Maurice Brown v. State of Mississippi

235 So. 3d 1399
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 7, 2017
DocketNO. 2016-KA-01333-SCT
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 235 So. 3d 1399 (Maurice Brown 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
Maurice Brown v. State of Mississippi, 235 So. 3d 1399 (Mich. 2017).

Opinion

KITCHENS, PRESIDING JUSTICE,

FOR THE COURT:

¶ 1. On the morning of July 30, 2015, Maurice Brown entered the home from which Mattie Moore, the neighborhood “candy lady,” sold candy, chips, soda pops, cigarettes, and other knick-knacks. Mattie Moore’s granddaughter, who lived with her grandmother, was startled from her sleep when her grandmother loudly called her name. A young African-American man, whom the granddaughter, Cheramie Moore, later identified from a photograph lineup as Maurice Brown, appeared in the doorway to her bedroom with a shotgun in hand. The man demanded that Cheramie Moore “give me the stuff’ and she produced about a hundred dollars from a nearby drawer. Maurice Brown handed the cash to his brother, Jonathan Brown, who had come up behind him holding a cigar box which belonged to Mattie Moore. With Maurice Brown still pointing his gun in Cheramie Moore’s direction, the pair backed down the hall toward a door to the outside. Maurice Brown was indicted for two counts of armed robbery. After trial in the Circuit Court of the First Judicial District of Hinds County, Maurice Brown was convicted of the first count, the armed robbery of Cheramie Moore, and was acquitted of the second count, the armed robbery of Mattie Moore. He was sentenced to a prison term of twenty-seven years. On appeal, Maurice Brown argues that the evidence was insufficient to support his conviction for armed robbery. Because his contention is meritless, we affirm.

STATEMENT OF THE FACTS

¶2. Eighty-one-year-old Mattie Moore lived on Harry S. Truman Drive in Jackson, Mississippi, with her granddaughter, Cheramie Moore, and her grandson, James Warren, also known as “Blue Jean.” To supplement her income, Mattie Moore sold sundries, including candy, chips, soda pops, and cigarettes, from her home to people in the neighborhood.

¶3. On the morning of July 30, 2015, Cheramie Moore, who worked at St. Dominic Hospital as a nurse on the oncology floor and had been released at 7:00 a.m. from a twelve-hour shift, returned to the home she shared with her grandmother and fell asleep. She was startled awake by the sound of her wheelchair-bound grandmother loudly calling her name. A young African-American man met Cheramie Moore at the door to her bedroom wielding a shotgun. When the man ordered Chera-mie Moore to “give me the stuff,” she produced about a hundred dollars from a nearby drawer. Cheramie Moore recognized the man from the neighborhood and later identified him from a photograph lineup as Maurice Brown. She testified that Maurice Brown’s brother, Jonathan Brown, whom she also later identified in a photograph lineup, “came up behind” Maurice Brown with a cigar box in hand. Maurice Brown then handed Jonathan Brown the cash. The cigar box belonged to Mattie Moore and Cheramie Moore stated that her grandmother kept rolled-up change in the box.

¶ 4.' Cheramie Moore testified that Maurice Brown pointed the shotgun at her and at her grandmother and that his doing so placed her “in a state of sheer panic” and in “fear[] for [her] life.” According to Cheramie Moore, Maurice Brown “kind of stood there for a moment” and he and Jonathan Brown “kind of backed away slowly.” She continued: “[t]hey kept the gun on me but they kind of backed away toward the door” and, “[a]s they were exiting our hallway they kind of did, like, this motion towards me and my grandmother.” She clarified that “Maurice still had the gun in his hand” and that “Jonathan was on the side of him.”

¶ 5. When the pair left, Cheramie Moore called 911. Officer James Roberts, who at the time was employed by the Jackson Police Department Robbery Homicide Division, was called to the scene to investigate. Officer Roberts interviewed Mattie and Cheramie Moore. Officer Roberts’s investigation led him to the home of Antoinette Brown, who informed him that the description “sounded like her nephews.”

¶ 6. A photographic lineup then was prepared which included a photograph of Maurice Brown. According to Detective Corey Jenkins, a Jackson Police Department Robbery Homicide Detective, Chera-mie Moore identified Maurice Brown from the photographic lineup as the person who had robbed her and her grandmother. Detective Jenkins testified that he did not show the photo lineup to Mattie Moore because she was considered legally blind.

¶ 7. Maurice Brown was indicted for two counts of armed robbery pursuant to Mississippi Code Section 97-3-79 (Rev. 2014) on January 21, 2016. Prior to Maurice Brown’s trial and unrelated to the facts of this case, Mattie Moore died; her funeral took place the Saturday before trial began.

¶ 8. Maurice Brown was tried in the Circuit Court of the First Judicial District of Hinds County from August 8-10, 2016. At the conclusion of the State’s cáse, Maurice Brown filed a Motion for a Directed Verdict, which the trial court denied.

¶ 9. Jonathan Brown, Maurice Brown’s brother, testified as a witness for the defense and gave an account of the events of July 30, 2015, which differed from Chera-mie Moore’s version. Jonathan Brown, who was under indictment, 1 waived his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination. He testified that he and his brother went to the Moore residence to confront Blue Jean about an inappropriate remark Blue Jean allegedly had made in reference to the Browns’ ninth-grade sister’s figure. Blue Jean was not there, and, according to Jonathan Brown, Mattie Moore, the candy lady, who was sitting in the driveway, asked him to help her into the house. Jonathan Brown said he had been to the candy lady’s house before. He continued that his brother, Maurice Brown, “came to open the door.” According to Jonathan Brown, when Mattie Moore turned her head, he—Jonathan Brown—stole a cigar box and two packs of cigarettes. He stated that his brother, Maurice Brown, “was standing in the doorway,” but that when he first went into Mattie Moore’s house, his brother had been in the driveway. Jonathan Brown testified that he ran out of the house without paying for the items, that the cigar box he stole contained twenty-two dollars, and that neither he nor his brother had a gun.

¶ 10. The jury found Maurice Brown guilty of the first count of armed robbery, the armed robbery of Cheramie Moore, and acquitted him of the second count, the armed robbery of Mattie .Moore. A sentencing hearing was held on August. 25, 2016, Brown received a twenty-seven-year sentence. His Motion for Judgment Notwithstanding the Verdict, or, in the Alternative, for a New Trial, was denied.

¶ 11. The sole issue Maurice Brown raises on appeal is whether the evidence was sufficient to support the guilty verdict.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

¶ 12. This Court has held that, in reviewing whether sufficient evidence exists to support a verdict, the “critical inquiry is whether the evidence shows ‘beyond a reasonable doubt that the accused committed the act charged, and that he did so under such circumstances that every element of the offense existed; and where the evidence fails to meet this test it is insufficient to support a conviction.’” Bush v. State, 895 So.2d 836, 843 (Miss. 2005), abrogated on other grounds by Little v. State, 2017 WL 4546740 (Miss. Oct. 12, 2017), (quoting Carr v. State, 208 So.2d 886, 889 (Miss. 1968)).

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Bluebook (online)
235 So. 3d 1399, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/maurice-brown-v-state-of-mississippi-miss-2017.