Cedric Jackson v. State of Mississippi

• Court: Court of Appeals of Mississippi
• Decided: March 15, 2022
• Docket: 2021-KA-00292-COA
• Status: Published

Opinion

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI

NO. 2021-KA-00292-COA

CEDRIC JACKSON APPELLANT

v.

STATE OF MISSISSIPPI APPELLEE

DATE OF JUDGMENT: 01/25/2021 TRIAL JUDGE: HON. CELESTE EMBREY WILSON COURT FROM WHICH APPEALED: DESOTO COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT ATTORNEY FOR APPELLANT: OFFICE OF STATE PUBLIC DEFENDER BY: MOLLIE MARIE McMILLIN ATTORNEY FOR APPELLEE: OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL BY: ALEXANDRA RODU ROSENBLATT DISTRICT ATTORNEY: JOHN W. CHAMPION NATURE OF THE CASE: CRIMINAL - FELONY DISPOSITION: AFFIRMED - 03/15/2022 MOTION FOR REHEARING FILED: MANDATE ISSUED:

BEFORE WILSON, P.J., WESTBROOKS AND LAWRENCE, JJ.

WILSON, P.J., FOR THE COURT:

¶1. Cedric Jackson took his girlfriend’s fourteen-year-old daughter D.B.1 to a remote

location in DeSoto County and forced her to perform oral sex on him. Jackson made a video

of the sexual acts with his cell phone. After the girl told her grandmother what Jackson had

done, Jackson was arrested, and the video was recovered from his cell phone. Jackson was

indicted, tried, and convicted for sexual battery and filming a minor engaging in sexually

explicit conduct. The trial judge sentenced Jackson to serve consecutive terms of thirty years

1 Initials are used to protect the identities of minor children. and forty years in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC).

¶2. On appeal, Jackson’s appointed counsel filed a Lindsey brief, certifying that the case

presents no arguable issues for appeal.2 This Court entered an order granting Jackson

additional time to file a pro se brief, but Jackson did not do so. Based on our independent

review of the record, we agree that there are no arguable issues for appeal. Therefore, we

affirm Jackson’s convictions and sentences.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

¶3. Jackson lived with his girlfriend (Kim), Kim’s daughter (D.B.), and Kim’s son (R.A.)

in Memphis, Tennessee, for approximately five years. In August 2015, Kim taught at a

school in DeSoto County. D.B., who was fourteen years old and in the ninth grade, attended

another school in DeSoto County. R.A. attended a school in Memphis. At the end of each

school day, Jackson would pick up Kim, D.B., and R.A. from their respective schools—first

R.A., then D.B., and lastly Kim. On August 14, 2015, Jackson deviated from this routine by

taking R.A. home after picking him up from school in Memphis. R.A. testified that Jackson

had never done that before—he had always gone with Jackson to pick up D.B. and Kim.

¶4. After Jackson picked up D.B., they did not go to Kim’s school. Rather, Jackson drove

to a remote location in DeSoto County, parked, and forcibly removed D.B. from the car.

Jackson screamed at D.B. that she was a “whore” and a “slut.” He said, “No one will ever

love you like I love you. You’re mine.” Jackson dropped his pants and told D.B., “[Y]ou

can be my b****, and I’m going to record you.” Jackson then pushed D.B. to her knees and

2 Lindsey v. State, 939 So. 2d 743 (Miss. 2005).

2 forced her to perform oral sex on him. He also pulled up her shirt and fondled her. D.B.

testified that Jackson tried to remove her pants, but she resisted. Jackson made a video of

the acts with his cell phone. He ejaculated in D.B.’s mouth, and some of his semen dripped

onto her shirt.

¶5. Jackson told D.B. that if she told anyone about what he had done, he would “kill [her]

and [her] whole family” and post his cell phone video on the internet. Jackson bought a

slushy at a nearby gas station and ordered D.B. to drink it to “clean out [her] mouth.”

Jackson then drove to Kim’s school. Kim was upset because Jackson was two hours late to

pick her up. D.B. did not tell her mother what Jackson had done because she was afraid.

Jackson drove D.B. to her grandmother’s house in Memphis, and Jackson and Kim went

home. When D.B. entered her grandmother’s house, she was crying hysterically. She told

her grandmother what Jackson had done, and her grandmother consoled her and then called

the police. D.B. later gave her shirt to a nurse at a rape crisis center.

¶6. Officers with the Memphis Police Department interviewed Jackson the same day.

Jackson waived his Miranda rights and consented to a search of his phone. The phone

contained a graphic video, approximately three minutes in length, of Jackson forcing D.B.

to perform oral sex on him. D.B.’s face is clear in the video. Jackson’s face is not visible

in the video, but he was wearing the same clothes in the video that he was wearing when the

police questioned him about three hours after the video was made. When the police told

Jackson that they had found the video, he became “visibly upset” and “highly emotional” and

said that he was “going to jail for the rest of [his] life.”

3 ¶7. Jackson was arrested in Memphis. He was later indicted in DeSoto County for sexual

battery of a child at least fourteen years but under sixteen years of age by a person at least

thirty-six months older than the child, Miss. Code Ann. § 97-3-95(1)(c) (Rev. 2020),3 and for

filming a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct, Miss. Code Ann. § 97-5-33(2) (Rev.

2020). Jackson waived his right to a jury trial and requested a bench trial.

¶8. At trial, D.B., her grandmother, R.A., and several law enforcement officers testified.

The video of the crime was admitted into evidence and viewed by the trial judge. George

Schiro also testified without objection as an expert in the field of forensic DNA analysis.

Schiro testified that there were multiple seminal stains on the shirt that D.B. was wearing at

the time of the alleged crime. Schiro further testified that the DNA profile of the seminal

stains matched Jackson and that the probability of finding another person in the general

population with the same DNA profile was less than 1 in 999 trillion.

¶9. The trial judge found Jackson guilty of both counts and sentenced him to serve

consecutive terms of thirty years and forty years in MDOC custody. Jackson filed a motion

for judgment notwithstanding the verdict or a new trial, which was denied, and a notice of

appeal. As noted above, Jackson’s appointed appellate counsel filed a Lindsey brief,

certifying that the record presents no arguable issues for appeal. This Court entered an order

granting Jackson forty days to file a pro se brief, but Jackson did not do so.

ANALYSIS

¶10. Lindsey, 939 So. 2d at 748 (¶18), establishes the “procedure to govern cases where

3 Jackson was forty-two years old at the time of the acts.

4 appellate counsel represents an indigent criminal defendant and does not believe his or her

client’s case presents any arguable issues on appeal.” In this case, Jackson’s appointed

appellate counsel complied with that procedure and certified that there are no arguable issues

for appeal. Pursuant to Lindsey, counsel sent Jackson a copy of the brief and advised him

that he could file a pro se brief. This Court also entered an order granting Jackson time to

file a pro se brief. Jackson has not filed a brief.

¶11. Clearly, there is sufficient evidence to support Jackson’s convictions. In addition, this

Court has “conducted an independent and thorough review of the record, and we conclude

that there are no issues that warrant reversal.” Taylor v. State, 162 So. 3d 780, 787 (¶18)

(Miss. 2015). Therefore, Jackson’s convictions and sentences are AFFIRMED.

BARNES, C.J., CARLTON, P.J., GREENLEE, WESTBROOKS, McDONALD, LAWRENCE, McCARTY, SMITH AND EMFINGER, JJ., CONCUR.