Caylor v. State, 54440
| Decision Date | 14 September 1983 |
| Docket Number | No. 54440,54440 |
| Citation | 437 So.2d 444 |
| Parties | David CAYLOR v. STATE of Mississippi. |
| Court | Mississippi Supreme Court |
Vernon L. Witherspoon, Irving, Tex., for appellant.
Bill Allain, Atty. Gen. by Bill Patterson, Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen., Jackson, for appellee.
Before WALKER, ROY NOBLE LEE and HAWKINS, JJ.
David Caylor filed an instrument designated as "Petitioner's Original Application for Writ of Habeas Corpus" in the Circuit Court of Jackson County, Mississippi, for the purpose of vacating his guilty plea to the offense of armed robbery on the first day of December, 1981. After a full evidentiary hearing, the lower court, Honorable Clinton E. Lockard, presiding, denied the relief prayed for and dismissed the petition. Caylor has appealed here. We affirm.
The appellant has assigned four errors in the trial below. They are interrelated and all may be considered together. Appellant contends under those assignments (1) that the lower court erred in failing to have a pretrial jury resolve the mental competency of appellant to stand trial; (2) the physicians evaluating appellant, his trial counsel and the lower court all used the unconstitutional M'Naghten rule to determine appellant's competency to stand trial and enter the guilty plea; (3) the question of appellant's mental competency was improperly determined and his guilty plea was involuntary; and (4) appellant's counsel under the totality of the circumstances was ineffective in his representation of the appellant.
Mississippi Code Annotated § 99-13-11 (1972), provides the following:
In any criminal action in the circuit court in which the mental condition of a person indicted for a felony is in question, the court or judge in vacation on motion duly made by the defendant, the district attorney or on the motion of the court or judge, may order such person to submit to a mental examination by a competent psychiatrist selected by the court to determine his ability to make a defense; provided, however, any cost or expense in connection with such mental examination shall be paid by the county in which such criminal action is pending. (Emphasis added)
The purpose of the above statute is to avoid placing an accused on trial unless he is capable of conducting a rational defense by intelligently conferring with his counsel. Tarrants v. State, 236 So.2d 360 (Miss.1970); Frierson v. State, 250 Miss. 339, 165 So.2d 342 (1964); McGinnis v. State, 241 Miss. 883, 133 So.2d 399 (1961).
In Emanuel v. State, 412 So.2d 1187 (Miss.1982), this Court addressed the question as to whether the lower court erred in refusing to grant a jury hearing on the question of the defendant's mental competency to stand trial. The Court said:
The trial of a defendant, when his mind is so clouded that he cannot remember and intelligently relate what occurred at the time of the commission of the alleged offense, is a denial of due process and contrary to public policy, and when it appears to the trial court that there is a probability that defendant is incapable of making a rational defense, the trial should not proceed until the defendant's mental condition has been investigated and it appears that he is sufficiently rational to make a defense. [Citations omitted]. .
In the case sub judice, appellant and his father had been drinking at King's Inn, Jackson County, Mississippi. They left the establishment and were approaching their automobile in the parking lot when appellant told his father that he was going back to get some cigarettes. Appellant went inside, robbed the place, and returned to his father's car without disclosing what he had done, and they drove away. The incident occurred on May 31, 1981, and, subsequently, they were arrested near Pascagoula for the crime. Both were indicted, and on December 1, 1981, appellant exonerated his father, entered a plea of guilty in the Circuit Court of Jackson County, Honorable Robert T. Mills, presiding, for armed robbery and was sentenced to seven (7) years in custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections, without parole.
Prior to the guilty plea, appellant's trial attorney, after discussing instances of appellant's emotional instability (obtained from appellant's mother, Mrs. Caylor), filed a motion for psychiatric examination of appellant, which was granted. He was evaluated by a clinical psychologist with the Singing River Mental Health and Retardation Services, Dr. John Stoudenmire, and a psychiatrist, Dr. William D. Bridges. Mrs. Caylor was not satisfied with their findings and evaluations, and employed another psychiatrist, Dr. Else Tracy, to evaluate her son. Appellant's attorney studied the evaluations and reports, conferred with appellant and his mother and advised that, in his opinion, a guilty plea would be in appellant's best interest. After thorough consideration and understanding of what the guilty plea involved, appellant entered the plea, and a complete record and transcript was made at the time it was accepted. On the hearing to vacate the guilty plea, that transcript and the evidence before the sentencing judge was presented to the court. Pertinent parts follow.
Trial attorney Sigalas testified:
A. After I ... after I advised his mother and David of what had happened, of what the doctors' reports were, then we determined that it would be of no use to have a competency hearing. In my opinion, the evidence against him was overwhelming. I had ... I had no reasonable reason to believe that a competency hearing would have any results any different.
Q. Alright. So, it's your position that he had no right to a competency hearing.
A. No, I didn't say that.
* * * [After objection]
Q. Now, did David or his mother ever discuss with you the possibility of having a competency hearing?
A. No, I discussed it with them. I explained ... I explained primarily to David's mother ... is who I had most of the conversations with, and I asked her did she think that they would be in his best interest and she said, "I really don't know." She said, "You ought to discuss it with David." David told me he wanted to plead guilty and be done with it. I told him, I said, "At this hearing," I said, "what will be placed in issue is whether or not you are competent to stand trial." I had no reason for him ... after the doctors had evaluated him and read them reports, I had no reason to believe that David wasn't competent to discuss it with me. (Emphasis added)
Dr. John Stoudenmire, the psychologist who evaluated appellant, testified:
Q. Now, Doctor, did this defendant at any time exhibit any characteristic or any condition which would prevent him from correctly and from intelligently communicating with his lawyer?
A. No, sir.
Q. Did he at any time display any characteristic which would prevent him from relating the...
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