Wortham v. State

883 So. 2d 599, 2004 WL 1516521
CourtCourt of Appeals of Mississippi
DecidedJune 29, 2004
Docket2002-KA-02135-COA
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 883 So. 2d 599 (Wortham 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
Wortham v. State, 883 So. 2d 599, 2004 WL 1516521 (Mich. Ct. App. 2004).

Opinion

883 So.2d 599 (2004)

William Lee (Willie) WORTHAM, Appellant
v.
STATE of Mississippi, Appellee.

No. 2002-KA-02135-COA.

Court of Appeals of Mississippi.

June 29, 2004.
Rehearing Denied October 5, 2004.

*601 Mack A. Bethea, Gulfport, attorney for appellant.

Office of the Attorney General by Jean Smith Vaughan, attorney for appellee.

EN BANC.

MYERS, J., for the Court.

¶ 1. William Lee (Willie) Wortham was indicted for the murders of his wife, Shirley Wortham, and her son, Lavon Buckhalter. Wortham was tried by a jury in the Circuit Court of Stone County. He was convicted on both counts and sentenced to life imprisonment. From that conviction, he appeals and raises the following issues:

I. DID THE TRIAL COURT ERR IN DENYING WORTHAM'S MOTION FOR A DIRECTED VERDICT?

II. WAS THE JURY PROPERLY INSTRUCTED WITH REGARD TO THE ELEMENT OF DELIBERATE DESIGN?

III. DID THE TRIAL COURT ERR IN REFUSING WORTHAM'S PROFFERED MANSLAUGHTER INSTRUCTIONS?

IV. DID THE TRIAL COURT ERR IN REFUSING WORTHAM'S PROFFERED CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE INSTRUCTION?

V. DID THE TRIAL COURT ERR IN PROHIBITING WORTHAM FROM EXAMINING THE CHIEF INVESTIGATOR CONCERNING HIS POSSIBLE MOTIVE FOR SECURING A CONVICTION?

STATEMENT OF FACTS

¶ 2. Sometime after midnight on July 5, 2001, Willie Wortham knocked on the door of a house located on Lawton Road in Saucier, Mississippi. Shon Davis answered the door and knew Wortham because he used to be married to her aunt and the couple previously lived nearby. Wortham asked Shon to wake up her *602 mother so she did. Davis testified that Wortham had blood on him and told her that he had killed his wife and son. Davis asked Wortham how he knew they were dead and Wortham said, "I made sure that they were dead. I cut their throats."

¶ 3. Shirley Summitt testified that Wortham used to be married to her sister. Summitt testified that Wortham knocked on her door the same night and asked for money, gas, and clothes. Summitt asked Wortham what was wrong and he said, "I done killed Shirley and her son." Like Davis, Summitt also asked Wortham how he knew they were dead. Summitt testified that Wortham then stated, "I made sure them m____f____s were both dead." Summitt gave Wortham twenty dollars, a pair of pants, and told him to leave. Summitt then called her brother who lived nearby and asked him to come over.

¶ 4. When Summitt's brother arrived, Wortham was still on the property so they called the Harrison County Sheriff's Department. Wortham was arrested, given Miranda warnings, and placed in a patrol car without incident. Deputy Jay McKnight testified that as Wortham and he were walking to the patrol car Wortham stated, "She messed me up. I gave money to pay bills and she messed me up. Nobody messes me up."

¶ 5. Shortly thereafter, Lieutenant Jason Buxton of the Wiggins Police Department received a dispatch from the Harrison County Sheriff's Department informing him that they had a man named Willie Wortham in their custody who was suspected of murdering his wife and step-child. As a result, Buxton and two other police officers responded to a mobile home located at 1023 Martin Luther King Drive in Wiggins.

¶ 6. Upon arriving, two officers surrounded the mobile home while Buxton knocked on the front door. There was no response so Buxton opened the door and announced that he was an officer with the Wiggins Police Department. Again, there was no response. Buxton testified that there were items scattered along the floor in the hallway of the trailer and it appeared that there had been a struggle. Buxton also testified that he noticed a person's legs lying in the doorway of the east bedroom of the mobile home.

¶ 7. Buxton went into the bedroom and noticed a female adult and a male child lying on the floor. Buxton testified that the victims were covered in blood, were not breathing, and had no pulse. Buxton also testified that there was blood all over the room. At that point, all three officers exited the residence and roped off the mobile home with crime scene tape. Buxton then called the dispatcher at the Wiggins Police Department and asked her to inform the police chief, investigator, and ambulance service. No search was conducted at the residence at that time. The victims were later identified as thirty-four year old Shirley Wortham and eleven year old Lavon Buckhalter.

¶ 8. Buddy Bell, the investigator for the Wiggins Police Department, arrived at the scene and Buxton informed him of the situation. The two men then traveled to Lawton Road in Saucier where the Harrison County deputies had Wortham in custody. When Buxton and Bell arrived, Wortham was in the back seat of a patrol car. Bell removed Wortham from the patrol car and read Wortham his Miranda rights. Bell testified that Wortham acknowledged that he understood his rights and then told Bell that he had killed his wife.

¶ 9. The Harrison County deputies informed Bell that they found a car nearby that was registered to Shirley Wortham. *603 Although there was no search of the car at that time, Bell testified that he could see blood on the driver's seat, driver's door, and steering wheel. Apparently, Wortham was in route to Mobile, Alabama when he ran out of gas in Saucier. Bell then collected four pieces of bloody clothing found along the road between Shirley Wortham's car and Summitt's house. Bell testified that Wortham later told him that he discarded a knife somewhere between Wiggins and Saucier. Despite a three day search of the area, no murder weapon was ever found.

¶ 10. At trial, the State tendered Dr. Paul McGarry as an expert. Dr. McGarry is a forensic pathologist and performed the autopsies of both victims. Dr. McGarry testified that Shirley Wortham had been stabbed twenty-nine times. Dr. McGarry stated that several of the wounds were four and-a-half inches deep and penetrated her heart, pancreas, both lungs, and the tissue of her upper abdomen. Dr. McGarry also stated that Shirley Wortham had wounds on her hands and arms. Dr. McGarry testified that wounds of this type are inflicted when the arms are put in front of the body in a defensive posture. Dr. McGarry testified that Shirley Wortham died from massive blood loss.

¶ 11. Dr. McGarry testified Lavon Buckhalter was stabbed twenty-seven times with many of the wounds penetrating his vital organs. Like his mother, Buckhalter also had defensive wounds on his hands and arms. Dr. McGarry testified that Buckhalter died from massive blood loss due to deep stab wounds in his heart and lungs.

¶ 12. After the State rested, Wortham moved for a directed verdict. The trial judge denied this motion and Wortham chose not to testify. After instructions and deliberations, the jury returned guilty verdicts on both counts. Wortham received two life sentences to be served consecutively in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections. Wortham's post-trial motion was denied, and as a result, he filed a notice of appeal. Finding no error, we affirm for reasons set out below.

LEGAL ANALYSIS

I. DID THE TRIAL COURT ERR IN DENYING WORTHAM'S MOTION FOR A DIRECTED VERDICT?

¶ 13. Wortham argues that the State's evidence was insufficient because it failed to prove that he acted with deliberate design. Wortham also argues that the evidence was insufficient because there was no eyewitness, no lab analysis on the blood, no confession, and no murder weapon.

¶ 14. When someone challenges the sufficiency of evidence on appeal, our standard of review is well settled.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
883 So. 2d 599, 2004 WL 1516521, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wortham-v-state-missctapp-2004.