Taylor v. State

• Decision Date: 06 May 2021
• Docket Number: NO. 2018-CT-00534-SCT,2018-CT-00534-SCT
• Citation: 330 So.3d 758
• Parties: Kelvin TAYLOR a/k/a Kevin Taylor a/k/a KT v. STATE of Mississippi
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court

330 So.3d 758

Kelvin TAYLOR a/k/a Kevin Taylor a/k/a KT

v.STATE of Mississippi

NO. 2018-CT-00534-SCT

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

May 6, 2021

ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLANT: OFFICE OF STATE PUBLIC DEFENDER BY: MOLLIE M. McMILLIN GEORGE T. HOLMES KELVIN TAYLOR (PRO SE)

ATTORNEY FOR APPELLEE: OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL BY: SCOTT STUART, Jackson

EN BANC.

ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI

CHAMBERLIN, JUSTICE, FOR THE COURT:

¶1. Kelvin Taylor filed a petition for certiorari asking this Court to review the Court of Appeals' decision to affirm his two convictions for murder and his conviction for felonious possession of a firearm. We granted the writ and, finding no reversible error, affirm.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

¶2. After responding to a call on September 7, 2011, Officer Royneshia Turner found Willie Bass and Flora Watkins shot dead in their home in Clarksdale, Mississippi. Taylor v. State , No. 2018-KA-00534-COA, ––– So.3d ––––, ––––, 2020 WL 2394027, at *1 (Miss. Ct. App. May 12, 2020). On November 9, 2012, after the case went cold for more than a year, Lieutenant Marena Jones and Captain Mario Magsby of the Coahoma County Sheriff's Department traveled to the Bolivar County jail to interview Kelvin Taylor, where he was in custody awaiting trial for an unrelated capital murder. Id. at ––––, –––– n.1, 2020 WL 2394027 at *1, *1 n.1. After Lieutenant Jones and Captain Magsby informed Taylor of the reason for their visit—to investigate the murder of Charlina Miller—Taylor told Lieutenant Jones that he wanted to talk to Coahoma County Sheriff Charles Jones. Id. at ––––, 2020 WL 2394027 at *1. Later that evening, Lieutenant Jones and Sheriff Jones returned to interview Taylor, and, after informing Taylor of his Fifth Amendment rights per Miranda v. Arizona , 384 U.S. 436, 444, 86 S. Ct. 1602, 16 L. Ed. 2d 694 (1966), Lieutenant Jones obtained a waiver of those rights from Taylor. Lieutenant Jones left the room to allow Sheriff Jones and Taylor to talk alone. Taylor , ––– So.3d at ––––, 2020 WL 2394027, at *1. The conversation on November 9, 2012, did not provide Sheriff Jones with any information regarding the murders of Bass and Watkins. Id. When Sheriff Jones and Lieutenant Jones returned to the Bolivar County jail for a second interview on November 15, 2012, Taylor indirectly implicated himself in the murders. Id. at –––– – ––––, 2020 WL 2394027 at *2-3.¹

¶3. On May 27, 2015, Taylor was indicted for the murders of Bass and Watkins and for possession of a firearm by a felon. Id. Taylor filed two motions to suppress—one authored by his defense counsel and one pro se. Id. at ––––, 2020 WL 2394027 at *2. Taylor's pro se motion to suppress challenged the validity of the waiver of his Fifth Amendment right to counsel obtained by the Coahoma County Sheriff's Department because, according to Taylor, he had already invoked his Fifth Amendment right to counsel.

Id. at ––––, –––– – ––––, –––– n.6, 2020 WL 2394027 at *2, *3-4, *4 n.6.

¶4. A week prior to Taylor's first trial, on July 11, 2016, the circuit court held a suppression hearing in which Sheriff Jones and Lieutenant Jones testified about their two interviews with Taylor. Id. at ––––, 2020 WL 2394027 at *2. Neither Taylor nor his defense counsel presented evidence to substantiate Taylor's claim that he invoked his right to counsel before November 9, 2012. Id. at ––––, –––– n.7, 2020 WL 2394027 at *4, *4 n.7. The circuit court denied Taylor's motions to suppress. Id. at ––––, 2020 WL 2394027 at *2. Since the jurors were unable to reach a unanimous verdict at Taylor's first trial in 2016, the circuit court declared a mistrial. Id.

¶5. Taylor's second trial began on February 14, 2018. Id. Though Taylor renewed his motions to suppress, he presented no evidence of the February 6, 2012 invocation of the Fifth Amendment right to counsel² before his case-in-chief—after the circuit court had ruled on Taylor's motions to suppress and his renewed motions to suppress, the State had rested and Taylor's motion for directed verdict had been denied. Taylor's statement implicating him in the Bass and Watkins murders was introduced at trial along with the testimony of Sheriff Jones and Lieutenant Jones regarding their interviews with Taylor. Id. at ––––, 2020 WL 2394027 at *3. After Taylor's statement was introduced at trial and the State rested, Taylor proffered the testimony of Bolivar County Sheriff's Department Chief Deputy Gerald Wesley, Jr., that Taylor invoked his Fifth Amendment right to counsel on February 6, 2012. Id. at ––––, 2020 WL 2394027 at *4. The court allowed the proffer so that the testimony of Chief Deputy Wesley, Jr., would appear in the record. Id. But the court ruled that Chief Deputy Wesley, Jr., could not testify at trial since it already dealt with Taylor's argument necessitating the testimony of Chief Deputy Wesley, Jr., in the court's denial of Taylor's motions to suppress and found his testimony irrelevant to the merits of the case. Taylor was convicted on all three counts and was sentenced to life in prison for each murder count and ten years for possession of a firearm by a felon. Id. Taylor's motion for a new trial or, in the alternative, judgment notwithstanding the verdict, was denied on May 24, 2018.

¶6. In the Court of Appeals, Taylor argued, among other things, that the circuit court erred by denying his motions to suppress his statement made to Lieutenant Jones and Sheriff Jones and that he received ineffective assistance of counsel due to his defense counsel's failure to designate the recording from the November 9, 2012 interview as a necessary part of the appellate record. Id. at ––––, –––– – ––––, 2020 WL 2394027 at *4, *5-6. The Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment of the circuit court on May 12, 2020. Id. at ––––, 2020 WL 2394027 at *10. Taylor filed a petition for certiorari, which we granted to address his argument that the Court of Appeals erred by affirming the circuit court's denial of his motions to suppress.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

¶7. "The standard of review for admission of evidence is abuse of discretion."

Jones v. State , 303 So. 3d 734, 736-37 (Miss. 2020) (internal quotation marks omitted) (quoting Debrow v. State , 972 So. 2d 550, 552 (Miss. 2007) ). "When a trial court has overruled a motion to suppress the confession of a defendant, this Court will reverse the trial court's decision if the ruling was ‘manifestly in error or contrary to the overwhelming weight of the evidence.’ " Benjamin v. State , 116 So. 3d 115, 121 (Miss. 2013) (quoting McGowan v. State , 706 So. 2d 231, 235 (Miss. 1997) ). Further, we "will reverse the admission of a confession if the trial court applied an incorrect legal standard." Id. (citing Moore v. State , 933 So. 2d 910, 918 (Miss. 2006) ).

ANALYSIS

¶8. We granted certiorari to review the Mississippi Court of Appeals' decision as it relates to Taylor's arguments that the circuit court erred by denying his motions to suppress. Taylor claims the Coahoma County Sheriff's Office obtained an invalid waiver of his Fifth Amendment right to counsel. See Jennings v. State , 127 So. 3d 185, 190 (Miss. 2013) ("We may limit the issues we address upon a grant of certiorari." (citing Jones v. State , 95 So. 3d 641, 645 (Miss. 2012) )); see also M.R.A.P. 17(h) ("The Supreme Court may limit the question on review."). Though we find no reversible error and therefore affirm the decision of the Court of Appeals, we further granted certiorari to correct a statement of the law surrounding waiver of the Fifth Amendment right to counsel contained in the Court of Appeals' opinion. We also briefly address a procedural bar to Taylor's argument that he received ineffective assistance of counsel at trial.

I. Suppression of the November 15, 2012 Statement

¶9. Taylor renews his argument on certiorari that the circuit court erred by denying his motions to suppress the November 15, 2012 statement. In doing so, he argues that the circuit court applied an incorrect legal standard and misapplied the law. Further, Taylor argues that the Court of Appeals erred by applying an incorrect legal standard. On certiorari, Taylor also urges us to review the circuit court's rulings for plain error.

A. Whether the circuit court applied an incorrect legal standard

¶10. In his pro se motion to suppress, Taylor argued that his statement given at the November 15, 2012 interview should be suppressed since he had previously invoked his Fifth Amendment right to counsel. At the suppression hearing, Sheriff Jones and Lieutenant Jones testified about their interview with Taylor in which he implicated himself in the murders of Bass and Watkins. At no point during the suppression hearing did Taylor or his counsel present evidence of Taylor's invocation of the Fifth Amendment right to counsel on February 6, 2012 during an interview with the Bolivar County Sheriff's Department.

¶11. The circuit court heard testimony that Taylor waived his Miranda rights and, therefore, the circuit court admitted Taylor's statement indirectly implicating him in the Bass and Watkins murders. In its order denying the motions to suppress, the circuit court provided that " ‘[t]his court is uncertain what [Taylor] means by claiming to have "invoked his right to counsel." The court is unaware of any formal document invoking such right. [Taylor] offers nothing suggesting how he "invoked his right to counsel." ’ " Taylor , ––– So.3d at –––– n.7, 2020 WL 2394027, at *4 n.7 (second and third alterations in original). The testimony of Chief Deputy Wesley, Jr., regarding Taylor's invocation of the right to counsel was not introduced until Taylor's second trial, at which point the circuit court had already heard and ruled on Taylor's motions to suppress and the renewed motions to suppress, Taylor's November 15, 2012 statement had already been played before the jury, the State had rested and the circuit court had denied Taylor's motion for directed verdict. The Court of Appeals noted Taylor's failure to present...