20 results for 'cat:"Evidence" AND cat:"Jury" AND cat:"Murder"'.
J. Baker finds the trial court properly convicted defendant for murder. Defendant was taken into custody after having been identified as a suspect. She was found with the murder weapon, Mirandized and admitted she had been in an argument with the victim because he had allegedly struck her 14-year-old son. Sufficient evidence, including surveillance video and clothing worn by the assailant in the video found at defendant's home, support the conviction. Though it was later found a juror's sister worked for the defense attorney, no evidence shows the juror and attorney knew each other. Affirmed.
Court: Arkansas Supreme Court, Judge: Baker , Filed On: April 11, 2024, Case #: CR-23-602, Categories: evidence, jury, murder
J. Waite finds defendant was not deprived of a fair trial on a murder charge based on the lack of a black individual on the jury panel. The process used to select the pool was entirely random and involved sending 500 summons to residents without any knowledge of their race, while no prospective juror was dismissed because of their race. Meanwhile, the trial court properly allowed two witnesses to testify about injuries to the victim consistent with domestic violence because defendant's claim the injuries were caused by an accident allowed for the use of the "absence, mistake, or accident" exception to prior bad acts evidence. Affirmed.
Court: Ohio Court Of Appeals, Judge: Waite, Filed On: March 27, 2024, Case #: 2024-Ohio-1543, Categories: evidence, jury, murder
J. Soto finds a lower court did not err in convicting defendant for murder. Defendant raised a number of issues with his conviction, including arguing a lower court had improperly negated his sudden-passion claim that he had “snapped” and killed the victim because she rejected him, but while the record does indeed show that defendant was both “jealous and possessive,” courts have long held that “a rejection of a romantic proposal does not qualify as adequate cause for purposes of the sudden passion defense,” not least because a person of “ordinary temper” does not murder people based on romantic rejections. Affirmed.
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Soto, Filed On: February 29, 2024, Case #: 08-22-00177-CR, Categories: evidence, murder, jury Instructions
[Consolidated.] J. Hunter vacates defendant's conviction for being a principal to second degree murder because it was rendered by a non-unanimous jury. However, defendant's conviction for conspiracy to commit second degree murder was proper because a witness testified that defendant was present when the murder took place, that defendant shook hands with the person who shot the victim, and that defendant led the police to the victim's body. Vacated in part.
Court: Louisiana Court Of Appeal, Judge: Hunter, Filed On: February 28, 2024, Case #: 55,497-KA, Categories: evidence, jury, murder
J. Kemp finds the trial court properly convicted defendant for two counts of first-degree murder. Officers responded to a call by a victim's son when he discovered his mother and defendant's father dead from gunshot wounds. The father's body appeared to officers to be posed with a gun in its hand, though it was later confirmed he had been shot six times by that very gun. Furthermore, the trial court properly rejected proffered instructions on justification and kidnapping because there was no evidence defendant reasonably believed the victims were about to commit a felony with force or violence, or that his life was in imminent danger. Affirmed.
Court: Arkansas Supreme Court, Judge: Kemp , Filed On: February 22, 2024, Case #: CR-23-486, Categories: evidence, murder, jury Instructions
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J. Herndon finds the trial court properly convicted defendant for first-degree murder with a deadly weapon. Surveillance video shows defendant stabbed the victim in the neck on a Las Vegas street. Defendant fails to support his argument the victim threatened him with a gun, and an emotional outburst by the victim's family during a viewing of the video is no basis for mistrial or curative instruction. Affirmed.
Court: Nevada Supreme Court, Judge: Herndon , Filed On: February 15, 2024, Case #: 86208, Categories: evidence, murder, jury Instructions
J. Kemp finds the trial court properly convicted defendant for capital murder. An eyewitness saw defendant run from the area where the shooting took place and investigators recovered evidence from the residence where he hid, including ammunition, gunshot residue and the victim's DNA. All evidence supports the conviction, defendant's right to a speedy trial was not violated, and the prosecution gave valid, race-neutral reasons for exercising peremptory strikes of jurors. Affirmed.
Court: Arkansas Supreme Court, Judge: Kemp , Filed On: February 8, 2024, Case #: CR-23-342, Categories: evidence, jury, murder
J. Mays finds security camera footage showing defendant's vehicle in the vicinity of the crime scene, along with eyewitness testimony about the shooting, was sufficient for the jury to convict him on complicity murder and weapons charges. Meanwhile, the trial court properly admitted the detective's testimony about possible motives for the crime discussed by police prior to defendant's arrest. Defendant's attorney was able to fully cross-examine the detective to avoid any confusion on the part of the jury about the timeline of events in the case. Affirmed.
Court: Ohio Court Of Appeals, Judge: Mays, Filed On: December 28, 2023, Case #: 2023-Ohio-4791, Categories: evidence, jury, murder
J. Carbullido finds the trial court did not properly convict defendant of murder, as it did not hold a evidentiary hearing after reports of possible juror misconduct. One juror had mentioned knowing defendant had previously been incarcerated and the trial judge did not begin an investigation or give curative instructions. Vacated.
Court: Guam Supreme Court, Judge: Carbullido, Filed On: December 27, 2023, Case #: CRA22-10, Categories: evidence, jury, murder
J. Mays finds the trial court did not prejudice the jury against defendant when it informed the jurors about grand jury proceedings and used the phrase "more likely than not that a defendant did commit the crime." The court followed that phrase with an appropriate explanation of probable cause and reiterated to the jury defendant was innocent until proven guilty. Meanwhile, text messages that implicated defendant in both robberies and her admission to police that she shot the victim "because she was scared" was sufficient to convict her of all the crimes with which she was charged. Affirmed.
Court: Ohio Court Of Appeals, Judge: Mays, Filed On: November 30, 2023, Case #: 2023-Ohio-4306, Categories: evidence, jury, murder
J. Greenlee finds the lower court properly convicted defendant of first-degree murder and shooting a firearm into a vehicle. Defendant shot a gun in a convenience store parking lot, killing a man sitting in the back seat of another car. Surveillance video captured the incident. Evidence is sufficient to support her convictions and sentence of life imprisonment with eligibility for parole, with five concurrent years suspended and three years post-release supervision. Defendant’s claim the jury was improperly instructed is without merit as the lower court judge excluded the lesser charge of second-degree murder, but the defendant failed to object, thereby waiving her right to later argue the issue. Affirmed.
Court: Mississippi Court Of Appeals, Judge: Greenlee, Filed On: November 14, 2023, Case #: 2022-KA-00446-COA, Categories: evidence, murder, jury Instructions
J. Baker finds the trial court properly convicted defendant for murder. Defendant killed the victim with a machete after a night of drinking which ended in an altercation involving what defendant claims was the victim’s threat that he was going to “whip” defendant and steal his vehicle. The court properly declined to submit defendant’s proffered jury instruction on justification, submitting a modified version of the model instruction. Case law cited by defendant did not support his position, and the language from the model instruction, modified to include justification instructions, accurately stated the law. Affirmed.
Court: Arkansas Supreme Court, Judge: Baker, Filed On: October 26, 2023, Case #: CR-23-202, Categories: evidence, murder, jury Instructions
J. Moylan concurs with the lower court's decision to charge a bar customer with second-degree murder after he alleged stabbed someone, who died shortly after, outside the bar. The customer, on appeal, questions whether the evidence of video footage and the testimony of bar staff and other customers is legally sufficient and whether the judge abused his discretion by dismissing a juror. Upon review, although no one claimed to have seen the moment where the perpetrator stabbed the victim, multiple witnesses corroborated the customer's presence and physical description, as did the footage, and saw him running away just after the stabbing took place. Also, the judge was correct in replacing a juror as there was a potential conflict of interest since the juror was acquainted with some of the customer's family members. Affirmed.
Court: The Appellate Court of Maryland, Judge: Moylan, Filed On: September 5, 2023, Case #: C-21-CR-18-000464, Categories: evidence, jury, murder
J. Golemon finds the trial court properly convicted defendant for murder. Two eyewitnesses testified that when the victim asked defendant to buy beer, he went to his house, returned with a gun and shot the victim in the head. He then hid in a ditch, where police later arrested him. Though defendant gave detectives a statement almost 18 months after the shooting, saying that three “men in black” forced him to smoke synthetic marijuana and kill the victim, then chased him until he fell in the ditch, the jury rejected his duress defense. The evidence is sufficient to support the jury’s rejection of the defense. The court properly refused instruction on involuntary intoxication because defendant stated that the synthetic marijuana didn’t take effect until he fell in the ditch. Affirmed.
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Golemon, Filed On: August 30, 2023, Case #: 09-21-00106-CR, Categories: evidence, murder, jury Instructions
J. Hensal finds defendant was not prejudiced by the trial court's decision to wait to excuse an alternate juror who communicated with the victim's family on several occasions throughout the murder trial. The juror was dismissed with the other alternates when deliberations began and, therefore, could not have influenced the outcome of the trial. Meanwhile, defendant's murder conviction was supported by sufficient evidence that included two separate identifications of him as the shooter, testimony he had a strained relationship with the victim, and evidence he attempted to bribe a neighbor to not turn over surveillance footage to the police during their investigation. Affirmed.
Court: Ohio Court Of Appeals, Judge: Hensal, Filed On: August 9, 2023, Case #: 2023-Ohio-2759, Categories: evidence, jury, murder
J. Penzato finds that defendant was properly convicted and sentenced for second degree murder of a victim who was shot in the parking lot of a business during a drug buy. Defendant's Batson challenge fails since there is no proof of racial discrimination by the state in striking the potential juror. Also, defendant's evidentiary objections are without merit. Affirmed.
Court: Louisiana Court Of Appeal, Judge: Penzato, Filed On: July 6, 2023, Case #: 2022KA0940, Categories: evidence, jury, murder
J. Shea finds that the district court properly denied defendant's request for a jury instruction on the lesser-included offense of mitigated deliberate homicide because his only legal theory was acquittal based on his argument that he was out of town and his wife killed their roommate. However, there was insufficient evidence that his roommate's truck which he sold after his death was worth more than $1,500, as required to support his conviction for felony deceptive practices. Reversed in part.
Court: Montana Supreme Court, Judge: Shea, Filed On: July 5, 2023, Case #: DA 20-0243, Categories: evidence, murder, jury Instructions
J. O'Leary finds that the trial court provided the jury in defendant's first degree murder trial with clear, unambiguous instructions on provocation, premeditation and deliberation. Ample evidence that he returned to a car, retrieved two knives and pursued the victim on foot over an extended distance showed he had plenty of time to reflect and that the killing was deliberate and premeditated. Affirmed.
Court: California Courts Of Appeal, Judge: O'Leary, Filed On: June 14, 2023, Case #: G061077, Categories: evidence, murder, jury Instructions