US Supreme Court denies Miss. appeal petition

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - The U.S. Supreme Court declined Monday to hear an appeal from an inmate seeking a new trial for the 2006 robbery and shooting of two people in their north Mississippi home.

Yasmin Hughes, now 24, is serving 30 years in prison on one count of armed robbery and two counts of aggravated assault.

Court documents say Hughes and Adrion Webster walked up to the Louisville, Mississippi, home claiming to have run out of gas and asked to use the phone.

When the homeowner, Jack Warner, turned to go back inside the home, he was shot three times and his wife, Pat, was shot once when she came to the door to see what had happened, according to those record. Warner and his wife recovered from their wounds. Jack Warner testified at Hughes' trial in Winston County.

In his appeal, Hughes argued he had no knowledge prior to the robbery and shootings that they would take place. He argued there was no evidence to prove he was an accomplice to the crime until after it had occurred.

Prosecutors argued Hughes deliberately associated himself with Webster with the intention of robbing the Mississippi couple. Prosecutors said Hughes knew that violence was possible because he knew Webster had a gun.

The state Court of Appeals and the Mississippi Supreme Court both upheld Hughes' conviction.

Hughes appealed to federal court, and a district court judge in Mississippi granted his request for a hearing. The State of Mississippi appealed to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans.

A three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit ruled in April that the Mississippi federal court had no jurisdiction over the case. The panel said Hughes didn't provide any evidence to support his arguments that decisions by the state courts were wrong.

Hughes filed an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court in last August.