Burnside v. State

912 So. 2d 1018, 2005 WL 646372
CourtCourt of Appeals of Mississippi
DecidedMarch 22, 2005
Docket2003-KA-00201-COA
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 912 So. 2d 1018 (Burnside 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
Burnside v. State, 912 So. 2d 1018, 2005 WL 646372 (Mich. Ct. App. 2005).

Opinion

912 So.2d 1018 (2005)

Kevin B. BURNSIDE, Appellant
v.
STATE of Mississippi, Appellee.

No. 2003-KA-00201-COA.

Court of Appeals of Mississippi.

March 22, 2005.
Rehearing Denied May 17, 2005.
Certiorari Denied October 20, 2005.

*1021 William Mitchell Moran, attorney for appellant.

Office of the Attorney General, by Billy L. Gore, attorney for appellee.

Before BRIDGES, P.J., MYERS and BARNES, JJ.

BARNES, J., for the Court.

¶ 1. Kevin Burnside was found guilty of two counts of the sale of methamphetamine by a Leake County Circuit Court jury, which rejected his entrapment defense. He was sentenced to ten years on each count with the sentences to run consecutively and with five years suspended all in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections. Burnside appeals, citing as error the trial court's refusal to grant a mistrial for an inappropriate statement by the prosecutor on voir dire, the trial court's refusal to grant a continuance respecting an undisclosed prosecution witness, three issues regarding empaneling of the jury, and one issue respecting a refused jury instruction. Finding no error, we affirm.

STATEMENT OF FACTS

¶ 2. While acting as a confidential informant, Tiffany Smith[1] purchased methamphetamine from Kevin Burnside in the Vowell's Supermarket parking lot in Carthage, Mississippi on two separate occasions, July 18, 2001 and August 22, 2001. Each of these transactions took place after a pre-buy meeting with Joey Mays, an agent with the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics, and Greg Waggoner, Sheriff of Leake County. Smith was wired for sound, and both transactions were video and audio taped by Sheriff Waggoner, who along with Mays provided surveillance during the drug purchases.

¶ 3. Burnside drove to the July 18th transaction in a maroon Ford Escort. Smith pulled her car along side Burnside's car, asked "how much?" and gave him $100; in return, Burnside tossed methamphetamine in Smith's car. After the transaction was completed, Smith relinquished the contraband to Mays and Waggoner during a post-buy meeting. The second transaction took place on August 22, 2001. This time Burnside was driving a Chevrolet pickup. Burnside pulled along side Smith's car. A few minutes later, a white Geo Tracker pulled up to the other side of Burnside's vehicle. The unidentified third party driving the white vehicle got into Burnside's pickup, stayed for less than a minute, exited the pickup and left the scene. At this time, Smith gave Burnside $100 to purchase drugs. Once again, Burnside tossed the methamphetamine into Smith's car, and Smith relinquished the drugs to Mays and Waggoner during their post-buy meeting.

¶ 4. Burnside was subsequently indicted on two counts of the sale and delivery of methamphetamine. At trial, the videotaped recordings of the two transactions were played for the jury. Agent Mays testified as to the making of the videotapes and his personal observation of the transactions. As to the August 22, 2001 transaction, *1022 Mays testified that although law enforcement attempted to learn the identity of the driver of the white vehicle, the confidential informant was unaware of his identity. In addition, Mays and Sheriff Waggoner testified they were not able to leave the surveillance scene where there was an informant to try to follow the vehicle. When asked on cross-examination whether the driver of the white vehicle could have been working as an agent of the State, Agent Mays responded, "No, sir, they were not." When further questioned whether the driver of the white vehicle was Brent White, Agent Mays testified that from information law enforcement received, "it possibly was him." Mays continued that Brent White has been arrested on some drug related charges but was not arrested with respect to this transaction. Sheriff Waggoner later testified that "I can't testify this day exactly who it was [in the white vehicle]." He further testified, without objection, that Smith had informed him that she had been purchasing drugs from Burnside "for a year or more" and that the August 22, 2001 transaction occurred as a result of Burnside's calling Smith, and telling her "he had some meth for sale." Both Mays and Waggoner disavowed any knowledge of threats or coercion by Smith to induce the sales by Burnside.

¶ 5. Smith testified that she had been involved in an adulterous sexual relationship with Burnside, who first introduced her to crystal methamphetamine. He gave the drug to her on the first occasion and thereafter either sold or gave her the drug approximately once a week; most of the time, Smith purchased the drug from Burnside for $100 for a gram. She denied ever having to threaten Burnside or promise him anything to lure him into selling her drugs. Smith testified that following an overdose on crystal methamphetamine in July 2001 (in which Burnside was not involved), she advised Sheriff Waggoner that she wanted "to help stop the problem." Thereafter, she became a confidential informant, contacted Burnside and asked if he had any drugs to sell. His positive response led to the July 18 transaction. Smith testified that Burnside instigated the August 22 sale by calling Smith and telling her that he had some drugs if she wanted to buy some. As to the white vehicle which appeared during this second transaction, Smith testified that "[i]t looked like ... that guy in the other vehicle gave the defendant money." On cross-examination, Smith denied threatening "to get even" with Burnside and denied telling him that she was "strung out," needed drugs and would leave him alone if he would do her "this favor."

¶ 6. Burnside presented an entrapment defense at trial, arguing that he had no predisposition to sell drugs. Burnside testified that he began having an affair with Smith while she was employed at his mother's restaurant. He admitted to having smoked marijuana with Smith on one occasion. He testified that he "was trying to break it off with her, [because] she was seeing everybody in Carthage" but that Smith continued to call and try to see him; he estimated that Smith "called like a hundred times a month." Burnside testified that once, when he did return her call, Smith "said I'm in bad shape. I got to have some stuff and you told me you're going to get me some. Said I'm going to go and call your wife and tell her what we been doing if you don't come on and do something." He continued that since he and his wife were "getting things sort of worked out ... I didn't need that trouble again. I done been through all that junk with her and my wife. . . ." Accordingly, in order to keep Smith from telling his wife that they were having an affair, Burnside testified that he "tried to set up arrangement" *1023 to get Smith together with Brent White, an individual Burnside, a bail bondsman, had previously bonded out of jail on a drug charge. Burnside claimed that he was only a middle man between Smith and White and never had any of the drug money pass through his hands. Thus, Burnside felt he demonstrated that he had no predisposition to sell drugs, but that he was induced by the State to participate in the two transactions in question.

¶ 7. To counter Burnside's testimony, the State offered the rebuttal evidence of Patsy Savell-Thornton who testified that Burnside had sold drugs to her on previous occasions, the last time being in the latter part of 1999.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Jeffery Johnson v. State of Mississippi
194 So. 3d 191 (Court of Appeals of Mississippi, 2016)
Jenkins v. State
101 So. 3d 161 (Court of Appeals of Mississippi, 2012)
Jackson v. State
52 So. 3d 1203 (Court of Appeals of Mississippi, 2010)
Butler v. State
19 So. 3d 111 (Court of Appeals of Mississippi, 2009)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
912 So. 2d 1018, 2005 WL 646372, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/burnside-v-state-missctapp-2005.