Dille v. State

• Citation: 334 So.3d 1162
• Decision Date: 24 August 2021
• Docket Number: 2019-KA-00855-COA
• Parties: Lincoln DILLE a/k/a Lincoln Dille II, Appellant v. STATE of Mississippi, Appellee
• Court: Court of Appeals of Mississippi

334 So.3d 1162

Lincoln DILLE a/k/a Lincoln Dille II, Appellant

v.STATE of Mississippi, Appellee

NO. 2019-KA-00855-COA

Court of Appeals of Mississippi.

August 24, 2021

Rehearing Denied December 7, 2021

ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLANT: OFFICE OF STATE PUBLIC DEFENDER BY: MOLLIE MARIE McMILLIN, LINCOLN DILLE (PRO SE)

ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLEE: OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL BY: ASHLEY LAUREN SULSER

BEFORE WILSON, P.J., McDONALD AND McCARTY, JJ.

McDONALD, J., FOR THE COURT:

¶1. Lincoln Dille appeals his first-degree murder conviction for the 2014 shooting and death of Kanisky Lacey. Dille's first trial in 2018 ended in a mistrial when the jury could not reach a verdict. He was retried in April 2019 and convicted. On appeal, Dille's appointed counsel raised several issues. Dille himself filed a supplemental brief pro se raising other issues. After a review of the record and arguments of the parties, we affirm Dille's conviction and sentence of life imprisonment.

Facts

¶2. In December 2013, Dille moved into an apartment with his girlfriend, Rosemary Johnson, in Jackson, Mississippi. Johnson had been in previous relationships, including one with Lacey, with whom she had a child. When Johnson and Lacey's relationship ended, Johnson moved on, but Lacey harbored ill feelings. Lacey resented Johnson's subsequent boyfriends and threatened both Dille and Arcola, Johnson's boyfriend before Dille. After several threatening encounters with Lacey, Dille secured a peace bond and bought a gun to protect himself.

¶3. On February 18, 2014, Johnson and Dille went to a gas station where Lacey had insisted she meet him to exchange custody of their two-year-old child. There the fatal shooting occurred. A security camera from the gas station captured the incident, but the video had no audio. The tape shows Johnson and Dille parking her vehicle near the street, away from the store and the gas pumps. Johnson was driving, and Dille was in the passenger seat. Lacey drove up in his car and parked across the front of Johnson's car, about three to four feet away. Lacey got out of the driver's side of his car, facing Johnson's car, and opened the back door on the same side where the child was sitting in a car seat. Simultaneously, Dille exited Johnson's car, holding a gun by his side, and started to walk toward the store. The video shows that Lacey looked at Dille and started to speak to him. Dille looked back at Lacey who was approximately ten to fifteen feet away. The two exchanged words while Dille paced, still at a distance. Lacey gestured, pointing to Johnson's car. Dille rushed about four steps toward Lacey, pointing his gun at Lacey. But then Dille lowered the gun and backed off. Seeing this, Lacey leaned into the back of his car with his body facing forward and gestured toward Dille with his outside hand, as if he was pointing at Dille. As Lacey leaned in, Dille rushed forward and shot Lacey eight times. Dille was about three to four feet from Lacey when Dille killed him. At this point, Johnson got out of her vehicle and ran to Lacey. She heard Lacey say to Dille, "Why did you shoot me?" Johnson, obviously hysterical, ran back behind her car and then toward another car in the parking lot. Dille continued to pace until the police arrived, moments later, at which time Dille lowered himself, face first, to the ground. The time between Lacey's arrival and the shooting was less than a minute. The police arrived about forty-five seconds after the shooting and placed Dille under arrest. Dille told the officer that he had a peace bond and that he shot Lacey in self-defense.

¶4. Dille was indicted on April 24, 2014, on charges of first-degree murder in violation of Mississippi Code Annotated section 97-3-19(1)(a) (Supp. 2013) and shooting a firearm into a vehicle in violation of Mississippi Code Annotated section 97-25-47 (Rev. 2006). The indictment also noted that Dille used a firearm during the commission of a felony. Because of his indigent status, Dille was appointed counsel from the public defender's office. On June 20, 2014, Dille requested discovery, a speedy trial, and a plea offer. On June 30, 2014, Dille was arraigned and pleaded not guilty. His trial was set for December 8, 2014.

¶5. Dille was not tried until June 2018. In the interim, the record reflects that in October 2014, when his attorney left the public defender's office, the circuit court appointed Dille another attorney and Dille's trial was continued "to the next criminal term."¹ On May 13, 2016, Dille moved to continue the trial due to outstanding discovery. During its investigation of the crime scene, Jackson Police Department (JPD) detectives confiscated three cell phones. On May 18, 2016, Dille moved for funds to employ an expert in cell phone data retrieval. Dille's trial was reset for July 25, 2016. Dille also filed a motion to set bail. No order was entered on these motions.

¶6. The case was reset for December 13, 2016, and at that time, the circuit court continued the trial because "defendant needs to get order for defense funding signed to get an expert."

¶7. There were several other motions and orders before the case was finally reset for trial to begin on June 11, 2018.² Dille filed several pre-trial motions, including motions in limine to exclude autopsy photographs; to order the State to refrain from referring to Lacey as a "victim"; to depose the State's expert from the Mississippi Analysis and Information Center of the Mississippi Office of Homeland Security who did a forensic search of the cell phones confiscated; to order the production of the recording of the 911 call; and to exclude the store surveillance video. The State moved to exclude toxicology evidence obtained during Lacey's autopsy, to exclude evidence of Lacey's prior criminal record, and to exclude evidence of how long Dille had been incarcerated prior to trial. The circuit court ordered the production of the 911 recording, but the record does not contain rulings on the other motions.

¶8. Dille's trial, which began on June 11, 2018, ended in a mistrial on June 14, 2018, because the jury could not agree on a verdict. Thereafter, the circuit court reduced Dille's bail to $50,000.³ The State chose to continue prosecuting the case, and a retrial was set for November 13, 2018. Because Dille was unable to secure the transcript of the first trial by that date, the circuit court continued his trial and reset it for April 8, 2019.

¶9. Prior to Dille's second trial, he filed several motions, including a motion to preclude the State from calling "surrogate medical examiners" to testify who were not present at Lacey's autopsy.⁴ The State filed the same pre-trial motions that it had filed in the first trial. The State added a motion requesting the court to allow Johnson to testify to Lacey's last words, which the court had excluded in the first trial. The State also moved to exclude any questioning of Officer Lincoln Lampley concerning any pending investigations of him on an administrative matter.

¶10. On March 28, 2019, and April 8, 2019, the circuit court heard arguments on these motions. The circuit court denied the defense's motions to exclude the store surveillance video and to prevent Dr. Mark LeVaughn from testifying.⁵ The circuit court granted the State's motion to exclude any questions to Officer Lampley about his administrative leave. The court also allowed Officer Lampley to testify as to his observations that the child was covered in blood. The court also ruled that Johnson could testify about what Lacey said to Dille in his dying breath ("Why did you shoot me?").

¶11. Dille's second trial began on April 9, 2019. After extensive questioning by both the State and the defendant during voir dire, the circuit court excused a number of potential jurors for cause. Thereafter, when the State used ten peremptory challenges, all of which struck black jurors, Dille raised a Batson challenge.⁶ In response, the State presented various reasons for its strikes, which the court accepted.

¶12. The State called as witnesses Detective Daryl Owens, Investigator Mamie Barrett, Dr. Mark LeVaughn, and Officer Lincoln Lampley. Through Detective Owens, the State entered the surveillance video as evidence, which was shown to the jury several times. Owens had arrived on the scene after the shooting and spoke to Dille, who said that he shot Lacey because he (Dille) was scared. Dille also told Owens that Lacey had previously threatened him and that he had obtained a peace bond against Lacey. Owens said no gun was found on Lacey or in Lacey's vehicle. Owens further testified that a peace bond is meant to keep people away from each other, but that night, Dille purposely came to where he knew Lacey would be. On cross-examination, Owens agreed that a peace bond is different from a restraining order.

¶13. The State's next witness was Crime Scene Investigator Mamie Barrett, who testified about the crime scene photos she took the night of the shooting. Two photos showed the bloodied body of the deceased still positioned in the opening of the back-seat passenger door. The court overruled Dille's objections to the photos, and they were admitted. Barrett also testified about the photos she took later while she was processing the car, as well as the bullet fragments and shell casings she collected at the scene. She explained how the trajectory of the bullets was reflected in the photos.

¶14. Dr. Mark LeVaughn, the Chief Medical Examiner for the State of Mississippi, testified next. He had been a forensic pathologist for thirty-two years and was accepted, without objection, as an expert witness. Over Dille's objection, the court admitted Lacey's autopsy photos, which showed the eight gunshot wounds to Lacey's body. Two grazed the surface of the skin; six entered and exited through the body. LeVaughn also testified about the trajectory of the bullets that caused these wounds. Despite Dille's objection, the court allowed LeVaughn to opine that several of these...