Al-Fatah v. State

916 So. 2d 584, 2005 WL 3382244
CourtCourt of Appeals of Mississippi
DecidedDecember 13, 2005
Docket2003-KA-01824-COA
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 916 So. 2d 584 (Al-Fatah v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Mississippi primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Al-Fatah v. State, 916 So. 2d 584, 2005 WL 3382244 (Mich. Ct. App. 2005).

Opinion

916 So.2d 584 (2005)

Seitu Anderson AL-FATAH, Appellant
v.
STATE of Mississippi, Appellee.

No. 2003-KA-01824-COA.

Court of Appeals of Mississippi.

December 13, 2005.

*585 Carrie A. Jourdan, attorney for appellant.

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

EN BANC.

GRIFFIS, J., for the Court.

¶ 1. This cause was brought to trial in the Circuit Court of Lowndes County by the State of Mississippi against Seitu Anderson Al-Fatah for the crimes of burglary of a dwelling and aggravated assault. After trial on the merits, he was convicted of both crimes. Aggrieved by this decision, Al-Fatah timely perfected his appeal. Finding no error, we affirm.

FACTS

¶ 2. On November 16, 1999, Jeffrey Harris, then employed as an officer with the Columbus Police Department, responded to a disturbance call at a local home. When Officer Harris arrived at the door of the dwelling, he was met by Dearius Hayes, whose hand was cut and bleeding. Also present at the home were Hayes's three younger sisters. Officer Harris entered the home and found that it had been ransacked. He further observed a sword resting in a corner of the room, a baton *586 atop a speaker, a long knife on the kitchen table, and a glove on the couch.

¶ 3. According to the testimony of Dearius Hayes, he fell asleep on the night in question in front of the family television and was awakened between 3:00 and 3:30 a.m. by a pinching sensation he later attributed to being attacked with a stun gun. When he awoke, Dearius saw two men standing above him who were dressed in black and were wearing ski masks. Dearius testified that one of his attackers was approximately six feet, three inches tall and that the shorter man was about five feet, ten inches in height. After waking, Dearius immediately began to struggle with the men, and was able to wrest control of the stun gun from one of his attackers. During the struggle, Dearius fell backwards onto the couch where his sister Shameka was sleeping, thus waking her. According to Dearius, he saw one of the men reach into his clothing for an object and that he next confronted the second man in an attempt to gain control of the weapon. Shameka would later testify that the object in dispute was a knife. During the struggle, a knife and sword were dropped by the attackers before they fled the house. Once the men had departed, Dearius noticed the cut on his finger, which had occurred while struggling to disarm his attacker and which later required stitches. Both Shameka and Dearius testified that the men lost their masks in the struggle and that they were able to identify Bashir Al-Fatah, Seitu's son, as the shorter attacker. Shameka also testified that Bashir was the man holding the knife and that Seitu wielded the sword. She was further able to identify Seitu Al-Fatah as the taller attacker.

¶ 4. Search and arrest warrants were immediately issued for Seitu and Bashir Al-Fatah, and the warrants were executed later that same day. At the Al-Fatah home, police found the stun gun as well as a sheath for the sword found at the Hayes residence. Seitu and Bashir would later testify that they had spent the evening taking Shameka to Wal-Mart. According to the two men, Bashir and Dearius had exchanged words due to a pre-existing dispute, when the men dropped Shameka off at home at approximately 10:00 p.m. According to the Al-Fatahs, the two men ate dinner, watched television, and went to bed without ever having left their home on the night of the assault.

¶ 5. Seitu Al-Fatah was indicted on February 12, 2000, on the charges of burglary of a dwelling and aggravated assault. The trial was held on May 28, 2003. After trial on the merits, Seitu Al-Fatah was convicted on both counts. Aggrieved by this decision, Al-Fatah asserts the following errors on appeal: (1) whether the trial court erred by denying Al-Fatah an instruction to the jury that would allow it to consider the lesser offense of simple assault; and (2) whether the trial court erred by not permitting defense witness Ernie Verdine to testify through the misapplication of Mississippi Rule of Evidence 613(b).

ANALYSIS

I. Whether the trial court erred by denying Al-Fatah an instruction to the jury that would allow it to consider the lesser offense of simple assault.

¶ 6. Al-Fatah alleges that the trial court erred in not granting him an instruction to the jury for the lesser offense of simple assault as to Count II of his indictment. "In determining whether error lies in granting or refusal of various instructions, the instructions given must be read as a whole. If the instructions announce the law of the case fairly, and create no injustice, no reversible error will be found." Taylor v. State, 763 So.2d 913, *587 915(¶ 8) (Miss.Ct.App.2000). Generally, the granting of instructions should err on the side of inclusion rather than exclusion. Taylor v. State, 577 So.2d 381, 383-84 (Miss.1991). "[L]esser-included offense instructions should not be indiscriminately granted. Rather, they should be submitted to the jury only where there is an evidentiary basis in the record therefor." Lee v. State, 469 So.2d 1225, 1230 (Miss. 1985). "A lesser included offense requires that the elements of the greater offense contain the elements of the lesser offense." Green v. State, 884 So.2d 733, 737(¶ 11) (Miss.2004).

¶ 7. At trial, Al-Fatah submitted jury instructions labeled "D-8" and "D-9," respectively, which attempted to put the lesser charge of simple assault before the jury. The elements of simple assault are provided by Mississippi Code Annotated § 97-3-7(1) (Supp.2005):

A person is guilty of simple assault if he (a) attempts to cause or purposely, knowingly or recklessly causes bodily injury to another; or (b) negligently causes bodily injury to another with a deadly weapon or other means likely to produce death or serious bodily harm; or © attempts by physical menace to put another in fear of imminent serious bodily harm; and, upon conviction, he shall be punished by a fine of not more than Five Hundred Dollars ($500.00) or by imprisonment in the county jail for not more than six (6) months, or both.

After being presented with the instructions, the trial court stated as follows:

The proffered instruction is refused as not being supported by the evidence in this case. It is not the law that a defendant is always entitled to a lesser or lesser included instruction. It must be supported by the evidence. The Court recalls the evidence elicited by the defendant and the defendant says that he wasn't there, so he couldn't have negligently caused any injury. As a matter of fact, the defendant's testimony was that he was at home asleep. Refused, not supported by the evidence.

Al-Fatah now argues that the trial court was overly restrictive in refusing his instructions. Al-Fatah notes that the difference between a charge of aggravated assault and the lesser offense of simple assault is between the nature or means of the injury caused or attempted to be caused. According to Al-Fatah, the evidence at trial was unclear as to how the cut on Dearius's finger was caused, and as such, the jury should have been allowed to consider simple assault. Al-Fatah asserts that the jury could have found that the cut could have occurred in a manner other than through contact with the weapons and that because the wound was not stitched until three days after the incident, it was not a serious bodily injury.

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Bluebook (online)
916 So. 2d 584, 2005 WL 3382244, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/al-fatah-v-state-missctapp-2005.