William Michael Jordan v. State of Mississippi

212 So. 3d 836, 2015 Miss. App. LEXIS 655
CourtCourt of Appeals of Mississippi
DecidedDecember 8, 2015
Docket2014-KA-00615-COA
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 212 So. 3d 836 (William Michael Jordan v. State of Mississippi) 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
William Michael Jordan v. State of Mississippi, 212 So. 3d 836, 2015 Miss. App. LEXIS 655 (Mich. Ct. App. 2015).

Opinions

MAXWELL, J.,

for the Court:

¶ 1, Evidence that a criminal defendant attempted to intimidate a witness into not testifying against him is an incriminating circumstance, tending to show a guilty conscience.1 For this reason, we find no error in the trial court admitting evidence that William Jordan and his codefendant, Charles Henderson, threatened the two eyewitnesses to Jordan’s murder of Aaron [839]*839Coleman by participating in a rap video about killing snitches-a video published on YouTube after the two witnesses had implicated Jordan and Henderson but before Jordan’s trial commenced.

¶ 2. Nor do we find any error in the trial court’s refusal, at the end of trial, to give a cautionary instruction about accomplice testimony. The two eyewitnesses had been charged as accessories after the fact, not accomplices. So no accomplice instruction was required. The jury was instead permitted to weigh their credibility against Jordan’s and other defense witnesses’ as they saw fit. The jury did just that and, after deliberating, found Jordan guilty of depraved-heart murder and felon in possession of a firearm.

¶ 3. Because this verdict was supported by sufficient evidence and was not against the overwhelming weight of the evidence, we affirm Jordan’s conviction and sentence.

Background Facts and Procedural History

I. Investigation

¶ 4. Late in February 2012, Coleman’s mother reported him missing. Coleman’s car was soon found outside of Meridian. But several more days passed before Coleman’s body was discovered in the woods near Interstate 20.

¶ 5. Coleman was last seen alive on February 27 at Jordan’s house. When questioned, Jordan confirmed Coleman had stopped by that day. But Jordan told the Meridian Police that Coleman had only stayed a few minutes. After that, Jordan supposedly never saw him again. Charlie Henderson and Bobby Baker—longtime friends of both Coleman and Jordan—had also been at Jordan’s house that evening. And they gave similar stories to the police.

¶ 6. The police were told they should also question JaMichael Smith, because he had been at Jordan’s house that night too. But Smith quickly left Meridian late that night on a Greyhound bus headed for Michigan. A year later, Smith was extradited from Michigan to Mississippi, where he finally told the police his version of what happened.

A. Smith’s Account

¶ 7. While Smith had grown up in Meridian, he moved to Michigan when he was seventeen. For five years he stayed away. But he returned to Meridian in February 2012 for his grandfather’s funeral. He ended up at Jordan’s house on February 27, drinking and smoking marijuana. According to Smith, everyone seemed to be having a good time when Jordan went to his bedroom and retrieved a shotgun. Jordan returned to the living room, where both Henderson and Coleman were. Jordan began waving the gun around. Smith got nervous, so he went into the kitchen. Smith heard the gun go off. He saw Coleman bent over in the corner of the living room. Smith ran out the back door of Jordan’s house and took the first bus out of town.

B. Baker’s Account

¶ 8. Once Smith was in custody in Mississippi, Baker came forward too. He admitted he had initially lied to investigators when he denied knowing what happened to Coleman. The truth, according to Baker, was that he too was in Jordan’s living room, drinking and smoking marijuana, when Jordan shot Coleman.

¶ 9. Coleman claimed he had received a phone call from his mother, saying it was time to come home. Henderson started teasing Coleman about having a curfew. This is when Jordan retrieved the shotgun. Like Smith, Baker was worried about the gun, so he kept his eyes on Jordan. He saw the gun go off, Henderson lunge, and [840]*840Coleman—-who was standing right behind Henderson—get shot in the stomach.

¶ 10. Coleman fell over, but he was still breathing. Baker wanted to call for an ambulance. But Jordan pointed the gun at him and told him to stop. Baker tried to reason with Jordan, saying everyone would see it was an accident and that Jordan did not know the gun was loaded. So with Coleman still alive, Baker started to call 911. But Henderson told him to hang up. Baker saw Smith run out the back door.

¶ 11. About ten minutes went by. Coleman was still alive, and Jordan and Henderson were trying to figure out what to do. They finally told Baker to help them load Coleman into the back of Jordan’s Honda. Baker got into the backseat with Coleman. Jordan and Henderson stayed outside the car, further devising a plan. Another five minutes passed. And Coleman suddenly stopped breathing and his whole body stopped moving. Henderson opened the door and saw that Coleman had died.

¶ 12. At this point, Jordan’s live-in girlfriend pulled up in her car. Henderson quickly shut the car door to conceal Coleman’s body. Jordan followed his girlfriend into his house for a few minutes, while Henderson rifled through Coleman’s pockets and found his keys. Baker testified that Henderson then pulled out a pah- of gloves. When Jordan exited his house again, Jordan got into the driver’s seat of his car. Henderson, gloves on, then took Coleman’s keys and got into Coleman’s car. The two cars started driving around Meridian. The whole time Jordan and Henderson were on their cell phones fay-ing to figure out what to do. Jordan eventually turned onto 1-20 but ran out of gas. He veered over to the shoulder and waited for Henderson to bring him more fuel.

¶ 13. When Henderson pulled up behind them with a gas can fifteen minutes later, he was surprised Coleman’s body was still in the backseat. Baker and Jordan then lifted the body out of the car and rolled it down an embankment, where it was found days later. The two cars then drove off down the interstate. They took a nearby exit, where they dumped Coleman’s car.

¶ 14. The three then drove to Henderson’s house in Jordan’s car. There, a fourth man came out with a metal barrel and started a fire. Baker testified he, Jordan, and Henderson threw their clothes into the fire, along with Coleman’s cell phone and wallet.

C. Indictment

¶ 15. Jordan was indicted for second-degree murder. See Miss.Code Ann. § 97—3—19(1)(b) (Rev.2014). He was also charged with felon in possession of a firearm. See Miss.Code Ann. § 97-37-5 (Rev. 2014).

¶ 16. Henderson and Baker were indicted as accessories after the fact to the murder, for their role in dumping Coleman’s body. Smith too was indicted as an accessory after the fact, because he knew Jordan had killed Coleman but did not come forward until almost a year later. See Miss.Code Ann. § 97-1-5 (Rev.2014) (punishing “[e]very person ... convicted of having concealed, received, or relieved any felon, or having aided or assisted any felon, knowing that the person had committed a felony, with intent to enable the felon to escape or to avoid arrest, trial, conviction or punishment after the commission of the felony”).

II. Trial

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211 So. 3d 761 (Court of Appeals of Mississippi, 2016)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
212 So. 3d 836, 2015 Miss. App. LEXIS 655, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/william-michael-jordan-v-state-of-mississippi-missctapp-2015.