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Hampton v. State3/21/2000
DATE OF JUDGMENT: 02/26/1999
TRIAL JUDGE: HON. THOMAS J. GARDNER III
COURT FROM WHICH APPEALED:MONROE COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT
NATURE OF THE CASE: CRIMINAL - FELONY
TRIAL COURT DISPOSITION: HAMPTON SENTENCED TO SIX (6) YEARS FOR POSSESSION OF COCAINE (ENHANCED)
DISPOSITION: CONVICTION AFFIRMED AND CAUSE REMANDED FOR THE LIMITED PURPOSE OF RE-SENTENCING - 03/21/2000
PROCEDURAL HISTORY
. This is an appeal from the Circuit Court of Monroe County where Dameon Hampton was found guilty of possession of cocaine and of having a firearm in his possession at the time of the commission of the offense or at the time of the arrest. Hampton was sentenced under an enhanced statute to serve a term of six years with the Mississippi Department of Corrections and was fined five-thousand dollars plus court costs and a bond fee. The trial court overruled Hampton's motion for a new trial, or in the alternative a JNOV. From such denial of his motion, Hampton now appeals to this Court requesting a reversal and remand for new trial.
FACTS
. On New Year's Eve 1997, Officer Clyde Whitfield of the Amory Police Department saw Dameon Hampton, a passenger in a car being driven by George Thompson, leave his car, fire a gun, then get back into his car. After Hampton and Thompson drove away, Officer Whitfield pursued and stopped the car. Upon the stopping, Thompson quickly got out of the car to talk with the officer; however, Officer Whitfield saw a gun on the passenger's side of the car and ordered Hampton out of the car, too. The officer searched Hampton and found a container with forty rocks of cocaine in Hampton's front pants pocket. Hampton admitted the cocaine was found on his person, but he claims it was found not in his pants, but in the jacket he was wearing, which belonged to Thompson, not Hampton. Also, as Hampton raised his arms to place them on the car, a gun from under his arm fell to the ground.
ARGUMENT AND DISCUSSION OF THE LAW
STANDARD OF REVIEW
. Hampton raises three issues with this appeal. The first issue regards whether the trial court erred in overruling the defendant's motion for a new trial, or in the alternative a JNOV. A motion for new trial deals with the weight of the evidence; our standard of review regarding a motion for new trial is stated in McClain v. State, 625 So. 2d 774 (Miss. 1993):
Matters regarding the weight and credibility of the evidence are to be resolved by the jury . . . .
Moreover, the challenge to the weight of the evidence via motion for a new trial implicates the trial court's sound discretion. Procedurally such challenge necessarily invokes [Uniform Circuit and County Court Rule 10.05]. New trial decisions rest in the sound discretion of the trial court, and the motion should not be granted except to prevent an unconscionable injustice. We reverse only for abuse of discretion . . . . McClain, 625 So. 2d at 778-81 (citations omitted).
. A motion for JNOV deals with sufficiency of the evidence; our standard of review concerning the trial court's denial of JNOV is also described in McClain:
In appeals from an overruled motion for JNOV the sufficiency of the evidence as a matter of law is viewed and tested in a light most favorable to the State. The credible evidence consistent with McClain's guilt must be accepted as true. The prosecution must be given the benefit of all favorable inferences that may be reasonably drawn from the evidence . . . . We are authorized to reverse only where, with respect to one or more of the elements of the offense charged, the evidence so consider
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