Sullinger v. State

935 So. 2d 1067, 2006 WL 51416
CourtCourt of Appeals of Mississippi
DecidedJanuary 10, 2006
Docket2004-KP-00071-COA
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 935 So. 2d 1067 (Sullinger 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
Sullinger v. State, 935 So. 2d 1067, 2006 WL 51416 (Mich. Ct. App. 2006).

Opinion

935 So.2d 1067 (2006)

Jacob SULLINGER, Appellant
v.
STATE of Mississippi, Appellee.

No. 2004-KP-00071-COA.

Court of Appeals of Mississippi.

January 10, 2006.
Rehearing Denied May 2, 2006.

*1068 Jacob Sullinger, Appellant, pro se.

Office of the Attorney General by Jeffrey A. Klingfuss, John W. Champion, attorney for appellee.

Before LEE, P.J., IRVING and CHANDLER, JJ.

IRVING, J., for the Court.

¶ 1. Jacob Sullinger was convicted by a DeSoto County jury of manslaughter, and was sentenced to twenty years in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections. Aggrieved, he appeals pro se and argues that his conviction should be overturned because: (1) the evidence was insufficient to support his conviction; (2) the State failed to investigate fully and preserve exculpatory evidence, thereby denying him his right to a fair trial; (3) the State violated Rule 9.04 by not fully investigating the crime scene; (4) the counsel provided to Sullinger was ineffective, thus depriving him of his right to effective assistance of counsel; (5) Sullinger was denied his Sixth Amendment right to appellate counsel; and (6) cumulative errors rendered Sullinger's trial unfair, in violation of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution.

¶ 2. Finding no error, we affirm.

FACTS

¶ 3. In April 2002, Sullinger went over to the home of a friend to work on a truck that belonged to Joey Riles. Riles was present at the house, although he was asleep inside when Sullinger first arrived. Sullinger attempted to wake Riles several times so that Riles could provide assistance. When Riles finally came out to help, he and Sullinger argued, and eventually began to fight physically. At some *1069 point, Sullinger allegedly injured Riles's hand, and Riles allegedly threw a pipe at Sullinger. Riles then retreated to the house's porch, where Sullinger used a pipe to deliver a fatal blow to Riles's head. After assaulting Riles, Sullinger got in his vehicle and left the house. Expert testimony at trial showed that Riles died as a result of the blow. Additional facts will be related during the discussion of the issues, if necessary.

ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION OF THE ISSUES

(1) Sufficiency of the Evidence

¶ 4. In his first allegation of error, Sullinger contends that his motion for directed verdict should have been granted because the evidence presented was insufficient to sustain his conviction.

¶ 5. When the sufficiency of the evidence supporting a conviction is challenged, the crucial determination is "whether, after viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt." Dilworth v. State, 909 So.2d 731, 736(¶ 17) (Miss.2005) (citing Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 315, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979)). An appellate court should reverse and render if "the facts and inferences. `point in favor of the defendant on any element of the offense with sufficient force that reasonable [persons] could not have found beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant was guilty.'" Id. (citing Edwards v. State, 469 So.2d 68, 70 (Miss.1985)).

¶ 6. We find that the evidence here is sufficient to sustain Sullinger's conviction.[1] There was testimony that Sullinger and Riles had been arguing, and that the altercation had escalated to physical violence. Before Sullinger hit Riles, a witness testified that Sullinger said, "Do you want me to hit you, huh? Huh? Do you want to see how it feels? Do you want me to hit you?" The same witness observed Sullinger throw a pipe off the porch shortly after the blow. Sullinger also fled the scene of the crime, after stating something to the effect that Riles would "just have a bad headache." Sullinger's defense at trial was not that he had not hit Riles, but instead was that he had acted in self-defense when doing so.

¶ 7. Although Sullinger attempts to cast doubt on the credibility of several witnesses during his recitation of the facts, we note that all of these credibility issues were brought to the attention of the jury. "[We] consistently [hold] that decisions as to the weight and credibility of a witness's statement are the proper province of the jury. . . ." Doe v. Stegall, 757 So.2d 201, 205(¶ 12) (Miss.2000). Since the jury had all the information that implicated the credibility of various witnesses, we decline to substitute our judgment for that of the jury.

¶ 8. In order to find Sullinger guilty of manslaughter, the jury had to find that (1) he killed a human being, (2) without malice, (3) in the heat of passion, (4) by the use of a deadly weapon, (5) without authority of law, and (6) not in necessary self-defense. After a careful review of the *1070 record, we find that a reasonable jury could have found that all of these elements were proved. The judge did not err in denying Sullinger's motion for a directed verdict.

(2) Failure to Investigate and Preserve Exculpatory Evidence

¶ 9. In his second allegation of error, Sullinger asserts that he was denied his right to a fair trial because the State failed to fully investigate or preserve exculpatory evidence.

¶ 10. When reviewing claims that the State in a case failed to preserve evidence, a three-part test has developed in Mississippi: "(1) the evidence in question must possess an exculpatory value that was apparent before the evidence was destroyed, (2) the evidence must be of such a nature that the defendant would be unable to obtain comparable evidence by other reasonably available means, and (3) the prosecution's destruction of the evidence must have been in bad faith." Murray v. State, 849 So.2d 1281, 1286(¶ 16) (Miss.2003) (quoting State v. McGrone, 798 So.2d 519, 523(¶ 11) (Miss.2001)).

¶ 11. Although Sullinger cites case law dealing with the destruction of evidence, he then argues that "the jury, in its conviction, relied upon an incomplete investigation of the facts. . . ." We note that this is not an argument about destruction of evidence, since Sullinger does not allege that any evidence was actually destroyed, accidentally or otherwise. Sullinger claims that the failure of the State to interview witnesses denied him his right to a fair trial by causing surprise to him, because there were individuals present at the scene of the crime who were not interviewed by the State before trial, and whom the defense learned about only during cross-examination.

¶ 12. The State urges, and we agree, that there was adequate investigation by law enforcement in this case. Furthermore, we note that Sullinger provides little citation to either the record or case law when making these assertions. The only case law cited refers to destruction of evidence, which was not an issue in this case. All of the witnesses that Sullinger refers to could have easily been identified with minor effort on the part of Sullinger's attorney by interviewing the known witnesses who were on the scene. Further, the record indicates that the potential witnesses that Sullinger refers to were not present at the time of the incident; they arrived on the scene later. Thus, it is difficult to understand how these witnesses would have aided in Sullinger's defense, and he provides very little to this Court in the way of specific allegations as to how these alleged witnesses would have aided his defense.

¶ 13.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Williams v. State
964 So. 2d 541 (Court of Appeals of Mississippi, 2007)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
935 So. 2d 1067, 2006 WL 51416, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sullinger-v-state-missctapp-2006.