Pierce v. State

860 So. 2d 855, 2003 WL 22889502
CourtCourt of Appeals of Mississippi
DecidedDecember 9, 2003
Docket2002-KA-00862-COA
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 860 So. 2d 855 (Pierce v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Mississippi primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Pierce v. State, 860 So. 2d 855, 2003 WL 22889502 (Mich. Ct. App. 2003).

Opinion

860 So.2d 855 (2003)

Steven Paul PIERCE, Appellant,
v.
STATE of Mississippi, Appellee.

No. 2002-KA-00862-COA.

Court of Appeals of Mississippi.

December 9, 2003.

*858 William Joseph Barnett, Jackson, attorney for appellant.

Office of the Attorney General by Jean Smith Vaughan, attorney for appellee.

Before SOUTHWICK, P.J., THOMAS and IRVING, JJ.

IRVING, J., for the Court.

¶ 1. A Lowndes County jury found Steven Paul Pierce guilty of two counts of armed robbery. After the trial, Pierce filed a motion for a new trial. He later filed a motion for a JNOV and an amended motion for a new trial. These motions were denied, and Pierce has perfected this appeal wherein he alleges that the evidence is lacking in both sufficiency and weight to support the jury's verdict. He also argues that he received ineffective assistance of trial counsel.

¶ 2. Finding no reversible error, this Court affirms the jury's verdict and the judgment of the trial court.

FACTS

¶ 3. Pierce owned and operated a bar in Lowndes County, Mississippi. Inside the bar were gambling poker machines for his patrons' entertainment. Terry Myatt, Robert Flint and Dan Atkins went to Pierce's bar one night for the purpose of playing pool and the poker machines. In order to play the poker machines, it was necessary for a patron to insert money into the machine which would register a certain amount of credits. The patron could then use the credits to play the machine. The object of the game was to accumulate credits. A patron, after accumulating as many credits as he could, would then proceed to the bar and cash out his credits for money.

¶ 4. Myatt, Flint and Atkins all played the poker machines when they first entered the bar. Flint later stopped gambling on the poker machines and played *859 pool. After playing on the poker machines for a while, Atkins wanted to cash out his credits and informed Pierce of such. Within minutes after Atkins requested a cash out of his credits, Pierce told Myatt to cash out his credits as well. Myatt complied with Pierce's request. Myatt then sat next to Atkins, and both waited to be paid their winnings.

¶ 5. Myatt testified that while they were waiting, Pierce came from behind the bar's counter with an aluminum baseball bat. Pierce approached Flint with the bat and demanded that Flint give him the cards or the fake/laminated money which he believed Flint used on the poker machines. Pierce claimed that all of the men were using laminated money to get more credits on the poker machine.[1] Flint denied any knowledge or possession of any such device. Pierce began poking Flint in the stomach with the bat. Pierce then chased Flint around the pool table and swung the bat toward Flint. Then, Pierce walked towards Myatt and Atkins and accused them of robbing the poker machines as well. Pierce informed the men that he had videotaped them the previous night and accused them of robbing the poker machine of $400 the previous night. Myatt denied any knowledge of having laminated money. Pierce then punched Myatt in his face and struck Myatt's body with the bat. Atkins then told Pierce that he had some information about the laminated money. Atkins and Pierce, with his bat, went outside to discuss the matter.

¶ 6. The next sequence of events is not entirely clear from the record. However, what is clear is that when Pierce reentered the bar, Atkins was not with him. Still holding the bat, Pierce made Myatt and Flint take off their clothing in any effort to find the laminated money. Pierce did not find any laminated money on Flint and, after taking $400 from him, allowed him to leave the bar. Myatt did have laminated money on him. Myatt gave Pierce the laminated money and $220. When Myatt prepared to leave the bar, Pierce came from behind the bar with a gun and pointed it toward Myatt's head. Additional, pertinent facts will be related during the discussion of the issues.

ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION OF THE ISSUES

1. Sufficiency and Weight of the Evidence

¶ 7. Pierce alleges in his statement of the issues that his motions for a JNOV and for a new trial were improperly denied. However, in his brief, his only assertion is that the State failed to prove that he possessed the specific intent to rob the victims. He argues that the evidence supports only the conclusion that he attempted to get from the victims the laminated strip or card that was being used to defraud and steal from him, that there was a complete lack of evidence tending to show that he specifically intended to rob the victims.

¶ 8. In considering Pierce's challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence, we are required to consider the evidence in the light most favorable to the State, and all credible evidence consistent with Pierce's guilt must be accepted as true. McRee v. State, 732 So.2d 246, 249(¶ 9) (Miss.1999). We must review all of the evidence in the light most consistent with the jury's verdict. *860 Smith v. State, 802 So.2d 82, 85(¶ 10) (Miss.2001). "If the facts and inferences so considered point in favor of the accused with sufficient force that reasonable persons could not have found beyond a reasonable doubt that he was guilty, reversal and discharge are required." Mangum v. State, 762 So.2d 337, 341-42(¶ 11) (Miss. 2000).

¶ 9. We agree with Pierce that specific intent to steal must be shown by testimony in robbery cases. Thomas v. State, 278 So.2d 469, 472 (Miss.1973); see also Cooper v. State, 218 So.2d 874 (Miss. 1969). The Mississippi Supreme Court has held that "[w]here a crime consists of an act, combined with a specific intent ... mere general malice or criminal intent is insufficient, and the requisite, specific intent must be shown as a matter of fact, either by direct or circumstantial evidence." Hydrick v. State, 246 Miss. 448, 452, 150 So.2d 423, 425 (1963).

¶ 10. Based on the evidence which we have already discussed in the earlier portion of this opinion, we have no difficulty concluding that the State presented sufficient evidence from which the jury could find that Pierce possessed the requisite intent to rob his victims of their money as well as take by force the laminated money strip.

¶ 11. The testimony presented by Myatt and Flint provides direct evidence of Pierce's specific intent to rob the men who he alleged were defrauding his poker machines. Pierce made Myatt and Flint disrobe and empty their pockets. Pierce took the money that was inside the men's pockets. Furthermore, Allen Redden, a co-owner of some of the poker machines, attested that he saw Pierce command the men to empty their pockets because he wanted their money.

¶ 12. Redden testified that Pierce called him over to the bar on the night in question and asked him to count the money in the poker machines to determine if he was correct in his suspicions that the poker machines were being defrauded. Pierce told Redden that the poker machines were $400 short on the previous night. Redden attested that after he counted the poker machines, he found they were $270 short.

¶ 13. Despite this shortage, there was no evidence presented at the trial that Flint and Myatt were the culprits on the night in question or the previous night. Although Myatt was found with the laminated money strip, he was never paid for the credits he earned on the night in question. In fact, Myatt gave Pierce $220. There was no evidence presented that this $220 had been paid by Pierce to Myatt for credits which Myatt had accumulated on the poker machines at some earlier time.

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Bluebook (online)
860 So. 2d 855, 2003 WL 22889502, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pierce-v-state-missctapp-2003.