The Mississippi Court of Appeals on Tuesday unanimously shot down a bid for a new trial by a Pike County man who was convicted of assaulting an elderly neighbor.
Arlaundrius L. Jones was sentenced to 20 years for the assault, and 15 years for the abuse charge, with five years suspended with post-release supervision. He was convicted of beating his 78-year-old neighbor with a stick as she was coming home one night.
Though Jones was found guilty of abuse and assault, he was found not guilty of an armed robbery charge.
According to court records, the neighbor noticed a black-and-white SUV on the side of the road near her yard. It was owned by her neighbor, so she thought nothing of it.
After walking to her porch, a man wielding a stick attacked her, bruising her face, head, neck, chest and back. He then stole her purse and fled in the SUV.
Another neighbor heard the incident and saw the SUV speed away and came to help. The neighbor said he also recognized the SUV as belonging to a neighbor.
Later, a Pike County sheriff’s deputy found the SUV and stopped the driver, who turned out to be Jones, and arrested him.
Jones was taken into custody at the McComb Police Department, where Detective Sgt. Delre Smith interviewed him. Though Smith said Jones never confessed to the attack, he did act “ very remorseful, very upset,” and cried during the interview. Jones discussed writing an apology letter to Magee in the interview but never did so.
Magee’s purse was later found in a trash can with its contents still in it. Magee returned to law enforcement later, with a piece of stick she believed was part of the weapon which she found on her porch under a chair.
The stick was added to evidence during the trial against objections from Jones’ attorney
Jones sought appeal on three grounds, that he was placed in double jeopardy, the admission of the stick as evidence was an abuse of judicial discretion and he was convicted without sufficient evidence.
Appeals Court Judge David Neil McCarty said Jones’ argument of double jeopardy was invalid.
“So in Jones’ view, he is being twice punished for the same offense — an attack on a vulnerable person,” McCarty wrote. “In response, the state argues that Jones is in effect complaining of a sentence enhancement.”
McCarty said there was no abuse of discretion by the judge when the stick was entered into evidence because the jury could have found him guilty of the charges “with or without the stick,” and detectives said the stick “matched” the injuries the victim received.
McCarty argued that there was more than enough evidence for conviction with uncontested facts alone.
“Jones argues that there was ‘no evidence, DNA or by any other means, that Jones ever handled the stick allegedly used in the incident, nor any evidence that Jones ever handled Ms. Magee’s purse,’ “ McCarty said. “Yet that is not the standard. ... Given the facts as set out above, there was sufficient evidence to support the jury’s verdict.”
