Ronk v. Mississippi
Annotate this CaseIn, 2008, emergency personnel responded to reports of a house fire in Biloxi. In their efforts to extinguish the flames, firefighters discovered the remains of a human body in a bedroom of the house. Dental records would later identify the body as thirty-seven-year-old Michelle Lynn Craite. Craite's autopsy revealed multiple stab wounds to her back in addition to severe burns that destroyed her flesh down to the bone. Evidence indicated that Craite was still alive and breathing during the fire. A forensic pathologist opined that the stab wounds likely were the cause of Craite's death, however, he noted that the stab wounds also incapacitated Craite so that she could not escape from the fire. A Harrison County jury found Timothy Ronk guilty of capital murder of Craite and sentenced him to death. The jury also found Ronk guilty of armed robbery, and the trial court sentenced him to thirty years' imprisonment. Ronk appealed his convictions and sentences to the Supreme Court. Finding no error in the culpability phase or in the sentencing phase, the Supreme Court affirmed.
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