Williams v. State, No. 2008-KA-02129-SCT (Miss. 4/1/2010), 2008-KA-02129-SCT.
| Decision Date | 01 April 2010 |
| Docket Number | No. 2008-KA-02129-SCT.,2008-KA-02129-SCT. |
| Parties | NICKEY WILLIAMS, v. STATE OF MISSISSIPPI. |
| Court | Mississippi Supreme Court |
¶ 1. Nickey Williams was convicted of two counts of sexual battery, the first against his daughter, Jane, and the second against his daughter, Ann.1
At the time of the offenses, Jane was four years old and Ann was less than a year old. Williams was sentenced to thirty years' incarceration on the first count and twenty years' incarceration on the second count with ten years suspended. The trial court ordered that those sentences run consecutively.
¶ 2. Finding that there was insufficient evidence to support a guilty verdict for sexual battery of the younger daughter, we reverse the conviction on the second count and render judgment here in favor of the defendant, vacating the sentence on the second count. As for the conviction for sexual battery of the older daughter, we find no reversible error and affirm.
Facts
¶ 3. Nickey Williams and his wife Kimberly Williams are the biological parents of Jane, born May 22, 2001, and Ann, born April 20, 2005. The defendant initially was indicted for three counts of sexual battery and two counts of gratification of lust. Three of these charges were dismissed by means of nolle prosequi, and Williams was tried on two counts of sexual battery. The first count alleged that Williams inserted his finger into Jane's vagina, and the second count alleged that Williams inserted a part of his body or an object into Ann's anus. The jury convicted Williams of both counts.
¶ 4. In September of 2004, the Mississippi Department of Human Services (DHS) removed then-three-year-old Jane from the Williams home, based on reports and findings of neglect. The details surrounding her removal were not adduced at trial. Jane initially was placed with a cousin, but was moved six months later, on March 11, 2005, to a foster home with Kay and Michael Smith.
¶ 5. During the first night at the Smiths' home, Jane told Mrs. Smith that she did not like nighttime because her father would come in her room at night and spank her. According to Mrs. Smith, Jane "patted herself between her legs in the front and said that he would hurt her at night." Mrs. Smith testified that she did not report the statement to DHS because she assumed sexual abuse was the reason Jane had been placed in foster care. Mrs. Smith also testified that Jane had frequent nightmares and would scream and cry out in her sleep.
¶ 6. Kimberly and Nickey Williams initially were allowed only supervised visits with Jane twice a month, and the defendant was present at just two of those visits from March 2005 to November 2005. The youth court eventually approved an unsupervised weekend visit, and from Friday, November 11, 2005, until Sunday afternoon, November 13, 2005, Jane stayed with her biological parents.
¶ 7. Mrs. Smith testified that on the Sunday evening after Jane returned to the Smiths' house, she witnessed Jane "being inappropriate" with a baby doll. When Mrs. Smith asked Jane what she was doing, Jane began crying and said that "her daddy had hurt her, he had poked her with his fingernail, he had hurt her on the bottom." When Mrs. Smith asked Jane to demonstrate with the doll, she "jabbed her finger up its bottom between its legs." Jane told her that the incident had occurred while she was in the bathtub and that her mother had witnessed it. Kimberly Williams testified at trial, but neither the State nor the defendant asked her whether she had witnessed the alleged abuse.
¶ 8. Mrs. Smith immediately contacted the foster care agency and Wanda Jones, the DHS social worker assigned to monitor Jane. Jones reported the incident to the Lee County Sheriff's Department and scheduled a forensic interview and a forensic medical examination for Jane. The forensic interview was not presented at trial, but Dr. William Marcy testified about the medical examination. Dr. Marcy had performed the medical examination on November 15, 2005, the Tuesday following the weekend visit. He previously had examined Jane in September 2004, based on an earlier report that she had been sexually abused. Dr. Marcy had found no evidence of sexual abuse during the September 2004 examination, but he did record the child's hymenal diameter at that time. Dr. Marcy testified at trial that on November 15, 2005, the diameter had increased significantly from the time of his previous examination and that Jane's vaginal area was abnormally inflamed. He found "to a reasonable degree of medical certainty" that these conditions were consistent with vaginal penetration and sexual abuse.
¶ 9. On December 8, 2005, Jane attended her regularly-scheduled counseling session with Tina Ballard, a counselor for the foster care agency. When Ballard asked Jane about her weekend visit with her parents, Jane told Ballard that her father had "hurt her down there" while she was in the bathtub, and the child pointed to her vaginal area.
¶ 10. Jane gave testimony at trial that was consistent with the statements she had given to Mrs. Smith and Ballard. She explained that the defendant had "stuck his finger up [her] front private" while she was in the bathtub. Jane testified that Williams used his middle finger and that his fingernail had hurt her. She also demonstrated this for the jury by jamming her index finger into the vagina of a doll.
¶ 11. Kimberly Williams testified that during Jane's weekend visit at her and the defendant's home, the defendant was alone in the bathroom with Jane on two different occasions, Friday night and Sunday morning. Kimberly also testified that no other adults were in her home that weekend and that she had never stuck anything in Jane's vagina.
¶ 12. On February 13, 2006, when Williams and his wife Kimberly were arrested for sexual battery against Jane, DHS took custody of Ann, Jane's ten-month-old sister who was still living with the Williamses.2 Two days later, Dr. Marcy examined Ann for signs of sexual abuse and found that her anal area was inflamed and swollen and that the shape of her anus was irregular. He testified that Ann's anus was torn, which he found to be "very consistent with sexual abuse."
¶ 13. At trial, Kimberly Williams testified that since Ann's birth, she had been cared for by only three people: the defendant, herself, and Kimberly's grandmother. The grandmother, Iris Culver, testified that there was a period of time when the Williamses took Ann to another woman to be cared for while they were working; but Culver could not remember the woman's name or the specific time period. Kimberly explained that, before Ann was taken into DHS custody, Nickey Williams often was left alone with their child, Ann, while she, the mother, was at work. Both Kimberly and her grandmother denied ever inserting anything into Ann's anus.
¶ 14. Nickey Williams testified in his own defense, denying that he had ever abused his daughters and suggesting that Ann's anal injuries might have been caused by severe constipation. He also testified that Kimberly often would run off for days and even a week at a time, leaving him as the primary caregiver for their children. He called five character witnesses who testified that he was a truthful person. Two of these witnesses also said that Williams appeared to be a normal, loving father.
Discussion
¶ 15. Williams raises several issues on appeal, arguing that (1) there was insufficient evidence to support a guilty verdict on the second sexual battery charge involving his younger daughter, (2) the two counts should have been severed, (3) the trial court erred in excluding testimony that the defendant was a good father, (4) the trial court erred in allowing the State to introduce certain hearsay testimony, (5) the jury was tainted by misconduct, (6) the verdict in the first count involving the older daughter was against the weight of the evidence, and (7) the trial court's refusal to grant the defendant's proposed jury instruction about child testimony entitles him to a new trial.
¶ 16. We first address whether the State presented sufficient evidence to support the jury's verdict that Williams had sexually abused his younger daughter, Ann. On appeal, "the relevant question is whether, after viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt." Bush v. State, 895 So. 2d 836, 843 (Miss. 2005) (quoting Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 315, 99 S. Ct. 2781, 61 L. Ed. 2d 560 (1979)). In addition,
Should the facts and inferences considered in a challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence "point in favor of the defendant on any element of the offense with sufficient force that reasonable men could not have found beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant was guilty," the proper remedy is for the appellate court to reverse and render. Edwards v. State, 469 So. 2d 68, 70 (Miss. 1985) (citing May v. State, 460 So. 2d 778, 781 (Miss. 1984)); see also Dycus v. State, 875 So. 2d 140, 164 (Miss. 2004). However, if a review of the evidence reveals that it is of such quality and weight that, "having in mind the beyond a reasonable doubt burden of proof standard, reasonable fair-minded men in the exercise of impartial judgment might reach different conclusions on every element of the offense," the evidence will be deemed to have been sufficient. Edwards, 469 So. 2d at 70; see also Gibby v. State...
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