Davis v. State

909 So. 2d 749, 2005 WL 2008696
Court of Appeals of Mississippi·Decided August 23, 2005·No. 2003-KA-02551-COA·Published·Cited by 10 cases

Opinion

909 So.2d 749 (2005)

Shana DAVIS, Appellant
v.
STATE of Mississippi, Appellee.

No. 2003-KA-02551-COA.

Court of Appeals of Mississippi.

August 23, 2005.

*750 Boyd P. Atkinson, Cleveland, attorney for appellant.

Office of the Attorney General by W. Glenn Watts, attorney for appellee.

Before LEE, P.J., GRIFFIS, an ISHEE, JJ.

ISHEE, J., for the court.

¶ 1. Petitioner was convicted of aggravated assault. Finding no error, we affirm.

STATEMENT OF FACTS

¶ 2. In the early morning hours of March 6, 2003, Jaretta Peggy and Timothy Jones were together in a house in Ruleville, Mississippi. At approximately 5:00 a.m., Shana Davis entered the house and discovered Peggy and Jones together. Davis proceeded to attack Peggy, and during the altercation, Peggy's face was lacerated from her right ear to her jaw line. Following the altercation, Peggy went to the police station in Ruleville in order to press charges against Davis. Officer Trotter took her statement and photographed her wound. Peggy then sought emergency medical treatment at the local hospital; the laceration required approximately twenty stitches to close.

¶ 3. Davis was charged with aggravated assault and tried before a jury in the Sunflower County Circuit Court. At the conclusion of the State's evidence, Davis moved for a directed verdict. The circuit court denied the motion. The jury subsequently returned a guilty verdict. Davis then filed a motion for a judgment notwithstanding the verdict or, in the alternative, a new trial. This motion was also denied. Aggrieved by her conviction, Davis now appeals asserting the following issues: (1) whether the trial court erred in denying Davis's motion for a directed verdict; and (2) whether the trial court committed reversible error in its instructions to the jury.

ISSUES AND ANALYSIS

I. Whether the trial court erred in denying Davis's motion for a directed verdict.

¶ 4. Miss.Code Ann. § 97-3-7(2) (Rev.2000) states that a person is guilty of aggravated assault if he:

(a) attempts to cause serious bodily injury to another, or causes such injury purposely, knowingly or recklessly under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life; or
(b) attempts to cause or purposely or knowingly causes bodily injury to another with a deadly weapon or other means likely to produce death or serious bodily harm ...

¶ 5. Davis maintains that the prosecution failed to prove that she committed aggravated assault. Specifically, Davis argues that she was the victim of an assault by Peggy and that she was acting in self-defense. Davis further argues that no blade was ever offered into evidence, and the only person who testified to seeing Davis use a blade to cut Peggy was Peggy herself. Davis points out that the only other witness at the scene, Jones, testified that he never saw a blade. Davis argues *751 that the record in this case did not contain sufficient, credible evidence offered by the State to justify the submission of the case to the jury, and that as a result, the verdict evidenced bias and prejudice against Davis, and the verdict was based solely upon conjecture and speculation.

¶ 6. The standard of review for a motion for directed verdict is as follows: once the jury has returned a guilty verdict this Court is not at liberty to direct that the defendant be found not guilty unless viewed in the light most favorable to the verdict no reasonable, hypothetical juror could find beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant was guilty. Conners v. State, 822 So.2d 290, 293 (¶ 6) (Miss.Ct.App. 2001). When considering the denial of a motion for a directed verdict, the evidence is viewed in the light most favorable to the State, and all evidence supporting a guilty verdict is accepted as true. McClain v. State, 625 So.2d 774, 778 (Miss. 1993). The prosecution must be given the benefit of all reasonable inferences that can be reasonably drawn from the evidence. Id. When determining whether a jury verdict is against the overwhelming weight of the evidence, the reviewing court must accept as true the evidence which supports the verdict and will reverse only when convinced that the trial court has abused its discretion in failing to grant a new trial. Montana v. State, 822 So.2d 954, 967-68 (¶ 61) (Miss.2002). The reviewing court must find that the verdict is against the overwhelming weight of the evidence so that allowing the verdict to stand would sanction an unconscionable injustice. Id.

¶ 7. The record clearly reflects that Peggy testified that she saw a razor in Davis's hand. Davis admitted in her testimony that she fought with Peggy, but stated that she only scratched Peggy with a broken baseball trophy. Jones, who was living with Davis at the time of trial, testified that he saw the two women fighting, but that he did not see when Peggy was cut. The police officer who took Peggy's statement and photographed her face testified that she told him that she was cut by a razor. The police officer further testified that he believed the laceration was made by some sharp object. The emergency room physician who treated Peggy testified that Peggy told him that she had been cut by a razor, and he too testified that he believed that she was cut by a sharp object. Furthermore, the photograph of Peggy's lacerated face was admitted into evidence for the jury to view and consider.

¶ 8. Before proceeding, we are reminded that the jury is the sole judge of the credibility of the witnesses and the weight to be attached to their testimony, and this Court may only reverse when, with respect to one or more of the elements of the offense charged, the evidence so considered is such that reasonable and fair minded jurors could only find the accused not guilty. Alexander v. State, 759 So.2d 411, 421 (¶ 36) (Miss.2000).

¶ 9. In this case, there is record testimony from Davis, Peggy, and Jones establishing an altercation between Davis and Peggy. There is further testimony from Peggy that Davis cut Peggy's face with a razor. This testimony as to the nature of the wound was partially corroborated by the police officer and the emergency room physician. There was documentary evidence presented to the jury further evidencing the nature of the wound. Furthermore, we note that the witnesses were subjected to cross-examination and the defense had every opportunity to present its legal theories of the case. Having acknowledged the jury's province of assessing credibility and weighing the evidence, this Court finds, after affording the prosecution the benefit of all reasonable inferences *752 that can be reasonably drawn from the evidence, and after viewing the evidence which supports the verdict as true, that the trial court appropriately denied Davis's motion for a new trial. We agree that there was sufficient, credible evidence for a reasonable, hypothetical juror to find Davis guilty of aggravated assault.

II. Whether the trial court committed reversible error in its instructions to the jury.

¶ 10. Davis argues that the trial court committed reversible error in three respects regarding its instructions to the jury: the aggravated assault instruction, the self-defense instruction, and the lesser-included offense of simple ass

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