George Affleck v. State of Mississippi

210 So. 3d 1067, 2015 Miss. App. LEXIS 675
CourtCourt of Appeals of Mississippi
DecidedDecember 15, 2015
Docket2013-KA-00763-COA
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 210 So. 3d 1067 (George Affleck 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
George Affleck v. State of Mississippi, 210 So. 3d 1067, 2015 Miss. App. LEXIS 675 (Mich. Ct. App. 2015).

Opinion

IRVING, P.J.,

for the Court:

¶ 1. George Affleck appeals his convictions of capital murder and possession of a firearm by a felon. Affleck argues his convictions should be reversed because: (1) the trial court improperly admitted statements to police under the excited-utterance exception to the hearsay rule; (2) the trial court erroneously allowed testimonial statements to police into evidence in violation of the Confrontation Clause; (3) the trial court erroneously allowed the State to present irrelevant and unauthenticated evidence; (4) the trial court erroneously allowed the State to introduce prior-bad-acts testimony; (5) the evidence was insufficient to support the felon-in-possession-of-a-firearm conviction; (6) a new trial is warranted under the doctrine of retroactive misjoinder; (7) none of the errors raised are harmless; and (8) the cumulative effect of the errors necessitates reversal.

¶2. We find no reversible error and affirm.

FACTS 1

¶ 3. On May 22, 2011, around 10:30 or 11:30 p.m., Sunny Day Bayham was awakened by the sound of her dogs barking. She looked outside and saw Affleck in her *1072 next-door neighbor Diane Hearn’s yard. Affleck was “screaming and yelling and throwing [Hearn] around, trying to get her in his truck,” which was parked in Hearn’s front yard. Hearn tried to run, but Af-fleck grabbed her by her hair and pulled her back. She escaped from the truck once,' and Bayham, who had come outside, called out to Hearn'to see if she needed help. Hearn did not respond, but Affleck yelled at Bayham to go back inside her house or she “could have some of the same.” Affleck then threw Hearn against the side of a tree. He “yanked her up,” threw her into the truck, and slammed the door, telling her, “don’t get out again or you’ll be sorry.” Affleck got in the truck and drove off. Bayham did not call the police because of Affleck’s threat.

¶ 4. Hearn’s next-door neighbor on the opposite side, Ylandra Chambers, was also awakened on the night of May 22, 2011. She could hear the sound of Affleck’s voice, and, from her window, she could see Affleck in Hearn’s yard. Affleck was yelling at Hearn. His truck was parked in Hearn’s yard with the headlights on, although he usually parked in the driveway. Chambers sent Hearn a text message to ask if she was okay. ' Hearn later tried to call Chambers, but Chambers had fallen asleep and missed the call. Chambers testified that she had called the police twice in 2009 when she heard Hearn and Affleck yelling at each other.

¶ 5. Michelle Rushing was visiting a friend, Wendy Beckham, on May 22, 2011, at Beckham’s house on Crestón Avenue in Jackson, Mississippi. Beckham’s house is approximately three houses down from Af-fleck’s, on the opposite side of the street. Around 9 p.m., Rushing and Beckham were out front, when they saw Affleck come out of his house. Rushing testified Affleck was “yelling at . some Mexican guys” in another neighbor’s house, and “he threw a chair at them.” Affleck then left in his truck and returned “not too long” afterwards with a white female. According to Rushing, Affleck stopped the truck in the middle of the street. The two were fighting, and Affleck was “really beating her.” The female opened the truck door and tried to get out, but Affleck pulled her back into the truck. Rushing heard Af-fleck threatened to kill the female, and he was asking her, “how much did you pay them?” Affleck then drove the truck into his driveway. The female jumped out and ran into Affleck’s house. Affleck followed her. Rushing did not see the female again. Beckham testified consistently with Rushing. She heard Affleck say, “B-, I’m going to kill you,” as he was trying to keep the female from escaping his truck. She heard the female screaming and yelling for help, and saying, “please don’t, please don’t.” Although both Rushing and Beckham testified they heard Affleck threaten to kill the female, neither mentioned this in their statements to police,

¶ 6. Pedro Lugo lived and worked with Affleck, Lugo was asleep on the night of May 22, 2011, when another roommate, Reyes Cruz, woke him and said Affleck and Hearn were fighting in Affleck’s bedroom, After two or three hours of hearing Affleck and Hearn yelling at each other, Lugo and Cruz left around 11:30 p.m. to stay in a hotel in Clinton, Mississippi. Lugo was scared of Affleck because he had a gun and a “big knife” in a holster on his waist. Before they left, Lugo saw Hearn lying on the floor in Affleck’s room. Her face was bloody, but she was breathing. Lugo drove back to the home the next morning around 7:30 or 8 a.m. On his way back, he called police out of concern for Hearn. Affleck was in the front yard when Lugo arrived. Lugo did not go inside.

*1073 ¶ 7. Cruz, who only spoke Spanish, testified through a translator that he also lived with Affleck. On the night of May 22, 2011, he was outside when Affleck and Hearn got out of Affleck’s truck. They were fighting. Hearn ran into the house, and Affleck chased her from room to room. Affleck was pushing her. She was crying and trying to defend herself. Cruz testified he could not sleep because the fighting was so loud, so he and Lugo chose to leave to get a hotel room. Prior to leaving, Cruz saw Hearn lying on the floor in Affleck’s bedroom. Her face was bruised. When he returned to the house the next morning, Affleck was mopping up what appeared to be blood, and Affleck’s clothes from the night before were hanging up wet in the bathroom. Also, the bed was gone from Affleck’s room. Cruz did not see Hearn.

¶8. On May 23, 2011, Kurt Affleck, a Texas resident, reported to the Grapevine, Texas Police Department that his brother, Affleck, had telephoned him around 5 a.m. and told him that he had struck his girlfriend, Hearn. Kurt told Detective Mark Kuppler that Affleck had told him that Hearn was bleeding, and that it was “bad.” Kurt knew Affleck had residences in Texas and Mississippi, although he did not know the Mississippi address. When neither Af-fleck nor Hearn was found at Affleck’s Texas address, Detective Kuppler notified the Jackson, Mississippi Police Department of the information relayed to him in the phone call.

¶ 9. Two Jackson police officers, Investigator Felix Hodge and Officer Dwayne Smith, drove to Affleck’s home on Crestón Avenue at approximately 8:20 a.m. on May 23, 2011, to conduct a welfare check for Hearn’s safety. Affleck was outside. He refused to let them in the house without a search warrant. The officers saw what appeared to be blood on the exterior of two trucks in the yard, one of which was Affleck’s Ford F-150. Then they noticed smoke coming from Affleck’s backyard. They walked around the house and found a burning mattress. They also saw what appeared to be more blood on a shed and other items in the backyard. A spent shell casing was on the ground. Affleck was detained for questioning, as the officers called for backup and secured the scene. Detective Eric Smith went to Hearn’s house and knocked on the door, but no one answered. Detective Smith noticed tire tracks in Hearn’s front yard. And he saw Affleck’s business cards for his roofing business and roofing nails scattered in the yard.

¶ 10. A search warrant was obtained for Affleck’s Jackson home. Police found bloody boots and blood spattered on “everything” in Affleck’s bedroom.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
210 So. 3d 1067, 2015 Miss. App. LEXIS 675, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/george-affleck-v-state-of-mississippi-missctapp-2015.