Jack L Wilson

Jerome Davis was convicted of attempted murder after a jury trial in Oktibbeha County Circuit Court for shooting Kalvin Young once in the upper thigh with an AR-15 during a dice game at an apartment, causing life-threatening arterial injuries that required hospitalization. Davis appealed, arguing that the evidence was insufficient to prove intent to kill and that the verdict was against the overwhelming weight of the evidence. The Mississippi Court of Appeals affirmed the conviction, holding that the State presented sufficient evidence because Davis’s words (“n****, I will bust your shit”), his retrieval of a fully loaded assault rifle, and the close-range shooting allowed a rational jury to infer intent to kill. The court further ruled that the verdict was not contrary to the overwhelming weight of the evidence, noting the jury’s access to surveillance video and witness testimony, and emphasizing that it does not reweigh evidence or reassess credibility on appeal.

criminal law

The case involved a wrongful death and personal injury lawsuit filed by the widow of a deceased U.S. airman and three injured airmen against All About Painting and Cleaning, Inc. They sought to hold the company vicariously liable for the negligence of its employee, Emmett Bennett, who struck the victims with his vehicle after ingesting kratom and fentanyl-laced oxycodone during an unpaid lunch break while returning to a painting job on Keesler Air Force Base. The Harrison County Circuit Court granted summary judgment to All About, and the Mississippi Court of Appeals affirmed. The court held that Bennett was not acting within the course and scope of his employment when the collision occurred, as he was driving his personal vehicle after an unpaid break, had performed no work-related tasks, and had violated the company’s drug policy. Under longstanding precedent, an employer is not liable for an employee’s torts while commuting to or from work, even if the employee had clocked in remotely or believed he was returning to duty.

torts & liabilitylabor & employment

Christopher Thomas, a maintenance technician at Nissan North America, injured his left shoulder on the job in 2022 while pulling a heavy pallet, underwent rotator cuff surgery, and was later assigned a 5% permanent medical impairment rating to his left arm before returning to his regular duties without restrictions. He filed a workers’ compensation claim seeking permanent partial disability benefits based on a claimed industrial loss of use exceeding that rating. The administrative judge and full Mississippi Workers’ Compensation Commission awarded benefits only for the 5% medical impairment, finding Thomas had not shown greater industrial loss. On appeal, the Mississippi Court of Appeals affirmed, holding that substantial evidence supported the Commission’s decision because Thomas continued to perform the substantial acts of his usual employment—maintaining and repairing machinery—without demotion, discipline, or loss of productivity, and because pallet-pulling was not shown to be an essential function of the job.

labor & employment

Billy Magyar filed criminal affidavits charging Emily and James Shiers with malicious mischief, claiming that sewage from a leaking septic system on Emily’s property was damaging his driveway. The justice court dismissed the charges for lack of evidence, after which the Shierses sued Magyar in circuit court for malicious prosecution. Following a bench trial, the circuit judge found Magyar liable and awarded the Shierses $81,188 in compensatory damages and $20,000 in punitive damages. On appeal, the Mississippi Court of Appeals affirmed, holding that the circuit judge did not clearly err in finding that Magyar acted without probable cause and with malice when he initiated the criminal proceedings. The court concluded that substantial evidence supported both the liability determination and the award of punitive damages.

criminal lawtorts & liability

In this Mississippi probate dispute, Melvin and Helen Brown appealed a chancery court ruling that invalidated a 2017 deed conveying Bessie Anderson’s home to them, which her godson Ronald Fitzgerald II had challenged after Bessie’s death. The Court of Appeals affirmed the decision to set aside the deed and direct that the property pass to Ronald under Bessie’s will. The court held that substantial evidence supported the chancellor’s findings that Bessie suffered from a weakness of intellect at the time of the conveyance and that the consideration Melvin provided (including an alleged oral agreement allowing Bessie to remain in the home) was grossly inadequate, making those grounds alone sufficient to void the deed.

propertyfamily law

Kent Malone-Bey, identifying as Moorish American, filed a petition in chancery court seeking an order requiring the Mississippi State Board of Health to amend his birth certificate to add his self-identified race (“white: Asiatic/Moor”) and nationality, asserting that the omission impeded his religious expression and violated due process and equal protection. The chancery court denied relief, finding it lacked authority to grant the request, and the Court of Appeals affirmed. The court held that state law and Board rules prescribe an official birth-certificate form that records only parents’ races and contains no field for a child’s race or nationality; while courts may correct errors or omissions in existing data fields under Miss. Code Ann. § 41-57-23, they cannot compel an agency to add new categories of information or perform administrative functions. The opinion further concluded that the uniform policy did not discriminate against Malone-Bey or burden his religious exercise, as the government is not constitutionally required to revise its record-keeping forms to align with an individual’s beliefs.

religious libertycivil rightsprocedure

Joseph Haynes was convicted of manslaughter following a jury trial in Hancock County Circuit Court for fatally shooting Jermaine Watts outside the Third Base Lounge in Bay St. Louis after an argument among two groups of friends over the engine in a Dodge Charger. Haynes appealed, challenging the sufficiency and weight of the evidence, the trial court’s refusal to issue an instanter warrant for an absent defense witness, and the denial of his proposed “stand-your-ground” jury instruction under Mississippi Code section 97-3-15(4). The Court of Appeals held that the trial court committed reversible error by refusing the stand-your-ground instruction, which was supported by Haynes’s testimony that Watts appeared to reach for a weapon. The court separately concluded that the State presented sufficient evidence to support the manslaughter conviction because a rational jury could credit the testimony of a prosecution witness who stated that Watts neither threatened nor assaulted Haynes before the shooting. The case was therefore reversed and remanded for a new trial.

criminal lawgunsprocedure

Richard Gibson was convicted of first-degree murder after a jury trial in Franklin County Circuit Court for shooting and killing his brother-in-law Billy Brown during an argument over missing bullets at Gibson’s home. On appeal, Gibson claimed the trial court plainly erred by permitting his wife KaToya to testify against him and that the verdict was contrary to the overwhelming weight of the evidence. The Mississippi Court of Appeals affirmed the conviction and life sentence. The court held that Mississippi Rule of Evidence 601 permits a spouse to testify in such cases and that the evidence—including security video, eyewitness accounts of the altercation, and Gibson’s own statements—supported the jury’s rejection of his self-defense claim.

criminal lawfamily lawprocedure

In 1996, Fredrick Jones was convicted after a jury trial of two counts of aggravated assault and sentenced to consecutive life terms as a violent habitual offender; his direct appeal was affirmed, and the Mississippi Supreme Court later denied one post-conviction relief (PCR) application and dismissed another. In 2023, Jones filed a “Motion on Sentencing Relief” in the Coahoma County Circuit Court that was treated as a PCR motion, but the trial court dismissed it for lack of jurisdiction because Jones had not first obtained permission from the Supreme Court. The Court of Appeals affirmed that dismissal. Mississippi Code Annotated section 99-39-7 requires a prisoner whose conviction has been affirmed on appeal to obtain Supreme Court leave before filing a PCR motion in the trial court, and this permission requirement is jurisdictional rather than merely procedural. Because Jones had not received such permission, the trial court correctly concluded it had no authority to consider the motion.

criminal lawprocedure

The Mississippi Court of Appeals addressed Jimmie Gardner’s appeal from his convictions for cocaine possession and felony evasion, which arose from a 2016 police chase in Ridgeland during which officers recovered a small amount of cocaine and items linking Gardner to the vehicle. Gardner challenged the admission of his prior convictions for impeachment, the sufficiency of the evidence on the drug count, a flight instruction, and his sentencing as a habitual offender. The court held that the trial judge committed reversible error by admitting the prior convictions under Mississippi Rule of Evidence 609 without properly applying the balancing test from Peterson v. State, but found the evidence sufficient to support the cocaine-possession conviction. It therefore reversed both convictions and remanded the case for a new trial without addressing the remaining issues.

criminal lawprocedure

Tyrice Lucas was indicted for burglary of a dwelling after an incident in which he allegedly broke into his cousin’s apartment and caused damage. Over his objection, the trial court instructed the jury on felony malicious mischief as a lesser offense; the jury acquitted him of burglary but convicted him of malicious mischief, resulting in a five-year sentence. The Court of Appeals reversed the conviction and vacated the sentence. It held that malicious mischief is not a lesser-included offense of burglary of a dwelling, because burglary requires only proof of intent to commit the underlying crime and is complete upon entry, whereas malicious mischief requires proof of actual damage. The court explained that the intended crime is therefore a lesser-non-included offense that cannot support a conviction unless separately charged in the indictment.

criminal law

Noah Booth was convicted by a jury of second-degree murder for fatally shooting William Myers during a 2019 incident in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and sentenced to forty years in prison. Booth appealed, and his appointed counsel filed a Lindsey brief stating that a thorough review of the record revealed no arguable issues for appellate review; Booth did not submit a pro se supplemental brief. The Mississippi Court of Appeals conducted its own independent examination of the trial proceedings, evidence, and procedural history, found no arguable issues, and affirmed the conviction and sentence.

criminal law

Lindin Ellzey was convicted after a jury trial in Jones County Circuit Court on three counts of fondling his stepdaughter, based on evidence that the abuse occurred repeatedly over several years when the victim was between ages eight and twelve. On appeal, Ellzey raised twelve issues, primarily challenging the indictment’s five-year date range as overly broad, along with claims of unaddressed juror misconduct, improper limits on cross-examination, erroneous admission of counseling records and other evidence, improper vouching by witnesses, an improper closing argument, ineffective assistance of counsel, and cumulative error. The Mississippi Court of Appeals affirmed the convictions, holding that the indictment sufficiently informed Ellzey of the charges under the circumstances and that none of the other alleged trial errors required reversal. The court emphasized that Mississippi precedent permits reasonably broad date ranges in child sexual abuse cases when the state cannot practicably narrow them further, and it found no abuse of discretion or prejudice in the trial court’s evidentiary and procedural rulings.

criminal lawprocedure

Christopher Randall was convicted by a jury in Adams County Circuit Court of first-degree murder for fatally shooting Christopher White and aggravated assault for shooting his ex-girlfriend Larhonda Ware, after an incident outside Ware’s mother’s home in 2019. He received consecutive sentences of life imprisonment for murder, twenty years for aggravated assault, and a five-year firearm enhancement. On appeal, Randall argued that the trial court wrongly excluded White’s postmortem toxicology report and improperly applied the firearm enhancement under Mississippi Code § 97-37-37(1). The Court of Appeals affirmed the convictions and sentences, holding that any error in the enhancement applied only to the murder count while it was properly added to the aggravated assault sentence, and finding no reversible error in the evidentiary ruling on the toxicology report.

criminal lawgunsprocedure

William Howard Jr. sued the estate of John Carpenter Nelson Jr. in Forrest County Chancery Court, seeking specific performance of an alleged oral agreement to exchange parcels of land; Howard claimed he had relied on Nelson’s promise by hiring a lawyer, obtaining surveys, and taking other preparatory steps before Nelson died in 2022, after which the estate refused to proceed. The estate moved to dismiss under Rule 12(b)(6), arguing the oral contract was unenforceable under the statute of frauds, which requires land-sale agreements to be in writing. The trial court granted the motion, and the Court of Appeals affirmed. The court held that although equitable estoppel can sometimes overcome the statute of frauds, Howard’s complaint alleged only routine transaction preparations without exceptional circumstances, fraud, or the kind of detrimental reliance that would make enforcement the only fair remedy, as required by precedent such as Powell v. Campbell.

propertyprocedure

Richard Simmons was convicted of second-degree murder after a jury trial in Neshoba County Circuit Court for fatally shooting Willie Latimer on July 31, 2021. On appeal, Simmons argued that the trial court gave an improper jury instruction on self-defense and that the evidence was insufficient to support the conviction because it did not adequately prove Latimer’s cause of death. The Mississippi Court of Appeals affirmed the conviction, finding no abuse of discretion in the self-defense instruction and holding that the evidence was sufficient. Testimony established that Latimer suffered critical gunshot wounds with no other contributing conditions, was airlifted in grave condition, and died later that night, allowing a rational jury to conclude the wounds caused his death.

criminal law

In 2014, Undra Ward pled guilty to second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit armed robbery and received consecutive sentences of forty and five years. Nearly eight years later, he filed a post-conviction relief motion claiming his plea was involuntary and his counsel ineffective because he had been misadvised that he would be eligible for trusty time and early release after serving half his sentence. The circuit court denied the motion as untimely under the three-year statute of limitations in the Uniform Post-Conviction Collateral Relief Act. The Court of Appeals affirmed, holding that the filing was well outside the limitations period and that no exception applied. The court rejected Ward’s reliance on Ulmer v. State as an intervening decision, noting it was not issued by a higher court and merely applied longstanding precedent on plea misinformation, and found his arguments about due process and COVID-related tolling unavailing because the clock began at the entry of his 2014 judgment.

criminal lawprocedure

Michael Fox sued Allen Automotive and the property owner after injuring his leg, knee, and back by stepping into a deep but narrow hole next to the dealership’s driveway while walking his dog on the grass during a service visit. The circuit court granted summary judgment to the defendants, holding that Fox had exceeded the scope of his invitation, became a trespasser (or at most a licensee), and that Allen owed him no duty beyond refraining from willful or wanton injury. The Court of Appeals reversed, ruling that Fox remained an invitee because the dealership welcomed customers’ dogs on its green space, had no signs or barriers prohibiting the area where he walked, and the hole was only a few feet from the customer driveway on regularly mowed property. The court found a genuine issue of material fact as to whether Allen had constructive knowledge of the hazardous condition that had likely existed for months, which would mean it breached the duty owed to an invitee to maintain the premises in a reasonably safe condition and to warn of dangers. The case was therefore remanded for further proceedings.

propertyproceduretorts & liability

In 2018, Alphonso Miller pled guilty in Mississippi circuit court to being a felon in possession of a weapon and received a suspended ten-year sentence that included five years of post-release supervision followed by five years of unsupervised probation. After Miller’s 2022 guilty plea to selling methamphetamine violated the terms of his supervision, the court revoked the supervision and ordered him to serve the full ten-year term; Miller then filed a post-conviction relief motion claiming the original sentence was illegal because the total probation period exceeded five years. The circuit court dismissed the motion as untimely under the three-year statute of limitations in the Uniform Post-Conviction Collateral Relief Act. On appeal, Miller argued that an alleged violation of fundamental constitutional rights created an exception to the time bar, but the Court of Appeals rejected that claim, relying on the Mississippi Supreme Court’s holding in Howell v. State that no such exception exists for the statutory deadline. The Court of Appeals therefore affirmed the dismissal.

criminal lawprocedure

The case involves post-divorce disputes between Benjamin Shane Fortner and Pamela Mae (Weeks) Fortner Bratcher over child visitation, contempt, and reporting of abuse allegations. After their 2018 divorce, in which Pam received physical custody and Shane received four weeks of summer visitation, the parties filed multiple petitions alleging interference, false CPS reports, and other issues, leading the chancellor to appoint a guardian ad litem, hold Shane in contempt, deny his request for expanded visitation, and require both parties to contact local law enforcement before reporting suspicions of abuse or neglect to CPS. On appeal, the Mississippi Court of Appeals affirmed the chancellor's rulings in full. The court found no abuse of discretion in the contempt finding or visitation decision based on the evidence of the parties' conduct and the child's circumstances, and it upheld the CPS reporting order because the provision did not bar reports to CPS but only required prior consultation with law enforcement, which was reasonable given the history of unsubstantiated allegations.

family law