Washington v. State

154 So. 3d 34, 2012 WL 5908605, 2012 Miss. App. LEXIS 729
CourtCourt of Appeals of Mississippi
DecidedNovember 27, 2012
DocketNo. 2011-CP-01397-COA
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 154 So. 3d 34 (Washington 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
Washington v. State, 154 So. 3d 34, 2012 WL 5908605, 2012 Miss. App. LEXIS 729 (Mich. Ct. App. 2012).

Opinion

CARLTON, J.,

for the Court:

¶ 1. Johnny Lewis Washington appeals the judgment of the Lowndes County Circuit Court, which dismissed in part and denied in part his motion for post-conviction relief (PCR). The circuit, court dismissed without prejudice the portion of Washington’s PCR motion pertaining to the computation of his- time served. The circuit court then treated Washington’s remaining claims as claims for post-conviction relief and denied the claims as time-barred under Mississippi Code Annotated section 99-39-5 (Supp.2012). On appeal, Washington argues that the circuit court erred by (1) ruling on his PCR motions as one motion, and (2) finding his claims time-barred.1 Finding no error, we affirm.

FACTS

¶2. Washington’s underlying conviction of capital murder was affirmed on direct appeal by the Mississippi Supreme Court in Washington v. State, 361 So.2d 61, 63-64 (Miss.1978). In affirming Washington’s conviction, the supreme court set forth the operative facts of this case:

[36]*36Woods Quick Pick, a Columbus, Mississippi! ] convenience store, was robbed on the night of March 26, 1977, by two men armed with shotguns and wearing stocking masks. During the robbery, one of the bandits, later identified as Johnny Lewis Washington, at close range shot J.K. Woods, the proprietor of the store, in the stomach with a long-barrel shotgun loaded with buckshot. Woods died about five hours later in a Columbus hospital.
Booker T. Cole, Jr. testified that between 7:30 and 8:00 [p.m.] on March 26, 1977, Johnny Washington contacted him and told him to come by his house because “he had something up[.”] Some time later, when Cole arrived at Washington’s house, the defendant told Cole that they were going to rob a Quick Pick. Washington provided Cole with a stocking mask and a sawed-off shotgun, and they took up their station across the street from Woods Quick Pick. After assembling and loading their shotguns, when the coast was clear they ran across the street and into Woods Quick Pick store. J.K. Woods, owner of the store, Roy Thompson, an employee, and a female employee, Elouise Clark, were in the store.
Cole and Washington pointed their shotguns at Woods and Thompson, and told them to open the cash registers and “give us the money[.”] Thompson began to put the money from the first cash -register into a brown paper sack. Cole, the smaller and younger of the two robbers, found a bank sack of money in a cabinet drawer, and he fled with that sack.
Washington, in the meantime, ordered Woods to put the money from the second cash register into the same paper sack that Thompson had put the money from the first cash register. Woods misunderstood and reached for another paper sack, whereupon, according to the testimony of Thompson, Washington hit Woods over the head with the gun barrel “just as hard as he eould[.”] In falling, Woods knocked Thompson’s sack of money off on the floor. Thompson told Washington that Woods had been drinking and to let him sack the money. Washington told Thompson not to move and placed the shotgun about 8 inches from Thompson’s head. Woods went ahead and picked up the sack and sacked the money from the second cash register.
As Woods handed Washington the sack in one hand, he reached for the gun barrel with the other, but missed, and Washington kept the gun on Woods as he, Washington, backed toward the door. Woods moved very slowly toward Washington. Just before he left, Washington fired his shotgun into Woods’[s] stomach. Washington reloaded his shotgun and left. Thompson testified that Washington and Woods were about 10 feet apart when Washington fired, and that Washington could very easily have made his exit with his sack of money without shooting Woods.
Cole testified that he was a short distance away when he heard the shot, and Washington came running out of the store telling Cole that he had shot Woods. Cole testified that later that night, about 12:30 or 1:00 [a.m.], they got together and divided the money (about $600) between them.
Washington’s defense was that he was at a party, was not at Woods Quick Pick, did not commit the robbery, nor did he kill Woods. Several people at the party testified that Washington did not arrive there until around midnight, and no witness testified that Washington was there from 10:00 to 10:30 [p.m.] [37]*37Ben Hodo of Ethelsville, Alabama, was visiting his grandmother in Columbus, Mississippi, on the night of the robbery. He testified that around 10:00 [p.m.], as he was going down to Lee’s Restaurant to get something to eat, he saw a man in an alley next to Woods Quick Pick with a long gun and a sack of money. Hodo testified that he and the man with the long gun looked at each other about 10 seconds and that they were close together. He positively identified Washington as the one he saw in the alley with the sack of money and long gun.

Id. at 63-64.

¶ 3. On May 10, 1977, a Lowndes County grand jury indicted Washington for the capital murder of J.K. Woods in Lowndes County cause number 5859.2 A jury subsequently convicted Washington of capital murder, and he was sentenced to death. The Mississippi Supreme Court affirmed Washington’s conviction and sentence on July 12, 1978. See Washington v. State, 361 So.2d 61 (Miss.1978). On February 25, 1983, in response to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit’s mandate in Washington v. Watkins, 655 F.2d 1346 (5th Cir. Unit A Sept.1981),3 the circuit court resentenced Washington to life imprisonment in the custody of the Mississippi Department Of Corrections (MDOC) for the crime of capital murder.

¶4. On that same day, February 25, 1983, a Lowndes County grand jury indicted Washington for the armed robbery of Roy Thompson in Lowndes County cause number 7925.4 Washington pled guilty to armed robbery and received a forty-year consecutive sentence in the custody of the MDOC. Washington was also indicted for the aggravated assault of Elouise Clark in Lowndes County cause number 7926.5 Washington pled guilty to the crime of aggravated assault, and the circuit court sentenced him to a consecutive sentence of twenty years in the custody of the MDOC.

¶ 5. On July 19, 2011, Washington filed a PCR motion challenging his conviction in cause number 7926 (aggravated assault). [38]*38Then, on July 29, 2011, Washington filed a PCR motion challenging his conviction in cause number 7925 (armed robbery). On August 26, 2011, the circuit court entered an order dismissing in part and denying in part Washington’s claims in cause number 7926. Specifically, the circuit court’s order states:

Came on to be heard this day the above styled and numbered post[-]eonviction matter on Motion for Post[-]Conviction Relief filed by the Petitioner herein on July 19, 2011, concerning Petitioner’s criminal case, Lowndes County Criminal Cause Number 5859, in which the Petitioner pled guilty and was sentenced February 25,1983.

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Related

Johnny Lewis Washington v. State of Mississippi
158 So. 3d 1246 (Court of Appeals of Mississippi, 2015)

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Bluebook (online)
154 So. 3d 34, 2012 WL 5908605, 2012 Miss. App. LEXIS 729, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/washington-v-state-missctapp-2012.