Sanders v. State, 1999-KA-01663-SCT.
| Decision Date | 01 February 2001 |
| Docket Number | No. 1999-KA-01663-SCT.,1999-KA-01663-SCT. |
| Citation | 781 So.2d 114 |
| Parties | Steven Allen SANDERS a/k/a Steve Allen Sanders, v. STATE of Mississippi. |
| Court | Mississippi Supreme Court |
Thomas M. Fortner, Robert M. Ryan, Robert Shuler Smith, Jackson, for Appellant.
Office of the Attorney General by Jeffrey A. Klingfuss, for Appellee.
Before PITTMAN, C.J., SMITH and MILLS, JJ.
MILLS, Justice, for the Court:
¶ 1. Steven Allen Sanders was convicted of murder in the Circuit Court of Hinds County and sentenced to life imprisonment, from which he appeals. Finding no reversible error, we affirm his conviction and sentence.
FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS BELOW
¶ 2. In 1981, fifteen-year-old Steven Allen Sanders ran away from home and moved in with a much older man named Marvin Watts with whom he became involved in a homosexual relationship. After several months, the romance waned, Sanders moved out, repented his homosexuality, and began a heterosexual life which he still maintains.
¶ 3. Sanders had no further contact with Watts until 1998 when Sanders moved in with Watts again. Sanders testified that he and Watts agreed to room together in order to cut down on living expenses and save money. However, within the first week Watts began making sexual advances toward Sanders who rebuffed his former lover, telling him that he had made a mistake when he was fifteen, that he was no longer interested in homosexual activity, and that he had moved in with Watts in order to save money. Despite the rejection, Watts continued to make sexual advances which Sanders refused.
¶ 4. After a few days of being rejected, Watts told Sanders to get out of his apartment if he was not going to have sex with him. This argument ended in a physical altercation between the two men. Sanders moved out of the apartment on a Friday morning and did not return until Sunday morning when he went to retrieve his clothing. Watts told Sanders that he was about to leave for church, but to come back around 2:30 p.m. so they could talk. Sanders left and went to his brother's house to drink alcohol.
¶ 5. Around 3:30 p.m. Sanders returned to Watts's apartment. The two men argued about their sexual relationship and about Sanders moving out. Watts grabbed Sanders by the arm, and they began to "tussle." Sanders freed himself and went into the kitchen where he poured a glass of water as they continued to argue. Sanders sat his glass down and saw a hammer next to the sink. He grabbed it. The argument continued as Sanders walked back into the living room where Watts was sitting on the couch. Sanders testified that when he tried to pass Watts jumped up. Sanders hit Watts once in the arm and once in the head with the hammer. It is not clear whether Watts was standing or sitting at the time he was struck in the head. Sanders then left the apartment and threw the hammer into some bushes.
¶ 6. After leaving the apartment, Sanders met up with some friends and started "getting high." An hour and a half later, Sanders returned to Watts' apartment and stole the VCR. Sanders stated that at this time, "Marvin was still sitting on the couch, and he was breathing." Sanders pawned the VCR for cocaine and then "got high" again. Sanders ran out of cocaine again so he went back to the apartment and stole Watts' television, which he pawned for more cocaine. Sanders stated that Watts was still sitting on the couch and "snoring" at this time. Watts' body was found the next day by two friends. Watts died from one penetrating blow to the head.
¶ 7. Sanders was indicted and tried for killing Watts while committing an act eminently dangerous to others and evincing a depraved heart. Sanders testified at trial and admitted killing Watts, but argued that it was in self-defense. The jury question was whether the case was a deliberate design murder, depraved heart murder, manslaughter, or self-defense. The jury returned a verdict of guilty of deliberate design murder and Sanders received a life sentence. Aggrieved, he appeals to this Court.
DISCUSSION
¶ 8. Sanders argues that he was denied his fundamental right to a fair trial because the trial court did not allow him to present his full and complete theories of defense to the jury. Specifically, Sanders states that he was not allowed to fully disclose his past and present relationship with Watts to the jury. Sanders contends that the entire history of his relationship with Watts is material, relevant, and probative of the issues. He argues that this testimony goes directly to his then present state of mind at the time of the struggle and delivery of the fatal blow to the head. At trial Sanders testified as follows:
¶ 9. The State argues that the nature and extent of the relationship between Sanders and Watts sixteen years ago is too far removed to be relevant. Further, the State argues that Sanders was able to get before the jury the fact that he had been involved in a homosexual relationship with Watts sixteen years earlier, but did not wish to continue that type of relationship. The State contends that this evidence was brought out in the testimony of the State's witnesses, the statements and testimony of Sanders, and in arguments to the jury.
¶ 10. Sanders failed to proffer the facts to which he would testify had the objection not been sustained. "In the absence of such a showing, this Court is helpless to determine whether or not the witness's testimony would be material." Priest v. State, 275 So.2d 79, 82 (Miss.1973). This Court has stated the following rule with reference to proffers:
[T]he rule is that `when a party would seek a reversal because of excluded testimony, he must either place the witness on the stand, ask the questions, and have the answers made of record, or else the witness must be presented, and there must be a specific statement of what the answers or testimony of the witness would be, if allowed, so that the court may see from the record itself whether the offered evidence would be material and of benefit to the merits of the case and whether its exclusion was actually harmful and prejudicial to the offerer.'
White v. State, 507 So.2d 98, 101-02 (Miss. 1987) (citations omitted). In the case before us there is no showing of any attempt by defense counsel to preserve properly the testimony of Sanders. Therefore, we find no error.
¶ 11. Sanders charges error in the granting of instructions S-1 and S-2. Specifically, Sanders argues that he was charged with depraved heart murder pursuant to Miss.Code Ann. § 97-3-19(1)(b) and that the proof at trial should have been limited solely to evidence relating to that single classification of murder. Sanders argues that a deliberate design murder instruction should not have also been given. Instructions S-1 and S-2 told the jury it could find Sanders guilty of murder if he killed Watts "with the deliberate design to effect the death of Marvin Watts ..." or if he killed Watts while "engaged in the commission of an act eminently dangerous to others and evincing a depraved heart, regardless of human life, by then and there striking the said Marvin Watts in the head with a hammer...."
¶ 12. These two versions of murder track Miss.Code Ann. § 97-3-19, which provides in pertinent part:
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