Shell-Blackwell v. State

305 So.3d 1211

Loren SHELL-BLACKWELL a/k/a Loren Danielle Shell-Blackwell a/k/a Loran Danielle Shell-Blackwell, Appellant

v.STATE of Mississippi, Appellee

NO. 2018-KA-01135-COA

Court of Appeals of Mississippi.

May 26, 2020

Rehearing Denied August 25, 2020

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

ATTORNEY FOR APPELLEE: OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL BY: KAYLYN HAVRILLA McCLINTON, Jackson

BEFORE BARNES, C.J., WESTBROOKS AND C. WILSON, JJ.

BARNES, C.J., FOR THE COURT:

¶1. After a five-day trial in the Hinds County Circuit Court, Loren Shell-Blackwell (Blackwell) was convicted of capital murder¹ and automobile theft. The trial court sentenced her to life imprisonment without eligibility for parole for the capital murder conviction and to serve five years for auto theft, set to run consecutively to her life sentence, in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections.

¶2. On appeal, Blackwell raises three issues: (1) the State introduced irrelevant and prejudicial prior bad-act evidence; (2) the verdict was contrary to the weight of the evidence; and (3) the jury was improperly instructed on the auto-theft charge. We find no reversible error with the capital murder conviction and affirm. On the auto-theft conviction, we find the jury instruction was given in error because it omitted the value of the vehicle, which is a fact required to establish the sentencing range. Accordingly, we reverse and remand on the auto-theft conviction.

STATEMENT OF FACTS

¶3. On September 1, 2015, Lee Kendrick, an eighty-year-old man from Pearl, Mississippi, was reported missing to the police by his daughter. Kendrick had not come home the night before to care for his wife, who had Alzheimer's disease. His last known whereabouts were in bringing his wife lunch at their home at noon on August 31, 2015. Televised news and social media broadcast Kendrick's photograph, stating he was missing.

¶4. On September 1, after seeing the news reports, a couple from Clinton, Mississippi, contacted the Pearl Police Department. They reported that Kendrick, a fence contractor, had been at their home between 3:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. on August 31, 2015, to give an estimate on a new fence and pick up a $1,600 cash deposit. When Kendrick did not show up to start the next day, as scheduled, and could not be reached, they became concerned and contacted law enforcement.

¶5. Investigators were able to track the last location of Kendrick's cell phone to the Keele Street area in Jackson, Mississippi. The phone had been there since 4:30 p.m. on August 31, 2015. On September 2, 2015, Kendrick's body was discovered on the bedroom floor of a dirty, vacant apartment at the Cedarstone Apartments near Keele Street. He had been shot once in the back of the head. His body was nude except for socks and a strap-on dildo pulled half-way up his thighs. His cell phone, watch, and glasses were found neatly placed in his shoes near his body, as was his folded red-checkered shirt. His pants were not found, and his vehicle was missing.

¶6. Investigators recovered one spent projectile from inside the apartment's bedroom wall. A small mattress was on the bedroom floor. The dildo on Kendrick's body had a condom on it, which law enforcement swabbed for DNA evidence. Ultimately, the test results showed the DNA on the condom matched Blackwell's DNA. The pathologist who performed Kendrick's autopsy found no stippling or soot around the fatal head wound entrance or tract, concluding it was a distant entry wound, meaning the weapon was fired at about two or more feet away. The pathologist opined that due to where the bullet was recovered, Kendrick's head was down when he was shot.

¶7. Data from Kendrick's cell phone led authorities to Blackwell, a white female, who became a suspect on September 3. Her photograph was subsequently broadcast on the news. Blackwell had met Kendrick when she worked as a prostitute at a Jackson brothel, a job she later quit when she claimed Kendrick became her "sugar daddy." Blackwell stated she had been seeing Kendrick daily since May 2015. During the time they had known each other, Kendrick had done a great deal for Blackwell—he found her a place to stay, bought her food and cell phones, and even purchased a used vehicle for her.

¶8. Jackson police extracted the contents of Kendrick's cell phone, which included call records, text records, and photographs. Four extracted photographs were of a white female and a black male engaged in sexual intercourse; however, no faces were shown. The investigator performing the data extraction explained that cell-phone photograph files incorporate GPS coordinates. Combining this information with Internet mapping disclosed that the four explicit photographs were taken on August 14, 2015, at the Mustang Motel on Northside Drive in Jackson.

¶9. Detectives worked with Kendrick's cell-phone carrier to determine the approximate location of Kendrick's cell phone on August 31 by "pings" on cell towers. In this way, they were able to map Kendrick's route during his activities that day and compare it to the events described by the suspects.

¶10. Blackwell had rented a room in Jackson during the summer of 2015 from a woman named Dorothy Lewis, who testified for the State at trial. Blackwell paid for one week but only slept in the room one night. Lewis testified that Kendrick paid for Blackwell's room for the next two weeks. Kendrick had also purchased a yellow Mustang for Blackwell, but Blackwell subsequently sold it. Lewis testified that on one occasion Kendrick had come to her house looking for Blackwell, and Lewis had noted his vehicle—a silver 2002 Buick LeSabre. When Lewis saw the news reports that Kendrick was missing, she recalled seeing Blackwell on August 31 in the late afternoon at a Jubilee convenience store on Highway 80 in Jackson, in the same type of vehicle. In the parking lot, she saw Blackwell exit the passenger side. A black male was driving, and there appeared to be an individual in the back seat. Lewis called the Pearl Police Department, reporting this information and giving them a photograph of Blackwell.

¶11. Jackson law enforcement obtained the surveillance video from the Jubilee store where Lewis saw Blackwell in Kendrick's vehicle. In the video, Blackwell exits the passenger side of the LeSabre and walks to a black pick-up truck. There were two black male occupants in the LeSabre who were later identified as Shaddarine Lindsey, Blackwell's boyfriend, and Walter Young, Lindsey's cousin. The surveillance video was also played on the news once Kendrick was determined to be missing.

¶12. On September 5, 2015, Blackwell turned herself in to the Jackson Police Department. She was interviewed twice that day and once on September 9, recounting different versions of events in each interview. Initially, Blackwell adamantly denied being in the vacant apartment with Kendrick. However, as law enforcement presented Blackwell with increasing evidence to incriminate her, she finally admitted to being in the apartment's bathroom when Kendrick was shot; however, she still denied witnessing or participating in his murder.

¶13. Blackwell recounted to law enforcement the following events of August 31. Kendrick picked her and Young up in Jackson after Kendrick had been to Clinton about a fence deposit, a transaction Blackwell had been made aware of earlier in the day. Blackwell, Young, and Kendrick ended up at the vacant Cedarstone apartment on Keele Street for the purpose of Kendrick's having sex with Blackwell and another prostitute, who never arrived. Blackwell claimed Young was in the bedroom alone with Kendrick. She denied that Lindsey was present.²

¶14. Blackwell claimed she heard a gunshot, and Young came rushing out of the bedroom. Blackwell and Young fled in Kendrick's vehicle, with Young holding a bag that contained some of Kendrick's belongings. They hid the gun alongside a road under a mattress and threw Kendrick's pants in a dumpster. According to Blackwell, then they picked up Lindsey and went to the Jubilee store parking lot on Highway 80 to buy some marijuana before the three individuals drove to Jefferson County, Franklin County, and Adams County. While driving, Blackwell was pulled for over speeding and given a ticket.

¶15. Additionally, Blackwell disclosed during police interviews that in August 2015, Kendrick had paid her and Lindsey to have sex in a motel room while Kendrick watched and photographed them. This encounter was the likely origin of the August 14 lewd photographs on Kendrick's cell phone. Additionally, at trial, another motel incident was discussed during lead investigator Ella Thomas's testimony, over defense counsel's objection. At this time, portions of Blackwell's police interview were entered into evidence. During the interview, Blackwell recounted an incident that occurred about one month prior to Kendrick's murder, when Blackwell and Kendrick took a shower together in a motel room. Lindsey and Young allegedly entered the motel room with a key and stole $1,500 in cash from Kendrick while he was in the shower.

¶16. On September 8, 2015, Young turned himself in to the Jackson Police Department, where he was interviewed twice and ultimately charged with capital murder and auto theft. Young, however, denied any knowledge or involvement in Kendrick's robbery and murder. Ultimately, he stated that Lindsey and Blackwell were trying to frame him for Kendrick's murder. Later, at Blackwell's trial, Young admitted he was not telling the truth to law enforcement. Imprisoned and awaiting his own trial, Young testified that he witnessed Blackwell shoot Kendrick, with Lindsey present in the bedroom.³ He went to the Cedarstone Apartments with Lindsey, Blackwell, and Kendrick. Upon their arrival, Young was told to stay in Kendrick's vehicle while the other three individuals went into the apartment. After a short time, however, he too decided to enter the vacant apartment. Proceeding...