Randolph v. State

973 So. 2d 254, 2007 WL 2246055
CourtCourt of Appeals of Mississippi
DecidedAugust 7, 2007
Docket2005-KA-02233-COA
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 973 So. 2d 254 (Randolph 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
Randolph v. State, 973 So. 2d 254, 2007 WL 2246055 (Mich. Ct. App. 2007).

Opinion

973 So.2d 254 (2007)

Marquette RANDOLPH, Appellant
v.
STATE of Mississippi, Appellee.

No. 2005-KA-02233-COA.

Court of Appeals of Mississippi.

August 7, 2007.
Rehearing Denied January 22, 2008.

*257 Herbert H. Klein, attorney for appellant.

Office of the. Attorney. General by John R. Henry, attorney for appellee.

Before KING, C.J., IRVING and ROBERTS, JJ.

IRVING, J., for the Court.

¶ 1. Marquette Randolph was convicted by a jury of attempted possession of more than thirty grams of cocaine and was sentenced by the Jones County Circuit Court to twenty years with five years suspended and fifteen years to serve in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections. Aggrieved, he appeals and asserts the following issues, which we quote verbatim:

I. The. Trial Court erred in denying the Motion to Suppress Evidence.
II. The Trial Court erred in preventing cross-examination regarding fingerprinting analysis.
III. The Trial Court erred in preventing Defendant from presenting his theory of defense.
IV. The Trial Court erred in, preventing Defendant from testifying regarding his earlier statements.
V. The Trial Court erred in giving State's Jury Instruction "S-1-A" without the circumstantial evidence language and in refusing Defendant's Jury Instructions "D-4", "5", "D-8", "D-10", "D-11", "D-12", and "D-13" containing circumstantial evidence language.
VI. The Trial Court erred in giving State's Jury Instruction "S-2" as a lesser included offense instruction.
VII. The Trial Court erred in allowing the Assistant District Attorney to make inflammatory statements during closing argument.
VIII. The Trial Court erred in overruling Defendant's Motion for [a] New Trial or in the Alternative Judgment Notwithstanding the Verdict.
IX. The cumulative effect of the errors committed by the Trial Court were [sic] of a prejudicial effect and prevented the Defendant from receiving a fair trial.

¶ 2. Finding no reversible error, we affirm.

FACTS

¶ 3. On July 8, 2003, Randolph drove his blue Ford Crown Victoria to the home of Terrence Shanks, located on Bartlett Street in Laurel, Mississippi. Randolph parked his vehicle on the street in front of Shanks's home. Shanks approached Randolph's car and sat in the passenger's seat. As they sat in Randolph's car, Randolph attempted to convince Shanks to give him one-half gram of cocaine on credit.

¶ 4. During this time, Trea Staples and Mitchell Van Syckel, narcotics agents with the Laurel Police Department at the time of the incident, were conducting surveillance of the area. The officers noticed that Randolph's car was parked facing eastbound in the westbound lane of traffic. The officers passed Randolph's car and continued down the street before turning around and parking their unmarked Ford Expedition nose to nose with Randolph's car. The officers exited their vehicle and approached Randolph's car. At this point, Shanks exited Randolph's car, emptied a beer bottle onto the street, and threw the bottle into a nearby, garbage can. The City of Laurel has an ordinance prohibiting public possession of open containers of alcohol. According to Staples, while he was speaking with Shanks about Shanks's violation of the open container ordinance, *258 he noticed that Van Syckel had become involved in a foot pursuit with Randolph, so he radioed for backup to assist Van Syckel.

¶ 5. Van Syckel testified that as he approached Randolph's car he observed Randolph moving in the driver's seat. As a result, Van Syckel suspected that Randolph was either retrieving something from underneath his seat, or trying to hide something under the seat. Concerned, Van Syckel hurried to the driver's door and instructed Randolph to exit the vehicle. At this point, Van Syckel noticed two clear plastic bags sitting on the seat that contained what appeared to be a powdery white substance.

¶ 6. Randolph fled the scene and Van Syckel gave chase. In short order, Van Syckel caught Randolph, handcuffed him, and waited for a patrol officer to arrive. When an officer arrived, Van Syckel put Randolph in the patrol car and walked back to where Randolph's car was parked.

¶ 7. While Van Syckel was involved in the foot pursuit with Randolph, Staples took Shanks into custody. Staples escorted Shanks over to the driver's side of Randolph's car. Staples testified that the door to the car was open, and that he also saw two bags that contained a white powdery substance sitting on the front seat Staples also stated that a pat down of Shanks revealed that he had $1,300 in his pants pocket

¶ 8. When Van Syckel arrived back at the original scene, he noticed that the two bags that were on Randolph's seat had been moved to the roof of the car. Van Syckel returned the bags to the driver's seat and took pictures of them. Sergeant Layne Bounds of the Laurel Police Department conducted an inventory search of Randolph's car, during which he found three additional bags also containing a white powdery substance between the driver's seat and the "hump" that is located in the center of the car.

¶ 9. Later, Staples and Van Syckel obtained a search warrant and searched Shanks's house. As a result of the search, they found clear plastic sandwich bags, a set of scales, money, and money wrappers. According to Staples, sandwich bags similar to the bags found in Shanks's house are sometimes used to package and sell units of cocaine. Testing revealed that all of the bags found in Randolph's car contained cocaine. The five bags of cocaine weighed a total of 120.36 grams.

¶ 10. On July 21, 2004, the Jones County Grand Jury returned an indictment against Randolph and charged him with possession of approximately 120.36 grams of cocaine. Randolph filed a motion to suppress the admission of, among other things, the bags of cocaine, arguing that the evidence was obtained due to an illegal arrest and an illegal search and seizure. On' October 13, 2005, Randolph went to trial. After jury selection, Randolph's counsel brought his unresolved motion to suppress to the court's attention. The court conducted a suppression hearing and overruled Randolph's motion.

¶ 11. Randolph took the stand and testified on his own behalf. Randolph stated that in July 2003, he was addicted to cocaine, was unemployed, and was dependent on his family for financial assistance. Specifically, he testified that on July 8, 2003, he attempted to get Shanks to "[g]ive [him] some cocaine on credit." Randolph testified, that he is not guilty of possession of cocaine because he attempted to get cocaine, but failed to do so because he was interrupted by Staples and Van Syckel. The court allowed the State to submit an attempted possession instruction to the jury. Jury instruction S-2 instructed the jury that it could convict Randolph of attempted *259 possession of cocaine if it found that Randolph was not guilty of possession of cocaine. Randolph objected, but the court allowed the instruction over his objection. Thereafter, Randolph was convicted by the jury of attempted possession of cocaine.

¶ 12. Additional facts, as necessary, will be related during our analysis and discussion of the issues.

ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION OF THE ISSUES

1. Motion to Suppress

¶ 13.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
973 So. 2d 254, 2007 WL 2246055, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/randolph-v-state-missctapp-2007.