Justin Crockett v. State of Mississippi, 212 So. 3d 763

Justin Crockett pled guilty in justice court to headlighting a deer (Miss. Code Ann. § 49-7-95) and appealed to the Panola County Circuit Court for a bench trial de novo, which found him guilty. He appealed to the Mississippi Supreme Court solely on sufficiency of the evidence.
On Jan. 30, 2014, officers found a pickup with three recently killed deer and three men (Gordon, Lanier, Wooten); those men admitted headlighting and said they were with Crockett; one (Gordon) was unavailable at trial.
Lieutenant Marion Pearson testified the men said Crockett shot two of the deer; Crockett later admitted shooting the spike buck but claimed it was during legal hours.
Pearson (accepted as an expert without objection) and his supervisor used body temperature, rigor mortis, pupil size, and ambient temperature to estimate time of death for the spike buck between about 8:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m., after legal hunting hours ended at 5:57 p.m.
The trial court convicted Crockett of killing a deer at night by headlighting; sentence and license revocation were imposed. Crockett appealed only arguing insufficient evidence of an overt act under § 49-7-95.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether evidence was sufficient to prove Crockett committed an "overt act" under § 49-7-95 (headlighting)	Crockett: State lacked sufficient evidence he committed an overt act of night hunting with a light — no direct observation of headlighting	State: Circumstantial proof (possession of recently killed deer that could not have been killed during legal hours, admissions, forensic time-of-death, accomplices’ statements) satisfies statute’s examples of overt acts	Court affirmed conviction: substantial circumstantial evidence supported finding of headlighting; appellate challenges to hearsay waived for failure to object at trial

Pharr v. State, 465 So. 2d 294 (Miss. 1984) (upheld conviction based on circumstantial evidence—presence of recently killed deer, spotlight, weapon—without direct observation of the killing)
Transocean Enter., Inc. v. Ingalls Shipbuilding, Inc., 33 So. 3d 459 (Miss. 2010) (standard of review deference to bench trial factual findings)
Purvis v. Barnes, 791 So. 2d 199 (Miss. 2001) (issues not raised at trial are procedurally barred on appeal)
Cross v. State, 759 So. 2d 354 (Miss. 1999) (failure to object at trial waives complaint on appeal)
Ezell v. Williams, 724 So. 2d 396 (Miss. 1998) (deference to trial court factual determinations)