IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI
NO. 2021-KA-00603-COA
ADISA JEMEL BRAZIEL APPELLANT
v.
STATE OF MISSISSIPPI APPELLEE
DATE OF JUDGMENT: 05/17/2021 TRIAL JUDGE: HON. CHRISTOPHER LOUIS SCHMIDT COURT FROM WHICH APPEALED: HARRISON COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT, SECOND JUDICIAL DISTRICT ATTORNEY FOR APPELLANT: OFFICE OF STATE PUBLIC DEFENDER BY: MOLLIE MARIE McMILLIN ATTORNEY FOR APPELLEE: OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL BY: SCOTT STUART DISTRICT ATTORNEY: WILLIAM CROSBY PARKER NATURE OF THE CASE: CRIMINAL - FELONY DISPOSITION: AFFIRMED - 10/25/2022 MOTION FOR REHEARING FILED:
BEFORE CARLTON, P.J., WESTBROOKS AND LAWRENCE, JJ.
LAWRENCE, J., FOR THE COURT:
¶1. On September 22, 2021, Adisa Braziel was convicted of burglary. He was sentenced
as a habitual offender to serve life imprisonment without eligibility for parole. Braziel
appealed his conviction and sentence. His attorney filed a Lindsey brief,1 certifying that there
were no arguable issues for appeal. Braziel received an order allowing forty days to file any
supplemental briefing identifying any issue he wanted this Court to address. Braziel failed
to file a brief. Based upon our review of the record and Braziel’s attorney’s brief, we find
1 Lindsey v. State, 939 So. 2d 743 (Miss. 2005). there are no arguable issues on appeal. Therefore, we affirm Braziel’s conviction and
sentence.
FACTS
¶2. On June 14, 2018, Kiera Buckley called 911 and asked for help. She told the operator
that her ex-boyfriend Braziel was in her apartment and would not leave her alone. She also
told the operator that Braziel had hit and choked her. Buckley gave the operator her neighbor
Robert Ragsdale’s address and then told Braziel the police were on their way. Buckley then
ran into Ragsdale’s apartment and locked the door. Braziel cut the screen on Ragsdale’s
window in an attempt to get into the apartment. Braziel then kicked the door to Ragsdale’s
apartment open and ran through the apartment with a knife, threatening to kill Buckley. Two
police officers responded to the call and arrested Braziel. On January 22, 2019, a Harrison
County grand jury indicted Braziel as a non-violent habitual offender for burglary of a
dwelling. See Miss. Code Ann. §99-19-81 (Rev. 2014). Two prior convictions supported the
habitual-offender status. The first was a felony conviction of aggravated assault, and the
second was a felony conviction of unlawful possession of a firearm.
¶3. A jury trial was held on September 22 and September 23, 2020. The State called
several witnesses. One witness was Brandon Franovich, an officer with the Biloxi Police
Department. He testified that on the night of June 14, 2018, he was on patrol with Officer
Brandon Clark. Franovich testified that he was dispatched to the Fernwood Apartments.
Franovich stated that he was “given a suspect’s name, [and he] was informed it was a
domestic assault.” He stated that the suspect’s name was Adisa Braziel. He was also
2 informed that Buckley was the alleged victim.
¶4. Franovich testified that when he arrived, he “could hear various yelling between a
male and a female.” He stated that when he and his partner approached the apartment door,
he noticed it had been “forced in.” Franovich explained that the “frame was busted open.
The door was open, it appeared as though it had been kicked or forced somehow.” Franovich
stated that when he entered the apartment, he saw a man trying to “intervene” between two
individuals arguing. Franovich testified that he saw Braziel “lunging or reaching towards
the female” in a “small kitchen area.” Franovich confirmed that the female was Buckley.
He stated Buckley had a “small kitchen knife,” but she was not attempting to attack Braziel.
Franovich stated that the female’s “back [was] all the way against the wall. Between her and
the exit was . . . Braziel.”
¶5. Franovich stated he told Braziel to “get on the ground,” but Braziel did not comply
with his orders. Franovich then discharged his taser because Braziel was “acting in an
aggressive nature.” Franovich stated that this entire altercation took place in an apartment
belonging to Robert Ragsdale. According to Franovich both Ragsdale and Braziel told him
what had occurred prior to Franovich’s arrival at the scene. He stated that at no point in time
did Buckley appear to be a threat to Braziel. Franovich explained that once he reviewed his
body-camera footage, he realized Braziel had a large kitchen knife in his hand, and the knife
had fallen under the table after Braziel was tased.
¶6. The State also called Brandon Clark, an officer with the Biloxi Police Department.
Clark also responded to the 911 call Buckley had made on June 14, 2018. He stated that he
3 knew Buckley had called 911 in response to an altercation between her and her ex-boyfriend
Braziel. Clark stated that when he arrived on the scene, a group of people were “gesturing
towards a building that was just to the west of where” he parked. He testified that he heard
a man and woman screaming. He also heard what “sounded like the female . . . yelling
‘help.’” Clark stated that the door “had been forced open . . . . [T]he doorframe was attached
to the actual door. The deadbolt of the door was engaged still, which means it was stuck out
like it had been attached to the doorframe.”
¶7. Clark testified that he entered the home and saw Ragsdale and Braziel in the kitchen.
He stated that Braziel matched the description of the suspect the 911 operator had described.
Clark testified that he saw Braziel facing Buckley, and he “was making some motions.”
Clark stated that Buckley “was backed up against the wall,” and Braziel was not complying
with Franovich’s orders, so Franovich used his taser. Clark stated that once Braziel was
detained, he noticed Buckley was standing with her back against the wall and her hands
drawn to her body.
¶8. Clark testified that after Braziel was arrested, he read Braziel his Miranda rights.2
Clark testified that Braziel agreed to speak with him about the incident. Braziel told Clark
that he did have an argument with Buckley, and the argument started in Buckley’s apartment.
Braziel told him that Buckley left her apartment and went to Ragsdale’s apartment because
Braziel “scared her.” Clark also testified that Braziel admitted to “breaking into . . .
Ragsdale’s door.”
2 Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 439 (1966).
4 ¶9. The jury saw both Franovich’s and Clark’s body-camera footage from June 14, 2018.
They also saw photographs of Buckley and the doorframe and cut screen, and they heard the
911 call Buckley had made.
¶10. The State then questioned Ragsdale, the owner of the apartment where the altercation
occurred. Ragsdale testified that Buckley and Braziel were arguing on the night Buckley
asked to use his phone and called the police. He explained that Buckley walked back outside
and told Braziel that he needed to leave because the police were coming and then “heard
footsteps like they was running . . . when she ran inside my apartment [and] . . . locked the
door.”3 Ragsdale said that Buckley and Braziel continued to argue “throughout the door”
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IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI
NO. 2021-KA-00603-COA
ADISA JEMEL BRAZIEL APPELLANT
v.
STATE OF MISSISSIPPI APPELLEE
DATE OF JUDGMENT: 05/17/2021 TRIAL JUDGE: HON. CHRISTOPHER LOUIS SCHMIDT COURT FROM WHICH APPEALED: HARRISON COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT, SECOND JUDICIAL DISTRICT ATTORNEY FOR APPELLANT: OFFICE OF STATE PUBLIC DEFENDER BY: MOLLIE MARIE McMILLIN ATTORNEY FOR APPELLEE: OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL BY: SCOTT STUART DISTRICT ATTORNEY: WILLIAM CROSBY PARKER NATURE OF THE CASE: CRIMINAL - FELONY DISPOSITION: AFFIRMED - 10/25/2022 MOTION FOR REHEARING FILED:
BEFORE CARLTON, P.J., WESTBROOKS AND LAWRENCE, JJ.
LAWRENCE, J., FOR THE COURT:
¶1. On September 22, 2021, Adisa Braziel was convicted of burglary. He was sentenced
as a habitual offender to serve life imprisonment without eligibility for parole. Braziel
appealed his conviction and sentence. His attorney filed a Lindsey brief,1 certifying that there
were no arguable issues for appeal. Braziel received an order allowing forty days to file any
supplemental briefing identifying any issue he wanted this Court to address. Braziel failed
to file a brief. Based upon our review of the record and Braziel’s attorney’s brief, we find
1 Lindsey v. State, 939 So. 2d 743 (Miss. 2005). there are no arguable issues on appeal. Therefore, we affirm Braziel’s conviction and
sentence.
FACTS
¶2. On June 14, 2018, Kiera Buckley called 911 and asked for help. She told the operator
that her ex-boyfriend Braziel was in her apartment and would not leave her alone. She also
told the operator that Braziel had hit and choked her. Buckley gave the operator her neighbor
Robert Ragsdale’s address and then told Braziel the police were on their way. Buckley then
ran into Ragsdale’s apartment and locked the door. Braziel cut the screen on Ragsdale’s
window in an attempt to get into the apartment. Braziel then kicked the door to Ragsdale’s
apartment open and ran through the apartment with a knife, threatening to kill Buckley. Two
police officers responded to the call and arrested Braziel. On January 22, 2019, a Harrison
County grand jury indicted Braziel as a non-violent habitual offender for burglary of a
dwelling. See Miss. Code Ann. §99-19-81 (Rev. 2014). Two prior convictions supported the
habitual-offender status. The first was a felony conviction of aggravated assault, and the
second was a felony conviction of unlawful possession of a firearm.
¶3. A jury trial was held on September 22 and September 23, 2020. The State called
several witnesses. One witness was Brandon Franovich, an officer with the Biloxi Police
Department. He testified that on the night of June 14, 2018, he was on patrol with Officer
Brandon Clark. Franovich testified that he was dispatched to the Fernwood Apartments.
Franovich stated that he was “given a suspect’s name, [and he] was informed it was a
domestic assault.” He stated that the suspect’s name was Adisa Braziel. He was also
2 informed that Buckley was the alleged victim.
¶4. Franovich testified that when he arrived, he “could hear various yelling between a
male and a female.” He stated that when he and his partner approached the apartment door,
he noticed it had been “forced in.” Franovich explained that the “frame was busted open.
The door was open, it appeared as though it had been kicked or forced somehow.” Franovich
stated that when he entered the apartment, he saw a man trying to “intervene” between two
individuals arguing. Franovich testified that he saw Braziel “lunging or reaching towards
the female” in a “small kitchen area.” Franovich confirmed that the female was Buckley.
He stated Buckley had a “small kitchen knife,” but she was not attempting to attack Braziel.
Franovich stated that the female’s “back [was] all the way against the wall. Between her and
the exit was . . . Braziel.”
¶5. Franovich stated he told Braziel to “get on the ground,” but Braziel did not comply
with his orders. Franovich then discharged his taser because Braziel was “acting in an
aggressive nature.” Franovich stated that this entire altercation took place in an apartment
belonging to Robert Ragsdale. According to Franovich both Ragsdale and Braziel told him
what had occurred prior to Franovich’s arrival at the scene. He stated that at no point in time
did Buckley appear to be a threat to Braziel. Franovich explained that once he reviewed his
body-camera footage, he realized Braziel had a large kitchen knife in his hand, and the knife
had fallen under the table after Braziel was tased.
¶6. The State also called Brandon Clark, an officer with the Biloxi Police Department.
Clark also responded to the 911 call Buckley had made on June 14, 2018. He stated that he
3 knew Buckley had called 911 in response to an altercation between her and her ex-boyfriend
Braziel. Clark stated that when he arrived on the scene, a group of people were “gesturing
towards a building that was just to the west of where” he parked. He testified that he heard
a man and woman screaming. He also heard what “sounded like the female . . . yelling
‘help.’” Clark stated that the door “had been forced open . . . . [T]he doorframe was attached
to the actual door. The deadbolt of the door was engaged still, which means it was stuck out
like it had been attached to the doorframe.”
¶7. Clark testified that he entered the home and saw Ragsdale and Braziel in the kitchen.
He stated that Braziel matched the description of the suspect the 911 operator had described.
Clark testified that he saw Braziel facing Buckley, and he “was making some motions.”
Clark stated that Buckley “was backed up against the wall,” and Braziel was not complying
with Franovich’s orders, so Franovich used his taser. Clark stated that once Braziel was
detained, he noticed Buckley was standing with her back against the wall and her hands
drawn to her body.
¶8. Clark testified that after Braziel was arrested, he read Braziel his Miranda rights.2
Clark testified that Braziel agreed to speak with him about the incident. Braziel told Clark
that he did have an argument with Buckley, and the argument started in Buckley’s apartment.
Braziel told him that Buckley left her apartment and went to Ragsdale’s apartment because
Braziel “scared her.” Clark also testified that Braziel admitted to “breaking into . . .
Ragsdale’s door.”
2 Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 439 (1966).
4 ¶9. The jury saw both Franovich’s and Clark’s body-camera footage from June 14, 2018.
They also saw photographs of Buckley and the doorframe and cut screen, and they heard the
911 call Buckley had made.
¶10. The State then questioned Ragsdale, the owner of the apartment where the altercation
occurred. Ragsdale testified that Buckley and Braziel were arguing on the night Buckley
asked to use his phone and called the police. He explained that Buckley walked back outside
and told Braziel that he needed to leave because the police were coming and then “heard
footsteps like they was running . . . when she ran inside my apartment [and] . . . locked the
door.”3 Ragsdale said that Buckley and Braziel continued to argue “throughout the door”
when Braziel started “hitting his shoulder . . . to my window screen” and then “cutting the
screen” and lastly “kicking the door.” He stated that Braziel kicked his door at least ten
times, and when he finally came in, “[Braziel] ran through the door with a knife saying, ‘I’m
going to kill you, I’m going to kill you.’”
¶11. Ragsdale explained that he viewed these events from his living room and that Buckley
stood behind him, but she ran into the kitchen when Braziel came in the apartment. Ragsdale
said that Braziel grabbed the mop and had a knife in his hand and that Buckley and Braziel
continued to argue in the kitchen. Buckley threw the pots that were on the stove and the
“iron part to the stove” at Braziel. When asked if Ragsdale attempted to intervene, he
replied, “No, sir, I was trying to break it up, trying to get them out my house. Trying to pull
him out away from her . . . by the back of his shirt.” He said that Braziel did not have
3 Ragsdale testified that Buckley locked the bottom latch and security latch.
5 permission to be in his apartment.
¶12. Next, the State questioned Sergeant Kris Hines of the Biloxi Police Department.
Hines was assigned to the Criminal Investigations Division and also responded to the 911
call. Hines testified that “[t]he screen to the left of the door had a slash in it, and then the
door had obviously been kicked in” and confirmed that a knife was recovered. He also stated
that Franovich’s body-camera footage showed “a knife in the air” when Clark and Franovich
first made contact with Braziel.
¶13. Hines also testified that he interviewed Buckley at her apartment, separating both
Ragsdale and her, and described Buckley as “in shock” with a “blank stare on her face.”
Hines stated that Buckley declined to pursue charges.4 Hines later interviewed Braziel.
Braziel admitted to kicking the door into [Ragsdale’s] apartment. Hines explained that
Braziel told different versions of the events such as “barely forc[ing] the door open” and
causing“the frame to barely rip” or “the trim to barely rip.”
¶14. On September 23, 2020, a jury convicted Braziel of burglary. He was sentenced as
a habitual offender to life imprisonment without eligibility for parole. Braziel filed a motion
for judgment notwithstanding the verdict or a new trial, but the trial court denied the motion.
Braziel appealed from the order denying his post-trial motion to challenge his conviction and
¶15. On November 10, 2021, Braziel’s attorney filed a Lindsey brief certifying that after
4 Hines testified that Buckley was only able to file a charge against Braziel for domestic assault. Buckley was not authorized to file a charge against Braziel for burglary of a dwelling because the apartment did not belong to her.
6 review, the record presented no arguable issues for appeal. His attorney also requested that
the Court give Braziel time to submit a brief. On November 17, 2021, the Mississippi Court
of Appeals granted Braziel forty days to file a pro se supplemental brief to identify any legal
issues he wanted this Court to address. Braziel never submitted a supplemental brief.
ANALYSIS
¶16. Braziel’s counsel filed a Lindsey brief, stating that the case presented no arguable
issues for appeal. Under Lindsey, appellate counsel must do the following when representing
an indigent criminal defendant who counsel believes does not have any arguable issues on
appeal: (1) “file and serve a brief in compliance with Mississippi Rule of Appellate
Procedure 28(a)(1)-[(5), (8)]”; (2) certify in the brief that there are no arguable issues on
appeal;5 and (3) send a copy of the brief to the indigent criminal defendant. Lindsey, 939
So. 2d at 748 (¶18). Braziel’s counsel followed the requirements set out in Lindsey, and
Braziel filed no supplemental brief. Further, this Court has reviewed the record on appeal.
We find no errors and affirm Braziel’s conviction and sentence.
CONCLUSION
¶17. Upon review of the record, this Court concludes that there are no arguable issues on
appeal. Therefore, we affirm Braziel’s conviction and sentence.
¶18. AFFIRMED.
5 To show there are no arguable issues, counsel must “specifically examin[e]: (a) the reason for the arrest and the circumstances surrounding arrest; (b) any possible violations of the client’s right to counsel; (c) the entire trial transcript; (d) all rulings of the trial court; (e) possible prosecutorial misconduct; (f) all jury instructions; (g) all exhibits, whether admitted into evidence or not; and (h) possible misapplication of the law in sentencing.” Lindsey, 939 So. 2d at 748 (¶18).
7 BARNES, C.J., CARLTON AND WILSON, P.JJ., GREENLEE, WESTBROOKS, McDONALD, McCARTY AND EMFINGER, JJ., CONCUR. SMITH, J., NOT PARTICIPATING.