State v. Jones

2010 WI App 133, 791 N.W.2d 390, 329 Wis. 2d 498, 2010 Wisc. App. LEXIS 687
CourtCourt of Appeals of Wisconsin
DecidedAugust 24, 2010
DocketNo. 2009AP2835-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 2010 WI App 133 (State v. Jones) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Wisconsin primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Jones, 2010 WI App 133, 791 N.W.2d 390, 329 Wis. 2d 498, 2010 Wisc. App. LEXIS 687 (Wis. Ct. App. 2010).

Opinion

FINE, J.

¶ 1. Christopher D. Jones appeals the judgment entered on jury verdicts convicting him of first-degree reckless homicide while armed, see Wis. Stat. §§ 940.02(1) & 939.63, and attempted armed robbery with the use of force, see Wis. Stat. §§ 943.32(2) & 939.32, in connection with the shooting of Brandon Sprewer somewhat after 10 p.m. on September 5, 2006, at the corner of 91st and Silver Spring Drive in Milwaukee. Jones raises many issues on appeal, which we discuss and reject in Part II of this opinion. Accordingly, we affirm.

[502]*502I.

¶ 2. Shortly before he was shot, Sprewer was walking near 91st and Silver Spring Drive with Edward Hervey, a friend with whom he had played in various Special Olympics sports. Hervey testified at the trial that shortly before Sprewer was shot, Jones and another male asked them if they wanted some "Ecstasy or some weed." The jury later learned that the other person with Jones was then fifteen-year-old Demonta Gray, who also testified at the trial. Hervey told the jury that he did not know what Ecstasy was, and that they did not agree to buy drugs from Jones and Gray. Hervey and Sprewer then walked in different directions, and Jones and Gray followed Sprewer. Hervey testified that he saw Jones shoot Sprewer: "I seen Jones pull out a gun and shot my friend right in front of me."

¶ 3. Hervey's account of the shooting was confirmed by Jada Carter, a citizen witness who, oddly enough, had previously worked with Sprewer at a store. She told the jury that she was in the area the night of the shooting and saw Jones "reach for something from" Sprewer, and that Sprewer "said, No." She testified that "a couple of seconds after that I heard a pop, and Brandon fell forward, and the defendant was in front of him. He had his arm out towards Brandon, and then he ran off west across 91st." She said that she did not see a gun in Jones's hand.

¶ 4. Jones's girlfriend in September of 2006, Kan-dace Perry, testified that on the evening of September 5th, Jones got a call and afterwards told her "[t]hat he was going to go make a move," which she translated as "[fit's like a robbery." He wanted her to take him to 91st and Silver Spring Drive. Although she initially protested, she told the jury that she dropped him off in that [503]*503area nevertheless. She said that he had a "small and silver" gun with him. At around 10:50 jp.m., Jones called her and sounded "frantic." He asked her to "come get him," telling her that "[something had went wrong." She picked him up in the area of 91st and Silver Spring Drive. When they got back to her house, he told her "that the move went bad."

Q. And when he told you that the move went had, did you ask him what had specifically occurred?
A. Yes.
Q. And what did he say?
A. He and some guy were I guess trying to rob somebody, and he shot him.

The next day, Jones told her that "the person he shot had died." Perry testified that "possibly a few days after" the shooting, Jones told her that he had shown the gun to his brother, telling him "that this was the gun with the body on it." Perry testified that on September 12, Jones gave "[t]he gun" to his brother. She also testified that when the police came to her house looking for the gun, they found Ecstasy pills, which, she said, belonged to Jones.

¶ 5. Jones's brother's girlfriend, Holly Noggle, confirmed for the jury that Jones gave a gun to his brother. After initial attempts to hide the gun, Noggle ultimately gave it to the police. The gun the police got from Noggle was received into evidence as Exhibit 16.

¶ 6. Demonta Gray confirmed the testimony of the others that Jones shot Sprewer. He told the jury that as he and Jones were walking in the area, "two black males was behind us. We stopped, turned around. Christopher asked one of the black males if they wanted [504]*504to buy any pills," which Jones said were "ecstasy pills."1 After they "stated that they don't do drugs," and Jones said "okay," Sprewer and Hervey "sped up" and split up — "One walked towards 90th, and the other one walked towards 91st." Jones and Gray followed the fellow walking towards 91st, Sprewer. Gray told the jury that he also saw "[a] black female" in the area.

¶ 7. When they caught up to Sprewer, Gray heard Jones say "[s]ome words like give me what you got." We pick up Gray's testimony at around this point:

A. So the black male [Sprewer] moved Christopher['s] hand and then —
Q. The black male did what?
A. He moved Christopher['s] hand.
Q. And then what happened?
A. Then I looked to my right. The black female walked across the street because she felt uncomfortable something was going wrong.
Q. Then what happened?
A. After that Christopher told me to grab the black male['s] cell phone.
Q. Did you try to grab his cell phone?
A. Yes.
Q. And when you tried to grab the black male's cell phone what happened?
A. The black male pushed me back.
[505]*505Q. And when the black male pushed you back what happened next?
A. As I was trying to catch my balance I looked up, Christopher shoot [sic] the black male one time in the left of his shoulder like.

¶ 8. Gray told the jury that in return for his testimony, his case was plea-bargained and that he agreed to plead guilty to felony murder, as a juvenile, testifying that he was "told the worst that could happen to me is I could be held at [the juvenile facility in] Wales until I'm 25 years old," although he admitted that he was "[e]xpecting something better."

¶ 9. One of the police officers who arrived at the scene of Sprewer's shooting when Sprewer was still alive, testified that when he asked Sprewer who had shot him, he responded that "a black male with a goatee" shot him after demanding that Sprewer give him money.

¶ 10. The State also presented the testimony of a technician with the State Crime Laboratory, who described the markings that he said were imprinted by the firing process on the bullet recovered from Sprewer's body and connected with Exhibit 16, the gun recovered from Noggins.2

Q And is there any other gun in the world that would leave those particular type of markings on that bullet?
A No.

¶ 11. The technician testified that this was his opinion "to a reasonable degree of professional certainty." (Answering "[y]es" to the prosecutor's phrasing.)

[506]*506On cross-examination, Jones's lawyer elicited from the technician that the procedures he followed had "no error rate."

Q And what is the expected error rate of your eyeball analysis?
A There is no error rate.
Q No error rate?
A No.

¶ 12.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2010 WI App 133, 791 N.W.2d 390, 329 Wis. 2d 498, 2010 Wisc. App. LEXIS 687, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-jones-wisctapp-2010.