Walker v. State
| Docket Number | 2022-KA-00482-COA |
| Decision Date | 31 October 2023 |
| Parties | CHRISTOPHER WALKER APPELLANT v. STATE OF MISSISSIPPI APPELLEE |
| Court | Court of Appeals of Mississippi |
1
CHRISTOPHER WALKER APPELLANT
v.
STATE OF MISSISSIPPI APPELLEE
No. 2022-KA-00482-COA
Court of Appeals of Mississippi
October 31, 2023
DATE OF JUDGMENT: 04/22/2022
COURT FROM WHICH APPEALED FORREST COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT TRIAL JUDGE: HON. JON MARK WEATHERS
ATTORNEY FOR APPELLANT: OFFICE OF STATE PUBLIC DEFENDER BY: MOLLIE MARIE McMILLIN
ATTORNEY FOR APPELLEE: OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL BY: BARBARA WAKELAND BYRD
DISTRICT ATTORNEY: PATRICIA A. THOMAS BURCHELL
BEFORE CARLTON, P.J., LAWRENCE AND SMITH, JJ.
LAWRENCE, J.
¶1. On April 22, 2022, Christopher Walker was convicted of two counts of touching a child for lustful purposes (Counts I and II) and one count of exploitation (Count III).[1]Walker was sentenced to serve fifteen years in custody for each conviction, and they were ordered to run consecutively, totaling forty-five years. He was also ordered to pay a $50,000 fine for the conviction of exploitation. Walker now appeals, asserting that there was insufficient evidence to convict him of exploitation and that the trial court erred by giving
a jury instruction defining "sexual conduct." Upon review, we find no error and therefore affirm.
FACTUAL BACKGROUND
¶2. Christopher Walker married Monica Walker in the fall of 2020. Walker had five children from previous relationships, and Monica had two children. The only children who were minors at the time of the couple's marriage were Walker's daughter D.W. and Monica's daughters A.C. and C.T.[2] Walker, Monica, D.W., A.C., and C.T. began living together.[3]Monica worked as a night-shift cashier at a convenience store. Walker was unemployed and watched the children when Monica worked.
¶3. On June 5, 2021, D.W., age seventeen, woke up to several messages from Walker. D.W. showed the messages to her step-sisters A.C. and C.T. The chain of messages, twelve in total, have been combined here and read as follows:
I want your p*ssy. I think we should f*ck. You think I don't care but the truth is I want to f*ck you and I know it's wrong. Please don't tell anyone. I know I'm weird and shouldn't think that way but I can't help it. I want you. If you tell[,] you will destroy me mentally But I think you are beautiful and I know it's wrong but I can't help it[.] I want you[.] That's why I'm an asshole to you. I am trying to push you away because I know I am wrong but if you said yes[,] I would not be able to hold back. Please don't tell on me. I just wanted you to know why I'm an asshole to you. Please don't tell. I'm still drunk but I know what I feel and I know it's wrong but I still want you. Please don't tell[.] You should delete these messages. I'm gonna. Please tell me what you are thinking. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said anything. Damn it I'm so stupid
I'm sorry for saying anything.
¶4. D.W. called Monica and told her what Walker had done. Monica drove to pick up the three girls, who had stayed with Monica's mother the night before. Monica and the girls immediately went to the police station to report Walker's actions. Walker was arrested for child exploitation at his residence later that day.
¶5. Mississippi Child Protection Services (CPS) made a referral for twelve-year-old A.C. and ten-year-old C.T. because they also lived with Walker. Kid's Hub Child Advocacy Center conducted forensic interviews with A.C. and C.T. D.W. was interviewed by Investigator Jennifer Washington because she was close to the majority age of eighteen. Following the interviews and subsequent investigation, authorities added two counts of touching a child for lustful purposes as to A.C. and C.T. to the existing count of sexual exploitation of D.W. Walker was formally indicted on December 1, 2021.
¶6. Walker's trial began on April 11, 2022. The State first called Monica, who recounted the events of June 5, 2021, when she received a call from D.W. that morning with A.C. and C.T. crying in the background. Monica testified that all three girls were "hysterical." Monica told Walker she was leaving to check on the girls because they had called her "upset and crying over some text messages he had sent to [D.W.]" She stated that Walker was "heavily intoxicated even at that point that early in the morning" and told her that he "didn't do nothing .... [He] didn't do anything wrong." Monica informed him she was still going to check on them, and Walker "went into throwing a fit, threatening to kill himself." Monica left the home, and Walker began sending her text messages, "apologizing [and] saying that
he wouldn't have done it if it wasn't for the intoxication, that he never meant to hurt any of the children." After picking up the children, Monica took them to the sheriff's department to report Walker.
¶7. Monica testified that this incident was not the first time she had been made aware of Walker's inappropriate behavior. In March 2021, her children told her that Walker had asked "to touch or see [C.T.'s] vagina." Monica told the children that she would deal with the problem in private. She spoke with Walker and told him "what he had said was inappropriate and wrong" and that "he needed to quit drinking." Monica testified that she did not report this incident to the authorities because she believed "it was just the alcohol talking." Monica also testified A.C. told her in May 2021 that Walker made the girls feel uncomfortable. Monica "assumed it was just his drinking that made them uncomfortable."
¶8. D.W., who was eighteen years old at the time of the trial, was then called as a witness. She testified that she woke up to her father's sexual text messages on June 5, 2021, and felt "[s]hocked kind of . . . kind of grossed out." D.W. further stated that while the messages were "shocking to see[,]" "it wasn't uncharacteristic" of her father. That same day, Walker also called D.W. and left voicemails. D.W. stated that "[t]he first one he[] ask[ed] [her] for forgiveness kind of in a way. And then the second one he start[ed] blaming [her] and he says . . . like why would you do this to me. I changed your diapers, stuff like that."
¶9. D.W. also testified about Walker's behavior leading up to the date of his arrest. Walker "drank a bottle of Bourbon every night pretty much." Further, Walker "would get drunk, he would say things and grab us inappropriately and stuff like that and he would say
inappropriate things to us." Walker "would say like do you want to have sex and then say it was a joke or say like I'm sexy or say stuff like that to [her] little sisters." She also stated that Walker played video games in the living room and "would get nude mod[ification]s like to make his characters naked and sexual mod[ification]s to make them have sex." "The whole family kind of walked in and out of the living room" so everyone in the family was able to view the "animated sexual activity."
¶10. D.W. witnessed Walker touch her sisters. She testified that Walker "grabbed [C.T.]'s thigh a few times, grabbed her butt and [A.C.]'s boobs and butt." Walker would always say these things were just a joke. D.W. also stated that Walker "would slap [her] butt and grab [her] butt anytime that [she] bent over to pick something up or get something. He would also grab [her] boobs and stuff like that."
¶11. A.C., who was thirteen years old at the time of trial, was the State's next witness. She testified that in May 2021, she sat in Walker's lap like she "usually did," but this time he was "touching [her] butt and stuff and [she] was real uncomfortable and [she] told [her] mom." In response, Walker told Monica that "[A.C.] shouldn't be sitting on his lap anymore and if [she's] going to say that, then [she] shouldn't even be around him anymore." A.C. also testified that Walker would "make like hand motions and put his fingers up to his mouth and like flick his tongue between his fingers[,] and he would make sexual jokes like he wanted to have sex and stuff and nudes and stuff like that." He would message her to say "that he wanted [her] to send nudes to him and then he would tell [her] he wanted to have sex and stuff." While A.C. lived with Walker, he touched her "on [her] butt, [her] boobs, and [her]
thighs." She also observed Walker "grabbing [C.T.'s] butt[.]"
¶12. C.T., who was eleven years old at the time of trial, then testified. She testified that Walker "would act weird around [the girls,]" and "sometimes he would pull [them] onto his lap and then once [they] got up, he would slap [their] butts." During spring break in 2021, Walker was drinking and "asked if he could see [C.T.'s] . . . vagina."[4] Walker also "asked if he could touch it" but warned, "[D]on't tell nobody." C.T. told one of her sisters and her mother, Monica, about Walker's comment. When Walker discovered that C.T. had told them, "[h]e walked up to [her] and said, 'I thought I told you not to tell nobody.'" She stated that it was not unusual for him to make sexual jokes when he was drinking. When asked where Walker would touch her, C.T. testified, "He would touch my butt, my thigh, and there was one time when he patted down there."
¶13. The State also called Riley Herrin, a trained forensic interviewer with Kid's Hub. She was tendered and accepted as an expert in the field of child forensic interviewing. On June 10, 2021, Herrin interviewed both A.C. and C.T. after receiving a referral arising from Walker's case. Due to the Mississippi Rules of Evidence, A.C.'s interview was not discussed at trial; a discussion of C.T.'s interview was permitted due to the tender-years exception.[5]
The video recording of C.T.'s interview with Herrin was played for the jury.[6] Herrin noted the "minimizing language" used by C.T. in the video suggesting Walker's actions were not "intentional or purposeful because he [said] it was a joke." Herrin noted that C.T. "was consistent with other children" who had experienced sexual abuse at home and had...
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