Carley v. State

739 So. 2d 1046, 1999 WL 228867
CourtCourt of Appeals of Mississippi
DecidedApril 20, 1999
Docket97-KA-00487 COA
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 739 So. 2d 1046 (Carley 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
Carley v. State, 739 So. 2d 1046, 1999 WL 228867 (Mich. Ct. App. 1999).

Opinion

739 So.2d 1046 (1999)

George Ogden CARLEY, Appellant,
v.
STATE of Mississippi, Appellee.

No. 97-KA-00487 COA.

Court of Appeals of Mississippi.

April 20, 1999.

*1047 Anthony J. Buckley, Laurel, Attorney for Appellant.

Office of the Attorney General by Jolene Lowry, Attorney for Appellee.

EN BANC

KING, P.J., for the Court:

¶ 1. This is an appeal of a Jones County Circuit Court conviction on two counts of murder and sentence of two consecutive life terms imposed on the appellant, George Ogden Carley, for the shooting deaths of his parents. Feeling aggrieved by both the convictions and sentences, *1048 Carley has appealed and assigned the following errors:

I. THE TRIAL COURT ERRED IN ADMITTING THE APPELLANT'S INVOLUNTARY CONFESSIONS WHICH WERE THE PRODUCT OF PROMISES OF POLICE COERCION, PROMISES OF REWARD AND LENIENCY, AND RELIGIOUS SALVATION IN VIOLATION OF THE 4th, 5th, 6th, AND 14th AMENDMENTS TO THE U.S. CONSTITUTION AND SECTION 23 AND 26 OF THE MISSISSIPPI CONSTITUTION.
II. THE TRIAL COURT ERRED IN ADMITTING THE APPELLANT'S 2nd AND 3rd CONFESSIONS UNDER THE FRUIT OF THE POISONOUS TREE DOCTRINE.
III. THE TRIAL COURT ERRED FAILING TO DECLARE THAT IT FOLLOWED THE REASONABLE DOUBT STANDARD IN ADMISSION OF THE CONFESSION.
IV. THE TRIAL COURT ERRED IN ALLOWING THE STATE TO AMEND THEIR INDICTMENT BECAUSE THAT AMENDMENT COULD ONLY BE MADE BY A GRAND JURY.
V. THE AMENDED INDICTMENT WAS VOID DUE TO THE OMISSION OF THE WORD "DID".

Relevant Facts

¶ 2. On the morning of March 27, 1995, Joe and Edith Sue Carley were found shot to death in the bedroom of their home. After the Carleys' bodies were discovered, their son, George Ogden Carley, was taken into custody and questioned at the scene. At the time of the shooting, the younger Carley was only fourteen years old and had been diagnosed several months before the shooting as suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. Carley had also been found to have a learning disability in the areas of reading and comprehension. The Carleys adopted George when he was three years old. He was removed from the custody of his biological parents when it was discovered that George and another sibling were being physically and sexually abused.

¶ 3. Officers Morris Walters of the Jones County District Attorney's Office and Freddie Reeves of the Jones County Sheriff's Department began interrogating Carley at 8:50 a.m. and each officer made his separate recordings of the interrogation on Sides A and B of an audiotape. The officers began their individual recordings on Side A of the audiotapes. After an initial denial of involvement in the death of his parents, Carley confessed to the killings. At 9:25 a.m. the investigating officers turned their audiotapes to Side B and recorded Carley's confession. Only the portion of the interrogation contained on Side B was transcribed and provided to Carley's attorneys. Carley's attorneys were informed that no interrogation of Carley had occurred prior to 9:25 a.m.

¶ 4. Once transported from his parents' home, Carley next gave a videotaped confession at 1:25 p.m. and a written confession at 1:43 p.m. at the Jones County Sheriff's Department. Carley's attorneys were not provided a copy or transcription of the videotaped confession.

¶ 5. Carley filed a motion to suppress the 9:25 a.m. audiotaped confession and the 1:43 p.m. written confession given at the sheriff's department. The 9:25 a.m. confession, contained on Side B of the audiotape, suggested that Carley confessed to the murder of his parents without coercion or promise of reward or leniency. The trial court reserved ruling on the motion at the close of the hearing.

¶ 6. There were three separate suppression hearings held to exclude Carley's confessions. The first sought to exclude the 9:25 a.m. audiotaped confession and the 1:43 p.m. written confession. The second sought to exclude the videotaped confession taken at the sheriff's department. The third sought to exclude the 8:50 a.m. confession, contained on the untranscribed *1049 side of the audiotape which was the subject of the first hearing.

¶ 7. During the hearing to suppress the 9:25 a.m. confession, references to earlier conversation not contained on the audiotape led Carley's attorneys to believe that they were not provided with the full text of the confession. To this inquiry, Officer Morris Walters responded that the 8:50 a.m. confession, contained on Side A of the audiotape, "was just so much conversation" and that the confession began at 9:25 a.m. Carley's attorney asked the officer whether a video had been taken of any of Carley's confessions. Officer Walters responded no.

¶ 8. Dr. Diane Little, child and adolescent psychiatrist, testified for the defense during the first suppression hearing. Dr. Little testified that she had been treating Carley for post traumatic stress disorder since February 1994, a little over a year before the murders. Dr. Little explained that in association with the disorder, Carley experienced psychosis, hallucinations, and delusions.

¶ 9. Prior to the fatal shooting of his parents, Carley had been hospitalized on two separate occasions. Carley was hospitalized the first time due to severe depression and psychosis. Carley was prescribed anti-psychotic medications during this hospitalization.[1] Carley was hospitalized the second time on July 21, 1994, because his condition had deteriorated acutely. Carley's parents reported that he had become verbally aggressive at home, which frightened them.

¶ 10. Dr. Little also offered testimony with regard to Carley's learning disability. After hearing the audiotape of the Miranda warnings that Carley was given, Dr. Little was of the opinion that his limited reading and comprehension skills precluded him from understanding what he actually signed.

¶ 11. Following the conclusion of the first suppression hearing, the State informed the trial judge that a videotape had indeed been made of one of the confessions and had since been located by one of the investigating officers.

¶ 12. A second suppression hearing was held to exclude the 1:25 p.m. videotape confession. When asked how he could forget videotaping the most sensational case in Jones County history, Officer Reeves responded that he had handled "several hundred cases since that time." However, of those "several hundred cases," only three or four were murder cases, and Officer Reeves testified that he had not in the year following the Carley double murder videotaped a confession.

¶ 13. At the conclusion of the second suppression hearing, the trial court denied Carley's motion to suppress the 9:25 a.m. confession as well as the 1:25 p.m. videotaped and 1:43 p.m. written confessions given later that same day.

¶ 14. Finally, a third suppression hearing was held based on new revelations concerning the contents of the 8:50 a.m. confession, contained on Side A of the same audiotape which was the subject of the first suppression hearing. The 8:50 a.m. confession revealed more than "just conversation" as it was described during the first suppression hearing by Officer Reeves. Instead, the 8:50 a.m. confession revealed that in an effort to obtain Carley's confession, the officers's held out promises of religious salvation and leniency, and hope of reward.

¶ 15. After reviewing this evidence, the trial court again denied Carley's motion to suppress.

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Bluebook (online)
739 So. 2d 1046, 1999 WL 228867, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/carley-v-state-missctapp-1999.