Booker v. State
| Decision Date | 23 June 2011 |
| Docket Number | No. 2008–CT–02054–SCT.,2008–CT–02054–SCT. |
| Parties | Chad BOOKERv.STATE of Mississippi. |
| Court | Mississippi Supreme Court |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
T.K. Moffett, Amory, attorney for appellant.Office of the Attorney General by Laura Hogan Tedder, attorney for appellee.EN BANC.
ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI
¶ 1. Chad Booker was convicted of manslaughter in the Tippah County Circuit Court, Judge Henry L. Lackey presiding, and was sentenced to twenty years in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections, with ten years suspended and five years of post-release supervision. Booker appealed, and we assigned this case to the Court of Appeals. After the Court of Appeals affirmed the trial-court judgment, we granted Booker's petition for writ of certiorari. Finding that no reversible error occurred at trial, we affirm the judgment of the Court of Appeals affirming the Tippah County Circuit Court judgment.
¶ 2. The following history has been developed from the facts and trial-court proceedings as set forth in the Court of Appeals' opinion. Booker v. State, 64 So.3d 988, 992–95 (¶¶ 2–11) (Miss.Ct.App.2010). We will add additional facts found in the record as needed for the sake of today's discussion.
¶ 3. The events that set Booker's conviction into motion began as a dispute between neighbors who all lived near the intersection of County Roads 813 and 817 in the Palmer Community of Tippah County. That dispute culminated in the death of sixty-one-year-old David White. White and his adult son, Keith White (Keith), owned an all-terrain vehicle (ATV) shop that was located behind White's house. Booker's parents, Buster and Frieda Booker, lived across the street from White. Booker, who had his own home near his parents and White, was a twenty-three-year-old veteran of the United States Army at the time his dispute with White arose. As of March 2007, Booker operated an auto body shop and studied radiology at Blue Mountain College.
¶ 4. On Saturday, March 10, 2007, White and Keith were working at their ATV shop. Booker drove a 1990s model Ford Mustang by the ATV shop. According to Keith, Booker drove the Mustang past the shop at approximately seventy-to-eighty miles per hour. Booker and his passenger, Tyler Medlin, disputed Keith's estimate of their speed. They testified that Booker was driving at a speed between forty and fifty miles per hour when they passed the Whites' ATV shop. White was of the opinion that Booker had been driving too fast. When White and Keith heard the Mustang coming back, White went outside and flagged Booker down. According to both Booker and Medlin, White had come running outside and angrily told Booker that he was driving too fast. When Booker said that he was test driving the Mustang because he could not get it to shift into third gear, White said, “Not on my d–––road!” Medlin and Booker both later testified that Booker had remained calm and told White that he should call the authorities if he had a problem. When White returned to his house, he did exactly that.
¶ 5. Unfortunately, that was not the end of the dispute. According to Keith, later that evening, Booker had stopped at the end of White's driveway, put his truck in neutral, and revved the engine. Keith testified that Booker had driven past White's house approximately four times that night, and on his last pass, he had yelled “f––– you.” Shade White (Shade), Keith's son and White's grandson, also testified that he had heard Booker's truck stop in front of the house either four or five times and that he had heard Booker rev his engine.
¶ 6. White's wife, Charlotte, testified that Booker's parents each had called their house on Sunday afternoon at separate times regarding the confrontation between White and Booker. According to Charlotte, the call from Booker's parents had led to a discussion about whether White should apologize to Booker. White had not thought he needed to apologize to Booker. However, Charlotte testified that the last thing she had heard White say regarding the subject was, “I'm going to apologize.”
¶ 7. It is undisputed that Booker beat White to death the next evening. Phillip “Possum” Nance gave statements to Terry Cox, an investigator employed by Booker's defense attorney, and Agent John Hillhouse of the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation (MBI). In both statements, Nance said that Booker had stopped by his used-car dealership on March 12. According to Nance, Booker had told him about his confrontation with White two days earlier. Nance stated that Booker had been confused as to why White had called the police. Nance told Agent Hillhouse that Booker had been calm and that he had not said anything about retaliating against White. However, Nance also said that, according to Booker, during the confrontation the previous Saturday, Booker had told White that he (White) could call the authorities, or he (Booker) could get out of the Mustang so they could “settle it like men.”
¶ 8. On Monday, March 12, 2007, Keith and White were returning home from picking up an ATV. Keith testified that, on their way home, they saw Booker at his shop, and they waved at him. Keith testified that Booker had waved back. Booker later corroborated Keith's testimony. According to Keith, after they had arrived at their shop, White decided to go apologize to Booker in an attempt to make peace. Keith testified that he had watched White drive his Yamaha Rhino ATV to Booker's house. Keith had gone back in the shop. Keith also testified that White had appeared calm when he had left. When White arrived at Booker's property, Booker was placing trash in the bed of a truck parked near the end of his driveway, which connects to the county road.
¶ 9. According to Booker, White had come “flying down [County Road] 813” to his property in a Rhino 1 “and kinda spun like he was going to do a U there” in Booker's driveway. Booker explained that White had parked in his driveway,2 turned off the Rhino, got out of it quickly, and told Booker that he had to talk to him. Booker testified that he had told White to leave his property because he did not want to talk to him. Booker also testified that White had said, “You're going to talk to me.” According to Booker, White had attempted to grab Booker's collar with one hand and tried to punch him with the other hand. Booker testified that he had grabbed White's wrist, and while pulling White toward him, he had punched White in the face three times. Booker further testified that White had stumbled away and had sat back down in the Rhino.
¶ 10. Booker walked away from the scene of the altercation. According to Booker, White had been still standing when he had left. Booker later explained that he had walked down the road and called his cousin Wendell Booker (Wendell). Booker asked Wendell to come get him because he “had been in a bad situation.” Shortly after Wendell had picked him up, Booker's mother called him. Booker returned to his shop, where he was taken into custody by officers with the Tippah County Sheriff's Department.
¶ 11. Brenda Morgan, a certified nurse who formerly had worked in the emergency room and intensive-care unit of the local hospital, happened to drive by the scene a short time later. Morgan knew White, but she did not recognize him. She stopped solely because she saw someone slumped over in an ATV. White was unconscious and slumped over the center console of the Rhino. The left side of White's face was extremely swollen, and he was bleeding from both ears and his nose. Blood was on the center console shift handle. White's glasses were in the county road, adjacent to the Rhino,3 and his baseball cap was on the passenger-side floorboard of the Rhino. Morgan did not detect a pulse on White's wrist or his neck. Morgan called 911, and then she and Jeff Butler, who also had stopped as he drove by, got White out of the ATV and began to perform CPR. Another of White's neighbors, Clinton Bryant, drove by and noticed that something appeared to be wrong with White. Bryant found Keith and told him that White appeared to need help. When Keith arrived at Booker's house, he found Morgan and Butler tending to his father. Despite the efforts of emergency responders, White was unable to recover from his injuries.
¶ 12. Booker was indicted for murder. He pleaded not guilty, and the case ultimately went to trial. At the conclusion of Booker's trial, the circuit court instructed the jury on murder and manslaughter; the jury found Booker guilty of manslaughter. Booker, 64 So.3d at 992–95 (¶¶ 2–11).
¶ 13. Before the Court of Appeals, Booker raised the following six issues: (1) the circuit court erred in denying Booker's motions for a directed verdict, judgment notwithstanding the verdict, and a new trial; (2) the circuit court failed to properly instruct the jury; (3) the circuit court erred in allowing Morgan to give opinion testimony; (4) the circuit court erred in allowing Shade to testify; (5) the circuit court erred in refusing to admit evidence offered by Booker; and (6) the circuit court erred in allowing testimony concerning where White's cap was found. Booker, 64 So.3d at 994–95 (¶ 11).
¶ 14. The majority for the Court of Appeals found no merit in Booker's arguments.4 After the Court of Appeals denied Booker's motion for rehearing, Booker filed a petition for writ of certiorari, asking us to consider several issues, including the issue of whether the trial court erred in failing to grant a directed verdict of acquittal under the Weathersby rule. Weathersby v. State, 165 Miss. 207, 147 So. 481, 482 (1933). In granting certiorari, we have the authority to “limit the question on review.” 5 Miss. R.App. P. 17(h). Brown v. State, 39 So.3d 890, 895 (Miss.2010) (citing Brown v. State, 986 So.2d 270, 272 n. 1 (Miss.2008); Dora v. State, 986 So.2d 917, 921 n. 8 (Miss.2008)).
¶ 15. We specifically note...
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