McCune v. State

989 So. 2d 310, 2008 WL 2761611
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 17, 2008
Docket2007-KA-00923-SCT
StatusPublished
Cited by37 cases

This text of 989 So. 2d 310 (McCune 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
McCune v. State, 989 So. 2d 310, 2008 WL 2761611 (Mich. 2008).

Opinion

989 So.2d 310 (2008)

Christopher O'Neil McCUNE
v.
STATE of Mississippi.

No. 2007-KA-00923-SCT.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

July 17, 2008.

*312 James Edwin Smith, III, attorney for appellant.

Office of the Attorney General by: Deshun Terrell Martin, attorney for appellee.

Before WALLER, P.J., GRAVES and RANDOLPH, JJ.

RANDOLPH, Justice, for the Court.

¶ 1. Christopher O'Neil McCune was indicted for murder and aggravated assault. A jury trial was held in the Circuit Court of Newton County following the denial of McCune's motion for change of venue. The circuit judge denied McCune's proposed lesser-offense instructions regarding manslaughter. A jury of McCune's peers found him guilty as charged on both counts. McCune was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder conviction and to an additional twenty years, to run consecutively to the sentence of life imprisonment, for the aggravated assault conviction. Following denial of his "Motion for a New Trial or Other Relief," McCune filed notice of appeal.

FACTS

¶ 2. On August 13, 2006, at approximately 2:15 a.m., Cathy Hardy arrived at James "J.J." Bolton's house, accompanied by a friend. Around 2:45 a.m., Hardy and Bolton left for Hardy's house in Bolton's vehicle, as she was concerned she had left the stove on. While they were returning to Bolton's house, a white Chevy Suburban passed them slowly. According to McCune, the driver of the white Suburban,[1] "I went past [Bolton] because he was driving sort of slow." Hardy testified that McCune began "pushing on the brakes[,]" and made a left turn. Bolton then pulled up behind McCune's vehicle. Hardy "noticed [McCune] and [Kidd] standing outside the car." Hardy testified that Bolton then rolled his window down "and [McCune] asked him, why the [f] did he stop the [mf] truck. And [Bolton] told him, `Man, I was just trying to see what was up.'" In contrast, McCune testified that he did not recall using profanity and merely got out of his vehicle "and asked [Bolton] what was up and asked him, what's going on, you know, `Why don't you go ahead on,' . . . because [there] had been some threats made and things of that sort."[2] According to Hardy, McCune *313 "asked [Bolton] again why did he stop the [f]'ing truck. And [Bolton] told him, `Man, I was just trying to see what was up.' And [McCune] replied, `You done caused enough[s ... ] on these streets.'" Hardy testified that Bolton replied, "`Man, I wouldn't do you like that,' and he replied to [Kidd], `And, man, you know I wouldn't do you like that.'"[3] According to McCune, he then asked Bolton "to go on twice[,]" without success.[4] Hardy testified that as she "leaned up to look at [McCune], [Bolton] was barely brushing the side of my thigh, as if he was trying to get my attention. So I just leaned up, and that's when I noticed that [McCune] had a gun at his side." Hardy then "told [Bolton] that he didn't have a gun, let's leave. He was just—but he wasn't reaching down. He wasn't doing none of that."[5] McCune testified that he "noticed [Bolton] was reaching for something. I know [Bolton] carry a gun. I mean, I have saw him with a gun before.[[6]] I didn't know what to do at the time. So, as he was reaching for his gun,[[7]] that's when I pulled my gun." Immediately thereafter, according to Hardy, "the gun just started going off." According to McCune, he began shooting "out of self-defense . . . because I felt like he was going to do something to me." (Emphasis added). McCune testified that he shot until he ran out of bullets because "I didn't know if I had shot him or not. It happened real fast."

¶ 3. According to Hardy, "[a]fter the shots had stopped firing, I noticed [Bolton] had took his left hand and took his shirt and brushed his shirt. That's when I noticed he had a bullet hole in his shirt. I leaned back up . . . and I seen [McCune] with the gun in the window." Hardy testified that McCune was pointing the gun toward her head and "the gun fired and something just told me to get out and run and I just ran." As Hardy ran away, she heard McCune yell, "`Bitch, you better run or I'll kill you, too.'" McCune denies shooting at, or even speaking to, Hardy. According to McCune, "I never noticed [Hardy] at all. . . . [A]s we was headed back to the truck, I saw somebody running. . . . I didn't know who she was."

¶ 4. Robert and Margaret Moore, who lived in a nearby home, were awakened by the gunshots. Margaret testified that she "heard a lot of commotion. And then as the guy was walking back to the white Suburban, I heard him say, `And I'll kill you, too.'" According to Robert, the white Suburban then "sped off as I was going out the back door, as I took two or three steps toward the roadway." After hiding briefly at a nearby church, Hardy returned to Bolton's vehicle and testified that:

*314 I was going to just sit on top of [Bolton] and try to drive him home. That's what was in my mind I was thinking to do. And when I turned back and looked again, I seen the [white Suburban] coming back and it was coming back real fast, so I took off running again.

According to Robert:

I heard [the white Suburban] as it was making the block. It came around—it was just gassing it all the way around to each stop. When I heard it turn to come back toward me, that's when I got in the defensive posture trying to see what they was going to do.

Hardy testified that she heard McCune again threaten her, stating "[y]ou better run or I'll kill you." She then ran to Robert, who was standing outside with a gun in his pocket, and told him she "thought [McCune] was going to kill me." According to Robert:

[b]y the time the truck made it back around, [Hardy] had braced herself right behind me. She came from the left side of the vehicle and she just grabbed me like this here. "Mr. Robert, Mr. Robert, they going to kill me." She was holding on to my robe, and I was trying to calm her down.

McCune's vehicle pulled up at the corner of the Moores' house, paused for five or ten seconds, and then drove away. According to McCune, he "came back to the scene because I was going to make sure that [Bolton] had got him some help there. . . . And when I saw [Robert] and [Hardy] standing there, I just drove, kept on driving."

¶ 5. The investigating officers found no weapons in Bolton's vehicle. Leon Reed, a detective with the Newton Police Department, testified that they "found 14 rounds that had been shot from a nine millimeter on the ground, the hulls." A firearms expert with the Mississippi Crime Laboratory testified that all of the casings "were fired from the same gun." Additionally, according to Reed, one bullet "went through the vehicle and hit the passenger side of the vehicle right in the edge of the window, bottom part of the window in the door." An autopsy revealed a total of twelve gunshot wounds, with at least two of the bullet wounds being lethal. Several days later, McCune was apprehended in Lexington, Kentucky.

¶ 6. On January 30, 2007, McCune was indicted for murder, in violation of Mississippi Code Annotated Section 97-3-19(1)(a),[8] and aggravated assault, in violation of Mississippi Code Annotated Section 97-3-7(2)(b).[9]

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
989 So. 2d 310, 2008 WL 2761611, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mccune-v-state-miss-2008.