Dwayne Bryant v. State of Mississippi, 232 So.3d 174

On August 1, 2013, Dwayne Bryant shot Adrian Walker multiple times at or near Bryant’s apartment; Walker later died of complications from the wounds.
Bryant and Walker were acquaintances who had been drinking earlier; after an argument at a neighbor’s apartment, Walker followed Bryant back to Bryant’s doorway and threatened him.
Bryant retrieved a gun from his apartment and shot Walker eight times; witnesses disputed whether Walker was in the doorway (Bryant’s account) or lying on the ground outside when shot (other witnesses).
Physical evidence showed multiple gunshot wounds to front and back, blood starting 10–12 feet outside Bryant’s apartment, and shell casings on the grass by the sidewalk.
At trial the jury was instructed on castle doctrine, justifiable homicide, imperfect self-defense, and manslaughter; Bryant was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 40 years.
On appeal Bryant challenged sufficiency of the evidence, invocation of the Weathersby rule, admission of autopsy photographs, and alleged prosecutorial misconduct in closing argument; the Court of Appeals affirmed.

Issue	Bryant's Argument	State's Argument	Held
Sufficiency of evidence for 2nd-degree murder	Evidence showed justifiable homicide/castle-doctrine presumption—Bryant acted in lawful self-defense	Witness and physical evidence contradicted Bryant; jury should resolve credibility	Affirmed conviction; evidence sufficient and jury properly rejected self-defense/castle presumption
Applicability of Weathersby rule (directed verdict)	Bryant and his brother were sole eyewitnesses; their reasonable account must be accepted, entitling Bryant to acquittal	Other eyewitness (Pollard) and physical facts materially contradicted Bryant’s version, so Weathersby inapplicable	Weathersby did not apply; trial court correctly denied directed verdict
Admission of autopsy photographs	Photographs were prejudicial and inflammatory with little probative value	Photos probative to show number/location of wounds and contradict self-defense claim	Trial court did not abuse discretion admitting photos; probative value outweighed prejudice
Prosecutorial closing remarks (send-a-message, character attacks)	Remarks were inflammatory and prejudicial; require reversal and new trial	No contemporaneous objection; remarks not so inflammatory to trigger plain-error relief; evidence did not preponderate against verdict	No plain error; issue waived absent objection and comments not sufficiently inflammatory to warrant reversal

Weathersby v. State, 147 So. 481 (Miss. 1933) (defendant’s eyewitness testimony must be accepted unless materially contradicted by credible witnesses or physical facts)
Bush v. State, 895 So. 2d 836 (Miss. 2005) (standard for sufficiency of the evidence review)
Flynt v. State, 183 So. 3d 1 (Miss. 2015) (castle-doctrine and credibility conflicts are jury questions)
Pritchett v. State, 560 So. 2d 1017 (Miss. 1990) (defendant’s self-defense version not binding where materially contradicted)
Spicer v. State, 921 So. 2d 292 (Miss. 2006) (two-prong test for prosecutorial misconduct review: impropriety and prejudicial effect)
Payton v. State, 785 So. 2d 267 (Miss. 2001) (prosecutorial "send a message" arguments condemned)