Palmer v. State

427 So. 2d 111
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 16, 1983
Docket53549
StatusPublished
Cited by40 cases

This text of 427 So. 2d 111 (Palmer 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
Palmer v. State, 427 So. 2d 111 (Mich. 1983).

Opinion

427 So.2d 111 (1983)

Thomas Andrew PALMER, Jr.
v.
STATE of Mississippi.

No. 53549.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

February 16, 1983.

*112 Hall, Callender & Dantin, Maurice Dantin, Columbia, for appellant.

Bill Allain, Atty. Gen. by Billy L. Gore, Asst. Atty. Gen., Jackson, for appellee.

Before WALKER, P.J., and BROOM and DAN M. LEE, JJ.

WALKER, Presiding Justice, for the Court:

This case is an appeal from the Circuit Court of Pearl River County, Mississippi, wherein the appellant, Thomas Andrew Palmer, Jr., was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to life imprisonment in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections. Feeling aggrieved with the verdict, the appellant has perfected an appeal to this Court.

On September 11, 1980, Albert LaVigne, the husband of the victim, notified the Picayune Police Department at 7:30 p.m. that his wife, Veronica LaVigne, was missing. Mr. LaVigne had returned home from work at approximately 5:00 p.m. and had become concerned when he could not locate his wife at the homes of family and neighbors. Enlisting the aid of others, Mr. LaVigne searched the town and nearby Boley Creek where Veronica had last been seen that day.

Mrs. Veronica LaVigne, who was eighteen years old, frequently swam and sunbathed at a sandbar on Boley Creek which was approximately one-half mile from the LaVigne home. Mrs. Creel, the victim's sister-in-law, testified that Veronica had asked her to drop her off at the bridge near the Boley Creek sandbar between 12:00 and 1:00 p.m. on Thursday. Mrs. Creel was the last person to see the victim alive. Veronica LaVigne's body was found the next morning by Alice Creel in a densely wooded area approximately fifty to seventy-five yards from the area in which Veronica normally sunbathed. The autopsy report stated the victim died from bimanual strangulation and three .22 calibre gunshot wounds in the abdomen. In addition, the victim had been severely beaten in the head, neck, face, shoulder and chest regions resulting in numerous fractures to her facial bones.

The police investigation of the crime revealed that a St. Regis Paper Company pickup truck had been seen parked near the Boley Creek bridge on September 11 around 12:30 to 1:00 p.m. On Monday, September *113 15, Lieutenant Lorance Lumpkin of the Picayune Police Department and Sheriff Lawrence Holliday of Pearl River County went to the St. Regis office and questioned the employees as to their whereabouts on the day of the murder. None of the employees stated that they were in the Boley Creek area that day. Lumpkin's attention was drawn to Thomas Andrew Palmer, Jr., the defendant, who appeared very nervous when questioned as to whether his truck was at Boley Creek on September 11, but Palmer denied that he had been in the area. At 4:50 p.m. that afternoon, Lumpkin and Holliday received a call at the Criminal Justice Center in Picayune, Mississippi, from Palmer who stated that he wanted to talk with the officers. Lumpkin and Holliday met with Palmer at the St. Regis' office and Palmer stated that he had not been completely truthful with them earlier in that he did stop to fish on his lunch break at the Boley Creek bridge on Thursday, September 11. Palmer explained that the reason that he did not tell them the truth earlier was because he did not want his secretary to tell his wife that he was in that area on the day of the murder. The defendant admitted that while he did own several rifles and shotguns, that he did not presently own a .22 calibre pistol. (Palmer elaborated that he previously owned a small .22 calibre pistol but had given it to a friend in Florida). Palmer was read his Miranda rights (which was later denied by Palmer at trial), and then voluntarily accompanied the officers to Boley Creek and showed them where he had parked his truck. However, Palmer denied that he had seen the victim or that he knew of any information about the murder. Lumpkin led Palmer into the thick underbrush and walked through the area where the body was found. Without prompting, the defendant stopped at the scene of the crime within a few feet of where the victim was found and stated that this was about as far as he had ever gone into the woods surrounding the creek. At this point, Sheriff Holliday asked the defendant if he had killed Veronica LaVigne. The defendant stated that he did not kill the victim and continually repeated that though "it looked bad for him, that he did not do it." When asked about a grease pencil that was found near the victim, Palmer said that while he used grease pencils in his work as a forester, that he often lost his pencil because he carried it in his shirt pocket. (No fingerprints were found on the grease pencil).

Later, on their way to Slidell, Louisiana, Palmer again admitted to the officers that he had lied. He stated that he had misled the officers by telling them that he had given away the.22 calibre pistol while in Florida. The defendant then admitted that he owned a .22 calibre pistol but became afraid after summoning the officers to his office late Monday afternoon. The.22 calibre pistol was later recovered from Palmer's office at the St. Regis Paper Company.

Late that evening, after several hours of questioning, Thomas Palmer, Jr., admitted to the murder of Veronica LaVigne. Palmer's first confession was heard by L.L. Lower, Picayune Chief of Police. The defendant then recounted substantially the same story in the presence of Chief Lower, Sheriff Holliday and Mason Sistrunk, a special investigator with the district attorney's office. Palmer's third confession was held inadmissible by the trial judge due to the fact that Palmer had requested an attorney and had not received legal representation at the time of the third confession. The record clearly indicates that at no time was Palmer beaten, threatened, psychologically tortured or promised anything in return for his confession. Every officer who was present at the time of each confession testified as to Palmer's understanding of his rights and the voluntariness of his statement. At trial, Palmer was placed on the witness stand and admitted that he made the statements, but testified that they were made when he was tired, confused and scared.

He further testified that though he was in the area of the crime on the day in question, he did not murder Veronica LaVigne. The defendant produced numerous witnesses who stated that the Thomas Palmer they knew, could not have committed *114 such a heinous crime and that if Palmer had indeed killed Mrs. LaVigne, he must have been crazy at the time of the crime. The State and the defense placed psychologists and psychiatrists on the stand who testified as to the mental state of the defendant and the jury was instructed on the question of the defendant's sanity.

The jury returned a verdict finding Thomas Andrew Palmer, Jr., guilty of the capital murder of Veronica LaVigne but declined to sentence him to suffer the death penalty at the sentencing hearing and instead found that he should be sentenced to life in prison.

The defendant's motion for a new trial and motion for J.N.O.V. was overruled and the defendant has perfected his appeal to this Court and assigns eight errors of the trial court for review.

I.

The appellant assigns as his first error for review that the lower court erred in not granting the appellant's motion for a hearing prior to trial on his motion to suppress his confessions.

The orderly administration of justice dictates that the trial judge be vested with a considerable amount of discretion with respect to trial calendaring and docket management.

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Bluebook (online)
427 So. 2d 111, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/palmer-v-state-miss-1983.