State v. Smith
| Decision Date | 06 December 1999 |
| Docket Number | No. 3087.,3087. |
| Citation | 338 S.C. 66,525 S.E.2d 263 |
| Court | South Carolina Court of Appeals |
| Parties | The STATE, Respondent, v. Kevin SMITH, Appellant. (95-GS-40-03704, 40-03706, 40-03707, 40-03708, 40-04282 and 40-11556). The State, Respondent, v. Sheldon Crawford, Appellant. (95-GS-40-3717, 40-3719, 40-3720, 40-3721 and 40-4975). |
Chief Attorney Daniel T. Stacey, Assistant Appellate Defender Melody Brown, both of SC Office of Appellate Defense, of Columbia, for appellant Kevin Smith.
Assistant Appellate Defenders Robert M. Dudek, Melody Brown, both of SC Office of Appellate Defense, of Columbia, for appellant Sheldon Crawford.
Attorney General Charles M. Condon, Deputy Attorney General John W. McIntosh, Assistant Deputy Attorney General Salley W. Elliott and Solicitor Warren B. Giese, all of Columbia, for respondent.
A jury convicted Kevin Smith and Sheldon Crawford of numerous offenses stemming from a riot at the Broad River Correctional Institution. Both appeal, arguing the trial court erred in refusing to replace a juror who appeared to be sleeping during their trial. We affirm.
On the morning of April 17, 1995, Willie Leggins, a yard officer at the Broad River Correctional Institution, received a radio report of an escapee from the Monticello deadlock unit. Seeing an inmate run from the unit to the cafeteria, Leggins called for help and pursued. While Leggins waited for backup, Crawford charged and "stuck [him] a little bit in the side" with a knife. He and the inmate struggled, and Leggins was knocked unconscious. Leggins later identified the inmate as Sheldon Crawford, whom he had seen in the yard on other occasions and with whom he had conversed.
Lester Shaw, a corrections officer also assigned to the yard, was standing outside the cafeteria window with Sergeant James Cooper when Leggins radioed for assistance. Looking up, Shaw observed an inmate he could not immediately identify lunge at Leggins. He ran to the front door of the cafeteria where he saw Crawford chasing Officer Evadney Sprull with a knife. Shaw intervened and Crawford stabbed him in the left thigh, the lower right leg, and the left chest area, which punctured his lung. As Crawford attacked, Shaw saw Kevin Smith hit Cooper with a baseball bat. Sergeant Cooper, who had accompanied Shaw to the cafeteria, also saw Sprull being chased by Crawford with a knife. As Cooper reached for his tear gas canister, Crawford struck at his chest with the knife. Cooper blocked the blow, but was stabbed in the right forearm. Other inmates then joined in the attack. Smith subsequently hit Cooper approximately twenty-five to thirty times with a baseball bat. When he finally reached his gas canister, Cooper sprayed everyone around him and escaped.
Officer Michael Green witnessed Smith's attack on Cooper. When Green ran over to assist, Smith hit him on the side, hand and head. Some other inmates then cornered Green, but he managed to escape through a side door. Roosevelt Fields, a maintenance gate employee, also observed the attack. When Fields attempted to aid Cooper, Smith hit him with the bat, catching him in the forearm and knocking him down. As Fields went down, Smith hit him again, this time in the back of the neck and head. Fields managed to escape.
When the disturbance began, Mary Mathis, a food services trainee on her first day of work, was touring the kitchen area with Tommy Haselden, the Director of Food Services. As the cafeteria erupted in chaos, Haselden pulled Mathis into the food services office and locked the door. Smith, however, used the baseball bat to break the office windows, and he and Crawford entered along with several other inmates wielding knives. Crawford handcuffed Haselden and the inmates took Haselden, Mathis, and Sprull hostage, holding them in a dry storage area. At various times during the ensuing negotiations, Crawford, armed with a knife, took each hostage to the front of the cafeteria. Smith also had a knife but did not openly threaten or harm the hostages. The inmates released Sprull after a few hours, but held Haselden and Mathis several hours longer. Afterward, Smith was charged and indicted on two counts of assault and battery with intent to kill (ABWIK), two counts of assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature (ABHAN), and three counts of hostage-taking. The grand jury also indicted Crawford on three counts of ABWIK, three counts of hostage-taking, and one count of ABHAN.
Smith and Crawford were tried jointly in May 1996. During a break, Smith's lawyer called the court's attention to an apparently sleeping juror:
Your honor, there is a matter that I want to put on the record. It's something that was called to my attention earlier, and in fact, I noticed it myself. One of the jurors appears to have a nodding-off problem. I think one juror keeps falling asleep, and I believe it's the same one. And if it is, not that all the testimony we've heard today is the most exciting, but if this is a pattern, and I believe as an officer of the court that it has been, I would ask to excuse her.
The trial court agreed that the juror, a young white woman, "at least this morning had the appearance of sleeping." But the court went on to state:
The trial judge then reiterated that he would continue watching the juror and "possibly make some statement about it without singling her out." He added that he would entertain the motion again at the conclusion of the case. Defense counsel made no further objection and the trial proceeded.
At the close of all the evidence, the defense attorney renewed his motion to remove the juror, stating that from his vantage point she was "sleeping through at least portions of the trial if not the complete trial." The trial court responded as follows:
Defense counsel replied "thank you" and the matter was not discussed further during the remainder of the trial.
At the close of the State's case, the trial court directed a verdict for Smith on one count of ABHAN. The jury convicted Smith on the remaining ABHAN count, the three hostage-taking counts, and on one count of ABWIK. On the remaining ABWIK count, the jury found Smith guilty only of ABHAN. The jury convicted Crawford on the three hostage-taking counts in addition to finding him guilty of ABHAN on two of the ABWIK charges, but did not convict on the third count of ABWIK. On June 7, the trial court sentenced Smith to consecutive sentences of twenty years for ABWIK, nine years for each ABHAN, and fifteen years on each count of hostage-taking, to be served after his current term of imprisonment. In addition, Crawford received twelve years on each hostage-taking count and ten years each for the two ABHAN convictions, all to run consecutively after his original sentence. Smith and Crawford (Defendants) both filed timely notices of appeal. On June 27, 1997, defense counsel for Crawford filed a brief pursuant to Anders v. California, 386 U.S. 738, 87 S.Ct. 1396, 18 L.Ed.2d 493 (1967). Smith's counsel also filed an Anders brief on October 30. On December 18, 1998, we ordered re-briefing on the sleeping juror issue raised in Smith's pro se Anders response. This issue is now our sole appellate consideration.
Defendants argue the trial court committed reversible error in refusing to dismiss the juror who appeared to be sleeping during trial. A decision on whether to dismiss a juror and replace her with an alternate, however, lies within the sound discretion of the trial court. State v. McDaniel, 275 S.C. 222, 268 S.E.2d 585 (1980); State v. Hurd, 325 S.C. 384, 480 S.E.2d 94 (Ct.App.1996). Accordingly, we will not reverse the court's decision absent an abuse of that discretion. Hurd, 325 S.C. at 389, 480 S.E.2d at 97.
Defendants initially assert that a sleeping juror is tantamount to an absent juror and thereby automatically violates their constitutional right to be tried by a twelve-member jury. See State v. Shuck, 278 S.C. 441, 298 S.E.2d 95 (1982)
. However, we believe the issue is framed more accurately as one of juror misconduct. See George L. Blum, Annotation, Inattention of Juror From Sleepiness or Other Cause as Ground for Reversal or New Trial, 59 A.L.R.5th 1 (1998 & Supp.1999); 23A C.J.S. Criminal Law § 1437 (1989 & Supp. 1999); State v. Cleveland, 959 S.W.2d 548 (Tenn.1997) (...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
State v. Zeigler
...is whether there in fact was misconduct and, if so, whether any harm resulted to the defendant as a consequence. State v. Smith, 338 S.C. 66, 525 S.E.2d 263 (Ct.App.1999). Where a defendant seeks a new trial on the basis of juror misconduct, he is required to prove both the alleged miscondu......
-
State v. Zeigler
... ... considered as a whole, it covers law applicable to case). The ... substance of the law is what must be charged to the jury, not ... any particular verbiage. Burkhart , 350 S.C. at 261, ... 565 S.E.2d at 303; State v. Smith , 315 S.C. 547, 446 ... S.E.2d 411 (1994); Adkins , 353 S.C. at 318-19, 577 ... S.E.2d at 464 ... A jury ... charge which is substantially correct and covers the law does ... not require reversal. State v. Foust , 325 S.C. 12, ... 479 S.E.2d 50 ... ...
- State v. Benning, 3081.
-
State v. Bell
...discretion of the trial court, and such decision will not be reversed on appeal absent an abuse of discretion. State v. Smith, 338 S.C. 66, 71, 525 S.E.2d 263, 265 (Ct.App.1999). More specifically, "[i]t is within the discretion of the trial court to determine whether bias results from a ju......