Davis v. State
| Decision Date | 17 December 1992 |
| Docket Number | No. 90-KA-0560,90-KA-0560 |
| Citation | 611 So.2d 906 |
| Parties | Charles Ralph DAVIS v. STATE of Mississippi. |
| Court | Mississippi Supreme Court |
Michael Adelman, Adelman & Steiner, Hattiesburg, for appellant.
Michael C. Moore, Atty. Gen., John R. Henry, Jr., Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen., Jackson, for appellee.
Before HAWKINS, P.J., and PITTMAN and ROBERTS, JJ.
Charles Ralph Davis appeals his conviction in the circuit court of Marion County of the crimes of being an accessory before the fact to burglary and accessory before the fact to rape of his wife by another man. Finding no error, we affirm.
Davis and his wife, Toni Sue Davis, in July, 1989, lived in a house trailer in a rural area of Marion County. 1 Davis was employed as a crane operator for B & S Welding out of Grand Isle, Louisiana, and Mrs. Davis was employed as a sales clerk by Wal-Mart in Columbia. There were two children from the marriage: Wendy Ann, eight; and Dustin, three or four years old.
On the morning of July 18, Davis went to see his wife at Wal-Mart and adjusted the clutch on her automobile. After he repaired her car, she thought he left for his job in Louisiana. However, around 9:30 that night, Davis came to their trailer and asked her for some money. An argument ensued, he became angry and upset and appeared to have been drinking. He left approximately ten minutes later, she thinking he was on his way to work.
Some time around 2:00 or 2:30 a.m. on Wednesday morning, July 19, 1989, Mrs. Davis awakened to find a strange man in the bedroom. Wendy Ann Davis, who had been upset by her parents' argument earlier that evening, was asleep with her mother in her parents' bed during this time. Mrs. Davis became alarmed when she realized that the man was neither her husband nor her son. She noticed that the man was black and wearing light colored clothing. In explicit words, he told Mrs. Davis that he wanted to have sex with her, and threatened to kill her. After the man threatened both her and her children, he then attempted to force Mrs. Davis to perform oral sex upon him. When she refused, he fondled her and raped her. During this time, Mrs. Davis did not scream or yell because of the fear that it would awaken Wendy Ann.
After raping her the man asked her where she kept her money and jewelry, and proceeded to rummage through the bedroom, bathroom, and closets. The man found two shotguns (which were normally kept loaded) in the bedroom closet and set them outside the closet door. Mrs. Davis then told him that she kept money in her purse, which was in the kitchen. He then went into the kitchen, got her purse, and told her to place a pillowcase around her head so that her eyes would be covered.
Mrs. Davis was then told to lie on her stomach. She again felt someone upon her. Someone got on top of her and tried to have anal intercourse with her. Her struggling aborted this attempt. She was then turned partially over and a foreign object of some type was forced into her vagina. This act was repeated three to four times. Mrs. Davis was unable to control her screams of pain. She was also able to glance across the bed from under her blindfold and see the black man holding Wendy Ann's mouth shut. During this assault Mrs. Davis bit her assailant's arm. The assailant in turn held a pillow over her face until she stopped struggling. Mrs. Davis was not able to see her assailant at any point during the second attack, nor did she know when the second man entered into and left the bedroom, only that there were two men. After it was over, she heard two vehicles crank up. One of them sounded like her husband's Bronco because of the "high pitched whine" it made.
Mrs. Davis gathered her children, placed a pillowcase between her legs due to her heavy bleeding, placed one of the shotguns, which had been left on the porch, in the car and drove to the home of her sister-in-law, Deborah Carpenter, some five to seven miles' distance. The children got out of the car and banged on the door.
Sometime around 3:00 a.m. on July 19, Deborah Carpenter, Davis' sister, awoke to the sound of a car horn, pounding on the door, and voices screaming, "Aunt Debbie, open the door." She opened the door and saw Wendy Ann and Dustin. She asked the children what was wrong and Wendy Ann cried, Carpenter asked her who the people were, and Wendy Ann replied, "[t]hat black man and my daddy." Deborah Carpenter then dressed and got in the car with Mrs. Davis in order to accompany her to the hospital. The children remained at the house with Carpenter's boyfriend. Carpenter recalled that there was a great deal of blood on Mrs. Davis and in the car. Carpenter also testified that Mrs. Davis was hysterical at this point but continued to drive.
Upon her arrival at the Marion County Hospital sometime after 3:00 a.m., Dr. Jerry Fortenberry initially treated Mrs. Davis' injuries, and then called Dr. Marie LaGarde. Dr. LaGarde arrived at the hospital around 5:00 a.m. that same morning in order to assist in treating Mrs. Davis who had suffered a massive vaginal hemorrhage.
Dr. Marie LaGarde determined that the injuries necessitated immediate surgical repair.
Dr. LaGarde found from the massive bleeding that Mrs. Davis' blood pressure was unstable and she required two liters of fluid and blood. In performing surgery, Dr. LaGarde found small bruising in the perineal area outside the vagina, and a small laceration under the ureter where the urine evacuated. Dr. LaGarde also found "numerous tears around the rectum." When the dressing which had been used to stop vaginal bleeding was removed, Dr. LaGarde found a Dr. LaGarde also found two other lacerations. The lacerations Dr. LaGarde excluded both a fist and a penis as having caused the injuries, the first because to have caused this injury in such a manner would have required great force and caused great bruising outside the vagina. She did not believe a fist could have been inserted in the vagina. Dr. LaGarde eliminated a penis because it could not have caused such an injury to the vagina.
A fist could not have done it. A penis could not have done it. A knife would not have done it. This was not a sharp, clean cut. It was a laceration. It would have had to have been an object small enough to enter a woman's vagina and it would have to have had some sort of blunt end. A bottle of some type--I've seen these types of lacerations with coke bottles because they're ideally suited. They have a neck, and you can grab them, and you can shove them and get enough force to cause this type of laceration, something like that, or a flashlight which might have a--a narrow neck handle which you could grab and get enough force, something like that.
Sheriff Webbie McKenzie and Mason Sistrunk, Criminal Investigator for the D.A.'s office, were called to the hospital around 4:00 a.m. on the morning of July 19. After speaking with Mrs. Davis and Deborah Carpenter, Sistrunk and Officer Colon Williamson went to the Davis trailer. They found Mrs. Davis' abandoned purse, made photographs of the bedroom, and gathered certain evidence, including the sheets and pillowcases on the bed.
Charles Ralph Davis was arrested in Grande Isle, Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, and was returned to the Sheriff's Department in Marion County, Mississippi.
On August 3, 1989, sometime after 3:00 p.m., Davis, in custody of the Sheriff at that time, was questioned by Investigator Sistrunk and Sheriff McKenzie. During the questioning period, both an oral and a written statement were obtained from Davis. Sistrunk testified that he began by reading Davis the Miranda warning. Initially, Davis denied having any connection with the crimes committed. After further questioning, and once McKenzie revealed to Davis that he had checked with Davis' employer and discovered that he had not been at work in Louisiana on July 18-19, 1989, Davis gave his side of what happened. According to the officers' testimony, Davis was cooperative throughout the remainder of the interrogation and he did not request to see his family or an attorney.
In his statement, Davis said that on the night of July 18-19, he left his home, bought approximately $80.00 worth of cocaine and "gave myself a shot of cocaine." 2 Somewhere along the bypass near Columbia, Davis picked up a black man who was hitchhiking. The two men drove around Marion County for a couple of hours and then they went to the Davis trailer. Davis also stated that he and Brown discussed Brown going inside to get some money but they did not discuss Brown raping Mrs. Davis. Davis gave Brown his key and waited approximately thirty minutes before Brown returned with a metal box. Davis then stated that he "shot up several more times" and they drove to Louisiana where Davis dropped Brown off and went on to work. The statement was read over by Davis and he signed it in the presence of Officer Sistrunk while the Sheriff was outside room. Finally, the officers questioned Davis about a mark on his upper arm. Davis replied that it was caused by an injury offshore while he was at work.
Mason Sistrunk set up an appointment for Charles Davis to see Dr. Michael West, a forensic dentist in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.
The grand jury of Marion County on September 28, 1989, indicted Davis and one Lawrence Brown under a four count indictment. Count One charged Brown with burglary of the house trailer with intent to commit a sexual battery, rape and aggravated assault upon Mrs. Davis, and Davis with being an accessory to this burglary in assisting, encouraging and abetting Brown's entry...
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