Jones v. State

• Decision Date: 29 July 1992
• Docket Number: No. 89-KA-0875,89-KA-0875
• Citation: 606 So.2d 1051
• Parties: Clayton Michael JONES v. STATE of Mississippi.
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court

Page 1051

606 So.2d 1051

Clayton Michael JONES v. STATE of Mississippi.

No. 89-KA-0875.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

July 29, 1992.

Gene Brown, Meridian, for appellant.

Michael C. Moore, Atty. Gen., Charles W. Maris, Jr., Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen., Jackson, for appellee.

Before ROY NOBLE LEE, C.J., and ROBERTSON and SULLIVAN, JJ.

SULLIVAN, Justice, for the court:

I.

Clayton Michael Jones was indicted by a Lauderdale County grand jury for sexual penetration of his five (5) year old daughter, M.J., in violation of Miss.Code Ann. Sec. 97-3-95 (1972). Jones was tried before a jury and found guilty as charged. Jones was sentenced to thirty (30) years in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections, with ten (10) years suspended and five (5) years probation. Jones appeals to this Court and assigns as error:

1. Trial court did not have venue.

2. The trial court erroneously allowed the jury to hear and consider hearsay evidence.

3. The trial court erred in allowing the state to excessively lead the witness.

4. The trial court erred in refusing to grant instruction D-5.

5. The trial court erred in overruling the motions for directed verdict and motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict and/or new trial.

Finding no merit to these assignments we affirm.

II.

On the Wednesday after the Father's Day weekend of June 1988, Elaine Randall left her two children, five year old M.J. and four year old Billy with her friend Kathy Booth, while she and her husband, James Randall, went to play bingo. Billy was asleep in Booth's room and M.J. was playing with Booth's five year old son Bubba in his room. After a while they closed the door and Booth, thinking they had fallen asleep, went in to check on them. When she opened the door, she found her son lying on the bed, with only his shirt on, and M.J. next to him with his penis in her mouth. Booth separated the two children and sent M.J. to the living room. Booth then tried to talk to M.J. and asked her where she learned to do something like that. M.J. asked Booth that she not tell her mother and then said that she got it from her real daddy, Mike Jones; that he had showed her how to "suck his goober." Booth asked M.J. if any thing else happened and M.J. replied that he had stuck his finger in her "poo-poo." M.J. told Booth that this occurred in her father's trailer.

Booth informed Elaine about what had happened. The next day Elaine took M.J. to the welfare department, and then went to a doctor who examined M.J. From there they contacted Deputy Chuck Fowler at the Lauderdale County Sheriff's Department. Deputy Fowler, who specialized in child abuse investigations, interviewed M.J. on three separate occasions. Deputy Fowler used anatomically correct dolls to get M.J. to demonstrate what had happened to her. The dolls were labeled with family names, with the father figure labeled as Mike Jones, M.J.'s real father. M.J. undressed the doll that represented her and placed it face down in the lap of the father figure. On the basis of the demonstration, Deputy Fowler obtained a warrant for the arrest of Michael Jones.

Jones was arrested a few days later at his mother's house. On August 1, 1988, an indictment was filed by a Lauderdale County grand jury, indicting Jones for the wilful, unlawful, and felonious sexual penetration of M.J. in violation of Miss.Code Ann. 97-3-95 (1972). The case came to trial a year later, on June 28-30, 1989.

At trial Dr. Harriet Hampton testified that she initially examined M.J. on July 5, 1988. Her examination showed hymenal alterations. There was a disruption, laceration, or tear at the twelve and six o'clock positions. There was some mounding and scarring as well as generalized rounding of the hymenal borders. Dr. Hampton was asked what M.J. told her about what had happened. Over Jones' objection the trial court allowed Dr. Hampton to read from her report that M.J. said, while pointing to the vaginal region, that her father touched her and that she said that she did "suck Dad's drooper." Dr. Hampton recorded that M.J. indicated that it occurred some five times. Dr. Hampton stated that the physical exam was consistent with manipulation in the vaginal region.

Dr. Hampton did a culture of M.J.'s throat and mouth to determine whether or not a male penis had been in her mouth. There was no medical evidence that a male penis had been in M.J.'s mouth. She also indicated that it was possible that the hymenal alterations could have been caused by another traumatic event.

Elaine Randall, M.J.'s mother, testified that at the time of the incident she and M.J.'s real father, Michael Jones, were divorced and she was married to James Randall. She testified that there had been previous problems with M.J.'s vaginal area in January of 1988, from an alleged incident of molestation at school by other children. Elaine did not report this alleged molestation.

The Randall household consisted of Elaine and her husband, James, her stepson, James, Jr., and her two children M.J. and Billy. Her son from her first marriage also lived with them until he left in January of 1988. Elaine indicated that no one else had the access or time with M.J. to molest her. She denied ever leaving M.J. with her brothers, but testified that James babysat when he came in from work. On cross-examination, it was raised that James was an admitted child molester.

M.J., six years old at the time of the trial and found competent to testify, took the stand after her mother. During her testimony, M.J. demonstrated with the dolls what happened to her. She labeled the father doll as Mike. M.J. took one of the hands of the male doll and placed it in the genital area of the female doll. She placed the face of the female doll over the penis of the male doll. M.J. stated that the incident occurred in a trailer, but that it was not at her grandmother's trailer. M.J. did not know how she got to the trailer. On cross-examination, M.J. was asked whether she dreamed the incident or whether it really happened. She indicated that she did not know if it was a bad dream. On redirect she testified that the incident was real and that she had bad dreams about what happened.

Deputy Chuck Fowler testified about his interview with M.J. and her initial demonstration with the dolls. He stated that he got M.J. to name the dolls for the members of her family, naming the father figure after Jones, and that they eliminated nonessential members. He asked M.J. to show him what happened and what she had been required to do. M.J. proceeded to undress the dolls and place the face of the girl doll down in the lap of the male doll. He stated that no other suggestions were made to M.J.. Deputy Fowler testified that after a warrant was obtained, Jones was later arrested at his mother's home in Collinsville, Lauderdale County. Jones was found in a trailer next door to his mother's home.

Deputy Fowler was asked about the other male members of M.J.'s family and why he focused on Jones as a suspect. He stated that his first knowledge of Jones being a suspect was in the doctor's report. He also suspected Jones because of his interviews with Elaine. Deputy Fowler did suspect the stepfather and stepbrother because they were male figures in the house. He later found out that James Randall was an admitted child molester, but because of his cooperation he did not put him under the scrutiny of suspicion. Deputy Fowler stated that during the demonstration he suggested that M.J. name the father figure after her real daddy, Jones, instead of after her stepfather, because she had mentioned her real daddy in previous reports.

After the state rested, counsel for Jones moved for a directed verdict. The trial court overruled the motion.

Kathy Booth, testifying in the defendant's case, told how she found M.J. with her son's penis in her mouth. On cross-examination the state asked Booth what M.J. said to explain the incident. Booth stated that M.J. said that she was at her dad's trailer and that "he showed her to--how to suck his, goober." Booth testified that she asked M.J. what else happened, and M.J. responded that her father "stuck his finger in her poo-poo." Booth asked M.J. if she was sure it was her dad and she said yes. M.J.'s exact words were, "my real daddy, Mike Jones."

Jones' mother, Rosalee Andrews, testified as to Jones' infrequent visits with M.J. and Billy. She stated that Jones was on medication, which he took at night before he went to bed and which made him sleep through the night and late into the morning. The medication made it difficult to get Jones out of bed. She indicated that when M.J. and Billy were at her home, Jones had no opportunity to be alone with M.J. because there were too many children and grandchildren. She testified that Elaine allowed her to have M.J. and Billy during the Father's Day weekend of 1988. That Saturday afternoon, Jones and M.J. left to go to his girlfriend's house, where they spent the night. They returned that Sunday afternoon.

Mrs. Andrews testified that later that Sunday she gave M.J. a bath and M.J. indicated that she had some knowledge of male and female genitals. Mrs. Andrews stated that M.J.'s stepbrother, James, told her these things. She also testified that she had been to Elaine's home and found M.J. there with just her brothers.

Jones' girlfriend, Frances Owens, testified that Jones and M.J. came to her home the day before Father's Day. Jones first came to her daughter's trailer and later he and M.J. came to her apartment. She testified that Jones did not have an opportunity to be alone with M.J. at her apartment.

Sarah Smith, Jones' sister, testified that she lived in the trailer next door to her mother's home. She recalled that Jones was staying in her mother's home during the Father's Day weekend, though he at one time lived in the trailer with her. She also recalled that Jones and M.J. left that Saturday afternoon to see his girlfriend. Jones had tried to take...