Bright v. State, No. 2006-KA-01970-COA.

• Decision Date: 04 March 2008
• Docket Number: No. 2006-KA-01970-COA.
• Citation: 986 So.2d 1042
• Parties: Keith BRIGHT a/k/a Lewis Keith Bright, Appellant, v. STATE of Mississippi, Appellee.
• Court: Mississippi Court of Appeals

986 So.2d 1042

Keith BRIGHT a/k/a Lewis Keith Bright, Appellant, v. STATE of Mississippi, Appellee.

No. 2006-KA-01970-COA.

Court of Appeals of Mississippi.

March 4, 2008.

Rehearing Denied June 10, 2008.

Leslie S. Lee, Jackson, attorney for appellant.

Office of the Attorney General, by John R. Henry, attorney for appellee.

Before MYERS, P.J., GRIFFIS and CARLTON, JJ.

CARLTON, J., for the Court.

¶ 1. Keith Bright was convicted by a Circuit Court of Montgomery County jury for the crime of aggravated assault. He was sentenced to serve twenty years in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections, with six years suspended and five years of post-release supervision commencing upon his release from confinement, the remaining fourteen years to serve.

¶ 2. On appeal, Bright challenges the weight and sufficiency of the evidence and the trial court's refusal to give a lesser-included offense jury instruction for the crime of simple assault. We find no error and affirm.

FACTS

¶ 3. Several months prior to the incident at issue, Bright's mother, Patsy Hart, met the victim, Bob Woods, on a Saturday night at a nightclub in or near the City of Starkville, Mississippi. After some discussion on the topic of occupation, Hart and Woods made arrangements for Hart to come to Woods's home the following Monday to clean his house for a fee. As agreed, Hart went to Woods's home on Monday. According to Hart, Woods forcefully raped her as she entered his bedroom to clean it. After the incident, Hart confided in three of her closest friends, as well as her daughter. Hart stated that did not tell Bright about the alleged rape because "that is just something a mother don't want their son to know."

¶ 4. Six months later, Bright found out about the incident from his sister. On February 25, 2006, several days after learning that his mother had been raped, Bright and his uncle, Donny Meadows, drove to the Four D Grocery in Stewart, Mississippi to purchase beer. Bright asked the cashier where Woods lived, and the two men then drove a short distance to Woods's home. Upon their arrival, Bright got out of the vehicle and went to the front door; Meadows stayed in the vehicle.

¶ 5. According to Woods, he answered a knock at the front door; and Bright asked him if he was Bob Woods, to which he answered, "I am." Bright then asked if his mother had cleaned Woods's house. Woods claimed that he was unable to answer the question because he did not know Bright's identity. Before Woods could do or say anything, Bright hit him. As Woods fell to the ground, he grabbed Bright's leg. According to Woods, Bright jerked his leg loose causing injury to his arm. The last thing the sixty-seven year-old Woods claimed to remember was being kicked by Bright while lying on the front porch.

¶ 6. Bright admitted that he was very upset, but he testified that he went to Woods's house only to ask him a few questions and find out his version of the story. According to Bright, Woods answered the two questions he posed to Woods, stating that he was Bob Woods and that Hart had cleaned his house a few months earlier. Bright testified that he then said to Woods, "you like to take advantage of women, don't you?" Woods asked what he meant by that question. Bright claimed he then told Woods that his mother had informed him that she had been raped, whereupon Woods "grabbed towards" Bright. Meadows also testified that Woods "throwed up" as if he were ready to fight. Bright admitted that he hit Woods twice in the face, landing the second blow as Woods fell to the ground from the impact of the first blow. Bright claimed that he then walked back to the truck and left. Bright also testified that he "didn't mean to hurt [Woods] that bad." Bright further testified that he drove past Woods's house later the same day to check on him, and he also had someone in his family call to check on Woods.

¶ 7. On February 26, 2006, Glen Amison, a deputy sheriff with the Montgomery County Sheriff's Department, arrested Bright at Hart's house. Officer Amison testified that Bright told him that he went to Woods's house to "whoop that man's a—."

¶ 8. Bright was indicted by a grand jury in the Circuit Court of Montgomery County for the crime of aggravated assault under Mississippi Code Annotated section 97-3-7(2)(a) (Rev.2006). At trial, Bright, Meadows, Hart, Woods, and Amison testified in accordance with the facts mentioned above. Dr. Joseph Boggess, one of Woods's treating physicians, was also called as a witness. He testified that Woods had "significant injury to his facial bones." Dr. Boggess stated that Woods's eye socket bones and nasal bones were broken and that Woods's cheek and jaw bones were "sheared away from the scull." Dr. Boggess performed surgery to repair Woods's face using plates and wires to reconstruct the broken bones. At the time of trial, Woods's bones had healed, but he was still experiencing numbness in his face.

¶ 9. At the close of the evidence, counsel for Bright proposed a jury instruction on the lesser-included offense of simple assault. The trial court refused to give the instruction. After deliberation, the jury returned a verdict of guilty of aggravated assault. Bright's post-trial motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict and, in the alternative, for a new trial was denied. Bright now appeals.

DISCUSSION

I. Weight and Sufficiency of the Evidence

¶ 10. Bright was indicted for aggravated assault under Mississippi Code Annotated section 97-3-7(2)(a), which provides that "[a] person is guilty of aggravated assault if he (a) attempts to cause serious bodily injury to another, or causes such injury purposely, knowingly or recklessly under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life. . . ."

1. Weight of the Evidence

¶ 11. Bright argues that the trial court erred by denying his motion for new trial. A motion for new trial challenges the weight of the evidence. Jones v. State, 962 So.2d 1263, 1277(54) (Miss. 2007). We review the denial of a motion for new trial under an abuse of discretion standard of review. Id. On appeal, we view the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict and will not reverse unless "it is so contrary to the overwhelming weight of the evidence that to allow it to stand would sanction an unconscionable injustice." Bush v. State, 895 So.2d 836, 844(¶ 18) (Miss.2005).

¶ 12. Bright argues that his conduct did not under the circumstances manifest extreme indifference to the value of human life. He claims that the evidence only established that he hit Woods twice in the face. Bright also points to his trial testimony that he went to Woods's house to confront him and that he never meant to seriously injure Woods. Bright further claims that he did not act with extreme indifference because he drove past Woods's house to check on him after the incident, and he had someone in his family call to check on Woods. For these reasons, Bright argues that the jury's verdict was against the overwhelming weight of the evidence.

¶ 13. This issue turns largely on Bright's intent, which is a question for the jury. Chambliss v. State, 919 So.2d 30, 35(15) (Miss.2005) (citing Shanklin v. State, 290 So.2d 625, 627 (Miss.1974)). Intent is determined by "`the act itself, surrounding circumstances, and expressions made by the actor with reference to his intent.'" Id. (quoting Shanklin, 290 So.2d at 627). "Aggravated assault has been determined by the Mississippi Supreme Court not to be a crime of specific intent." Hogan v. State, 854 So.2d 497, 500(12) (Miss.Ct.App.2003) (citing McGowan v. State, 541 So.2d 1027, 1029 (Miss.1989)).

¶ 14. We note that, as written in section 97-3-7(2)(a), the phrase "purposely, knowingly or recklessly under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life" is written in the disjunctive. Thus, the State was required to prove that Bright either: (1) purposely caused serious bodily injury, or (2) knowingly caused serious bodily injury, or (3) recklessly caused serious bodily injury under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life. We do not interpret section 97-3-7(2)(a) to require a finding of extreme indifference if the State is able to prove that the defendant acted purposely or knowingly.¹ Therefore, we reject Bright's argument to the extent that he claims the State was required to prove that he acted with extreme indifference to the value of human life.

¶ 15. With this in mind, we do not find the jury's verdict to be against the overwhelming weight of the evidence. The evidence adduced at trial, when viewed in the light most favorable to the verdict, substantially supports the conclusion that Bright purposely or knowingly caused serious bodily injury to Woods. Most significantly Bright admitted hitting Woods. Bright told Officer Amison that he went to Woods's house to "whoop that man's a—." Woods clearly suffered serious bodily injuries. Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict, we do not find that allowing Bright's conviction to stand would sanction an unconscionable result. This issue is without merit.

2. Sufficiency of the Evidence

¶ 16. Bright argues that the trial judge erred by denying his request for a peremptory instruction and denying his motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict (JNOV). A motion for JNOV and a peremptory instruction both challenge the legal sufficiency of the evidence. Shumpert v. State, 935 So.2d 962, 966(8) (Miss.2006). On appeal, we review the sufficiency of the evidence on the last occasion the challenge was made at trial. Townsend v. State, 939 So.2d 796, 801(23) (Miss.2006) (quoting McClain v. State, 625 So.2d 774, 778 (Miss.1993)). In the instant case, Bright's motion for JNOV was the last occasion that the trial court ruled on the sufficiency of the evidence. The relevant inquiry is "whether, after viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the...