Brooks v. State

788 So. 2d 794, 2001 WL 51670
CourtCourt of Appeals of Mississippi
DecidedJanuary 23, 2001
Docket2000-KA-00279-COA
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 788 So. 2d 794 (Brooks 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
Brooks v. State, 788 So. 2d 794, 2001 WL 51670 (Mich. Ct. App. 2001).

Opinion

788 So.2d 794 (2001)

Lennis BROOKS, Appellant,
v.
STATE of Mississippi, Appellee.

No. 2000-KA-00279-COA.

Court of Appeals of Mississippi.

January 23, 2001.
Rehearing Denied April 3, 2001.
Certiorari Denied June 21, 2001.

*795 Dan W. Duggan Jr., Brandon, Vicki L. Gilliam, Jackson, Attorneys for Appellant.

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

Before McMILLIN, C.J., BRIDGES, and MYERS, JJ.

PROCEDURAL HISTORY

MYERS, J., for the Court:

¶ 1. Lennis Brooks was convicted in the Circuit Court of Rankin County for the sale of cocaine. He was sentenced pursuant to Section 99-19-81 of the Mississippi Code to serve a term of thirty years in the Mississippi Department of Corrections without possibility of parole, having been shown to be an habitual offender. He was ordered to pay a fine of one million dollars on or before the 180th day of his release and to pay court costs and assessments in the sum of $248 on or before the 180th day of his release. Mr. Brooks now appeals presenting two issues for our review:

I. THE TRIAL COURT ERRED BY IMPROPERLY ALLOWING THE INTRODUCTION OF PRIOR BAD ACTS/CRIMES EVIDENCE.
II. THE VERDICT WAS AGAINST THE OVERWHELMING WEIGHT OF THE EVIDENCE.

FACTS

¶ 2. As the subject of an undercover narcotic investigation, Lennis Brooks sold cocaine to a confidential informant, Richard Forrest. At the request of Rankin County Sheriff's Deputy Bryan Bailey, Richard Forrest made a controlled buy of cocaine from Lennis Brooks. Forrest is a concerned citizen, who has worked with the sheriff's department as a paid informant for over seven years.

¶ 3. The "buy" in question took place on December 30, 1996, and followed the prescribed procedures for an undercover drug buy. Bailey installed a body wire on Forrest, which transmitted the transaction to the listening device and tape recorder in Bailey's truck.

*796 ¶ 4. Forrest went to Celius Ervin's house, and Ervin, along with Forrest, proceeded to another house where they were flagged down by Brooks. Brooks got into the truck and Ervin and Forrest told him they wanted to buy some marijuana. Brooks said he had none. Ervin and Forrest asked for other drugs and they gave Brooks twenty dollars of the "buy" money. Brooks went to a car and came back to the truck with a white, rock-like substance. An argument ensued and Brooks left. Forrest took Ervin back to his home. Forrest then went to a graveyard where he met Bailey and gave him the substance. The substance was placed in a bag to be entered into evidence. Jacqueline Gardner, a forensic specialist at the Mississippi State Crime Lab, testified that the substance contained crack cocaine.

¶ 5. Over the defense objection, Bailey testified that he pulled a "jail photo" of Brooks and showed it to Forrest who was able to identify Brooks as the person that sold him the cocaine. The defense motion for a mistrial following this testimony was denied.

¶ 6. Forrest also testified that he earned money ($50) for this buy and had conducted twenty-five to thirty such cases in Rankin County. He has been working as a confidential informant for seven years and has earned thousands of dollars.

¶ 7. Following instructions from the court, the jury retired for deliberation and returned with a verdict of guilty as charged. Subsequently, Brooks was sentenced to serve thirty years, without parole, in the Mississippi Department of Corrections.

I. THE TRIAL COURT PROPERLY OVERRULED THE OBJECTION MADE BY BROOKS WHEN OFFICER BRYAN BAILEY MADE A REFERENCE TO A "JAIL PHOTO" OF BROOKS DURING HIS TESTIMONY.

¶ 8. In his first assignment of error, Brooks claims that the trial judge should have granted his motion for a mistrial when Officer Bryan Bailey stated that he "went into our jail photos and pulled up a photo of Brooks." Brooks believes that by allowing the testimony referencing the photo, the judge erroneously permitted the jury to hear evidence of Brooks's prior bad acts or crimes. He complains that the trial judge should have granted a mistrial since the effect of the comment was denial of a fair trial. However, the trial judge determined that the statement did not rise to the level of error warranting a mistrial, and he was within his discretion in denial of the appellant's motion.

The granting of a motion for a mistrial is within the sound discretion of the trial judge. Bass v. State, 597 So.2d 182, 191 (Miss.1992). The trial judge "is in the best position for determining the prejudicial effect" of an objectionable remark. Perkins v. State, 600 So.2d 938 (Miss. 1992).
The judge is provided considerable discretion to determine whether the remark is so prejudicial that a mistrial should be declared. Where "serious and irreparable damage" has not resulted, the judge should "admonish the jury then and there to disregard the impropriety." Hoops v. State, 681 So.2d 521, 528 (Miss.1996); Roundtree v. State, 568 So.2d 1173, 1178 (Miss.1990).

Lester v. State, No. 98-KP-00228-COA, 767 So.2d 219 (¶¶ 11-12) (Miss.Ct.App. 2000).

¶ 9. In his argument on appeal, Brooks relies on Duplantis v. State, 644 So.2d 1235, 1246 (Miss.1994), and correctly states that "evidence of a crime other than that charged in the indictment is not admissible evidence against the accused." However, the State only introduced a reference to *797 the "jail photo" and not the actual photograph. Even then it was introduced under the exception of M.R.E. 404(b). The reference to the jail photo was made only to ascertain Brooks's identity and nothing more.

¶ 10. In Lee v. State, 733 So.2d 336 (Miss.Ct.App.1999), where the defendant was convicted of conspiracy to sell LSD, this Court held that:

The admissibility of evidence related to prior bad acts is well established in Mississippi. Mississippi Rule of Evidence 404 provides that evidence of a person's character or a trait of his character is generally not admissible. The rule does, however, designate certain exceptions such as evidence of other crimes, wrongs or acts that are admissible to prove motive, opportunity, intent, preparation, plan, knowledge, identity....

Lee, 733 So.2d at 342 (Miss.Ct.App.1999).

¶ 11. The trial judge in the case sub judice relied on this Court's interpretation in Carter v. State, 450 So.2d 67 (Miss. 1984). The trial judge states,

From the reading of this case one of the instances where evidence of another crime may be introduced is where identity of the Defendant is in question." Identity of the defendant is questioned. The cocaine buy between Brooks and Forrest, which happened on December 30, 1996, was captured on audiotape recording. Brooks said in the tape recording, "those statements that they was making in there, they wasn't talking about me." This statement alone called into question Brooks's identity. Brooks hoped that the tape would illustrate to the jury that he was not the one involved in the cocaine sale. Brooks insisted, against the advice of his counsel, that the entire and complete tape recording be played before the jury. Brooks asserted that playing the entire tape and not excerpts would "help fight [his] defense in saying that it was me in the tape." Brooks went on to say, "This guy that's—that's talking about it was Lennis that sold the dope, he don't know whether it was me or my uncle.

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Bluebook (online)
788 So. 2d 794, 2001 WL 51670, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/brooks-v-state-missctapp-2001.