State v. Jones, 296 Neb. 494

On March 11, 2009, Gary Holmes was killed when an assailant wearing a black hoodie and ski mask fired multiple shots into BJ’s convenience store; another customer was seriously injured.
Witness Dontia Bullard saw a red car near an alley, observed a young man he knew as “Grimey” (alias for Jones) walk toward BJ’s, heard gunfire, and then saw that man return to the red car carrying a gun and ski mask.
Tysheonna Anthony (friend of Jones) and other occupants of a tan Cadillac testified Jones was angry after being stared at in BJ’s, proposed retaliatory violence, had a gun and ski mask, swapped into a red car with Maxwell Griffey, later confessed to Anthony that he returned to BJ’s and shot two men, showed her a 9-mm, and burned his clothes.
Other trial witnesses (Pace, Chatmon) corroborated the meeting of the two cars and that Jones left angry and rode off with Griffey in a red car; a mattress fire was reported near Jones’ mother’s apartment the same day.
The defense called Christopher Coddington, who described the shooter running northwest from BJ’s; Jones did not testify.
Jones was convicted of first-degree murder by a jury and sentenced to life imprisonment; he appealed solely on sufficiency of the evidence as to identity of the shooter.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Sufficiency of evidence to identify shooter	State: Witness testimony (Bullard, Anthony, others) and circumstantial evidence sufficiently identify Jones as shooter	Jones: Identification was not proved beyond a reasonable doubt; key testimony uncorroborated and contradicted by other evidence	Affirmed: Viewing evidence most favorably to State, a rational juror could find Jones was shooter beyond a reasonable doubt

State v. Olbricht, 294 Neb. 974 (appellate sufficiency-of-evidence standard)
State v. Rocha, 295 Neb. 716 (appellate review does not reweigh evidence or assess witness credibility)