Estes v. State

782 So. 2d 1244, 2000 WL 1622862
CourtCourt of Appeals of Mississippi
DecidedOctober 31, 2000
Docket1999-KA-01727-COA
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 782 So. 2d 1244 (Estes 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
Estes v. State, 782 So. 2d 1244, 2000 WL 1622862 (Mich. Ct. App. 2000).

Opinion

782 So.2d 1244 (2000)

Anthony ESTES A/K/A Anthony Nash, Appellant
v.
STATE of Mississippi, Appellee.

No. 1999-KA-01727-COA.

Court of Appeals of Mississippi.

October 31, 2000.
Rehearing Denied January 9, 2001.
Certiorari Denied April 19, 2001.

*1248 H. Lee Bailey Jr., Winona, Attorney for Appellant.

Office of the Attorney General by Charles W. Maris Jr., Jackson, Attorney for Appellee.

BEFORE KING, P.J., LEE, AND MYERS, JJ.

LEE, J., for the Court:

¶ 1. Anthony Estes was convicted in the Circuit Court of Attala County of the crime of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. He was sentenced to serve a term of three years in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections and to pay a fine of $5,000. Aggrieved by the judgment entered against him, Estes appeals, raising the following issues: 1) that he was denied effective assistance of counsel, 2) that he was denied his right to a speedy trial, 3) that the court erred in the impeachment of certain defense witnesses, 4) that he was denied his right to be present during the selection of jurors, 5) that the court erred in refusing jury instruction D-4, and 6) that the verdict was against the overwhelming weight of the evidence. After a review of the record, we find no reversible error and affirm.

I. DID THE APPELLANT ESTABLISH A CLAIM FOR INEFFECTIVE ASSISTANCE OF COUNSEL?

¶ 2. Following Estes's conviction in the trial court, his motion for a new trial was overruled. On the same date, September 27, 1999, an order was entered which allowed Estes's counsel to withdraw from further representation and permitted the substitution of new counsel for the purpose of perfecting and prosecuting an appeal. On October 14, 1999, Estes's newly appointed counsel filed a motion for leave to file an amended motion for a new trial, asserting, among other issues, that Estes had received ineffective assistance of counsel. Because a notice of appeal was also filed on that same date, the subsequent hearing on the amended motion for a new trial, as well as the lower court's ruling on the motion, was null. Smith v. State, 445 So.2d 227, 232 (Miss.1984). In essence, the filing of the notice of appeal perfected the appeal and divested the lower court of jurisdiction. Martin v. State, 732 So.2d 847, 851 (Miss.1998). See M.R.A.P. 13 cmt.

¶ 3. Notwithstanding the procedural setting, we find nothing in reviewing the record to show support for Estes's allegations regarding his counsel's deficiency. Although unsupported elsewhere in the record, Estes cites his own testimony from the hearing on his amended motion for a new trial to supply proof of his trial counsel's ineffective assistance. A reviewing court does not act upon innuendo and unsupported representation of fact, Gerrard v. State, 619 So.2d 212, 219 (Miss. 1993), or upon assertions in briefs, but is bound by the matters contained in the official record. Saucier v. State, 328 So.2d 355, 357 (Miss.1976). The question presented on this appeal is not whether trial counsel was or was not ineffective but whether the trial judge, as a matter of law, had a duty to declare a mistrial or to order a new trial, sua sponte, on the basis of trial counsel's performance. Parham v. State, 229 So.2d 582, 583 (Miss.1969). The method that this issue is subject to review by an appellate court requires that such effectiveness, or lack thereof, be discernable from the four corners of the trial record. *1249 Read v. State, 430 So.2d 832, 841 (Miss. 1983).

¶ 4. The Mississippi Supreme Court has adopted the two-pronged test set forth in Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 687, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984) in determining whether a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel should prevail. Alexander v. State, 605 So.2d 1170, 1173 (Miss.1992); Knight v. State, 577 So.2d 392, 394 (Miss.1991). In short, compliance with Stricklandrequires two components in order to merit reversal for a convicted defendant's claim that counsel's assistance was defective. First, the test requires a showing that counsel's performance was deficient in that he made errors so serious that he was not functioning as the "counsel" guaranteed the defendant by the Sixth Amendment. Second, Stricklandrequires that the appellant show that counsel's errors deprived him, as the defendant, of a fair trial with reliable results. Id.Where this Court determines defendant's counsel was constitutionally ineffective, the appropriate remedy is to reverse and remand for a new trial. Rankin v. State, 636 So.2d 652, 656 (Miss.1994).

¶ 5. A review of the record does not support Estes's contention that the failure of trial counsel to raise a Batson challenge pursuant to Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 88, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 90 L.Ed.2d 69, renders his counsel's performance ineffective such as to merit a mistrial. Parham, 229 So.2d at 583. In addition, we do not find the authority upon which Estes relies, Triplett v. State, 666 So.2d 1356, 1362 (Miss.1995), to be persuasive. That court found that counsel was under a duty to ascertain that the record included the name, race and gender of the jurors excused peremptorily by the State, which he did not do. As a result of this failure, the information was not available for review, and this was one of several factors used by that court to determine that the appellant in that case did not have the benefit of effective assistance of counsel. Id. at 1362 n. 3. This information is clearly included in Estes's record. Though the State in the case sub judice struck five African American jurors, and the defense struck five white jurors of the twelve jurors selected, four were African Americans. Given that the decision to make or not make a Batson challenge falls within trial counsel's trial strategy and the wide latitude given him to which appellate courts must defer, Strickland, 466 U.S. at 686; Hall v. State 735 So.2d 1124, 1128 (Miss.Ct.App.1999), it is entirely reasonable to presume that trial counsel was comfortable with that jury.

¶ 6. Estes not only fails to establish the first prong of Strickland, that his counsel's failure to make a Batsonchallenge renders his performance deficient, he also fails to establish the second prong as well. That prong requires that the appellant show that counsel's errors deprived him, as the defendant, of a fair trial with reliable results. In Johnston v. State, 730 So.2d 534, 538 (Miss.1997), the supreme court reiterated the principle that a defendant "must affirmatively prove, not merely allege, that prejudice resulted from counsel's deficient performance." Because Estes fails even to allege prejudice, we find no merit to this assignment of error.

II. WAS THE APPELLANT DENIED THE RIGHT TO A SPEEDY TRIAL?

¶ 7. Every person accused of a crime has the right to a speedy trial. This right is secured independently by the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States as well as by Article 3, Section 26 of the Mississippi Constitution of 1890. Estes contends that the trial court committed reversible error *1250 in overruling his motion to dismiss for failure of the State to accord him a constitutionally speedy trial. When the constitutional right to a speedy trial attaches, we are required to apply the balancing test announced in

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Bluebook (online)
782 So. 2d 1244, 2000 WL 1622862, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/estes-v-state-missctapp-2000.