Expose v. State
| Decision Date | 25 October 2012 |
| Docket Number | No. 2010–CT–01256–SCT.,2010–CT–01256–SCT. |
| Citation | 99 So.3d 1141 |
| Parties | Anthony Mercie EXPOSE v. STATE of Mississippi. |
| Court | Mississippi Supreme Court |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Office of the Public Defender by W. Daniel Hinchcliff, attorney for appellant.
Office of the Attorney General by W. Glenn Watts, attorney for appellee.
EN BANC.
ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI
¶ 1. A jury in the Stone County Circuit Court found Anthony Mercie Expose guilty of having forcible sexual intercourse with Shannon M. Bessee. The Court of Appeals reversed and remanded his conviction because it found that the trial court had erred in refusing an instruction that would have informed the jury that consent is a defense to forcible sexual intercourse and that the State had the burden of proving that Bessee had not consented. We find that the trial court did not err in refusing this instruction. Additionally, we find that the post-trial discovery of a domestic-violence conviction involving Bessee's husband does not warrant a new trial. Therefore, we reverse the judgment of the Court of Appeals and affirm the verdict and sentence of the Stone County Circuit Court.
¶ 2. On March 24, 2009, Shannon M. Bessee moved to Wiggins, Mississippi, to live with her then-fiancé, Jason Bond. The couple was expecting their first child.
¶ 3. Three days later, Bessee; Bond; Bond's friend, Quantis Husband; and Quantis's girlfriend traveled to a Biloxi casino for an evening of entertainment. Around midnight, the party returned to the home shared by Bessee and Bond. What then happened in the early morning hours of March 28, 2009, is disputed. Bessee claimed that Anthony Mercie Expose, an old friend of Bond's, raped her. Expose acknowledged that he and Bessee had sex, but he asserted that it was consensual. Both Bessee and Expose testified at trial.
¶ 4. During their drive home from the casino, Bessee and Bond got into an argument. As a result, the two of them slept in separate rooms that night. Bessee fell asleep before Quantis and his girlfriend left.
¶ 5. Around 2:30 a.m., Bessee awoke to a man standing over her. It was Expose, whom she knew as a friend of Bond's. Three days earlier, Bond had introduced Bessee to Expose's family at the local Walmart. Additionally, Bond and Bessee had given Expose a ride home on one occasion.
¶ 6. Bessee asked Expose how he had gotten into the house. Expose said that the door had been unlocked and that he had come to visit. She told him that it was not a good time and that he needed to leave. Expose tried to engage in conversation and eventually asked Bessee if she would drive him to a friend's house. After trying unsuccessfully to wake Bond, Bessee agreed to give Expose a ride.
¶ 7. Bessee was unfamiliar with the area, so Expose directed her where to go. After driving for some time, Expose asked her to stop the vehicle and wait a few minutes; he said that he had to talk to someone or do something. Bessee complied, and minutes later, Expose returned. They repeated stops like this one or two more times. Bessee said that she did not know what Expose did during those stops.
¶ 8. They drove around for approximately twenty or thirty minutes, with Expose directing Bessee to turn this way and that. Bessee became confused as to where they were. She began to be concerned. “I could feel that something wasn't right,” Bessee said.
¶ 9. Finally, they turned onto a “gravel, red-dirt road” that had a house at the end of the road. The house was completely dark and there were no streetlights around.
¶ 10. Expose asked Bessee to turn off the vehicle's headlights; he then got out. Bessee locked the doors, but the driver's side window remained slightly open. Expose walked to the driver's side, reached through the window, unlocked the door, and pulled Bessee out of the vehicle. He then dragged her down an embankment, pushed her face down into an ant bed, and began trying to remove her clothes. Bessee pleaded for Expose to stop. But the more she resisted, the more aggressive he became. He put his elbow on her throat, removed her pants, and forced her to have sex.
¶ 11. Afterward, Bessee had bugs and ants crawling all over her body and biting her. She and Expose returned to the vehicle. Before doing so, however, Bessee decided to leave a piece of evidence at the scene. Bessee said. Exhibit S–2 is a picture of the alleged crime scene showing a pair of black, Nike sandals lying on the ground.
¶ 12. Expose demanded that Bessee take him to a friend's place. As they pulled onto the main road, Expose began smoking a pipe. Expose told Bessee to stop in front of what appeared to be an apartment complex. As Expose exited the vehicle, Bessee kicked him out the door. She then sped off and eventually found her way home.
¶ 13. At home, Bessee woke Bond and told him what had happened. They drove immediately to the Wiggins Police Department. An ambulance took Bessee to the Stone County Hospital where she underwent a rape-kit examination. The nurse who examined Bessee described her as teary and disheveled, and said that she had a lot of dirt on her. Bessee complained of cramping in her vaginal area and pain in her face and throat. She had bruises on her hands, wrists, and knees. And she had ant bites everywhere—“hundreds and hundreds of them,” Bessee said. Eddie Rogers, an investigator with the Stone County Sheriff's Department, saw Bessee at the hospital and noticed the ant bites. Rogers said. Four days later, “pussy, boil-looking sores” broke out all over Bessee's body. Exhibits S–5, S–6, and S–7 show pictures of ant bites on Bessee's hand and legs.
¶ 14. In addition to receiving medical care at the hospital, Bessee spoke to police. She identified Expose as her assailant from a photo lineup.
¶ 15. Expose maintained that he and Bessee had consensual sex on the night in question. He stipulated to DNA testing, which showed that the semen taken from Bessee belonged to him.
¶ 16. Expose testified that Bond had introduced Expose to Bessee before she had moved to Wiggins. He and Bessee “hit it off,” he said.
¶ 17. According to Expose, he and Bessee had had consensual sex four or five times during the week before the March 28 incident. On those prior occasions, she would pick him up at his house, and they would drive to a particular bridge and have sex under the bridge.
¶ 18. After spending the evening of March 27 at a club, Expose visited Bond's and Bessee's home at approximately 1:00 a.m. the next day. Bond, Bessee, Quantis, Quantis's girlfriend, and another man were there. Bond was asleep.
¶ 19. After awhile, Quantis, his girlfriend, and the other man left, leaving Expose and Bessee alone.1 They chatted awhile before they decided to go for a ride.
¶ 20. Expose said that Bessee offered to give him ten dollars and that he took the money. They then stopped by a friend's house, and he used the money to purchase crack cocaine. Bessee, who was questioned about this ten dollars during her testimony, did not recall giving Expose the money. “I know that there was $10 missing out of my car,” she said. In her written statement to the police, Bessee stated that she drove Expose to a friend's house, as he had requested, and that,
¶ 21. After Expose purchased the drugs, Bessee drove him around while he smoked the drugs. As they rode around, Bessee confided in Expose about all the arguments she had been having with Bond.
¶ 22. Eventually, they stopped somewhere and had consensual sex in the vehicle. Expose, at first, testified that they had had sex in the back of the vehicle. On cross-examination, Expose was asked how that was possible considering that Bessee drove a canvas-topped Jeep and that Expose was six feet, seven inches tall. Expose clarified that they had let the seat down.
¶ 23. After they had engaged in consensual sex, Bessee exited the vehicle in order to use the bathroom. Expose said that Bessee hurried back into the vehicle moments later. “[S]he jumped back in the vehicle, said [she] may have heard something, a dog [ ] barking or something like that,” he said. But, according to Expose, Bessee never complained of any ant bites. She did, however, express some anxiety. “She looked a little nervous about being out this time of night with me and what she may have to face when she go[t] home,” Expose said.
¶ 24. Bessee drove Expose to a neighborhood where a friend of his lived and let Expose out of the vehicle.
¶ 25. On cross-examination, the State confronted Expose with exhibits that showed pictures of Bessee's bruised shoulder and scratched-up knees. Expose said he had no idea how those injuries had happened. Also, he said that Bessee had never complained about any ant bites.
¶ 26. On redirect, Expose was asked what he knew of Bond's and Bessee's relationship. He said that Bessee would talk to him about the problems that she and Bond were having. And he said that he had witnessed physical confrontations between Bessee and Bond. “I've seen [Bond] a few times hit [Bessee] upside the head, push her down, threaten to kill her,” Expose said.
¶ 27. At the conclusion of trial, the jury found Expose guilty of forcible sexual intercourse, and the trial court sentenced him to thirty-five years in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections.
¶ 28. The following day, Expose filed a motion for new trial, or in the alternative, for a judgment notwithstanding the verdict. Expose argued, in part, that the State had failed to produce exculpatory evidence. The...
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