Brown v. State

961 So. 2d 720, 2007 WL 93221
CourtCourt of Appeals of Mississippi
DecidedJanuary 16, 2007
Docket2005-KA-00520-COA
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 961 So. 2d 720 (Brown 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
Brown v. State, 961 So. 2d 720, 2007 WL 93221 (Mich. Ct. App. 2007).

Opinion

961 So.2d 720 (2007)

Newell Matthew BROWN, Appellant
v.
STATE of Mississippi, Appellee.

No. 2005-KA-00520-COA.

Court of Appeals of Mississippi.

January 16, 2007.
Rehearing Denied July 31, 2007.

*722 Jonathan M. Farris, attorney for appellant.

Office of the Attorney General by John R. Henry, attorney for appellee.

EN BANC.

*723 MYERS, P.J., for the Court.

¶ 1. Newell Matthew Brown was indicted on the charge of attempted burglary of an inhabited dwelling on December 29, 2003, in the Circuit Court of Forrest County. Leading up to the trial, Brown filed several motions including a demurrer and motion to quash the indictment and a motion in limine to preclude the victim from making an in-court identification. Following a hearing, these pre-trial motions were denied. At his jury trial, Brown was convicted of attempted burglary and sentenced to twenty-five years in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections with fifteen years to be served and the remaining ten years suspended pending successful completion of five years of post-release supervision. Subsequently, Brown moved for a judgment notwithstanding the verdict or, in the alternative, for a new trial. Both post-trial motions were denied. Aggrieved by the denials of his motions and by the refusal of a proposed jury instruction, Brown appeals to this Court, assigning error to the trial court as follows:

I. IN DENYING HIS MOTION TO QUASH THE INDICTMENT.
II. IN DENYING HIS MOTION IN LIMINE TO PROHIBIT THE IN-COURT IDENTIFICATION.
III. IN DENYING A CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE INSTRUCTION.
IV. IN DENYING HIS MOTION FOR DIRECTED VERDICT, REQUEST FOR PEREMPTORY INSTRUCTION AND MOTION FOR A JUDGMENT NOTWITHSTANDING THE VERDICT AS THE VERDICT REACHED BY THE JURY WAS AGAINST THE OVERWHELMING WEIGHT OF THE EVIDENCE AND WAS MANIFESTLY WRONG AS A MATTER OF LAW.

¶ 2. Finding no error, we affirm.

STATEMENT OF FACTS

¶ 3. The facts adduced at trial reflect that on June 14, 2005, Danielle Brantley, who had moved from California to Hattiesburg, Mississippi to attend college at the University of Southern Mississippi, began unpacking and moving into her new apartment. On June 15, 2005, Danielle decided to sleep her first night in the apartment on her mattress and box springs, which was positioned on the floor directly below her bedroom window. At approximately 2:30 a.m., she decided to go to sleep and turned off the television. Shortly thereafter, she began to hear heavy breathing coming from just outside her bedroom window and what sounded like someone attempting to tear off her bedroom window screen. Danielle immediately retrieved her cell phone, moved to the closet of her bedroom, located the police department telephone number, and called the department to report the prowler at 2:45 a.m. Danielle, feeling unsafe in her closet, then moved into the kitchen of the apartment. As Danielle was relaying her account to the police dispatcher, she went back into her bedroom and peeked out the window through the blinds. Danielle first told the dispatcher that she saw an abandoned bicycle in her yard that was not present when she went to bed. She then identified a man wearing a red t-shirt standing partially behind a large tree located in her backyard and approximately three feet from her bedroom window. However, Danielle was unable to identify the race of the prowler during her conversation with the police dispatcher. Minutes later, at or before 2:53 a.m., the police arrived at Danielle's apartment and immediately spotted a man, wearing a red t-shirt and riding a *724 bicycle, approximately ten feet away from Danielle's apartment, approaching a nearby alleyway. After giving several loud commands to the suspect to stop, the officers gave chase, overcame, and eventually apprehended the suspect later identified as Newell Matthew Brown. Thereafter, Danielle ended the telephone call with the dispatcher, exited her apartment and observed her window screen removed and Brown in handcuffs in the custody of the police officers.

I. DENIAL OF MOTION TO QUASH THE INDICTMENT

¶ 4. Brown first contends that the trial judge erred in overruling his demurrer and motion to quash the indictment against him. Brown's argument is premised on the assertion that the indictment's charge of attempted burglary does not set forth the elements of the offense of attempted burglary. The indictment against Brown reads:

Newell Matthew Brown in Forrest County, Mississippi, on or about June 15, 2003, did willfully, unlawfully, and feloniously design and endeavor to commit the offense of Burglary, a felony denounced by section 97-17-23, Mississippi Code of 1972, as amended, in that he did intend to enter through the window of the dwelling of Danielle Brantley; and did an overt act toward the commission thereof, to wit: removed the outer screen of a bedroom window; but he failed therein in that Police entered the area and eventually apprehended Newell Matthew Brown, contrary to the form of the statute in such cases made and provided, and against the peace and dignity of the State of Mississippi.

¶ 5. Whether an indictment is fatally defective is an issue of law, and on appeal our review of legal issues is de novo. Peterson v. State, 671 So.2d 647, 652 (Miss.1996). We begin our review of the indictment against Brown by looking to Rule 7.06 of the Uniform Rules of Circuit and County Court. Rule 7.06 requires that an indictment "shall be a plain, concise and definite written statement of the essential facts constituting the offense charged and shall fully notify the defendant of the nature and cause of the accusation." The Rule makes clear that "[f]ormal and technical words are not necessary . . . if the offense can be substantially described without them."

¶ 6. The Mississippi Supreme Court has found an indictment for attempted kidnapping sufficient as to provide proper notice to a defendant, pursuant to Rule 7.06, when it specified the statute section number which the defendant was alleged to have violated and gave details of the alleged attempt, including the facts of how the attempt failed. Hersick v. State, 904 So.2d 116, 126(¶ 37) (Miss.2004). In Hersick, the appellant contended that the indictment against him was fatally flawed because while it stated that Hersick attempted kidnapping, the indictment failed to specify the specific manner in which the kidnapping took place. The supreme court dismissed Hersick's argument and held that the indictment provided sufficient detail, explaining that the "indictment against Hersick state[d] the essential facts, and fully notified him of the nature and cause of the accusation." Id. at (¶ 37). The indictment against Hersick described the charge of attempted kidnaping by using the language "a felony denounced by Sections 97-1-7 and 97-3-53, Miss.Code of 1972," gave the details of the alleged attempted kidnaping, and also provided the details concerning the thwarted attempt. Id. at (¶¶ 35-36). In the case sub judice, the language of the indictment against Brown is strikingly similar to the language in the indictment against Hersick. Here, *725 the indictment against Brown described the charge of attempted burglary by using the language "a felony denounced by Section 97-17-23, Mississippi Code of 1972," provided the details of the alleged attempted burglary, and also provided the details concerning the failure to complete the burglary.

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Bluebook (online)
961 So. 2d 720, 2007 WL 93221, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/brown-v-state-missctapp-2007.