Robinson v. State, No. 2007-KA-02202-COA (Miss. App. 6/2/2009)
| Decision Date | 02 June 2009 |
| Docket Number | No. 2007-KA-02202-COA.,2007-KA-02202-COA. |
| Parties | FLOYD ROBINSON, Appellant v. STATE OF MISSISSIPPI Appellee. |
| Court | Mississippi Court of Appeals |
ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLANT: LESLIE S. LEE, JUSTIN TAYLOR COOK, GLENN S. SWARTZFAGER, LATISHA NICOLE CLINKSCALES
ATTORNEY FOR APPELLEE: OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL LAURA HOGAN TEDDER
DISTRICT ATTORNEY: FORREST ALLGOOD
EN BANC.
ROBERTS, J., FOR THE COURT:
¶ 1. A jury sitting before the Oktibbeha County Circuit Court found Floyd Robinson guilty of murdering his on-again, off-again girlfriend, Bridgette Moore. The circuit court sentenced Robinson to life imprisonment in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections. Aggrieved, Robinson appeals. Finding no error, we affirm.
FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY
¶ 2. On November 30, 2005, a woman went to the Oktibbeha County Jail and asked Deputy Sheriff Shannon Williams to go to a house and check on her friend, Bridgette. Deputy Williams complied and went to Bridgette's house in Starkville, Mississippi, where he found Bridgette's lifeless body. An autopsy later confirmed that Bridgette had died due to a single gunshot that traveled through her spleen, her stomach, and lodged in her heart.
¶ 3. Officers from the Starkville Police Department searched the crime scene and found a brown paper bag, a black comb, and an unfired .25 caliber shell casing. Officers also found blood on a cinder block that supported the steps to Bridgette's house, blood on the third step to the house, and two broken acrylic fingernails. Authorities focused their investigation on Bridgette's boyfriend, Robinson.
¶ 4. Robinson was arrested at his home. During a subsequent interrogation, Robinson signed a statement indicating that he and Bridgette struggled over a pistol and that the pistol discharged during the struggle. That is, Robinson claimed that Bridgette's death was an accident that happened during an altercation. Dr. Steven Hayne testified that the fatal gunshot entered Bridgette's body through her left side, traveled from left to right and upward at a thirty to thirty-five degree angle. The bullet went between two of Bridgette's ribs, through Bridgette's spleen, stomach, liver, heart, and lung. The bullet came to rest in Bridgette's right chest cavity. According to Dr. Hayne, the bullet was fired from approximately twelve to eighteen inches from Bridgette's body. Robinson testified that after Bridgette was shot, she sat on the steps to her front door, and they had a conversation. However, Dr. Hayne testified that Bridgette would have lost consciousness in three to fifteen seconds after she was shot. Additional facts and procedural history will be discussed in greater detail as necessary. Suffice it to say, Robinson was indicted, tried, and convicted of murder. After an unsuccessful post-trial motion for a judgment notwithstanding the verdict, Robinson appeals.
ANALYSIS
¶ 5. Robinson was interrogated after he was arrested. That interrogation was preserved in the form of a DVD. At trial, the circuit court allowed the prosecution to play the DVD recording of that interrogation before the jury. Robinson takes the position that the circuit court erred because he invoked his right to have an attorney present, but the interrogating officers ignored his request. Because Robinson did not raise this issue at trial, he is forced to argue that the circuit court's decision constituted plain error.
¶ 6. "As a general rule, constitutional questions not asserted at the trial level are deemed waived."Williams v. State, 971 So. 2d 581, 590 (¶29) (Miss. 2007) (). Accordingly, this issue is procedurally barred.
¶ 7. In his second issue, Robinson again takes exception to the prosecution's use of the DVD recording of his confession. Unlike his first issue, Robinson is not required to travel under a plain-error theory. When the prosecution attempted to introduce the DVD recording of Robinson's interrogation into evidence, Robinson's attorney objected and argued that it was inadmissible because during the interrogation, a law enforcement officer confronted Robinson with a report, dated sometime after an alleged incident on May 24, 2003, from a law enforcement officer identified only as "Officer Williams." Officer Williams's report indicated that Marilyn McKinney gave a statement and reported that Robinson threatened to kill her and that he put a gun to her head, pushed her, kicked her, and pulled out her hair. Robinson's attorney reasoned that the jury should not be permitted to hear that portion of the interrogation because it tended to persuade the jury that, having been violent two years earlier with one romantic interest, Marilyn, Robinson was more likely to have behaved similarly with Bridgette, another romantic interest and the victim in this case.
¶8. The prosecution argued that the DVD recording was admissible because it contained evidence that Robinson and Bridgette had an increasingly violent relationship that culminated in her death. The circuit court overruled Robinson's objection. According to the circuit court, Robinson appeals and claims the circuit court committed reversible error.
¶ 9. As we review this issue, we are mindful that the circuit court judge "enjoys a considerable amount of discretion as to the relevancy and admissibility of evidence." Shearer v. State, 423 So. 2d 824, 826 (Miss. 1982). We will not reverse the circuit court judge unless he abused his discretion and caused Robinson to experience prejudice. Id.
¶ 10. Pursuant to Mississippi Rule of Evidence 404(b):
Evidence of other crimes, wrongs, or acts is not admissible to prove the character of a person in order to show that he acted in conformity therewith. It may, however, be admissible for other purposes such as proof of motive, opportunity, intent, preparation, plan, knowledge, identity, or absence of mistake or accident.
The Mississippi Supreme Court has held that Rule 404(b) "exists to prevent the State from suggesting that, since a defendant has committed other crimes previously, the probability is greater that he is also guilty of the offense for which he is presently charged." Jasper v. State, 759 So. 2d 1136, 1141 (¶23) (Miss. 1999). "[E]ven when other-crimes evidence is admissible under M.R.E. 404(b), it must pass through the `ultimate filter' of M.R.E. 403." Id. at (¶24). Additionally, "when other-crimes evidence is admitted under M.R.E. 404(b) a limiting instruction is required[.]" Id.
¶ 11. In the event that "404(b) evidence is offered and there was an objection which is overruled, the objection shall be deemed an invocation of the right to [an] M.R.E. 403 balancing analysis and a limiting instruction." Id. "The court shall conduct [a Rule 403 balancing test] and, if the evidence passes that hurdle, give a limiting instruction unless the party objecting to the evidence objects to giving the limiting instruction." Id.
¶ 12. On the DVD admitted into evidence and played for multiple hours before the jury, the interrogating officer read Officer Williams's report to Robinson and that report stated as follows:
On the above date at approximately 20:52 hours, I, Officer Williams, took a report from Ms. McKinney concerning her boyfriend. It says . . . Floyd Robinson . . . constantly keeps threatening her about killing her. He's always talking to her [about] . . . taking her to the middle of nowhere, putting a gun to her head and throat and telling her what he would do to her. On [May 24, 2003] . . . he took her to his house and started washing dishes and when she told him she was going home, he started going ballistic and started to push, kick, and pull out her hair. He pulled a gun on her then[,] and once he settled down, he just told her to leave. She left and went home and then called the police.
After the interrogating officer read the report to Robinson, the interrogating officer commented,
¶ 13. At trial, the prosecution argued that this information was admissible pursuant to this Court's decision in Moss v. State, 727 So. 2d 720 (Miss. Ct. App. 1998). The facts in Moss are distinctly different from the facts in the present case. In Moss, the prosecution presented evidence that the defendant abused his wife prior to killing her. Id. at 724-25 (¶17). That evidence was admissible to demonstrate a continuing pattern of violence against the victim that ultimately culminated in the victim's death. Id. at 725 (¶19). See also Marbra v. State, 904 So. 2d 1169, 1176 (¶23) (Miss. Ct. App. 2004). In the case presently before us, the challenged portion of the DVD at issue was that Robinson had previously been violent with Marilyn, rather than Bridgette. That evidence does not tend to demonstrate a continuing or escalating pattern of violence against Bridgette. Instead, it tends to persuade the jury that, because Robinson was violent with Marilyn on May 24, 2003, he was more likely to have been violent with Bridgette on November 30, 2005, and — by extension — he was more likely to have been guilty of the allegations against him. Accordingly, we find that the circuit court erred when it allowed the prosecution to submit that evidence to the jury. Be that as it may, the issue now becomes whether Robinson experienced...
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