Baldwin v. State, No. 1998-KA-01507-SCT.

• Decision Date: 23 March 2000
• Docket Number: No. 1998-KA-01507-SCT.
• Citation: 757 So.2d 227
• Parties: Darnell BALDWIN a/k/a Bubba v. STATE of Mississippi.
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court

757 So.2d 227

Darnell BALDWIN a/k/a Bubba v. STATE of Mississippi.

No. 1998-KA-01507-SCT.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

March 23, 2000.

Richard Burdine, Columbus, Pearson Liddell, Jr., Louisville, Attorneys for Appellant.

Office of the Attorney General by Scott Stuart, Attorney for Appellee.

BEFORE PRATHER, C.J., SMITH AND WALLER, JJ.

WALLER, Justice, for the Court:

STATEMENT OF THE CASE

¶ 1. Darnell Baldwin was tried and convicted of capital murder in the Circuit Court of Lowndes County and sentenced to a term of life imprisonment without possibility of parole. He appeals to this Court raising three issues:

I. Whether the trial court erred in ruling that Ms. Anne Montgomery was qualified as an expert in DNA statistical analysis, and allowing her to testify regarding statistical analysis of the DNA evidence.

II. Whether the trial court erred when it denied the defendant a continuance to procure a population geneticist.

III. Whether the trial court erred when it admitted into evidence the oral statement of the defendant made to Lieutenant Eddie Coleman on April 12, 1996.

STATEMENT OF THE FACTS

¶ 2. Mary Elizabeth Dill ("Liz") was abducted from her home sometime during the night of April 5, 1996. Her husband, Bryan Dill, reported her missing shortly after 7 o'clock on the morning of April 6. Three days later, on the afternoon of April 9, 1996, her mutilated and partially decomposed body was found on a dirt road in rural Lowndes County, Mississippi.

¶ 3. Dr. Stephen Hayne, a pathologist for the Department of Public Safety and Medical Examiner's Office, performed an autopsy on the body. Liz's upper extremities (fingers, hands, and arms) showed signs of defensive posturing, indicating that she had attempted to protect herself from attack prior to her death. She also had seminal fluid in her vagina, which Dr. Hayne collected and sent for DNA testing. Dr. Hayne concluded that Liz had died as a result of a high velocity projectile which directly struck the back of her head and that the projectile was shot by a rifle from a range no closer than three feet. Her skin was removed over most of her face, neck, and chest area, from below the left breast, which was completely removed, over the right shoulder. Dr. Hayne testified the removal of the skin was performed with a sharp object following Liz's death.

¶ 4. The Lowndes County Sheriff's Department learned that Liz had visited the doctor on April 5, 1996, where she was treated for significant back injuries. She was prescribed three different medications, the combined effect of which would have made her drowsy and lethargic. Liz had sent her 15-month-old daughter, Taylor, to stay with her mother while she recovered.

¶ 5. Liz's husband, Bryan, left his wife at home alone and went to a cabin (commonly referred to as "the shack") that he and some of his hunting buddies rented. Bryan arrived at the shack around 8:30 or 9:00 p.m. on April 5, 1996, and did not leave until 5:30 the next morning. He and his friends cooked out and shared a keg of beer. The deputies interviewed the party attendees, learning that Darnell Baldwin and one of his brothers, Clint (also indicted, tried, and convicted of capital murder), arrived at the party in Baldwin's 1975 Monte Carlo and stayed for 15-20 minutes. One or both of the Baldwin brothers spoke to Bryan Dill while they were at the shack. Baldwin drove his 1975 Monte Carlo to the shack again in the early morning hours of April 6. Baldwin never left his car the second time he appeared at the shack and did not talk with Bryan Dill.

¶ 6. Having identified Baldwin as someone who had been at the shack, the deputies went to his home on April 9 to talk with Baldwin about the night of Liz's disappearance. During the interview the deputies noted that Baldwin was visibly shaken and that he was sweating, trembling, and chain smoking. Baldwin repeatedly refused the deputies' invitation to come to the Sheriffs Department for an interview, as well as the deputies' request to look inside the Monte Carlo car, which was parked in the yard. The deputies believed Baldwin's actions were suspicious. Unfortunately, after the deputies left Baldwin's house to arrange surveillance, Baldwin left in the Monte Carlo, and the Sheriff's Department was not able to locate the car until several months later.

¶ 7. On April 12, the deputies arrested Baldwin at his home for an unrelated armed robbery. After he was read his Miranda rights, Baldwin chose to talk to the Sheriff's Department. There was no evidence that the officers used threats, coercion, or force to make Baldwin talk. When asked the whereabouts of his car, he told the officers that his girlfriend had taken it to the Wal-Mart. Baldwin was handcuffed and remained on the premises while the deputies executed a search warrant of the residence. When no one returned with the car, the officers again questioned Baldwin about the location of the car. Baldwin offered to show the officers where his girlfriend may have taken the car. Over two hours after he was arrested and read his rights, Baldwin was placed in a patrol car with two officers who had not been present when Baldwin was advised of his right against self-incrimination. Baldwin was asked to direct the officers to the location of his car. He first directed the officers to some apartments, but the car was not present. The officers asked Baldwin which apartment his girlfriend lived in, and Baldwin replied that he was not sure and that maybe she lived in a house in the same general area to which he had led the deputies. After riding around in the vicinity for a short while, the officers abandoned their search for the car with Baldwin.

¶ 8. It was later learned that Baldwin had driven his car to his friend Richard Jones' house on April 10, 1996, claiming that he wanted his friend to look at the car because there was something wrong with it. The car remained parked at Jones' house until April 16 or 17, 1996, when Jones returned home to find the car gone. On April 17, 1996, Baldwin's lawyer telephoned the police and reported the car stolen. Over four months later on August 18, 1996, the car was found in Pickens County, Alabama. The car was completely burned from hood to trunk, including the tires, with only the hull remaining.

¶ 9. Lonnie Harris testified at trial that Baldwin told him that he had poured gasoline on the car and burned it. Harris was a fellow inmate at the Lowndes County Jail where Baldwin was imprisoned after his arrest. Harris further testified that Baldwin told him that Baldwin had raped, murdered, and "cut up" a woman and that the woman's husband had paid him $1,000 to do so.

¶ 10. The semen recovered by Dr. Hayne and the blood drawn from Baldwin were sent to a forensic DNA and molecular testing firm known as Gentest (now called Reliagene Technologies). At trial, Anne Montgomery, a molecular biologist employed by Reliagene, was qualified as an expert in molecular biology and DNA analysis. Montgomery testified that, after comparing the semen and the blood, she was unable to exclude Baldwin as the sperm donor. Montgomery further opined that it was 19 million times more likely that Baldwin was the sperm donor than any other individual of the African-American population. Stated in a more precise manner, of all of the members of the African-American population, the average occurrence of the genotype matching Baldwin's DNA is one in 19 million. See Hughes v. State, 735 So.2d 238, 264-65 (Miss.1999)

.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

¶ 11. The trial court has discretion in determining whether an expert is qualified to testify. Hall v. State, 611 So.2d 915, 918 (Miss.1992); Goodson v. State, 566 So.2d 1142, 1145 (Miss.1990). This Court should not reverse the trial court's ruling unless it can be shown that the trial judge abused his discretion or that the expert was clearly not qualified. Genry v. State, 735 So.2d 186, 198 (Miss.1999).

¶ 12. This Court reviews the denial of a continuance under an abuse of discretion standard and will not reverse a denial unless manifest injustice has resulted from the failure to grant a continuance. Johnson v. State, 631 So.2d 185, 189 (Miss. 1994).

¶ 13. A trial court is also given deference in the admissibility of an incriminating statement by a criminal defendant. In Hunt v. State, 687 So.2d 1154, 1160 (Miss.1996), this Court held that the defendant seeking to reverse an unfavorable ruling on a motion to suppress bears a heavy burden. The determination of whether a statement should be suppressed is made by the trial judge as the finder of fact. Id. "Determining whether a confession is admissible is a finding of fact which is not disturbed unless the trial judge applied an incorrect legal standard, committed manifest error, or the decision was contrary to the overwhelming weight of the evidence." Balfour v. State, 598 So.2d 731, 742 (Miss.1992); Alexander v. State, 736 So.2d 1058, 1062 (Miss.Ct.App.1999).

DISCUSSION

I. Whether the trial court erred in ruling that Ms. Anne Montgomery was qualified as an expert in DNA statistical analysis, and allowing her to testify regarding statistical analysis of the DNA evidence.

¶ 14. Generally, on a challenge to the admissibility of DNA evidence, a trial court will conduct a hearing pursuant to this Court's decision in Polk v. State, 612 So.2d 381, 390 (Miss.1992); such a hearing was held in this case. Under the test adopted in Polk, the Court should ask whether (1) there is a theory generally accepted in the scientific community which supports the conclusion that DNA testing can produce reliable results, (2) there are techniques capable of producing reliable results in DNA identification, and (3) in the case before the court, whether the testing laboratory perform generally accepted scientific techniques without error in the performance or interpretation of the tests. Id.

¶ 15. In Hull v. State, 687 So.2d 708, 728 (Miss.1996), this Court went one step further and...