Anderson v. State
| Decision Date | 13 April 2023 |
| Docket Number | 2022-KA-00007-SCT |
| Parties | SAMUEL HUNTER ANDERSON v. STATE OF MISSISSIPPI |
| Court | Mississippi Supreme Court |
ATTORNEY FOR APPELLANT: OFFICE OF STATE PUBLIC DEFENDER BY GEORGE T. HOLMES
ATTORNEY FOR APPELLEE: OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL BY: BARBARA WAKELAND BYRD
DISTRICT ATTORNEY: RICHARD EARL SMITH, JR.
BEFORE KING, P.J., COLEMAN AND BEAM, JJ.
¶1. A jury found Samuel Hunter Anderson guilty of the murder of his grandmother, Evelyn Davenport. On appeal, Anderson asserts that the trial court erred by refusing an accident-or-misfortune jury instruction and by admitting evidence of Anderson's other bad acts.
¶2. In September 2020, Anderson and his girlfriend, Rhae Ann Height, were living on his grandmother Evelyn Davenport's property in the pool house behind Davenport's house. Height was scheduled to be in court in Simpson County on the morning of September 25 regarding a pending possession of methamphetamine indictment. The night before, she and Anderson stayed at a friend's house where they used methamphetamine. Height testified they had not slept in three days.
¶3. Before heading to Simpson County, they drove to Davenport's house. Height testified that Anderson got out of the car and went inside. She heard Anderson and Davenport talking loudly. Then, Height saw Anderson come back outside, grab an unloaded shotgun from the backseat,[1] and load it before walking back inside with a look "like he was going to kill somebody." Height said she was scared and yelled at Anderson. After Anderson walked inside, Height moved to the driver's seat and quickly left the property. She picked up her friend Scott Noland, who gave her gas money so she could make it to court. But Height and Noland were stopped by police before Height made it to Simpson County. Height gave a statement and was later released.
¶4. Anderson's sister Halley Wells also lived on her grandmother's property with her four children. When she returned to the property that morning after taking her children to school, she pulled into the driveway and saw a white Mustang that she had never seen before.
Height was inside the car, and Anderson was outside. Wells testified that it appeared they were arguing. Wells testified that this sort of bickering was unusual for Height and Anderson. At that moment, Wells saw Anderson leave the car with a gun, and she saw Height move to the driver's seat and leave. Wells watched her brother go into their grandmother's house with the gun, and then she heard a gunshot. Wells immediately tried to call her grandmother, who did not answer, and then she called 911. As Wells was talking to the 911 dispatcher, she saw Anderson run out of the house twice. The second time, he came out with the gun which he ran to hide in a shuttered crawl space under the house. Wells told the 911 dispatcher and responding police officers what she had seen.
¶5. Investigator Zach Primeaux responded to the scene. He and another officer entered the home and spoke to Davenport. She told the officers that her grandson-Anderson-had shot her with a shotgun, and Investigator Primeaux saw what looked like a gunshot wound to Davenport's abdomen. Davenport was transported by ambulance to UMMC.
¶6. Dr. Chinenye Iwuchukwu, a trauma surgeon, treated Davenport at the hospital. Dr. Iwuchukwu testified that Davenport was unstable and had an extensive amount-between fifty and one hundred-shotgun pellets in her abdomen. Dr. Iwuchukwu performed several surgeries to remedy the trauma to Davenport's abdomen and bowels, but Davenport did not recover, and she died thirteen days after being shot.
¶7. Because of her injuries, Investigator Primeaux could not speak to Davenport except for their on-scene conversation. Based on the information Anderson's sister Wells had provided to the dispatcher, Deputy Dustin Keys searched the crawl space under the house and retrieved a shotgun. As officers were preparing to approach the pool house on the property where Anderson lived, Anderson approached the officers from the street. Anderson was arrested and transported to the Warren County Jail.
¶8. At trial, Anderson testified in his own defense. He testified that the night before the shooting, Height had asked him to go with her to her court appearance. Anderson testified that he had lent his truck to a friend and was driving that friend's Mustang. After a night of partying, where he and Height both got high on methamphetamine, Anderson testified that they returned to his grandmother's house so they could shower to get ready to go to court.
¶9. Anderson testified that when he told his grandmother he planned to take Height to the courthouse, she told him she did not want him to go. When he asked her for gas money, she refused. Anderson testified that his grandmother could likely tell that he was high, which might have been the reason she did not want him going with Height.
¶10. Then, Anderson went to the Mustang to retrieve the shotgun. Anderson testified that he knew the gun had been inside the Mustang since the night before, though he could not remember why it was there or why Height had it. He testified that because he had a prior felony conviction he did not want to travel with the gun, particularly to court, so he retrieved the gun (without looking at it or checking to see if it was loaded) to take it inside. He testified that his plan was to take the shotgun inside without his grandmother seeing it and place it in a closet. But, when he got inside, his grandmother could tell Anderson was hiding something, and she walked up and "snatched the gun" from him causing it to go off. Anderson testified that his grandmother fell to the ground, and, at that point, he panicked and might have dropped the shotgun. Anderson testified that after his grandmother had been shot, she fell to the ground, but she managed to get up and go to her bedroom. Anderson testified that he was shocked because he "was mainly high on an illegal substance, methamphetamine." When asked why Height testified that he had an angry look before going inside with the gun, Anderson testified he did not know why she said that. He also denied taking a shell from the car's console and loading the gun. But he testified that he did not believe Height would lie about him. He admitted that he put the gun under the house but claimed he did so because he knew he "wasn't supposed to be around a gun" and was nervous and scared. Anderson testified that by the time he came outside, Height and the Mustang were gone.
¶11. Anderson testified that he left in a panic and headed toward his dad's house, which was within walking distance. He testified that he fell in a ditch and caught his breath. He knew no one would be home at his dad's house, so he kept running to where his friend Chase Cook lived. Anderson testified that he banged on Cook's door, but no one answered. Anderson testified that he called Cook in a panic but never got in touch with him. By then, Anderson heard sirens and went back home where he was arrested.
¶12. Anderson testified that he could not recall being mad at his grandmother, though he admitted they might have had an argument that morning. He said that he did not take the gun inside intending to shoot her and that he had only intended to leave the gun inside. He said his grandmother did nothing to provoke or enrage him.
¶13. Dr. Mark LeVaughn reviewed Davenport's medical records and performed Davenport's autopsy. Dr. LeVaughn testified that the gunshot that impacted Davenport was at close range, if not within skin-contact (both scenarios would produce the same wound). Dr. LeVaughn concluded that Davenport's cause of death was a gunshot wound to the abdomen and that the manner of death was homicide.
¶14. The State rested its case-in-chief at the close of Dr. LeVaughn's testimony, and the trial court denied Anderson's motion for a directed verdict. After considering the evidence and instructions that were given, the jury found Anderson guilty of murder. Anderson timely appealed.
¶15. Anderson submitted an accident-or-misfortune jury instruction under Mississippi Code Section 97-3-17(a) and (b), which provides:
Miss. Code Ann. § 97-3-17 (a), (b) (Rev. 2020).
¶16. Anderson's proposed instruction read:
¶17. The State objected, and the trial court found the instruction unsupported by the evidence. This Court reviews jury instructions under an abuse-of-discretion standard. Nelson v. State, 284 So.3d 711, 716 (Miss. 2019) (citing ...
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