State v. Howell

A Tennessee state jury convicted Michael Wayne Howell (defendant) of the first-degree felony murder of Alvin Kennedy, and Howell was sentenced to death. Howell stole a company truck from his former employer, went joyriding with his girlfriend, Mona Lisa Watson, and robbed a 7-Eleven convenience store, shooting Kennedy, the store clerk. Howell and Watson then drove to Oklahoma, where Watson helped Howell dump and torch the company truck. Minutes later, Howell shot and killed Charlene Calhoun in an apartment parking lot, and Howell and Watson stole Calhoun’s car. A few weeks later, police arrested Watson and Howell in Florida after a shoot-out and high-speed chase. Watson had been driving Calhoun’s stolen car, and police found a gun on the passenger-seat floor near where Howell had sat. Ballistics tests concluded that the gun had fired the bullets that killed Kennedy and Calhoun. Watson testified against Howell at Howell’s preliminary hearing in Oklahoma state court for Calhoun’s murder. During cross-examination, Howell’s public defender asked Watson questions about Kennedy’s murder in Tennessee. The Tennessee trial court allowed the government (plaintiff) to introduce Watson’s preliminary-hearing testimony at the Tennessee trial. Watson did not testify at either of Howell’s trials. Howell appealed from his Tennessee conviction, arguing in relevant part that the trial court’s admission of Watson’s preliminary-hearing testimony violated Howell’s constitutional right to confront witnesses. Howell emphasized that different attorneys represented him at the trials, and his Oklahoma lawyer had no motive to develop facts regarding Kennedy’s murder.