jackson. In his second police statement, according to Detective Ford, Conner provided that McQuarters “told him she did something real bad. Then she stated she cut [Jackson’s] wrist and hit him in the head.” 7 By contrast, according to Detective Ford, Conner’s statements to police provided that McQuarters “told him don’t help [Jackson], and she left.” According to those statements, when Conner asked Jackson if he needed help, Jackson told him that he would be all right and asked him to leave. Conner then went to spend the night at another aunt’s home.

4 ¶6. Singleton dropped McQuarters off at a local restaurant, Taste of Chicago, at 10:40

p.m. McQuarters then stayed up all night talking with friends and drinking beer. At

approximately 5:00 a.m. on September 29, 2007, McQuarters called Conner “[t]o ask him

how [Jackson] was and to come pick me up. [Conner] said he had to get up and go to work.

He didn’t have time to pick me up.” That afternoon, McQuarters arrived at the Lunch Box

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Related

Jackson v. State
551 So. 2d 132 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 1989)
Byrd v. State
522 So. 2d 756 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 1988)
Fairley v. State
871 So. 2d 1282 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 2003)
Heidel v. State
587 So. 2d 835 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 1991)
Buchanan v. State
567 So. 2d 194 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 1990)
Johnson v. State
987 So. 2d 420 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 2008)
Blanks v. State
547 So. 2d 29 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 1989)
Green v. State
631 So. 2d 167 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 1994)
Sartain v. State
311 So. 2d 343 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 1975)
McLeod v. State
105 So. 757 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 1925)
Weathersby v. State
147 So. 481 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 1933)
Fortenberry v. State
62 So. 2d 325 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 1953)
Murphy v. State
99 So. 2d 595 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 1958)

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Mary McQuarters v. State of Mississippi, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mary-mcquarters-v-state-of-mississippi-miss-2009.