OKTIBBEHA COUNTY – The Mississippi Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the conviction of a man found guilty of shooting and paralyzing a victim during an attempted robbery in Starkville.
Savion Winters, 30, was sentenced to 15 years in prison for aggravated assault and attempted armed robbery following a 2024 trial in which jurors heard testimony from two co-defendants, an Oktibbeha County Sheriff’s Office investigator and the victim.
In an appeal, Winter’s argued that “self-serving” witness testimony and lack of physical evidence warranted a new trial. The Supreme Court disagreed and affirmed the original conviction.
The case dates back to April 25, 2022, when Starkville police responded at about 11 p.m. to reports of gunfire at Yugo Starkville Campus Common, formerly called 21 Apartments. There, investigators found a man lying just inside the door to his apartment with a gunshot wound through his chest, according to Supreme Court documents.
At the scene, the victim told police he was “set up” and shot by a man wearing a ski mask. Winters, who was later identified as the masked gunman, fled before officers arrived while one of his co-defendants, Zykyrus Johnson, stayed to render aid to the victim.
According to court records, Johnson testified he knew the victim through their shared job and had gone to his apartment with Winters and a second co-defendant, Asheem Harris, to buy $10 of weed. However, Johnson said while driving to the victim’s apartment, Winters began complaining about needing money, and all three men quickly devised a plan to rob the victim.
Johnson testified that after the victim opened his door, Winters entered behind him and attempted the robbery. When the victim drew his own firearm at the men in self-defense, Winters opened fire, striking him in the chest before fleeing.
Hearing the gunshots, the victim’s roommates came out and called 911.
At the scene, as the victim lost consciousness, Johnson told investigators he was the victim’s cousin and did not know who shot him. Days later, he allegedly had someone contact the authorities to tell them Winters was the shooter.
After several days hospitalized in Memphis, Tennessee, the victim was interviewed by an OCSO investigator. According to victim testimony, the investigator told him Winters was a person of interest.
The victim then found Winters’ Facebook page and positively identified him as the shooter because he matched the physical characteristics visible beneath the ski mask – a “stocky” Black male who was bald and had a beard.
At trial, prosecutors relied on testimony from Johnson, Harris and the victim. They also presented Winters’ cell phone, which was recovered at the scene, and license-plate reader data from a roundabout located in front of the complex, which showed Winter’s vehicle traveling toward and away from the area around the time of the shooting.
Winters did not testify and did not put on a defense after the prosecution rested its case.
In his appeal, Winters alleged Johnson and Harris’ testimonies were too untrustworthy and inconsistent to support the verdict. The Supreme Court, however, found “no merit” to the claim, writing that although the witnesses’ accounts contained minor inconsistencies, they were not so “unreasonable, improbable, or self-contradictory” to cast doubt on Winters’ guilt.
The court also emphasized that evaluating witness credibility is the responsibility of jurors, who are instructed they may “accept the testimony of some witnesses and refuse that of others.”
Winters further argued the victim’s identification of him as the shooter was unreliable and improperly influenced. However, the court ruled that issue could not be considered on direct appeal because Winters did not raise the objection during trial or challenge the testimony when it was presented.
Finally, Winters pointed to the prosecutions’ inability to produce the firearm used in the shooting, as well as the absence of DNA or forensic evidence linking him to the crime.
The Supreme Court concluded the evidence presented at trial – including the cellphone recovered at the scene, license plate reader data and witness testimony – was sufficient to uphold the jury’s verdict.
Separately, Johnson pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and Harris pleaded guilty as an accessory to aggravated assault and attempted robbery.
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