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Passmore v. State

Since the co-defendant testified at trial, his statement implicating defendant was admissible as substantive evidence.

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LeKendrick Bernard Passmore was convicted of felony murder in the shooting death of James Jackson.1 Passmore appeals, contending that the admission of his co-defendant’s statement implicated Passmore and required a severance of the two trials. Because the co-defendant testified, his statement was admissible as substantive evidence, and severance was not required. Therefore, we affirm.

1. The evidence at trial showed that late in the evening of October 10, 1996, Passmore and his co-defendant Darrick Collins2 were stopped by police as they were driving away from Collins’ apartment. The police had a warrant to search Collins’ apartment and asked for permission to search Passmore’s car, in which they found a loaded .9 mm handgun in the glove compartment. After returning to the apartment with Passmore and Collins and conducting a search, the police unloaded the gun, returned it to Passmore, and left. Collins believed that Rita Lewis, his former girlfriend, had informed the police of his drug activities. Several hours after the search, Passmore drove Collins to Lewis’ apartment to confront her. After Lewis would not answer the door, Passmore fired several shots through a window. The shots struck and killed James Jackson, who was inside Lewis’ apartment. After reviewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the jury’s determination of guilt, we conclude that a rational trier of fact could have found Passmore guilty of the crime charged.3

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