West v. State
| Docket Number | 2022-KA-00432-COA |
| Decision Date | 01 August 2023 |
| Parties | PAUL WEST APPELLANT v. STATE OF MISSISSIPPI APPELLEE |
| Court | Mississippi Court of Appeals |
ATTORNEY FOR APPELLANT: OFFICE OF STATE PUBLIC DEFENDER BY GEORGE T. HOLMES BY: DANIELLE LOVE BURKS
ATTORNEY FOR APPELLEE: OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL
DISTRICT ATTORNEY: WILLIE DEWAYNE RICHARDSON
EN BANC
¶1. A Leflore County Circuit Court jury found Paul West guilty of one count of sexual battery while in a position of trust or authority under Mississippi Code Annotated section 97-3-95(2) (Rev. 1994 &Supp. 1995) (Count I) and one count of gratification of lust while in a position of trust and authority under section 97-5-23(2) (Rev. 1994) (Count II). The court sentenced West to serve thirty years for sexual battery and fifteen years for gratification of lust, with both sentences to run consecutively in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC). On appeal, West argues the following: (1) there was insufficient evidence to support his sexual-battery conviction, and (2) the circuit court committed plain error by failing to sua sponte declare a mistrial or admonish the jury after certain witness comments. Finding no reversible error, we affirm West's convictions and sentences.
Count 2 of the indictment stated that West, "for the purpose of gratifying his lust[,] . . . handled, touched[,] and/or rubbed . . . upon [Logan], a child under the age of eighteen (18) . . . while in a position of trust and authority over [Logan,] all in violation of [section] 97-5-23(2) of the Mississippi Code."
¶3. The circuit court held West's trial on April 12-13, 2022. Gypsi Ward, an investigator with the Attorney General's Office, testified about the abuse Logan had reported to her during her investigation. Logan told Ward that the abuse "started by touching and masturbating [Logan] and . . . then led to anal penetration." Ward stated that "[Logan] did disclose that [West] obviously sexually assaulted him, sodomized him anally in the process of the sexual assault." She testified Logan had reported that the abuse started when he was "in the third grade and went through about sixth grade," starting at age "9 or 10-ish." Ward further testified Logan had reported that the abuse "occurred about four to five times a week."
¶4. Logan also testified. He explained that he had attended St. Francis from pre-kindergarten through the eighth grade, which began "sometime in the [n]ineties" while living with his grandmother. Logan also worked at the school during the summer and continued to work there after he transferred to another school in the eighth grade. West oversaw Logan's summer employment. During his time at St. Francis, Logan failed the fourth grade twice and the fifth grade once.
¶5. Logan stated that West began to sexually abuse him when he was in the fourth grade. According to Logan, the abuse continued until he was in the eighth grade and occurred "probably more" than three or four times a week. Logan testified that West had initiated the abuse by inappropriate touching and groping. The abuse then progressed to West showing Logan pornography on his computer and encouraging the touching of each other's penises. Logan also testified about one specific event where West performed oral sex on him during Logan's summer employment at the school. Logan's testimony also indicated that anal penetration occurred as part of the abuse.
¶6. The State did not ask about, and Logan did not identify, any specific dates or ages for the sexual abuse that involved penetration, which was the only abuse disclosed that fell under Count I of the indictment for sexual battery. Although Logan testified that he was thirty-nine years old at the time of the trial in April 2022, the State did not ask for his date of birth or elicit specific frames of reference regarding the dates he attended St. Francis beyond his statement about "the [n]ineties." Logan volunteered, however, that the last time he had seen West was approximately 1999 or 2000 during a trip to New York.
¶7. Logan's cousin John also testified that he had attended St. Francis during the 1990s and that West had abused him as well. John lived with Logan when both boys were children. John stated that West began abusing him when he was about twelve or thirteen years old. John described a pattern of abuse similar to what Logan had described. According to John, the abuse continued until he was expelled from St. Francis around age thirteen. In response to the State's question of whether John was sure that West was the perpetrator, the following exchange ensued:
¶8. The defense made no contemporaneous objection to John's testimony, and the circuit court issued no comments regarding the statements. John testified that after he was expelled from St. Francis, West began abusing his younger brother. John stated that West was "prey[ing] on my family." Both Logan and John testified that they never told each other about the abuse when they were children. Following John's testimony, the State rested.
¶9. After West declined to testify, the defense also rested. During the jury-instruction conference on the following day, West's attorney realized that the defense had never moved for a directed verdict. With the circuit court's permission, the defense made its motion for a directed verdict. The entirety of the motion for a directed verdict was as follows: "I would move for a directed verdict that the crimes charged of sexual abuse and gratification of lust have not been proven, and it's not been proven that [West] is the one who committed the crime." After the circuit court denied the motion, the defense also unsuccessfully requested that the circuit court give the jury a peremptory instruction that the verdict would be "not guilty" as to Count I for sexual battery.
¶10. After closing arguments, the jury returned a guilty verdict for both counts of the indictment. The circuit court sentenced West to serve in MDOC's custody thirty years for Count I for sexual battery and a consecutive fifteen-year term for Count II for gratification of lust. West filed a timely motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict (JNOV) or, alternatively, for a new trial. Relevant to the present appeal, West's post-trial motion simply asserted "[t]hat the verdict of the [j]ury is contrary to the law and the evidence and is the result of bias and prejudice, and the verdict is against the overwhelming weight of the evidence." Aggrieved by the circuit court's denial of his post-trial motion, West appeals.
¶11. On appeal, West argues (1) there was insufficient evidence of Logan's age to support the conviction for sexual battery in Count 1 of the indictment; and (2) the circuit court committed plain error by failing to sua sponte declare a mistrial or to admonish the jury after John's trial testimony implied that West was involved in another man's death.
¶12. For Count I, West was indicted under Mississippi Code Annotated section 97-3-95(2) (Rev. 1994), which was the version of the statute in effect at the time of the ongoing abuse reported by Logan. The applicable version of section 97-3-95(2) provided as follows:
A person is guilty of sexual battery if he or she engages in sexual penetration with a child of fourteen (14) but less than eighteen (18) years if the person is in a position of trust or authority over the child including without limitation the child's teacher, counselor, physician, psychiatrist, psychologist, minister, priest, physical therapist, chiropractor, legal guardian, parent, stepparent, aunt, uncle, scout leader or coach.
Miss. Code Ann. § 97-3-95(2) (Rev. 1994) (emphasis added). Subsection 2 of the statute was later amended to include all children under the age of eighteen. 1998 Miss Laws ch. 549, § 3 (H.B. 834) (eff. July 1, 1998). The indictment did not allege any act that occurred after 1996. On appeal, West contends that the State failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt the essential element of age for sexual battery. Specifically, West claims the State never established that Logan was between the ages of fourteen and eighteen during the one act of oral penetration Logan described-the oral sex that West performed on Logan during a summer in the 1990s-or...
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