State v. Jones

814 So. 2d 623, 2001 La.App. 4 Cir. 0630
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMarch 20, 2002
Docket2001-KA-0630
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 814 So. 2d 623 (State v. Jones) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Jones, 814 So. 2d 623, 2001 La.App. 4 Cir. 0630 (La. Ct. App. 2002).

Opinion

814 So.2d 623 (2002)

STATE of Louisiana
v.
Mitchell JONES.

No. 2001-KA-0630.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Fourth Circuit.

March 20, 2002.

*624 Harry F. Connick, District Attorney, Juliet Clark, Assistant District Attorney, New Orleans, LA, for Plaintiff/Appellee.

Martin E. Regan, Jr., Regan & Associates, P.L.C., New Orleans, LA, for Defendant/Appellant.

Court composed of Judge MIRIAM G. WALTZER, Judge PATRICIA RIVET MURRAY and Judge MICHAEL E. KIRBY.

WALTZER, Judge.

STATEMENT OF CASE

The State indicted Mitchell Jones on 20 August 20, 1998, for the second-degree murder of Jeremiah Payne, in violation of La. R.S. 14:30.1, and the attempted second-degree murder of Patrick Bryant, in violation of La. R.S. 14:(27)30.1. Defendant pled not guilty, and, following jury trial on 1 March 1999, was found guilty of manslaughter on count one and attempted manslaughter on count two. The trial court denied defendant's motions for new trial and post verdict judgment of acquittal on 19 July 1999 and, on 23 July 1999, sentenced Jones to serve forty years on count one and twenty years on count two, sentences to run concurrently. That same day, the court denied defendant's motion to reconsider sentence, and granted his motion for appeal.

STATEMENT OF FACTS

On 28 June 1998, eighteen year old Jeremiah Payne attended a block party where he and defendant engaged in an altercation, during the course of which the defendant knocked out one of Payne's front teeth. Payne left the party, and went home to tend the injury. Mrs. Grace Payne, Jeremiah's mother, saw that he was very agitated, and attempted to dissuade him from returning to the party. *625 When Jeremiah did not heed his mother's request, Mrs. Payne called Jeremiah's cousin, Patrick Bryant, who spoke with Jeremiah on the phone. Bryant learned that Jeremiah was angry because he had lost a tooth in a fight, and wanted to fight again. Bryant told Jeremiah he was on his way to the Payne residence and asked Jeremiah to wait there for him. By the time Bryant arrived at the residence, however, Jeremiah had gone. Bryant rode his bike to North Miro and Bienville Streets looking for his cousin. When Bryant arrived at the location, he saw Jeremiah, the defendant, Calvin Scott and an unidentified man. As Bryant dismounted his bike, he saw Jeremiah approach the defendant. When Jeremiah was three to five feet from the defendant, Jeremiah put his hands up to fight. The defendant shot Jeremiah in the stomach. Jeremiah turned and ran back toward Bryant. The defendant ran after Jeremiah, and shot him in the back. As the defendant chased Jeremiah and ran past Bryant, Bryant grabbed the defendant's gun to stop him from shooting Jeremiah. The defendant shot Bryant in the stomach, causing Bryant to release his grasp on the gun, and flee in the same direction in which Jeremiah had already fled. The defendant pursued Bryant, shooting him a second time. Bryant saw Jeremiah fall, but continued running down Miro Street.

Drenise Bryant, Patrick Bryant's sister, was at her home located at Iberville and Miro Streets the night of the shooting. After she heard gunshots, she saw Jeremiah running and stumbling toward her, before he fell in her arms, bleeding. Her brother Patrick had also been shot, and continued to run down the street past her. Ms. Bryant testified that Jeremiah was unarmed, and not wearing a shirt.

Officers Kevin Thomas and John Mitchell responded to a shooting call on 28 June 1998, at North Miro and Bienville Streets at 10:45 p.m. As the officers proceeded to the scene, they encountered Patrick Bryant running in the 100 block of North Miro Street. Bryant explained that "Mitchell" shot him and the victim, and that the victim was lying on the sidewalk in the 200 block of North Miro Street. Officer Mitchell remained with Bryant, and called for medical assistance, while Officer Thomas went a block further, and found the dead victim, clothed only in black short pants and tennis shoes, lying on the sidewalk.

Detective Timothy Allen was the primary investigator and arrived at the scene within minutes of the shooting. Allen observed the unarmed, dead victim, shirtless and lying face down on the sidewalk. Neither bullet casings nor a gun were found on the scene. The following day, Allen spoke with Patrick Bryant, and learned that the shooter's first name was Mitchell, and that the shooter frequented the area of Bienville and Miro Streets. Allen compiled a photographic lineup from the information supplied by Patrick Bryant. When he showed the lineup to Bryant, Bryant identified the defendant as the shooter.

Calvin Scott testified on behalf of the defendant that on the day of shooting, the defendant related that he had been involved in a fight. As Scott and the defendant walked on Bienville Street, a car pulled up and someone jumped out of the car; it was dark, so Scott could not see who the person was. As Scott and the defendant stood on the sidewalk, Jeremiah Payne walked up, walking fast, "like he was mad about something." Jeremiah did not say anything, and just as Scott was about to tell him that the defendant did not want to fight anymore, shots rang out. Scott ran, so he did not see whether the defendant chased Payne or Bryant. Scott testified that he did not see Jeremiah with *626 a weapon, and corroborated other witnesses' testimony that Jeremiah was not wearing a shirt when he was shot. Scott claimed that he did not see who shot Jeremiah.

The defendant testified that around 2:00 p.m. on the day of the incident he attended a block party on Bienville and Derbigny Streets, near D & D Barroom, where he encountered Jeremiah Payne. He related prior run-ins with Payne, including one during which Payne threatened him with a gun. The defendant testified that on the day of the shooting, he had had several interactions with Payne. The first time the defendant saw Payne, he greeted him, but the victim said "What you mean, what happening" and "You don't want to shoot nothing." The next encounter occurred around 4:00 p.m., when the defendant was walking down Bienville Street, and Payne approached him from behind on a bike. The pair exchanged words, and the defendant claimed that Payne pulled a gun on him, whereupon the defendant walked away. Later that evening, around 10:00 p.m., the defendant again saw Payne, at which time Payne told the defendant "[y]ou better keep you head up" and "[w]ell you must want to see the man. If you want to see the man, holler at me, I've got the hook up if you want to the see the man." The men then engaged in a fistfight. At the end of the fight, Payne told the defendant that "it wasn't over" and warned the defendant to be around when he returned. The defendant was fearful that Payne would kill him when he came back, so he armed himself with a gun he had hidden under a nearby house. Ten minutes later, a car pulled up and a person ran toward the defendant. He could not tell who the person was, but as the person came within five feet of him, the person put his hand behind his back. The defendant drew his gun from his pocket, raised it up, closed his eyes, turned his head, and pulled the trigger. He testified he pulled the trigger two more times, hitting the victim in the back, before he opened his eyes and saw Payne running down Miro Street.

Dr. Alvaro Hunt, who testified by stipulation as an expert in forensic pathology, performed an autopsy on Payne on 29 June 1998. He noted that the victim was shot three times, at indeterminate distance —in the left arm, abdomen and left back area. Two bullets were retrieved from the victim's body. Dr.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
814 So. 2d 623, 2001 La.App. 4 Cir. 0630, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-jones-lactapp-2002.