Eric LaQuinne Brown v. State of Mississippi

198 So. 3d 325, 2015 Miss. App. LEXIS 418, 2015 WL 4746946
CourtCourt of Appeals of Mississippi
DecidedAugust 11, 2015
Docket2014-CP-00434-COA
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 198 So. 3d 325 (Eric LaQuinne Brown v. State of Mississippi) 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
Eric LaQuinne Brown v. State of Mississippi, 198 So. 3d 325, 2015 Miss. App. LEXIS 418, 2015 WL 4746946 (Mich. Ct. App. 2015).

Opinions

[328]*328MAXWELL, J.,

for the Court:

¶ 1. Since 1999, Eric LaQuinne Brown has been serving a life sentence for the murder of his girlfriend and a twenty7year sentence for the manslaughter of his unborn child. In 2014, he filed his fourth motion for postconviction relief (PCR). In his latest motion, he cites a 2009 Mississippi Supreme Court case, Sanders v. State, 9 So.3d 1132, 1136 (¶ 16) (Miss.2009), to argue his convictions must be reversed. He insists, under Sanders, -his fundamental rights were violated because the trial court did not conduct an on-the-record competency hearing before accepting his plea, despite having ordered Brown to undergo a psychological exam. But Sanders and its progeny do not apply retroactively to undo Brown’s 1999 guilty plea.

¶2. What the record shows is that Brown was in fact deemed competent by the psychologist who evaluated him. And the record shows the trial judge indeed considered the psychologist’s report, and questioned Brown about his competency, before accepting Brown’s guilty plea. Furthermore, neither Brown nor his counsel ever asserted Brown was incompetent to, stand trial. So from- the face of Brown’s own motion and the underlying criminal record, Brown failed to show the absence of a formal competency hearing led to a denial of his due-process rights. We thus affirm the dismissal of this PCR claim.

¶ 3. Because Brown also failed to produce any “newly discovered evidence” to overcome the successive-writ and time-bars, we also affirm the dismissal of his other claims.

Background Facts and Procedural History

I. Murder of Shorelanda and Her Unborn Child

¶ 4. In January 1999, Brown was involved in two relationships with two different women. One of those women was Tennille Brown, his wife, with whom he had at least one child. The other was Shorelonda Moore, his girlfriend. Brown and Shorelanda already had one child together. And Shorelanda was several months pregnant with another of Brown’s children. Tennille and Shorelanda did not get along, and the situation was stressful for Brown. In early January 1999, Brown allegedly spoke with friends about getting rid of Shorelanda, as she was causing trouble between him and his wife.

' ¶ 5. On January 22, the situation came to a head. The day of the murder, Brown called Shorelanda at her job at McDonald’s several times. Witnesses told law enforcement that Brown and Shorelanda made plans to meet once she got off work. Sho-relanda believed they were going to spend the weekend together in Memphis, Tennessee. Brown admitted to law enforcement he met Shorelanda behind a restaurant in Pontotoc after she got off work. The two sat in Shorelanda’s car, as they often did. But that day their conversation took a dark turn. Shorelanda and Brown began arguing because Shorelanda was upset that Brown had married Tennille only a few days earlier. As the argument escalated, according to Brown, he began to shake her. Soon, Shorelanda was unresponsive.

¶ 6. Brown returned- home and told Tennille he had • killed Shorelanda. He then told his wife they were leaving for Memphis to ditch Shorelanda’s body. Tennille put the children in the car, and Brown loaded a five-gallon gas can in the trunk. Tennille dropped Brown off at Shorelanda’s car and followed Brown as he drove Shorelanda’s body to Memphis. Once in Memphis, he drove Shorelanda’s car' down an alley. He parked the car, used the gas can he had brought from [329]*329Pontotoc to douse the vehicle, and set it and Shorelanda’s body on fire.

¶7. Early the next day, a man found Shorelanda’s car smouldering in the alley. Memphis police discovered Shorelanda’s body in the car. Her pants and underwear were pulled below her hips. Her shirt and bra were pulled up, and her bra was partially around her throat. The medical examiner later determined Shore-landa’s cause of death was strangulation. The ligature marks on her neck matched the pattern of her bra. Medical examiners also determined Shorelanda was approximately twenty-eight weeks pregnant.

¶ 8. Law enforcement quickly caught up with Brown. Both he and Tennille spun a story about being in Tupelo. But that was determined to be a lie. Tennille eventually gave several statements to officers, each incriminating her and her husband in some way. Police found physical evidence that incriminated Brown. And eventually, Brown gave a voluntary statement to law enforcement. Both. Brown and Tennille .were indicted for Shorelan-da’s murder and the manslaughter of her unborn child.

II. Psychological Evaluation

¶9. On July 20, 1999, Brown filed a motion for psychiatric assistance. He claimed he intended to use the psychiatric report as mitigation should he be convicted and to determine if he was able to form the necessary intent for murder. Significantly, Brcmn’s motion did not claim he was presently incompetent. The trial court ordered Brown to undergo an examination at the Mississippi State Hospital. This exam was to assess his mental capability to stand trial, his need for inpatient hospitalization, and for the hospital to do a psychological exam. The order did not state that reasonable grounds existed to believe Broiun was presently incompetent. This exam never occurred because Brown’s attorney failed to give the hospital the requested and required materials.

¶ 10. On November 12, 1999, the State filed for a psychiatric examination to determine if Brown was competent to stand trial, able to discern the difference between right and wrong, able to form the necessary intent, and if “under the conditions he suffered' whether malice could be implied ‘where no considerable provocation appears.’ ” The State further noted Brown had claimed past mental illnesses and had indicated a “mental-type” defense would be used in his trial. The trial judge ordered Brown undergo an evaluation to be performed by Dr. Criss Lott.

¶ 11. Dr. Lott conducted his exam on November 14, 1999. And he found to a reasonable degree of psychological certainty that Brown had “the sufficient present ability to confer with his attorney with a reasonable degree of rational understanding and he has a good factual and rational understanding of the nature and object of the legal proceedings against him.”

III. ■ Plea Colloquy

¶ 12. On November 29, 1999, Brown pled guilty to both murder and manslaughter charges. At the plea hearing, Brown denied being under the influence of drugs or alcohol. He denied being treated for any drug or alcohol abuse. And he specifically denied he was suffering any psychiatric illness or mental disease. Brown told the judge he understood the nature of the charges against him and the consequences of pleading guilty.

¶ 13. The State relayed, at length, the factual basis of the crimes and the evidence the State would prove at trial. The trial judge asked Brown if the State’s evi-dentiary proffer was substantially correct. Brown answered that it was.

[330]*330¶ 14. The trial judge asked Brown if he understood what was taking place that day. And Brown said he did. Brown did not have any questions about the day’s proceedings, nor did he have any questions for the judge. Nothing from the hearing transcript indicates the trial judge should have been alerted Brown might be suffering from mental issues.

. ¶ 15.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
198 So. 3d 325, 2015 Miss. App. LEXIS 418, 2015 WL 4746946, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/eric-laquinne-brown-v-state-of-mississippi-missctapp-2015.