Sandlin v. State

• Decision Date: 25 August 2020
• Docket Number: NO. 2019-CA-00282-COA, 2012-KA-00258-SCT,2019-CA-00282-COA, 2012-KA-00258-SCT
• Parties: Lisa SANDLIN a/k/a Lisa A. Sandlin a/k/a Lisa Babler a/k/a Lisa Husky, Appellant v. STATE of Mississippi, Appellee
• Court: Mississippi Court of Appeals

312 So.3d 1191

Lisa SANDLIN a/k/a Lisa A. Sandlin a/k/a Lisa Babler a/k/a Lisa Husky, Appellant

v.STATE of Mississippi, Appellee

NO. 2019-CA-00282-COA, 2012-KA-00258-SCT

Court of Appeals of Mississippi.

Filed August 25, 2020

Rehearing Denied December 8, 2020

ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLANT: MERRILL K. NORDSTROM, LAWRENCE JOHN TUCKER JR., Oxford

ATTORNEY FOR APPELLEE: OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL BY: LISA L. BLOUNT, Jackson

EN BANC.

LAWRENCE, J., FOR THE COURT:

¶1. On February 1, 2011, Lisa Sandlin was indicted for murdering her stepson, Kirk Sandlin. She was convicted by a jury in Lee County Circuit Court on December 1, 2011 and subsequently sentenced to life in prison. On February 8, 2012, Lisa appealed her conviction which was affirmed by the Mississippi Supreme Court on October 10, 2013, in Sandlin v. State , 156 So. 3d 813 (Miss. 2013). On June 5, 2015, Lisa filed an application for leave to proceed in the trial court on a post-conviction relief (PCR) motion with the Mississippi Supreme Court, alleging seven issues. On November 4, 2015, the Mississippi Supreme Court granted her motion as to three of the seven issues alleged. On January 20, 2016, Lisa filed a PCR motion in the Lee County Circuit Court on the three authorized issues including: (1) ineffective assistance of counsel in failing to object to the district attorney calling her husband, Sammy Sandlin, as a witness, (2) ineffective assistance of counsel for objecting to the state's attempt to include self-defense in the elements instructions and (3) cumulative errors denied her constitutional rights under the Fifth, Sixth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments. An evidentiary hearing was held on March 27, 2017, and her PCR was denied on March 20, 2019. Lisa appealed.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

¶2. Lisa and her husband Sammy lived in Saltillo, Mississippi in Lee County with Sammy's mother, Mary Sandlin (Mammie).¹ Both Lisa and Sammy had children from previous marriages. Lisa had one son, Jesse Husky,² and Sammy had one son, Kirk Sandlin. Kirk lived alone in his grandmother's house, down the hill from Sammy and Lisa's home on the same parcel of family land. On September 22, 2010, Lisa and Mammie were sitting in their backyard around a fire after dinner. Kirk walked up from his house to Sammy and Lisa's backyard and began talking to Mammie. During that conversation, Lisa and Kirk got into a heated verbal altercation wherein Lisa ultimately went inside the house to remove herself from the situation. While Lisa was inside, Sammy returned home and stayed outside to speak to Kirk. Lisa went back outside to the backyard where Sammy and Kirk were talking and she and Kirk resumed their argument. The situation began to escalate when Lisa moved into the breeze-way patio between the house and the garage and Kirk followed her, pushed her in the chest and spit at her. Trying to keep the peace, Sammy told Lisa to go inside the house and told Kirk to leave the home. Lisa went inside and proceeded to retrieved Sammy's shotgun from their bedroom closet. Kirk initially began walking back to his house; however, he turned around and returned to Sammy and Lisa's breezeway to talk to Sammy. As Kirk headed back to the breeze-way, he saw Lisa standing at the door with Sammy's gun. Kirk said, "[w]hat are you going to do with that, crazy bitch? Shoot me?" Lisa stated that she would shoot him if necessary and Kirk replied "go ahead." The shotgun fired once, and Kirk died as a result of the shotgun wound

to his abdomen.

¶3. Officer Kerry Gaddy of the Lee County Sheriff's Department was the first law enforcement officer on the scene. Upon learning that Lisa was still inside the home, Officer Gaddy entered the home and called for Lisa to come out. Lisa emerged from the home and, stated, "I shot the m***f***. I was tired of his s***." According to Gaddy, Lisa did not state that she had been threatened or that the shooting was an accident or in her own self-defense. According to Officer Gaddy, Lisa seemed agitated and upset but not frightened. Officer Jason Putt arrived at the residence and placed Lisa under arrest and read her the Miranda rights.³ Once Lisa was placed in the patrol car, she made a similar statement to Investigator Scotty Reedy and said that she was tired of Kirk's s*** and shot him. Lisa also told Officer Reedy that there had been no physical altercation, just a verbal one. Lisa admitted to Reedy that she had shot Kirk, but she claimed that the gun had gone off by accident. During a subsequent interview with Reedy on September 23, 2010, Lisa added facts to her initial statement and told him that Kirk had run toward her before she shot him. In that Interview, she also told him about previous domestic-violence reports that she had previously filed against Kirk. Lisa was indicted for Kirk's murder on February 1, 2011.

The Original Trial

¶4. Lisa was represented by Christopher Bauer at trial, during which he argued an "accident" based defense on Lisa's behalf. Lisa, through her attorney, argued throughout the entire trial process that the shooting of Kirk was accidental and that she was not aware that the gun was loaded.

¶5. The State called seven witnesses at the original trial including: Investigatory Scotty Reedy, Officer Kerry Gaddy, Officer Jason Putt, John Sandlin, Sammy Sandlin, Dr. Amy R. McMaster, and Lisa Robinson. The defense called two witnesses at the original trial including: Lisa Sandlin and Jesse Huskey. Investigator Reedy, Officer Gaddy and Officer Putt all testified to their participation in the initial investigation of Kirk's death. They testified to statements that Lisa made to each of them respectively as stated above, their observations of the crime scene and their respective duties in securing the crime scene and taking Lisa into custody. Sammy's brother John testified at the trial to events that transpired on the day before Kirk's death wherein Lisa yelled at him and Kirk, "If ya'll don't get the hell out from here, I'm fixing to start shooting." He testified that Lisa's statement was unprovoked. Dr. Amy R. McMaster is the forensic pathologist who performed Kirk's autopsy. She testified as to the results of the autopsy and the cause of Kirk's death being shotgun wound

to the torso by manner of homicide. Lisa Robinson was a detention officer that worked at the facility where Lisa was housed. Lisa Robinson was called by the State to testify to a certain incident that occurred at the facility involving Lisa. The defense made a relevancy objection which was sustained by the trial court and Lisa did not testify any further. Other than Lisa, the only other witness that the defense called at trial was Lisa's son, Jesse Huskey. Jesse testified as to Kirk's character as he knew him growing up and Kirk's tumultuous relationship with Lisa.

¶6. Most relevant to this appeal, the State called Lisa's husband, Sammy, during its casein-chief with no objection from Lisa's attorney to testify, as the only reliable eye-witness to the events that transpired on the night Kirk was shot.⁴ Ultimately, Sammy proved helpful to both the State and the defense. Sammy was helpful to the defense in that he testified to the following: (1) he did not think that Lisa wanted to kill Kirk, (2) Lisa worked hard in helping him with his business, (3) Lisa and Kirk had a good healthy relationship at the beginning of their marriage, (4) he never knew Lisa to touch the shotgun, (5) he was the owner of the gun and he was the last person to use the gun, (6) further, that it was his practice to keep the gun unloaded in the house but he could not be certain if he unloaded it before he put it back in the closet, and (7) Kirk had a drug problem, criminal history, and propensity to steal from him. Conversely, Sammy made several statements in Lisa's bond hearing and in his statement to the investigators that were brought up at trial and proved helpful for the State as follows: (1) "Anyone who would shoot somebody like that would either be evil or crazy," (2) When referring to the shooting, Sammy made the statement, "it might be me next time," and (3) "Lisa has talked about shooting Kirk for a long time."

¶7. At the close of the trial, Lisa's attorney objected to the State's request to include "not in necessary self-defense" in the elements instruction because it did not coincide with their defense strategy. Defense counsel argued that there was no testimony presented at trial that could substantiate a self-defense language. As a result of that objection, the trial court removed the self-defense language from the elements instruction. On December 11, 2011, Lisa was convicted by a jury on the charge of first-degree murder. Lisa directly appealed her conviction which was affirmed by the Mississippi Supreme Court in Sandlin v. State , 156 So. 3d 813 (Miss. 2013).

¶8. On June 5, 2015, Lisa filed an application for leave to proceed in the trial court on a PCR motion with the Mississippi Supreme Court, alleging seven issues. On November 4, 2015, the Mississippi Supreme Court granted her motion as to three of the seven issues alleged. On January 20, 2016, Lisa filed a motion for post-conviction relief (PCR) in the Lee County Circuit Court on those three issues An evidentiary hearing was held on March 27, 2017 in Lee County Circuit Court on Lisa's PCR motion wherein only Lisa and her attorney, Bauer, testified.

The Evidentiary Hearing

¶9. Lisa testified that she recalled speaking to Bauer about the possibility of Sammy testifying only once, about eight months after Kirk was shot. She testified that Bauer told her that Sammy was going to be a witness for the State, but that he was going to "check the legality of it" and re-approach her with the issue. According to Lisa, Bauer never again mentioned the possibility of Sammy testifying against her. She also maintained that Bauer never told her that, had they objected at trial, Sammy could have been prevented from testifying. Lisa claimed that, had she known she could have...