Love v. State

373 So.3d 768

Pretzea LOVE a/k/a Perez Love a/k/a Perezea Love, Appellant

v.STATE of Mississippi, Appellee

NO. 2021-KA-01161-COA

Court of Appeals of Mississippi.

10/31/2023

HOLMES COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT, HON. BARRY W. FORD, JUDGE

ATTORNEY FOR APPELLANT: ARTHUR H. CALDERON, Cleveland

ATTORNEY FOR APPELLEE: OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL BY: CASEY B. FARMER

BEFORE WILSON, P.J., WESTBROOKS AND EMFINGER, JJ.

EMFINGER, J., FOR THE COURT:

¶1. From May 17 to 19, 2021, Pretzea Love a/k/a Perez Love a/k/a Perezea Love (Pretzea) was tried and convicted of capital murder, aggravated assault, possession of a firearm by a felon, and three counts of armed robbery in the Circuit Court of Holmes County, Mississippi. He was sentenced as a habitual offender pursuant to Mississippi Code Annotated section 99-19-81 (Rev. 2020). Pretzea appeals his convictions and sentences.

FACTS

¶2. A Holmes County grand jury returned a six-count indictment charging Pretzea Love, Demantreas Love, and Jamar Newsome with the capital murder of Vernardo Washington, the aggravated assault of Joe Holmes, and the armed robberies of Clifton Holmes, Curtis Aldridge, and Vernardo Washington. Pretzea Love was also charged with possession of a firearm by a felon (Count V) and was charged as a habitual offender. Pretzea and Demantreas, who are brothers, were jointly tried, and Newsome testified at their trial as a State’s witness.

¶3. The charges arose as the result of an incident that occurred just outside of Cruger, Mississippi, at Club CJ’s. Curtis Aldridge and Melvin Waddell were co-owners of Club CJ’s, which is located in Holmes County, Mississippi. The club had a bar and a cooler, shelves for storage, and a sink located behind the bar. There was a sixty-inch television behind the bar that lit up the area. A booth was built up so the disc jockey (DJ) could see over the crowd on the dance floor, which had a railing around it. Club CJ’s had a pool table, which was used on the night of the incident for a dice game. There was an open seating area with tables and chairs. The events at issue occurred during the late evening hours of July 1, 2017, and the early morning hours of July 2, 2017. Aldridge opened the club at about 9:30 p.m. on July 1 to let the DJ, Vernardo Washington, set up his equipment. Washington was being paid to work a five-night run at the club, beginning that night. About 100 people came into the club that evening.

¶4. Joe Holmes ran the dice game for the club and helped Aldridge count the money at the end of the night. That night, there were sixteen to seventeen people shooting dice. Joe’s cousin Clifton Holmes won about $1,200. Newsome, who had known the Love brothers (Pretzea and Demantreas) for over twenty years, testified that Demantreas lost between $1,000 and $1,500. Newsome said that he did not come to the club with the Love brothers and that he stayed on the dance floor most of the night. However, other witnesses placed him at the dice game beside Demantreas during the evening. Pretzea, who was described as being about six feet, eight inches tall with long braids or dreadlocks, stood out in the crowd. Pretzea was the only person identified by the witnesses as possessing and shooting a firearm that night.

¶5. Newsome testified that the Loves told him that "they was shooting dice and it went wrong and said folks took their money or whatever, and they was going to take their money back." They told Newsome they were going to take their money back when the club was closing, and the Loves told him they wanted him to be their lookout.

¶6. According to Joe Holmes, the dice game ended around 3 a.m., and he started his closing routine. At that point, the crowd had died down, and there were only a few people inside the club. Newsome testified that after agreeing with the Loves that he would serve as a lookout, he reentered the club and went to get some cigarettes. According to Newsome, as he was walking back from the bathroom, "they were coming in. Three of them went towards the bar and one of them went towards the DJ booth."¹ Several witnesses described the chaotic, fast-moving sequence of events that followed.

¶7. Joe Holmes and Aldridge were behind the bar, at each end, getting ready to count the club’s money from the evening. Clifton Holmes was sitting toward the middle of the bar counting his winnings. Aldridge testified that Pretzea came behind the bar where he was standing, pointed a gun at him, and told him to back away from the money. Aldridge backed away, lay down on the floor facing the wall, and started praying, Aldridge said Joe would not have been able to see Pretzea when Pretzea confronted Aldridge. Pretzea then continued along the bar and confronted Clifton. He pointed the gun at Clifton and demanded his money. Clifton gave Pretzea his money and then dropped to his knees. Pretzea then continued to the other end of the bar, pointed the gun at Joe’s head, and demanded that Joe give him the money. Joe gave him the money and immediately jumped over the bar to get away from Pretzea.

¶8. When Joe jumped over the bar, he landed on Demantreas. During the process, Pretzea shot Joe in his right side. As Pretzea tried to get Joe off his brother, Demantreas was telling Pretzea to "shoot him, shoot him, finish him, go on and shoot him." When Pretzea got Joe off Demantreas, Pretzea "shot him some more and shot towards where the DJ was." Newsome testified he saw someone struggling with Washington and that he saw Pretzea shoot Washington. Newsome and the Love brothers fled in separate vehicles.

¶9. From his position on the floor facing the wall, Aldridge could not see anything, but he heard a commotion and three rounds of gunshots: "The first round was like three or four shots. And the next time, it was like three or four shots. And the next time, it was like six to eight shots." Aldridge said he lay on the floor for about three minutes and then got up because he was not hearing anything. Aldridge stated that he first made sure everyone was out of the club and then walked to the end of the bar where he saw Washington lying face down on the floor. Clifton told Aldridge that Washington was "gone." Aldridge did not see Joe until he went outside and discovered that Joe had also been shot. Aldridge called his wife and told her to call 911 and Washington’s family.

¶10. Washington’s family took him to the hospital before an ambulance arrived. Washington had six gunshot wounds, with the lethal wound being a close-contact wound under his armpit that traveled through a rib and his left lung.² Joe Holmes was taken to the local hospital. He was later transferred to the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson. Joe was in the hospital for about three weeks and testified that it took him about six months to recover from his gunshot wound.

¶11. At the conclusion of the trial, Pretzea was found guilty of all six counts. He Was sentenced as a habitual offender to a term of life imprisonment without eligibility for parole in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections for capital murder, as charged in Count I; to a term of twenty years in custody for aggravated assault, as charged in Count II; to a term of thirty years in custody for the armed robbery of Clifton Holmes, as charged in Count III; to a term of ten years in custody for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, as charged in Count V; and to a term of thirty years in custody for the armed robbery of Vernardo Washington, as charged in Count VI. The sentences for Counts I, II, and V were ordered to run concurrently with one another. The sentences for Counts III and VI were ordered to run concurrently with one another but consecutively to the sentences for Counts I, II, and V. As will be discussed below, the conviction for the armed robbery of Curtis Aldridge, as charged in Count IV, was merged with the capital murder conviction (Count I) as the underlying felony.

ANALYSIS

¶12. Pretzea raises four main issues on appeal, which we address below.³

I. Pretzea contends that the evidence was not legally sufficient to support the conviction of armed robbery in Count VI.

[] ¶13. Pretzea first contends that "the State offered no proof that Vernardo

Washington was the victim of an armed robbery." He argues that neither Newsome nor any other witness "ever testified that they observed Pretzea take or attempt to take any money (or other property) from Washington." He argues because there was no proof of this essential element of the crime of armed robbery, the evidence was legally insufficient.

[] ¶14. We set forth our standard of review for a challenge to the legal sufficiency of the evidence in Alvarado v. State, 343 So. 3d 391, 396 (¶10) (Miss. Ct. App. 2022):

"In reviewing a challenge to the legal sufficiency of the evidence, we consider all of the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution and accept all evidence supporting the verdict as true." Dampeer v. State, 989 So. 2d 462, 464 (¶7) (Miss, Ct. App. 2008). We then determine, based on the, evidence, whether reasonable, fair-minded jurors could have found the defendant guilty. Goldman v. State, 406 So. 2d 816, 819 (Miss. 1981). That is, "whether a reasonable juror could rationally say that the State" "proved each element of the crime." Lenoir v. State, 222 So. 3d 273, 279 (¶25) (Miss. 2017) (citing Poole v. State, 46 So. 3d 290, 293-94 (¶10) (Miss. 2010)).

¶15. In Jones v. State, 281 So., 3d 137, 146 (¶26) (Miss. Ct. App. 2019), we stated:

"The essential elements of armed robbery are: (1) a felonious taking or attempt to take, (2) from the person or from the presence, (3) the personal property of another, (4) against his will, (5) by violence to his person or by putting such person in fear of immediate injury to his person by the exhibition of a deadly weapon." Oliver v. State, 234 So. 3d 443, 445 (¶11) (Miss. Ct. App. 2017), cert. denied, 233 So. 3d 822 (Miss. 2018).

Count VI of the indictment, as amended, charged as...