Edwards v. State

379 So.3d 906

Ernest EDWARDS a/k/a Ernest James Edwards, Appellant

v.STATE of Mississippi, Appellee

NO. 2022-KA-00719-COA

Court of Appeals of Mississippi.

01/23/2024

LAFAYETTE COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT, HON. ANDREW K. HOWORTH, JUDGE

ATTORNEY FOR APPELLANT: OFFICE OF STATE PUBLIC DEFENDER BY: GEORGE T. HOLMES, Jackson

ATTORNEY FOR APPELLEE: OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL BY: LAUREN GABRIELLE CANTRELL

BEFORE WILSON, P.J., McDONALD AND LAWRENCE, JJ.

WILSON, P.J., FOR THE COURT:

¶1. Following a jury trial, Ernest Edwards was convicted of the attempted capital murder of Chancery Court Judge Charles Smith. During the trial, the court overruled Edwards’s objections to testimony from two law enforcement officers regarding information they had received during the course of their investigation. Edwards argues that the testimony was hearsay and violated his right to confront the witnesses against him. However, the testimony was offered to explain law enforcement’s next steps in the investigation, not to prove the truth of the matter asserted. Therefore, the statements were not hearsay, the officers’ testimony did not violate Edwards’s right of confrontation, and the trial court did not abuse its discretion by overruling Edwards’s objections. We find no reversible error and affirm.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

¶2. On March 16, 2020, around 7:15 a.m., Judge Charles Smith parked in his assigned space outside the Lauderdale County Courthouse, exited his truck, and walked toward the building. Suddenly, Judge Smith was shot in the hip. Judge Smith "nearly bled to death," but first responders quickly rendered aid to him, likely saving his life. The surgeon who performed emergency surgery on Judge Smith testified that bullet fragments being spread over a large area of his pelvis and the entry and exit wounds were consistent with him having been shot by a high-powered rifle.

¶3. There were no eyewitnesses to the shooting, and the only physical evidence recovered was the single .30-06 projectile that had wounded Judge Smith. Testing later confirmed the presence of Judge Smith’s DNA on the projectile.

¶4. Mississippi Bureau of Investigation (MBI) Agent Bradley Edmondson testified that he suspected that the shot had been fired from a nearby abandoned building based on the direction from which Judge Smith appeared to have been shot. In a broken-out window of the building, Edmondson found bricks stacked in a way that "look[ed] like something that you would do to steady a rifle." The window provided an "unobstructed view" of the place where Judge Smith was shot approximately 130 to 140 yards away.

¶5. Edmondson also learned that on the morning of the shooting, "postal workers" had complained that a gold or tan car was blocking the entrance to the lot where their mail trucks were parked. Edmondson learned that the postal workers first saw the car around 3:30 a.m. and saw it again around 6:00 a.m. when they returned to the post office. This was significant to Edmondson because the location was "right next to the abandoned building."

¶6. With no clear leads, law enforcement reviewed Judge Smith’s court docket for potential suspects or leads. They identified and interviewed a number of persons of interest but uncovered no new leads, and the case became "cold."

¶7. In January 2021, Edmondson learned that Anthony Evans, an inmate in the Lauderdale County jail, claimed that he had information about Judge Smith’s shooting. Evans was in jail due to multiple felony charges and a probation hold. Edmondson was unavailable at the time, so another MBI agent and Major Charles Pickett of the Lauderdale County Sheriff's Department interviewed Evans. Edmondson and Pickett later interviewed Evans’s girlfriend, Tanika Dukes, as well. Evans and Dukes both testified at trial, and Edmondson and Pickett also testified about their interviews.¹

¶8. According to Evans and Dukes, a few weeks prior to the shooting, they were on their way to see Evans’s probation officer when they saw Edwards parked in a brown Honda Civic next to the abandoned building near the courthouse. Evans had gone to school with Edwards, and he thought Edwards appeared to be "plot- ting" when he saw him that day.² After Evans and Dukes left the probation office, they were about to stop to talk to Edwards, but Edwards "waived at [them]" or "gave [them] the hand" as if to indicate that they should "keep going and not … stop." Edmondson and Pickett noted that Evans’s and Dukes’s description of Edwards’s car matched the description of the car the postal workers had seen near the same abandoned building on the morning of Judge Smith’s shooting.

¶9. After he witnessed Edwards "plotting," Evans was arrested for an unrelated offense, and he was in custody at the Lauderdale County jail on the day Judge Smith was shot. Evans and Dukes testified that sometime after Evans was released in March 2020, they met up with Edwards. They testified that while they were riding in a car with Edwards, Evans told Edwards, "I know you did it. I … think you shot that judge." According to Evans and Dukes, Edwards "just smiled" and did not deny the accusation.

¶10. Evans also told law enforcement and testified at trial that Edwards had complained about Edwards’s former attorney, Charles Wright. Around 2009, Wright had represented Edwards on a charge of selling cocaine. Edwards pled guilty, and pursuant to a plea bargain that Wright negotiated, the court sentenced Edwards to serve eight years in prison consecutive to another sentence on an unrelated charge. Edwards was released from prison in December 2019, about three months before Judge Smith was shot. According to Evans, Edwards "felt like Charlie Wright didn’t do him right."

¶11. By the time of Judge Smith’s shooting, Wright had become a circuit judge and parked only two spaces away from Judge Smith at the Lauderdale County Courthouse. Edmondson testified that from the window of the abandoned building 130 to 140 yards away, the shooter likely would not have been able to distinguish Judge Wright from Judge Smith.

¶12. In sum, based on the information provided by Evans and Dukes, Edmondson believed that Edwards had studied the crime scene prior to the shooting, owned or had access to a car that matched the description of a car reportedly parked next to the abandoned building on the morning of the shooting, had a motive to kill Judge Wright, and had not denied that he shot Judge Smith. Based on this information, Edmondson believed that Edwards intended to kill Judge Wright and shot Judge Smith by mistake.

¶13. On February 12, 2021, Edwards was arrested, and his bond was revoked on an unrelated pending charge. Law enforcement searched Edwards’s car, which was parked about six blocks from the courthouse.³ In the trunk of the car, law enforcement found a box of .30-06 bullets, the same caliber as the bullet that nearly killed Judge Smith.

¶14. On February 14, 2021, Edwards made a telephone call to his mother from the jail. Edwards had been living at his mother’s house prior to his arrest. During the call, which was recorded, Edwards asked his mother if an "issue" had been "taken care of."

¶15. Law enforcement subsequently interviewed two of Edwards’s brothers, Anthony and Willie. Anthony testified before Edwards went to prison in 2009, Edwards gave him a .30-06 rifle with a scope to keep while Edwards was in prison. Anthony testified that Edwards asked him for the rifle after he was released from prison in 2019, but the rifle had been "lost" while Edwards was in prison. According to Anthony, Edwards became angry, took some of Anthony’s valuable belongings, and told Anthony he would not get his property back until Anthony replaced the missing rifle. Anthony could not buy a gun because he is a felon, so he asked his child’s mother, April Wilson, to buy a rifle—a .30-06 rifle with a scope—for Edwards. Anthony located such a rifle at a pawnshop, Wilson bought it, and then Anthony gave it to Edwards. Records from the pawnshop confirmed that Wilson purchased a .30-06 Thompson/Center Compass rifle with a scope on December 31, 2019. Wilson also testified at trial and corroborated Anthony’s testimony.⁴

¶16. Soon after Edwards was arrested for the attempted murder of Judge Smith, Anthony’s sister called Anthony and summoned him to her house. When Anthony arrived at his sister’s house, his sister and his mother told him to go to his mother’s house and get rid of any guns or anything else illegal. They told Anthony to "be careful" and to "[m]ake sure [he was] not being watched." At his mother’s house, Anthony found the .30-06 Thompson/Center Compass rifle in the closet of Edwards’s room. Anthony took the gun to his brother Willie’s house and asked Willie to "hold on to it." But Willie did not want to keep the gun because he is also a felon. Anthony told Willie that he would come back and get the gun later that night, but Anthony did not return for the gun.

¶17. When Anthony failed to return that night, Willie threw the rifle into Gallagher Creek near his house. On February 26, 2021, the sheriff's department brought Willie in for questioning. After Willie was promised that he would not be prosecuted for possessing a firearm as a felon, he told the deputies that Anthony had brought a rifle to his house. Willie then went with the deputies to Gallagher Creek and helped them retrieve the rifle. At trial, Willie identified the rifle as the same rifle Anthony brought to his house. Willie was indicted as an accessory after the fact to attempted capital murder, but he was promised that the charges would be dismissed if he testified truthfully at trial.

¶18. Anthony was also arrested and indicted as an accessory after the fact. Anthony later admitted to Major Pickett that Edwards’s rifle needed to be moved because Edwards had shot someone with it. Anthony explained that prior to Edwards’s arrest, he overheard Edwards tell their mother "I shot the MF judge." Anthony was told that if he cooperated...