Sanders v. State
| Decision Date | 27 July 2010 |
| Docket Number | No. 2008–KA–01445–COA.,2008–KA–01445–COA. |
| Citation | 63 So.3d 554 |
| Parties | Keir D. SANDERS, Appellantv.STATE of Mississippi, Appellee. |
| Court | Mississippi Court of Appeals |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Hunter Nolan Aikens, attorney for appellant.Office of the Attorney General by Jeffrey A. Klingfuss, Jackson, attorney for appellee.EN BANC.ROBERTS, J., for the Court:
¶ 1. More than twenty years after the murder of W.D. Sanders (W.D.) and Elma Sanders (Elma), their grandson Keir Sanders (Sanders) was arrested and indicted for their murders. He was tried by the Circuit Court of Tishomingo County sitting, on a change of venue, in Lee County. Sanders was found not guilty of murder by reason of insanity on Count I, but the jury found that he remained insane and a danger to the community. On Count II, Sanders was found guilty of murder, and he was sentenced to life in prison as a habitual offender. The circuit court ordered him to be confined to the Mississippi State Hospital at Whitfield on Count I, and sentenced him to life in prison on Count II, with the confinement pursuant to Count I to be suspended until such time as Sanders is released on Count II. Sanders appeals his conviction and sentence, presenting four issues on appeal:
I. The verdict is against the overwhelming weight of the evidence, and it was error for the circuit court to deny Sanders's motion for a new trial.
II. The circuit court erred in giving the State's jury instruction on flight when the defense presented an independent reason for Sanders's flight.
III. The circuit court erred by admitting gruesome autopsy photographs of the victims into evidence.
IV. The circuit court erred by requiring Sanders to serve the life sentence pursuant to Count II before being conveyed to the state mental hospital pursuant to Count I.
Finding no merit to the issues Sanders raises on appeal, we affirm his conviction and sentence.
FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY
¶ 2. On the morning of December 29, 1985, W.D. and Elma Crawford were attacked in their home in Tishomingo County. While W.D. was cooking breakfast, someone shot him in the back with a shotgun and then killed him by bludgeoning him in the back of the head with a hammer. After killing W.D., the attacker proceeded to the bedroom and shot Elma with a shotgun while she was lying in bed. The attacker fled the scene in the couple's car.
¶ 3. Later that night, Officer Mike Kemp, chief deputy with the Tishomingo County Sheriff's Department in 1985, responded to a call concerning W.D. and Elma. Jannie Hadley (Jannie), daughter of the couple, had called Tennessee authorities to say that she could not reach her parents. This was reported to Officer Kemp, who went to investigate with auxiliary deputy David Johnson.
¶ 4. Upon arriving, Officer Kemp discovered that the door was ajar, and he heard a voice coming from inside. Inside the house, he discovered Elma lying on the couch, covered in blood. According to Officer Kemp, Elma told him that her grandson, Sanders, shot her and W.D. She did not know where Sanders was. Officer Kemp discovered that the phone had been pulled from the wall, so he returned to his squad car to call for backup.
¶ 5. Authorities searched the scene and discovered that Elma had been shot in the bedroom. After Sanders shot her, she crawled down a small flight of steps and wrote “K D shotgun” on the floor using her own blood. W.D. was found face down on the floor of the kitchen. The hammer that Sanders used to beat him was found in a trash can in the house. Neither the shotgun nor the couple's car was found at the scene.
¶ 6. Elma was taken to the hospital, where she spent several weeks in the intensive care unit. According to Sandra Puckett, who was the ICU supervisor and staff nurse at Iuka Hospital in 1985, Elma suffered a shotgun blast to her breast and right upper abdomen. Puckett said that Elma was afraid that she would never go home and that Sanders would finish her off. During Elma's stay in the hospital, she lost a lot of blood, and she suffered multiple infections. She died on March 4, 1986. Sanders was twenty-one years old at the time of the murders.
¶ 7. Authorities eventually located W.D.'s car parked in a motel parking lot in Memphis, Tennessee on January 6, 1986. However, no more was heard from Sanders until 2005. In December 2005, Officer Guillermo Cantu, Jr., with the San Antonio Police Department, apprehended Sanders in San Antonio, Texas, after observing his suspicious behavior. Officer Guillermo found that Sanders was carrying his birth certificate, and he arrested Sanders after discovering the outstanding warrants for murder in Mississippi. Mickey Baker, with the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation division of the Mississippi State Highway Patrol, traveled to San Antonio with a fingerprint card for Sanders. He discovered that Sanders had used six different aliases since 1990.
¶ 8. Sanders was transported back to Mississippi, and he was indicted by a grand jury in Tishomingo County for Count I, the murder of W.D., and Count II, the murder of Elma. Venue was changed from Tishomingo to Lafayette County. The trial resulted in a mistrial, and venue was changed to Lee County. In Sanders's defense during the trial in Lee County, he presented the testimony of his mother, Jannie, and stepfather, Gerald Hadley (Gerald). He also called two experts to testify—Dr. John McCoy and Dr. Mark Webb.
¶ 9. Jannie testified concerning Sanders's childhood. She said that Sanders was diagnosed with schizophrenia at the age of eight or nine, and he changed when he was a teenager. Noticeable changes included Sanders quitting school, refusing to look in mirrors, screaming, hearing things, and sitting by himself for hours. Sanders was sent away for treatment at the Redemption Ranch in Pikeville, Tennessee; however, he ran away and was expelled. Jannie said that Sanders would spin around in his room and beat his head against the wall. When he came home, he was worse; he could not use utensils, covered mirrors, and stayed all alone. In 1982, after a confrontation, Sanders was sent away to Mid–South Hospital in Memphis. He later went to a halfway house, but he was kicked out. Next, in 1984, Sanders was sent to the Mississippi State Hospital at Whitfield. However, he only stayed for a few weeks before he ran away from Whitfield and moved back with his grandparents.
¶ 10. Sanders was treated at Mid–South from November 19, 1982, until he was discharged in August 1983. Dr. McCoy was a clinical psychologist at Mid–South during this time, and he treated Sanders. He described Sanders as follows: Dr. McCoy also described some of Sanders's symptoms: changing the pitch of his voice, burning Bibles, waking up cursing and fighting, talking to himself, covering or breaking mirrors, refusing to use toiletry articles except for toothpaste, sleeping on the top of the covers with his shoes on, slamming doors, jumping off of the roof and out of windows at the behest of voices, and attacking people. He also said Sanders was paranoid, disoriented as to the date and time, and had delusions of persecution.
¶ 11. Dr. McCoy diagnosed Sanders as suffering from a schizoaffective disorder. He described the disorder as a combination of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. He said that such a person generally is socially incompetent, has no friends, and has delusions and auditory hallucinations. It was Dr. McCoy's opinion that Sanders should never have been discharged from Mid–South. Dr. McCoy also interviewed Sanders on May 10, 2008. It was Dr. McCoy's opinion that, at the time Sanders killed his grandparents, he was “laboring under a defect of reason from a disease of the mind.” Dr. McCoy believed that Sanders understood the nature and quality of his actions, but that Sanders did not know that what he did was wrong.
¶ 12. Dr. Webb, a physician specializing in psychiatry with the Mississippi Neuropsychiatric Clinic in Jackson, evaluated Sanders on December 11, 2007, at the behest of the circuit court. Dr. Webb admitted that Sanders's situation was a close call; nevertheless, he agreed that while Sanders understood the nature and quality of his actions, he did not know that his actions were wrong. Dr. Webb noted Sanders's possible history of aggressive and manipulative behavior, but he characterized Sanders as more paranoid than aggressive.
¶ 13. Dr. William Lott, a clinical psychologist, conducted a court-ordered forensic evaluation of Sanders on March 24, 2007. Dr. Lott noted the extended periods of time that Sanders was able to successfully function in society while not on any medications, and he also noted that Sanders had been off of any medication for at least four years at the time of the examination. Dr. Lott testified that Sanders looked fine and that he did not appear to be psychotic. He also said that Sanders exhibited a normal to above-average intelligence. In reviewing Sanders's history, Dr. Lott noted evidence of manipulative behavior and possible extensive drug use. Dr. Lott described Sanders as having a history of impulsive, aggressive behavior. He believed Sanders was spoiled as a result of a history of being indulged. Dr. Lott also noted that the reports of Dr. Mona Carlyle, who treated Sanders in and around the time he went to Mid–South and Whitfield, may have indicated that Sanders showed no signs of psychosis. However, Dr. Carlyle's final report on Sanders from October 15, 1984, diagnoses atypical psychosis.
¶ 14. Dr. Lott concluded that Sanders did understand the nature and quality of his actions. He noted that both Dr. McCoy and Dr. Webb initially disagreed with this assessment. However, at trial, they amended their opinions to agree with Dr. Lott and find that Sanders did understand the nature and quality of his...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Harris v. State
... ... [a] witness or other evidence" and "so long as the purpose for using the projector was not to inflame the jury." Sanders v. State , 63 So. 3d 554, 576 (72) (Miss. Ct. App. 2010) (quoting and citing Brawner v. State , 872 So. 2d 1, 14-15 (41) (Miss. 2004) ). Here, in response to Harris's post-trial argument, the circuit judge clarified that he, not the State, had instructed the jury on the caselaw. The circuit ... ...
-
Jones v. State
... ... 2 See Holloman v. State, 656 So.2d 1134, 1141 (Miss.1995). We therefore find that [95 So.3d 646] the Court of Appeals majority reached the right result on this question. 17. In Sanders v. State, 63 So.3d 497, 504 (Miss.2011), after a grant of certiorari, this Court agreed with the Court of Appeals' reasoning, consistent with our caselaw that, in addressing a verdict of guilty that appears to be inconsistent with a verdict of not guilty as to another count in the indictment, we ... ...
-
Rodgers v. State
... ... Brown, 981 So.2d at 1015 ( 24).4 Mississippi has [100 So.3d 994]barred evidence of diminished capacity not only when it encompasses the impairment of a defendant's mental reasoning by reason of voluntary intoxication, Sanders v. State, 63 So.3d 554, 570 ( 52) (Miss.Ct.App.2010) (citation omitted), but also when it involves evidence of extreme mental or emotional disturbance, Garcia v. State, 828 So.2d 1279, 1284 ( 12) (Miss.Ct.App.2002), or diminished perception and capacity due to [a] heightened state of arousal and ... ...
-
Bradshaw v. State, 2013–KA–00055–COA.
... ... “that voluntary intoxication by a defendant should not be permitted as a defense if a defendant, when sober, is capable of distinguishing between right and wrong, and the defendant voluntarily deprives himself of reason by intoxication, and commits an offense while in that condition.” Sanders v. State, 63 So.3d 554, 570 (¶ 52) (Miss.Ct.App.2010) (quoting Stamper v. State, 803 So.2d 1194, 1197 (¶ 8) (Miss.Ct.App.2000)) (internal quotation marks omitted). There is no evidence that Bradshaw was forced to ingest any drugs or alcohol. Therefore, any intoxication on his behalf was voluntary ... ...