Clayton v. State, 91-KA-00459-SCT

• Decision Date: 09 March 1995
• Docket Number: No. 91-KA-00459-SCT,91-KA-00459-SCT
• Citation: 652 So.2d 720
• Parties: Bessie Marie CLAYTON, v. STATE of Mississippi.
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court

Page 720

652 So.2d 720

Bessie Marie CLAYTON, v. STATE of Mississippi.

No. 91-KA-00459-SCT.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

March 9, 1995.

David O. Bell, Oxford, for appellant.

Michael C. Moore, Atty. Gen., Deirdre McCrory, Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen., Jackson, for appellee.

Before PRATHER, P.J., and PITTMAN and McRAE, JJ.

PITTMAN, Justice, for the Court:

STATEMENT OF THE CASE

On March 31, 1989, pursuant to Sec. 97-3-19(1)(b) of Mississippi Code Annotated, Bessie Marie Clayton was indicted for the Depraved Heart Murder of her daughter Anginetta Clayton. A trial on the merits was had on April 9th and 10th, 1990. Subsequent to the State resting its case, the defense moved for a directed verdict, which was overruled by the trial court. The defense then proceeded with its case and put on Linda Clayton and Carolyn Clayton, two of the defendant's sisters. At the close of all the evidence, the defense renewed the motion for a directed verdict, which was in turn overruled by the trial court. After being instructed on murder and manslaughter, the jury found the Defendant guilty of murder. ¹ The court on April 12, 1990, entered a Judgment of Conviction and Sentence of life imprisonment. In addition, the court ordered that "the sentence of life imprisonment imposed hereinabove shall be consecutive to the sentence previously imposed by this Court in Lafayette County Circuit Court cause number 12,921." ²

Subsequently and on April 19, 1990, Defendant filed a Motion for J.N.O.V. or in the alternative for a New Trial. Thereafter on April 30, 1990, the lower court overruled said Motion.

Clayton appeals to this Court and assigns the following as reversible error:

I. THE TRIAL COURT ERRED IN OVERRULING APPELLANT'S MOTION FOR DIRECTED VERDICT BOTH AT THE END OF THE STATE'S CASE AND AT THE END OF THE CASE BECAUSE THE STATE'S EVIDENCE WAS INSUFFICIENT TO PROVE BEYOND A REASONABLE DOUBT AND TO THE EXCLUSION OF EVERY HYPOTHESIS CONSISTENT WITH HER INNOCENCE THAT THE DEFENDANT HAD COMMITTED AN ACT EMINENTLY DANGEROUS TO OTHERS AND EVINCING A DEPRAVED HEART, REGARDLESS OF HUMAN LIFE

II. THE ADMISSION OF CERTAIN PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE BODY HAD NO PROBATIVE VALUE AND WAS PREJUDICIAL

STATEMENT OF THE FACTS

Bessie Marie Clayton, a resident of Oxford, Mississippi, had five children. Bessie and her children lived in a trailer off of Highway 30 with her mother and two sisters, Carolyn and Linda. She at times also resided with a man in a home off of South Lamar street. The following summarizes the additional facts developed at trial.

F.A. Buddy Roy

Buddy Roy, Lafayette County Medical Examiner, arrived at the Clayton trailer around 6:00 P.M. on January 17, 1989. He saw a child wrapped in a blanket on the couch and was informed that the child had been dead for a period of time. When Roy arrived, Bessie Marie Clayton and Carolyn Clayton were present in the trailer. Roy proceeded to take photographs of the scene. The child was then transported to the hospital and an autopsy was performed the next day, January 18, 1989, by Dr. Brooks Allison. Roy was present when the autopsy was performed but took the photographs of the body prior to the autopsy being performed. Roy described the child's skin as "leathery like" and the photographs depicted "severe dehydration ... and also depicts a dilated anal canal." While at the hospital, Roy also examined the child's medical records.

At the scene of the death, Roy inquired of Bessie Marie about any medications that the child was taking and was shown a bottle of Dilantin with the date of prescription being January 6, 1989. Roy further testified that The bottle ... was prescribed for a total of 240 cc of Dilantin. It was approximately 12 cc's of medication removed from the bottle, and on the prescription I noticed that the medication was to be given a dosage of 4 cc's three times per day. The child's death occurred on January 17, 1989. The total usage from the bottle should have been approximately 120 cc's of Dilantin under normal usage.... It was approximately 12 cc's only used from the bottle.

Roy testified that the certificate of birth for Anginetta LaWan Clayton showed that she was born on May 12, 1986. The certificate of death showed that she died on January 17, 1989, as a result of "renal thrombosis with infarcts, both kidneys due to consequences of severe dehydration, severe malnutrition, inanition and starvation."

After being informed by Clayton that she was the child's mother and the "child had been sickly on several occasions", Roy called Sheriff Buddy East.

F.D. "Buddy" East

Lafayette County Sheriff Buddy East arrived at the hospital and proceeded to view the deceased. East knew that Clayton had other children and that the Welfare Department "had been working with Ms. Clayton about her children...." He called the Welfare Department who sent representatives to the hospital that night. After receiving a verbal court order to remove the rest of the children from the trailer, East and the representatives went to the trailer. East testified that the trailer was "dirty, nasty, filthy; and we took the children at that time into custody and turned them over to the Welfare Department." East stated that he didn't see any food in the home and that "it wasn't fit for a dog to live in." While at the trailer, East also recovered the bottle of Dilantin. The Sheriff called Bessie Marie Clayton in and informed her that he was going to charge her "if this baby died from malnutrition or died from not being properly cared for." During this exchange, Clayton informed East that she "didn't stay out there all the time: that she lived on North Lamar...." East testified that Bessie Clayton (defendant's grandmother) was present in the trailer when the authorities arrived to collect the children.

Dr. Joe Harris

Harris, a practicing pediatrician in Oxford, Mississippi, saw and treated Anginetta Clayton on several occasions. Harris first treated Anginetta in October of 1986. He testified that the child had numerous medical problems including: microcephaly (where the head is very small because the brain does not grow) and spastic quadraplesis (where both arms and legs were very stiff). At the time he first treated Anginetta, she was 6 months old and weighed 16 pounds "which is fairly normal for that age." Anginetta was hospitalized in November of 1986 for bronchiolitis and was later sent to Le Bonheur Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, for further neurological evaluation. ³ On January 30, 1987, Anginetta was seen by Dr. Walcott for a seizure disorder in the Oxford, Mississippi emergency room. She was given Phenobarbital for the disorder and weighed about 15.4 pounds. During a follow-up visit with Dr. Harris the next day, Harris diagnosed Anginetta with an ear infection in both ears. Anginetta was hospitalized from May 14th through May 16th, August 22nd through August 25th, and again in September of 1988, for status epilepticus/repeated seizures. At the time of the September 1988 hospitalization, Anginetta weighed 16.5 pounds. Harris prescribed Dilantin for the seizures and stated that nausea and vomiting were common side effects.

Harris testified as to the birth defects including the microcephaly, stiffness and seizures and stated:

She didn't develop normally like a normal child would be expected to develop and grow and thrive.... The nerves to all her body her arms and legs were affected ... they were what we call spastic, very stiff.... She had developed seizures; and this again, is probably from her congenital problem. So she was on medication for her seizures.

* * * * * *

She couldn't really do a whole lot of anything. Her mother had to take care of her all the time. She required pretty much constant care. Feedings were difficult too. The child couldn't take normal feedings and couldn't be fed like a child her age should be fed or feed herself. She had to be fed and cared for continuously, ... She never developed past a three or four month's age level as far as she had developed and as far as she was ever going to develop.

Harris stated that the child's condition and ailments warranted placing the child in a medical facility for constant care but that there was not a facility that would take a child of that age.

Harris also testified that he informed Clayton that if Anginetta was not given her medication and taken proper care of, she could die. Finally, Harris labeled the condition and decline of the child from September of 1988 until January of 1989 as noticeable and "a chronic process."

Ultimately, Harris testified that notwithstanding all of her illnesses and conditions, Anginetta should have demonstrated an "upward trend in her growth pattern." He further stated that:

The precipitous drop we see in her weight shortly before death and the autopsy report, showing renal vein thrombosis, and severe inanition or severe malnutrition doesn't reflect her disease process. Her disease doesn't cause that. With proper care she still would have grown somewhat, but she didn't. She lost weight.

Dr. Brooks Allison

Dr. Allison, a pathologist for Oxford-Lafayette Hospital, performed the autopsy on Anginetta Clayton on January 18, 1989, and determined the cause of death. Allison stated that blood clots had formed in the child's veins which drain the kidneys as a result of severe malnutrition and dehydration. Allison discussed and described the total lack of moisture in the skin, the presence of dry fecal material in the child and the process causing the renal thrombosis with acute infarcts. Allison said the fecal material was "entirely consistent with severe dehydration of the body." He further stated that the material "could have been there a very long time" and that the baby could have been given food and was not at that time able to digest it. In his report, Allison also used the term "marasmic", which describes "babies that had severe protein and calorie deprivation or malnutrition ..." Dr. Allison determined that the...