State v. Hicks

725 S.E.2d 569, 229 W. Va. 44, 2011 WL 1457212, 2011 W. Va. LEXIS 21
CourtWest Virginia Supreme Court
DecidedApril 14, 2011
DocketNo. 35670
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 725 S.E.2d 569 (State v. Hicks) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering West Virginia Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Hicks, 725 S.E.2d 569, 229 W. Va. 44, 2011 WL 1457212, 2011 W. Va. LEXIS 21 (W. Va. 2011).

Opinion

PER CURIAM:

This ease is before this Court upon appeal of a final order of the Circuit Court of McDowell County entered on October 7, 2009. In that order, Amos Gabriel Hicks (hereinafter “the appellant”) was sentenced to life imprisonment without mercy for his convictions of first degree murder, malicious assault, and conspiracy following a jury trial that began on July 20, 2009. In this appeal, he asserts that the circuit court erred in admitting testimony in violation of Rule 404(b) of the West Virginia Rules of Evidence.1 He also argues that the evidence presented was insufficient to sustain his convictions. Based upon the parties’ briefs and arguments in this proceeding, as well as the relevant statutory and case law, this Court is of the opinion that the circuit court did not commit reversible error and, accordingly, affirms the decision below.

I.

FACTS

On October 21, 2008, the appellant was indicted for first degree murder, malicious assault, and conspiracy. The State alleged that the appellant had hired thirty-five-year-old Mose Douglas Mullins, Jr. (hereinafter, “Mr. Mullins”) to kill several people because they had stolen property from him. At trial, the State’s primary witness was Mr. Mullins. While Mr. Mullins is not a party to this appeal, his criminal actions were so intrinsically tied with those of the appellant that he will be discussed to the extent necessary to explain the events that led to the appellant’s arrest.2

At the appellant’s trial, Mr. Mullins testified that he was a drug addict and that he sold prescription drugs that he purchased from the appellant, but that he often used more of the drugs than he actually sold. As a result, Mr. Mullins became indebted to the appellant for a significant sum of the money that he owed him for a large quantity of OxyContin pills. According to Mr. Mullins, he worked out a deal with the appellant whereby, in exchange for forgiveness of the debt, he agreed to kill several people who had allegedly broken into the appellant’s home. Mr. Mullins testified that the appellant agreed to give him $5,000 for each murder.

The initial discussion between the appellant and Mr. Mullins concerning the plan to kill the individuals was explained by Mr. Mullins as follows:

Q. Okay. Did he later talk to you about his intentions toward Jeff Mullins and Chantel Webb?
A. Yes.
Q. Tell us about that.
A. Kind of — Kind of bear with me here because this is — this is the part that— that I am most ashamed of for myself, [48]*48you know. We — I had went to his home, to [the appellant’s] house, pickup the drugs like I normally do, you know, drop the money off and, you know, pick up other drugs, and while I was there, I had helped — I was helping him put together a patio — like dinette set for outside. Okay? And I don’t know, something — he was — he was really agitated that day whenever I got there, you know, and we were out I think in the front yard, and he— he said that — that he’d give me $20,000.00 for the whole — for the whole family, kill the whole — you know, get rid of the whole family, I mean, more or less in that tone. You know what I mean?

Mr. Mullins testified that at that moment, he was not sure if the appellant was serious or whether his comments were made out of anger due to the theft of his property. Approximately two weeks later, however, Mr. Mullins and the appellant spoke again with more specificity regarding the plan to “get rid of the whole family.” Two of the individuals the appellant wanted killed were Jamie Chantel Webb (hereinafter, “Ms. Webb”), who was a twenty-two-year-old mother of two, and twenty-two-year-old Jeffrey Mullins, who is a cousin to Mr. Mullins.3 Mr. Mullins explained:

A____ I was going back and forth, you know, to exchange the money for the drugs, but once we — the next time I went over, I asked him if he was serious about [murdering the individuals], and he said, yes, and he said, well, he said— he said — he said, $5,000 a piece, you know, any — anything that happened, you know, and I got to be honest with you.
At that time, I had messed up the drugs and the money again and was indebted to him again. Well, the debt had not been paid from the previous one, let me back up, and I said, well, look, I said, I’d take it on. I said that way I can — I can clear my debt, and I can get back in his graces; so, to speak, so that I could get my drag connection going good again so that I could make money and drugs for myself again.
Q. When you tell us you’d messed up the drug money or drugs again, what do you mean by that? What had you done to get back in debt with [the appellant]?
A. Well, I had done — I had done more of the drugs than I could pay for.
Q. Used them yourself?
A. Yes.
Q. Can you tell us about how much you were in debt to [the appellant]?
A. Approximately, around $5,000.

When Mr. Mullins asked the appellant if he was serious about having the individuals killed and about the $5000.00 payment per person, he said the appellant responded by asking, “What kind of gun are you wanting, you want a rifle, or you want a pistol?” After stating that he wanted a pistol, the appellant then gave Mr. Mullins a Ruger 9mm, semiautomatic pistol to commit the murders. This was the same pistol that Mr. Mullins had purchased from the appellant on a prior occasion for $200.00; however, Mi’. Mullins no longer owned the gun at that time as he had traded it back to the appellant in exchange for prescription medication.

Soon thereafter, on May 13, 2001, Mr. Mullins and his neighbor, James Waldron, were riding in Mr. Mullins’ vehicle. When they saw Jeffrey Mullins, Don Ball (hereinafter, “Mr. Ball”), and Ms. Webb, Mr. Mullins approached them and offered OxyContin pills to them. They then made plans to meet at a secluded location to complete the transaction. After the two groups arrived at the location, Mr. Mullins retrieved the gun that had been provided by the appellant and shot Ms. Webb, Mr. Ball, and Jeffrey Mullins. Mi’. Ball fled the scene with five gunshot wounds and eventually recovered. Jeffrey Mullins was shot in the head and left for dead, but survived and remains paralyzed as a result of [49]*49his injuries. Ms. Webb, however, was shot in the head and killed at the scene.4

During the appellant’s trial, evidence was presented showing that after Mr. Mullins was arrested for the shootings, the appellant’s sister-in-law, Josie Hicks (hereinafter, “Ms. Hicks”), and Mr. Mullins’ wife, Pam Mullins (hereinafter, “Ms. Mullins”), went to Pineville, West Virginia, with $10,000.00 in cash to retain attorneys Timothy P. Lupardus and Sante Boninsenga, Jr., to represent Mr. Mullins. Mr. Lupardus testified at the appellant’s trial that the two women came to his office and paid a substantial part of Mr. Mullins’ attorney’s fee in cash. He further testified that Ms. Mullins told him that she had to go to the appellant to get the remainder of the money necessary to pay the fee. This was confirmed by Mr. Mullins’ testimony at the appellant’s trial wherein he said that the money for his attorneys was delivered to his wife by the appellant’s sister-in-law.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
725 S.E.2d 569, 229 W. Va. 44, 2011 WL 1457212, 2011 W. Va. LEXIS 21, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-hicks-wva-2011.