Jamyrian Quinn was convicted of second-degree murder after shooting and killing Courtney Todd during an altercation at a Mississippi gas station parking lot in 2019, where surveillance footage and witnesses showed Quinn punching Todd, pulling a gun, ordering him to the ground, and firing the fatal shot to the neck while Todd was on his knees with his hands raised. Quinn appealed, arguing that the trial court erred by excluding testimony from his uncle as a sanction for a discovery violation and by barring additional evidence of Todd’s alleged violent character that he claimed supported his self-defense theory. The Mississippi Court of Appeals affirmed the conviction and sentence, finding no abuse of discretion in the exclusions. The court held that the uncle’s late disclosure justified exclusion and that the character evidence was either irrelevant or harmless because Quinn and another witness had already testified extensively about Todd’s prior threats and violence, allowing Quinn to present his state of mind to the jury.
Daniel Ladner, a house framer working for a subcontractor on a Hinton Homes project, fell from a roof and sustained head and back injuries; a hospital urine test was positive for marijuana. His workers’ compensation claim was denied by an administrative judge and the Mississippi Workers’ Compensation Commission, which applied the presumption in Mississippi Code section 71-3-121(1) that intoxication was the proximate cause of the injury. On appeal, the Court of Appeals affirmed, finding the Commission’s decision supported by substantial evidence because Ladner offered no medical testimony, further testing, or other proof to show that his marijuana use was not a contributing cause. The court also noted that the 2012 statutory amendments eliminated any prior rule requiring liberal construction in favor of claimants.
Allen Nicolaou was convicted of murdering his cellmate while in jail and sentenced as a nonviolent habitual offender to life imprisonment without parole, based on prior convictions; after his direct appeal was affirmed, he filed multiple post-conviction relief (PCR) motions challenging the habitual offender enhancement under Mississippi Code § 99-19-81. In this case, the Hancock County Circuit Court denied his latest PCR motion as successive. The Court of Appeals vacated that denial and instead dismissed the motion for lack of jurisdiction. The court reasoned that, under Mississippi Code § 99-39-7, Nicolaou was required to first obtain permission from the Mississippi Supreme Court to file a PCR motion in the trial court after his conviction and sentence had been affirmed on appeal, but he had not done so, leaving the circuit court without authority to adjudicate the motion.
Jesse Sandlin, a Tennessee resident, sued State Farm in DeSoto County Circuit Court for uninsured motorist benefits after a 2019 car accident in Mississippi involving an allegedly uninsured driver. State Farm moved to dismiss for insufficient process and service of process under Mississippi Rule of Civil Procedure 4, arguing that Sandlin’s certified-mail attempts to various addresses, including a claims specialist, corporate headquarters, and the registered agent, failed to comply with service requirements. The circuit court granted the motion, dismissed the complaint with prejudice, and later denied reconsideration, finding that proper service had not been effected and the three-year statute of limitations had expired. The Court of Appeals affirmed, holding that the attempted services were defective because they lacked properly issued summonses directed to the correct parties and did not follow the rules for serving a foreign insurer. The court further noted that even late efforts could not revive the claim once the limitations period had run.
In July 2023, a Warren County jury convicted Ray Jordan of shooting into a dwelling after he fired a gun into the home he shared with his wife in June 2022, though the jury acquitted him of aggravated assault and could not reach a verdict on an aggravated domestic violence charge. The trial court sentenced him to ten years in custody, with one year suspended and nine years to serve, plus one year of post-release supervision. Jordan appealed, and his appointed counsel filed a brief under Lindsey v. State stating that no arguable issues existed for appeal; Jordan did not file a pro se supplemental brief. After an independent review of the record, the Mississippi Court of Appeals found sufficient evidence to support the conviction and no arguable issues warranting reversal. The court therefore affirmed Jordan’s conviction and sentence.
The case involved the Estate of Alton Boleware suing Brenda McPhail and PriorityOne Bank for claims including conversion, fraud, and breach of fiduciary duty, alleging that McPhail had improperly withdrawn and used funds from a joint bank account created after Boleware’s sister’s death. The Covington County Circuit Court granted the bank’s motion to stay the litigation and compel arbitration under a Deposit Account Agreement containing an arbitration addendum that Boleware had signed, finding the agreement valid and the claims covered. On appeal, the Mississippi Court of Appeals affirmed the order as modified, holding that the Estate failed to prove defenses such as lack of mental capacity, undue influence, or fraud that would invalidate the arbitration provision, and that McPhail was a signatory party to the agreement rather than a third-party beneficiary. The court clarified that, under the terms of the addendum, an arbitrator rather than a court must determine whether the specific claims fall within its scope.