Agnew v. State

783 So. 2d 699, 2001 WL 393915
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedApril 19, 2001
Docket2000-KA-00009-SCT
StatusPublished
Cited by65 cases

This text of 783 So. 2d 699 (Agnew v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Agnew v. State, 783 So. 2d 699, 2001 WL 393915 (Mich. 2001).

Opinion

783 So.2d 699 (2001)

Eric F. AGNEW
v.
STATE of Mississippi.

No. 2000-KA-00009-SCT.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

April 19, 2001.

*701 Robert Sneed Laher, Attorney for Appellant.

Office of the Attorney General, by Jean Smith Vaughan, Attorney for Appellee.

BEFORE BANKS, P.J., MILLS and DIAZ, JJ.

MILLS, Justice, for the Court:

¶ 1. Eric F. Agnew was indicted and charged with the murder of Kristy High on April 28, 1998. After a two-day trial in the Circuit Court of Lee County, the jury found Agnew guilty of murder, and he was sentenced to a term of life imprisonment. He filed a motion for a j.n.o.v., or in the alternative, a new trial. The circuit court denied Agnew's motion. Aggrieved, Agnew appealed to this Court. Finding that the trial judge did not abuse his discretion by refusing to grant a manslaughter instruction or by denying Agnew's motion in limine to exclude the murder weapon, we affirm.

FACTS

¶ 2. Eric Agnew and Kristy High began dating in their last year of high school. The record is not clear as to exactly how long they dated, but it appears to have been roughly four to five years. Kristy and Agnew had one daughter, Kyra, but the two never married. Kristy and Kyra shared an apartment in Tupelo with Kristy's twin sister Misty.

¶ 3. On the 27th of February, 1998, Agnew spent the day with Kristy and Misty. It was Misty's testimony that Agnew had acted strangely throughout the day. Misty testified that as they drove to eat lunch, Agnew cried for no apparent reason. While she and Kristy ate lunch, Agnew would not eat, but instead stayed outside and smoked a cigarette. Additionally, she stated that Kristy offered a greeting card to Agnew in an effort to encourage their relationship and he refused to accept it. Yet, at one point in the afternoon, Misty returned to her car to find Kristy and Agnew in an apparently intimate position.

¶ 4. In the evening of that same date, Misty went to bed around 9:30. She left Kristy and Agnew watching television. Around 10:30 she was awakened by Kristy's screaming. She jumped out of her bed and ran into the living room. She saw Agnew standing over Kristy, who was sitting on the couch. Misty believed Agnew was only shaking Kristy. However, when Misty approached the two of them, Agnew turned to her and stated that he would "stab her too." She was surprised because at that point she did not realize that Kristy had been stabbed at all. Kristy and Misty approached the door in an effort to leave the apartment, but Agnew blocked the doorway. As Kristy turned away from him, Misty saw Agnew stab Kristy in the back. Agnew then left the apartment. Kristy followed behind him. Misty was the last person out of the door.

¶ 5. Kristy collapsed in the parking lot. Misty went to the apartment of an upstairs neighbor to call the police and returned to the parking lot to wait beside Kristy. A crowd had already begun to gather when the first police car arrived. Misty recounted the event to the first officer on the *702 scene. Misty saw Agnew while she was speaking to the officer. She pointed him out to the officer and informed him that Agnew was the person who had stabbed her sister. The officer immediately handcuffed Agnew and placed him in the back of the police car. An ambulance arrived and transported Kristy to the hospital where she later died. Agnew stabbed Kristy a total of eight times, and it was the opinion of the medical examiner that five of the wounds were fatal. A knife was later discovered in a garbage dumpster, but it was never submitted for finger print or blood analysis.

DISCUSSION

I. WHETHER THE TRIAL COURT COMMITTED REVERSIBLE ERROR IN REFUSING TO GRANT AGNEW'S REQUESTED LESSER INCLUDED OFFENSE JURY INSTRUCTION FOR MANSLAUGHTER.

¶ 6. The standard of review for challenges to jury instructions is as follows: Jury instructions are to be read together and taken as a whole with no one instruction taken out of context. A defendant is entitled to have jury instructions given which present his theory of the case, however, this entitlement is limited in that the court may refuse an instruction which incorrectly states the law, is covered fairly elsewhere in the instructions, or is without foundation in the evidence. Humphrey v. State, 759 So.2d 368, 380 (Miss.2000) (citing Heidel v. State, 587 So.2d 835, 842 (Miss.1991)).

¶ 7. Agnew proposed a jury instruction on manslaughter as a lesser-included offense instruction at the close of all the evidence. The trial judge refused this instruction, and the jury was only instructed on the murder charge. Agnew claims that the only evidence presented by the State at trial indicated manslaughter and not murder. Further, he claims that the State failed to present any evidence of "deliberate design" and/or "malice aforethought," one of which is a requirement to the finding of murder.

¶ 8. Agnew relies on the testimony of two witnesses and some photographs to support this proposition. Tupelo Police Officer Ronnie Thomas testified that the living room was "kind of in general disarray." Officer Thomas's testimony was used to introduce photographs of the living room in the apartment. The pictures show the living room with a few things on the floor e.g., Kristy's glasses, a throw rug which appears to be somewhat crumpled, and a broken end table. Misty testified that this was not the way that she and Kristy usually kept the apartment and that the living room was not in that condition when she went to bed earlier in the evening. Agnew asserts this suggests that an altercation took place.

¶ 9. The State asserts there was no evidentiary basis to support a manslaughter instruction. Specifically, the State argues there is nothing in the record to connect the photographs of, and testimony regarding, the living room with anything that happened between Kristy and Agnew. The only evidence shows that Agnew stabbed Kristy with a butcher knife and that Kristy died. Thus, the State concludes that the trial judge did not abuse his discretion in denying the manslaughter instruction because it had no evidentiary support. We agree.

¶ 10. There is a test to determine whether a lesser-included offense should be submitted to the jury:

A lesser included offense instruction should be granted unless the trial judge—and ultimately this Court—can say, taking the evidence in the light *703 most favorable to the accused, and considering all reasonable favorable inferences which may be drawn in favor of the accused from the evidence, that no reasonable jury could find the defendant guilty of the lesser included offense (and conversely not guilty of at least one essential element of the principal charge).

Graham v. State, 582 So.2d 1014, 1017 (Miss.1991) (citing Gates v. State, 484 So.2d 1002, 1004 (Miss.1986)). The evidence must warrant an instruction on the lesser-included offense before it can be granted. Id.

¶ 11. Our case law leans heavily in favor of instructing the jury on a lesserincluded offense. As recently as 1997, we reaffirmed that the jury should be given the option of a lesser-included offense where there is any evidentiary basis. Russell v. State, 729 So.2d 781, 787 (Miss. 1997). However, such an instruction should not be indiscriminately or automatically given. Mease v. State, 539 So.2d 1324, 1329 (Miss.1989). Such an instruction "should only be given after the trial court has carefully considered the evidence and is of the opinion that such an instruction is justified by the evidence." Id.

¶ 12.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
783 So. 2d 699, 2001 WL 393915, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/agnew-v-state-miss-2001.