DeHenre v. State

43 So. 3d 407, 2010 Miss. LEXIS 332, 2010 WL 2609458
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 1, 2010
Docket2008-KA-00968-SCT
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 43 So. 3d 407 (DeHenre v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
DeHenre v. State, 43 So. 3d 407, 2010 Miss. LEXIS 332, 2010 WL 2609458 (Mich. 2010).

Opinions

WALLER, Chief Justice,

for the Court:

¶ 1. A trial court may declare a mistrial for misconduct that substantially and irreparably prejudices a party’s case. During voir dire in this case, a prospective juror referred to the defendant, Dr. Ma-lachy DeHenre, as an abortionist. We must decide whether this isolated statement required a mistrial. We find that it did not. Any harm caused by the statement was reparable, and the trial court took immediate action to cure any potential prejudice. All the panel members assured that they could set the comment aside and decide the case based solely on the evidence. Finding no reversible error with regard to the other issues raised by DeHenre, we affirm his conviction and sentence.

FACTS & PROCEDURAL HISTORY

¶ 2. Shortly after midnight on January 23, 1997, 911 operators dispatched Jones County deputies and paramedics to the home of Dr. Nyasha DeHenre (Nyasha). Nyasha’s ex-husband, Malachy, was standing outside when law enforcement officials and medical personnel arrived. He directed them into the home, where they found Nyasha lying on the couch with a book lying across her stomach, her feet propped up, and a bullet wound to her head. Nya-sha died several days later.

¶ 3. Malachy DeHenre (DeHenre) was charged with murder. His first trial, in 1998, ended when the jury deadlocked, with eleven members voting for acquittal and one for conviction. In December 2006, a grand jury reindicted DeHenre for murder. A second trial ensued in January 2008.

¶ 4. DeHenre testified that Nyasha had committed suicide. He said that Nyasha was in the midst of an emotionally difficult time. Earlier the same evening, Nyasha had returned from overseas after attending her father’s funeral. DeHenre said that Nyasha had also had a heated phone conversation with her mother shortly before the shooting. According to De-Henre’s version of events, he and Nyasha were in the same room; he was seated in a recliner and Nyasha was seated on a love seat. DeHenre said that he kept a loaded weapon in the recess of the love seat. As he stood up to adjust his pajamas, he noticed a flash of something metallic. Reflexively, he reached down to grab her arm. But just as he pulled her arm, the gun fired. After seeing that she had been shot, DeHenre said that he laid Nyasha down on the love seat and propped her legs on the arm of the couch. He did not recall her having a book or magazine. He then called Nyasha’s mother before calling 911. DeHenre said that he then went to [411]*411the bedroom and changed clothes as he waited for the ambulance to arrive. When asked why he had left Nyasha on the couch with a bullet in her head while he changed clothes, DeHenre said, “I was going with her to the hospital. I have to go with her in the ambulance. And I can’t go just with my drawers.”

¶ 5. The State’s experts, Dr. Steven Hayne and Dr. Michael Baden, classified Nyasha’s death a homicide. Both clarified that, by using the term “homicide,” they simply meant the killing of one person by another. They concluded that the gun was fired from at least eighteen inches away, with twenty-four inches or greater being the probable distance. Baden further determined that Nyasha was shot while lying on her back with her head against the pillow. DeHenre’s expert, Dr. Rodrigo Galvez, disputed Hayne’s and Baden’s opinions. Galvez said that there was incomplete, insufficient evidence to determine the distance from which the gun had been fired. Galvez also contended that Nyasha had been sitting up, not lying down, at the time of the shooting.

¶ 6. The jury convicted DeHenre of manslaughter. The trial court sentenced him to serve twenty years in prison, to pay a $10,000 fine, and to obtain a GED.1 De-Henre now appeals to this Court.

DISCUSSION

I. The trial court did not abuse its discretion in refusing to declare a mistrial.

¶ 7. Rule 3.12 of the Uniform Circuit and County Court Rules provides that, on any party’s motion, a trial court may declare a mistrial for misconduct “resulting in substantial and irreparable prejudice to the movant’s case.” URCCC 3.12. The decision to do so rests within the sound discretion of the trial court. Evans v. State, 725 So.2d 613, 649 (1998) (citations omitted). We will reverse the trial court’s decision only for an abuse of discretion. Id.

¶ 8. During voir dire, panel members were asked the routine question of whether they could reach a decision based solely on the evidence. One juror responded, “Every man is entitled to a fair trial, but when DeHenre left here he became an abortionist.” The defense moved immediately for a mistrial, which the trial court ultimately denied. The trial court promptly removed the juror and then addressed the remaining panel members.

THE COURT: ... Can all of you tell me now that whatever this person who obviously was — I don’t know what her purpose was. I have no idea. But that was the most outrageous thing that I’ve seen in a long time in a courtroom. Can all of you tell me that you will put that aside?”
JURORS: Yes, sir.
THE COURT: I don’t know whether you people come up here — we have come here today, this is a place where people come for justice. We don’t come here to make acquisitions [sic] and make statements. I’m sure that that person, her purpose for doing that was to try to prejudice you in some way. But can all of you tell me at this time that you can put that aside[?]”
JURORS: Yes, sir.
THE COURT: Is there anyone here who can’t put that aside?
[DEHENRE]: Your Honor—

[412]*412Later, during DeHenre’s voir-dire examination, panel members indicated once again that they could put the abortionist comment aside and would not let it affect their decision.

¶ 9. We are unable to find another case directly on point. But this is not our first case involving misconduct by venire members. In such cases, we generally have affirmed a trial court’s refusal to declare a mistrial if prospective jurors gave some indication that an improper statement would not impede their ability to be fair. See Grayson v. State, 806 So.2d 241, 253 (Miss.2001); Evans v. State, 725 So.2d 613, 649 (Miss.1997); Holland v. State, 705 So.2d 307, 339-40 (Miss.1997); Hopson v. State, 625 So.2d 395, 402-03 (Miss.1993); Benson v. State, 551 So.2d 188, 191 (Miss.1989).

¶ 10. Abortion is, without question, a highly contentious issue that incites strong passions among many people. That fact makes the comment here perhaps more troublesome than those found in our prior cases. Compare Grayson, 806 So.2d at 253 (prospective juror stated that defendant was apparently “mentally off’); Holland, 705 So.2d at 339 (on resentencing following reversal of a death sentence, prospective juror said he “was in complete agreement with the first sentencing that [the defendant] got”); Evans, 725 So.2d at 649 (prospective juror stated that she found “it very difficult to be in the same room with [the defendant].... ”); Hopson, 625 So.2d at 402 (one prospective juror stated, “You never mentioned how much cocaine.

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DeHenre v. State
43 So. 3d 407 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 2010)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
43 So. 3d 407, 2010 Miss. LEXIS 332, 2010 WL 2609458, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dehenre-v-state-miss-2010.