Cowart v. State

910 So. 2d 726, 2005 WL 646613
CourtCourt of Appeals of Mississippi
DecidedMarch 22, 2005
Docket2003-KA-00418-COA
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 910 So. 2d 726 (Cowart 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
Cowart v. State, 910 So. 2d 726, 2005 WL 646613 (Mich. Ct. App. 2005).

Opinion

910 So.2d 726 (2005)

James R. COWART, Jr., Appellant,
v.
STATE of Mississippi, Appellee.

No. 2003-KA-00418-COA.

Court of Appeals of Mississippi.

March 22, 2005.

*727 James Cowart, Appellant, pro se.

Edmund J. Phillips, attorneys for appellant.

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

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

MYERS, J., for the Court.

¶ 1. On December 6, 2001, Cowart was arrested and charged with operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of intoxicating liquor, having a blood alcohol level of .10 or greater, and negligently causing the death of Ronald Robinson, an offense commonly referred to as "DUI manslaughter," under Mississippi Code Annotated § 63-11-30. On February 14, 2003, Cowart was convicted and sentenced to serve eighteen years in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections with credit for nine days served.

¶ 2. Aggrieved by his conviction, Cowart now appeals, raising the following six issues:

I. DID THE TRIAL COURT ERR IN ALLOWING DR. HAYNE TO TESTIFY AS AN EXPERT IN TOXICOLOGY?
II. DID THE TRIAL COURT ERR IN ALLOWING PATROLMAN CAIN TO TESTIFY AS AN ACCIDENT RECONSTRUCTION EXPERT?
III. DID THE TRIAL COURT ERR IN DENYING COWART'S MOTION TO SUPPRESS?
IV. WAS THE VERDICT AGAINST THE OVERWHELMING WEIGHT OF THE EVIDENCE?
V. DID COWART RECEIVE INEFFECTIVE ASSISTANCE OF COUNSEL?
VI. DID THE COURT ERR IN ALLOWING CERTAIN TESTIMONY REGARDING COWART'S BLOOD ANALYSIS?

¶ 3. Finding no reversible error, we affirm the judgment of the trial court.

FACTS

¶ 4. On December 6, 2001, Cowart was involved in a very serious car accident. As he was rounding a curve on a two-lane highway north of Ringo, Mississippi, he lost control of his truck and flipped over numerous times. Apparently, as he was reaching down to retrieve some object that was not identified in the record, his truck went off the road onto the shoulder. When he realized that he was driving on the shoulder, he jerked the wheel to get back on the road, and his truck then lost control and began flipping.

¶ 5. Unfortunately, another car was approaching from the opposite direction. As Cowart's truck was airborne, mid-flip, this approaching vehicle passed underneath the *728 flipping truck, making hood to hood or top to top contact between the two vehicles. The other vehicle made the rest of the curve in the direction it was originally traveling and finally ran off the road out of sight of where Cowart's truck finally landed. The driver of this other vehicle, Mr. Robinson, died from the injuries he suffered in this accident, while Cowart walked away from the accident virtually unharmed.

¶ 6. Since Robinson's car had rounded the curve out of sight before running off the road and since Cowart was inverted in mid-air when he made contact with Robinson's vehicle, Cowart was apparently unsure at first whether there was another vehicle involved in the accident. Thus, after speaking briefly to some nearby residents who were drawn to the scene of the accident by the noise it caused, Cowart caught a ride with a guest of one of the nearby residents and left the scene of the accident. The nearby residents also at first were unaware that there was another vehicle involved in the accident.

¶ 7. After reaching his stepfather's house, according to Cowart, he took a shower and started drinking beer to settle his nerves. A couple of hours later, his stepfather returned to the house and informed Cowart that there was another car involved in the accident. As soon as Cowart learned this, he returned to the scene and began cooperating with the police officers. The police officers testified that Cowart showed visible signs of intoxication when he returned to the scene, and Cowart admitted that by the time he returned to the scene he was drunk. Sometime later, the officers took Cowart to the hospital to be examined for injuries and also to receive a blood alcohol test. His blood alcohol level registered as .16, well in excess of the legal limit. However, the complicating factor in this case is that Cowart's blood was not tested for alcohol until roughly three hours after the accident occurred, and during two of those three hours in between the time of the accident and the blood test, Cowart was allegedly in his house drinking beer.

¶ 8. Because of this, Cowart maintains that he was not drunk at the time of the accident, but that he became drunk after the accident when he went home and started drinking beers to calm himself. The State maintains that Cowart was so drunk at the time of the accident, that he was still intoxicated three hours later, and that his going home to drink beer was an obvious attempt to cover up the fact that he was drunk at the time of the accident.

LEGAL ANALYSIS

I. DID THE COURT ERR IN ALLOWING DR. HAYNE TO TESTIFY AS AN EXPERT IN TOXICOLOGY?

¶ 9. In his first issue, Cowart argues that Dr. Hayne was improperly allowed to testify as an expert in an area beyond his expertise and that Dr. Hayne's allegedly improper testimony so prejudiced Cowart's defense that the judgment of the circuit court should be reversed.

¶ 10. The State argues that Dr. Hayne was, in fact, qualified to give the subject expert testimony and that, therefore, Cowart's argument is meritless.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

¶ 11. Our standard of review for challenges to the qualifications of an expert witness has been stated as follows:

The qualification of an expert in fields of scientific knowledge are left to the sound discretion of the trial court. Its determination on this issue will not be reversed unless it clearly appears that the witness is not qualified. Crawford v. State, 754 So.2d 1211, 1215 (Miss. *729 2000).... "This Court reviews the trial court's decision to allow expert testimony under the well-known clearly erroneous standard." Puckett v. State, 737 So.2d 322, 342 (Miss.1999). Similarly, an expert's testimony is always subject to M.R.E. 702. For a witness to give a M.R.E. 702 opinion, the witness must have experience or expertise beyond that of an average adult. Id.

Rogers v. Morin, 791 So.2d 815, 824(¶ 27) (Miss.2001). Thus, we generally defer to the discretion of the trial court in determining whether an expert is qualified to testify, and we will only reverse when there was clear error or clear abuse of discretion in the decision to admit the testimony. Id.; Chapin v. State, 812 So.2d 246, 249(¶ 8) (Miss.Ct.App.2002) (holding that "[t]he admission or exclusion of expert testimony is controlled by the trial court's discretion and this Court will not disturb the trial court's decision unless the trial court clearly abused that discretion.").

DISCUSSION

¶ 12. The question of whether Cowart was drunk at the time of the accident was, of course, the central issue in this case. The blood test that showed his alcohol level to be .16 was taken roughly three hours after the accident, and during two of those three hours Cowart testified that he was at his stepfather's house drinking beer. Cowart testified that during this time he drank roughly five beers. This became the thrust of Cowart's defense. He argued at trial and continues to argue now that the State did not prove that he was drunk at the time of the accident;

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Bluebook (online)
910 So. 2d 726, 2005 WL 646613, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cowart-v-state-missctapp-2005.