Pitts v. State, No. 96-KA-00954-SCT
| Court | United States State Supreme Court of Mississippi |
| Writing for the Court | McRAE; PRATHER |
| Citation | 711 So.2d 864 |
| Parties | Charlotte PITTS a/k/a Charlotte Hensley Pitts v. STATE of Mississippi. |
| Docket Number | No. 96-KA-00954-SCT |
| Decision Date | 16 April 1998 |
Page 864
v.
STATE of Mississippi.
Azki Shah, Clarksdale, for Appellant.
Michael C. Moore, Attorney General, Scott Stuart, Special Asst. Atty. Gen., Jackson, for Appellee.
Before SULLIVAN, P.J., and McRAE and SMITH, JJ.
McRAE, Justice, for the Court:
¶1 Charlotte Pitts appeals the October 15, 1996 order of the Coahoma County Circuit Court placing her in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections after a jury found her guilty of two counts of kidnapping. Finding that there is no merit to her contention that the comments and conduct of the circuit court resulted in an unfair trial, we affirm her conviction and sentence.
I.
¶2 Alicia and Robert "Duke" Pitts are the minor children of Charlotte Hensley Pitts. The children were placed in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Human Services pursuant to an October 12, 1995 order of the Coahoma County Youth Court, adjudicating them "neglected/abused." 1 Duke, two-and-one half years old at the time of these proceedings, apparently had been severely beaten by Pitts' boyfriend, Kelly Bishop. On January 31, 1996, Pitts' mother, Betty Hensley, was awarded custody of Duke. Alicia remained in DHS custody but in "relative placement" with Hensley. 2
Page 865
¶3 In April, 1996, after Pitts returned to Clarksdale from Dallas, where she had been living, Department of Human Services social worker, Vidale Washington, authorized an arrangement whereby Pitts was permitted to live with her mother and help take care of the children. She was not allowed to remove them from the house without supervision.
¶4 Hensley left for a workers' compensation hearing in Oklahoma on Sunday, April 28, 1996, with plans to return on Tuesday evening, April 30. Pitts was to take care of the children and Hensley's brother-in-law, the children's great uncle and neighbor, was checking in with them to make sure that everything was all right and that they had what they needed, since Pitts had no car. Late Monday night, he went over to the house to check on them, stating "I looked through the window because I couldn't get nobody to the door and it was some quilts and pillows and stuff laying in the floor and I thought they were asleep because the TV was on in the living room and the kitchen light was on...." However, on Tuesday morning, when he went to pick Alicia up to take her to school, the TV was still on, the back door was ajar and the house was empty. He immediately notified DHS that Alicia and Duke were missing.
¶5 Alicia Pitts testified that Kelly [Bishop] picked up her, her mother and her brother in a truck parked in an alley. Her mother had told her that they were going for a walk. She testified that she did not want to get into the truck and tried to get away from her mother when she saw Bishop. When they got in the truck, her little brother started shaking, but didn't say anything. Alicia indicated that her clothes were already in the truck. They went first to Tulsa, Oklahoma and then to Branson, Missouri. She testified that she wasn't allowed to use the telephone to call her grandmother.
¶6 On May 25, 1996, the Branson, Missouri police called Hensley at work. Hensley and Alton Bruce retrieved the children from Branson the next day.
¶7 Pitts, along with Robert Kelly Bishop, was indicted 3 on June 10, 1996 by a grand jury of the Coahoma County Circuit Court for the kidnapping of her children, Alisha [sic] and Robert Pitts, from the custody of their grandmother, Betty Hensley. She entered a plea of not guilty to both counts of the indictment. A jury of the Coahoma County Circuit Court found her guilty as charged. The circuit court denied her motion for a new trial, or, in the alternative, for acquittal notwithstanding the verdict on August 21, 1996. On October 15, 1996, after a Presentence Investigation Report had been conducted, the circuit court entered an order sentencing her to serve an eight-year sentence for each of the two kidnapping charges. He ordered the sentences to be served concurrently, with six years suspended, subject to conditions specified by the court, after two...
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Johnson v. State, No. 2015–KA–00070–COA.
...by the attorney's behavior is made outside the hearing of the jury, the jury is not prejudiced by the court's comments. Pitts v. State, 711 So.2d 864, 866 (¶ 11) (Miss.1998).¶ 30. Counsel's questioning about an unrelated traffic stop spurred the court to tell counsel that he should approach......
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Hester v. State, No. 98-CP-00674-COA.
...13. Regarding the 1985 plea order, "[t]here is a presumption that orders and judgments of the lower courts are correct." Pitts v. State, 711 So.2d 864, 866 (Miss.1998). Hester presented evidence regarding negotiations that may have been occurring in 1985, but he states it was for a lesser o......
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Johnson v. State, No. 2015–KA–00070–COA.
...by the attorney's behavior is made outside the hearing of the jury, the jury is not prejudiced by the court's comments. Pitts v. State, 711 So.2d 864, 866 (¶ 11) (Miss.1998).¶ 30. Counsel's questioning about an unrelated traffic stop spurred the court to tell counsel that he should approach......
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Hester v. State, No. 98-CP-00674-COA.
...13. Regarding the 1985 plea order, "[t]here is a presumption that orders and judgments of the lower courts are correct." Pitts v. State, 711 So.2d 864, 866 (Miss.1998). Hester presented evidence regarding negotiations that may have been occurring in 1985, but he states it was for a lesser o......