WELFORD LEE MCCARTY A/K/A LEVI MCCARTY A/K/A PORK CHOP APPELLANT
v.
STATE OF MISSISSIPPI APPELLEE
DATE
OF JUDGMENT: 02/17/2017
GREENE
COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT GREENE COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT TRIAL JUDGE
ATTORNEY FOR APPELLANT: OFFICE OF STATE PUBLIC DEFENDER BY:
PHILLIP BROADHEAD
ATTORNEY FOR APPELLEE: OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL BY:
JEFFREY A. KLINGFUSS
BEFORE
BARNES, P.J., WILSON AND GREENLEE, JJ.
WILSON, J.
¶1.
Following a jury trial in the Greene County Circuit Court,
Welford Lee McCarty was convicted of capital murder and
desecration of a human corpse. The circuit court sentenced
him to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole
for capital murder and three years' imprisonment on the
latter offense. On appeal, McCarty alleges that the trial
judge abused his discretion by admitting photographs of the
victim's dismembered and decomposed corpse and bones. He
also alleges that the State's use of the photos "was
part of a larger pattern of prosecutorial misconduct."
McCarty's claims are without merit. Therefore, his
convictions and sentences are affirmed.
FACTS
AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY
¶2.
McCarty manufactured methamphetamine on his property in rural
Greene County. In early 2013, McCarty learned that his friend
Donovan Cowart was working with law enforcement as a
confidential informant. McCarty told Cowart that he wanted to
show him a hole that he had dug on his property for use in
his meth operation. McCarty, along with Robert Stevens and
David Allen, picked up Cowart and drove to the hole. As
Cowart was walking over to look at the hole, McCarty
retrieved a shotgun from the trunk of his car and shot Cowart
in the back of the head. Cowart fell into the hole, and
McCarty shot him again. McCarty and Stevens then took
Cowart's cell phone, searched his wallet for money, and
buried the body in the hole.
¶3.
A few weeks later, McCarty became concerned that the police
would search his property, so he insisted that Stevens help
him move the body to another location. After the two men dug
up the body, McCarty said that they had to dismember it.
McCarty retrieved an ax, and Stevens used the ax to sever the
head, arms, and legs below the knees and cut the torso in
half. The two men stuffed the body parts into trash bags and
then tied up the bags and cinder blocks inside a large tarp.
They threw the tarp into a nearby pond, but it would not
sink. McCarty fired his shotgun into the tarp, but it still
would not sink, so Stevens wedged it under a tree in a
culvert.
¶4.
In May 2015, law enforcement found the tarp with the
dismembered and decomposed body in the culvert. One of
Cowart's shoes was also in the tarp. The ax used to
dismember the body, which Stevens identified at trial, was
found about forty feet away in the pond. The FBI subsequently
dug up the original burial site on McCarty's property.
There, the FBI found Cowart's other shoe, his wallet, a
baseball cap with a large hole in the back, and several
teeth, which DNA tests later confirmed were Cowart's
teeth.
¶5.
In September 2015, a Greene County grand jury indicted
McCarty and Stevens for capital murder, with the underlying
felony of robbery, and desecration of a human corpse. The
court appointed the State Office of Capital Defense Counsel
to represent McCarty, and McCarty's case proceeded to a
jury trial in February 2017. Stevens and Allen testified
against McCarty at trial consistent with the facts discussed
above. Stevens testified that in exchange for his testimony
the State had agreed to allow him to plead guilty to
second-degree murder with a sentencing recommendation of
twenty to thirty years. Allen was not charged in connection
with Cowart's murder. He testified that he did not know
in advance that McCarty planned to kill Cowart, and he did
not help McCarty and Stevens conceal the body afterward.
Allen testified that McCarty threatened to kill him and his
family if he ever told anyone about the murder. At the time
of McCarty's trial, Allen was under indictment for an
unrelated armed robbery; however, the State had not offered
him any plea bargain or leniency on that charge in exchange
for his testimony.[1]
¶6.
In addition, Alicia Keel, a friend of McCarty, testified that
McCarty confessed to the murder. According to Keel, McCarty
admitted that he killed Cowart on his property and buried the
body there; she also testified that on a later date, McCarty
told her that he planned to move the body and sink it in a
pond.
¶7.
The jury returned a verdict finding McCarty guilty of capital
murder, with the underlying felony of robbery, and
desecration of a human corpse. The court sentenced McCarty to
life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for
capital murder and three years' imprisonment for
desecration of a human corpse. McCarty filed a motion for a
new trial, which was denied, and ...