Byrd v. State

741 So. 2d 1028, 1999 WL 410555
CourtCourt of Appeals of Mississippi
DecidedJune 22, 1999
Docket96-KA-00475 COA
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 741 So. 2d 1028 (Byrd 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
Byrd v. State, 741 So. 2d 1028, 1999 WL 410555 (Mich. Ct. App. 1999).

Opinion

741 So.2d 1028 (1999)

Cedric BYRD, Appellant,
v.
STATE of Mississippi, Appellee.

No. 96-KA-00475 COA.

Court of Appeals of Mississippi.

June 22, 1999.

Walter E. Wood, Ridgeland, Attorney for Appellant.

Office of the Attorney General by Charles W. Maris Jr., Attorney for Appellee.

BEFORE THOMAS, P.J., DIAZ, AND SOUTHWICK, JJ.

THOMAS, P.J., for the Court:

¶ 1. Cedric Byrd appeals his conviction of rape and burglary, raising the following issues as error:

*1029 I. THE CIRCUIT COURT ERRED IN NOT DISMISSING THIS CAUSE PURSUANT TO THE 270 DAY RULE.

II. THE CIRCUIT COURT ERRED IN FAILING TO STRIKE TESTIMONY OF JENNIFER LINDSEY, PH. D., OR TO DECLARE A MISTRIAL, AFTER IT BECAME APPARENT THAT SHE DID NOT PERFORM THE D.N.A. TEST TO THE RESULTS OF WHICH SHE TESTIFIED.

¶ 2. Finding no error, we affirm.

FACTS

¶ 3. On June 19, 1993, an armed intruder broke into a Canton dwelling. The intruder entered a bedroom and found R.R.[1] and her one-year-old child asleep in bed. Sleeping in a bed next to R.R. was her sister. The intruder took the baby out of the bed and placed the baby on the floor. R.R. awoke to find a man, his head wrapped in a towel, holding a knife standing over her. A struggle ensued, and the man told her that if she did not lay down and let him have sex with her he would tell his partner to kill her parents in the other room. The intruder also threatened R.R.'s baby by rubbing the knife over the baby. The rape ended when the slats on R.R.'s bed gave out. The intruder walked out. R.R. woke her family and after the family looked around they noticed that the intruder had also stolen some money.

¶ 4. A rape kit was administered to R.R., and a sexual assault kit was performed on Cedric Byrd. At trial a forensic serologist testified that Byrd's known blood type and secretor status matched that of the person who left a seminal stain on R.R.'s panties. A forensic scientist testified that a human pubic hair found in the pubic combing taken from the victim exhibited the same microscopic characteristics as Byrd's known pubic hair. Finally, Jennifer Ann Lindsey, a special agent employed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, testified that her analysis of the D.N.A. found in one of the seminal stains left by the rapist led to her conclusion that Byrd was a potential source of the stain, and that the likelihood of another person having a similar pattern of D.N.A. was a conservative one in sixteen million.

¶ 5. The grand jury of Madison County charged Byrd in April 1994 in five separate indictments with five separate crimes of rape and burglary, including the instant case, cause 2271. Byrd was arraigned on May 27, 1994 on all five indictments. The initial trial setting for these cases was September 19, 1994, although the State intended to go forward with only one of the cases, namely cause 2269. However, before cause 2269 could go to full trial and verdict, the victim in that case got into trouble herself, and the State elected to go forward with the instant case, cause 2271. Trial of cause 2271 was eventually held on January 16, 1996. After deliberations, the jury returned a verdict of guilty for both rape and burglary.

ANALYSIS

I.

THE CIRCUIT COURT ERRED IN NOT DISMISSING THIS CAUSE PURSUANT TO THE 270 DAY RULE.

¶ 6. As Byrd's first assignment of error, he argues that his statutory right to be brought to trial with 270 days of arraignment as guaranteed under Miss.Code Ann. § 99-17-1 (Rev.1994) was violated. Byrd asserts that there was no continuances or any other basis for the delay to be brought to trial within 270 days. Therefore, Byrd argues that dismissal with prejudice is required because of the alleged violation. In the alternative, Byrd asserts that based on State v. Harrison, 648 So.2d 66, 71 (Miss.1994), this case should be remanded to determine if he was prejudiced in his ability to defend against the charge and whether the State engaged in oppressive conduct. After a careful chronological and substantive review of the *1030 efforts to bring this matter to trial, in conjunction with the motions presented at trial and the arguments advanced before us, we hold Byrd's first assignment of error without merit.

¶ 7. Miss.Code Ann. § 99-17-1 (Rev. 1994) reads as follows:

Unless good cause be shown, and a continuance duly granted by the court, all offenses for which indictments are presented to the court shall be tried no later than two hundred seventy (270) days after the accused has been arraigned.

¶ 8. With regard to this statute our supreme court has stated:

Where the accused is not tried within 270 days of his arraignment, the State has the burden of establishing good cause for the delay since the accused is under no duty to bring himself to trial. Nations v. State, 481 So.2d 760 (Miss. 1985). Continuances for "good cause" toll the running of the 270-day period, unless "the record is silent regarding the reason for the delay," and then "the clock ticks against the State because the State bears the risk of non-persuasion on the good cause issue." Vickery v. State, 535 So.2d 1371, 1375 (Miss. 1988).... Continuances that are attributed to the defendant stop the running of the clock and are deducted from the total number of days before trial. Vickery, 535 So.2d at 1376.

Herring v. State, 691 So.2d 948, 953 (Miss. 1997).

¶ 9. Our supreme court has also held that although the State has the burden of establishing "good cause" for the delays this does not mean that expressions of cause need to be made contemporaneously with the delay. McGee v. State, 608 So.2d 1129, 1133 (Miss.1992). "Post-delay determinations of cause are permissible and, when supported by substantial credible evidence, shall not be overturned." Hull v. State, 687 So.2d 708, 729 (Miss. 1996) (citing McNeal v. State, 617 So.2d 999, 1007 (Miss.1993); Folk v. State, 576 So.2d 1243, 1247 (Miss.1991); McGee, 608 So.2d at 1132).

¶ 10. A total of 599 days passed from Byrd's arraignment on May 27, 1994 to his actual trial on January 16, 1996. It would appear that unless "good cause" is shown we would be required by established precedent in Vickery, 535 So.2d at 1380, to reverse and discharge Byrd's conviction or as held in Harrison, 648 So.2d at 71, reverse and remand for a determination of prejudice to Byrd caused by the delay and whether the State engaged in oppressive conduct. However, subsequent to both Vickery and Harrison, our supreme court in Walton v. State, 678 So.2d 645 (Miss. 1996), has also ruled that where a defendant has failed to affirmatively "request or demand a speedy trial it is presumed that the defendant acquiesced in the delay." Walton, 678 So.2d at 650 (quoting State v. Davis, 382 So.2d 1095, 1098 (Miss.1980)).

¶ 11. Byrd asserts the record does not contain any continuances and is silent as to any reasons for the delay. As the record originally existed, Byrd's assertions would be true. However, by the State's own motion the record was supplemented with a post trial hearing which discussed the reasons for the delay.[2]

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Bluebook (online)
741 So. 2d 1028, 1999 WL 410555, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/byrd-v-state-missctapp-1999.