George v. State

812 So. 2d 1103, 2001 WL 1264419
CourtCourt of Appeals of Mississippi
DecidedOctober 23, 2001
Docket2000-KA-00867-COA
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 812 So. 2d 1103 (George 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
George v. State, 812 So. 2d 1103, 2001 WL 1264419 (Mich. Ct. App. 2001).

Opinion

812 So.2d 1103 (2001)

Leighton GEORGE, Jr. a/k/a Leighton Ray George Jr., Appellant,
v.
STATE of Mississippi, Appellee.

No. 2000-KA-00867-COA.

Court of Appeals of Mississippi.

October 23, 2001.
Rehearing Denied January 22, 2002.
Certiorari Denied April 4, 2002.

*1104 Steven E. Farese, Sr., David Lee Robinson, Ashland, Attorney for Appellant.

Office of the Attorney General by Billy L. Gore, Attorney for Appellee.

Before McMILLIN, C.J., BRIDGES, and CHANDLER, JJ.

CHANDLER, J., For The Court:

¶ 1. Leighton George, Jr. was convicted of aggravated DUI in violation of Miss. Code Ann. § 63-11-30(5) (Rev.1996) in the circuit court of DeSoto County. He was sentenced to a term of twenty-five years with thirteen years suspended and twelve to serve. Aggrieved by the judgment rendered against him, George appealed and cites four issues on appeal. First, George argues that the trial court erred in denying his motion in limine to exclude the testimony of Marie Blount as improper lay testimony. The second issue contains three separate assertions of error: the trial court erred in refusing to grant his requested peremptory instruction, the verdict of the jury was not supported by the evidence, and the trial court erred in failing to grant his motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict. Next, George asserts that the trial court erred in refusing to grant a requested jury instruction. Finally, he argues that the trial court erred in refusing to grant his motion for a mistrial and motion for a second change of venue due to misconduct of the jurors which occurred during voir dire and jury selection.

¶ 2. Finding no error, we affirm.

*1105 FACTS

¶ 3. On March 16, 1999, Leighton George, Jr., an off-duty Memphis police officer, met some friends at a local restaurant to celebrate a birthday. They had several drinks while at the restaurant. One or two hours later while driving home from the celebration, George struck Deena Vest's vehicle from behind causing her vehicle to roll into the adjacent ravine.

¶ 4. James and Sandra Smith saw the accident occur while traveling the same stretch of highway. As Smith's and George's vehicles neared an on ramp, Vest was pulling onto the highway. Smith admitted that he was driving between seventy and seventy-five miles per hour and stated that a white car came running "pretty fast and whopped" over into the lane in front of Smith and then rear-ended Vest's vehicle causing it to roll into the ravine along the highway. Smith drove his car to the location where George stopped his vehicle. He approached George and asked if he should call the police, to which George replied that he was the police. Smith then left the scene to take his wife to work but called 911. As he was returning home from taking his wife to work, Smith noticed police personnel at the accident scene. He stopped and told them he had witnessed the accident.

¶ 5. George's version of the events and Smith's differed substantially. George told the officers that he had hit a brown colored "box Chevy" that suffered little damage and left the scene before he could contact the driver. It was determined that George was describing Smith's car; however, Smith's vehicle was a "white box Chevy" and Vest's jeep was red. Due to the confusion of the conflicting stories, Vest was not found until eight hours after the accident.

¶ 6. Fourteen hours after the accident, George told highway patrol investigator Alan Thompson that he had had two beers and one or two rum and cokes. He stated, "I can't remember exactly what I had." The bar tab on George's credit card revealed that the three men had ordered all told twenty-eight alcoholic beverages, eight of which were beers and the others were liquor. No tests were administered to determine if George had been drinking and he was driven home by a Mississippi Highway Patrol officer.

¶ 7. Vest's injuries were extensive. She suffered traumatic brain injury and cognitive deficits which left her unable to care for herself and totally dependant on others.

¶ 8. George was indicted on July 16, 1999, in DeSoto County for violating Miss. Code Ann. § 63-11-30(5) (Rev.1996). He filed a motion for change of venue which was granted due to the extensive media coverage of the case. The trial was moved to Grenada County. On April 13, 2000, the jury returned a verdict of guilty. George was sentenced to twenty-five years, with thirteen years suspended and twelve years to serve.

LAW AND ANALYSIS

I. DID THE TRIAL COURT ERR BY DENYING GEORGE'S MOTION IN LIMINE TO EXCLUDE THE LAY OPINION TESTIMONY OF MARIE BLOUNT?

¶ 9. Marie Blount was a waitress in the restaurant that George and his friends visited the night of the accident. Blount was not George's waitress; however, she testified that she observed him drinking with his friends. Blount testified that George's walk was "wobbly" and that, in her opinion, he was "obviously intoxicated." George sought to have this testimony excluded on the basis that it amounted to improper lay opinion testimony. In Jones *1106 v. State, 678 So.2d 707 (Miss.1996), the Mississippi Supreme Court recited the rules to be applied when one party wants to admit lay opinion testimony.

Mississippi Rule of Evidence 701. M.R.E. 701 states: If the witness is not testifying as an expert, [her] testimony in the form of opinions or inferences is limited to those opinions or inferences which are (a) rationally based on the perception of the witness and (b) helpful to the clear understanding of his testimony or the determination of a fact in issue. Moreover, the comment to Rule 701 explains the two-part test for the admissibility of lay witness opinion testimony. First, the testimony must assist the trier of fact. Second, the opinion must be based on the witness' firsthand knowledge or observation. M.R.E. 701. cmt.; see also Wells v. State, 604 So.2d 271, 278-9 (Miss.1992) (applying this same two part test). The second prong of the test is in accordance with M.R.E. 602 requiring that a witness who testifies about a certain matter have personal knowledge of that matter.

Jones, 678 So.2d at 710.

¶ 10. It is well settled that "[t]he relevancy and admissibility of evidence are largely within the discretion of the trial court and reversal may be had only where that discretion has been abused." Parker v. State, 606 So.2d 1132, 1136 (Miss.1992); Johnston v. State, 567 So.2d 237, 238 (Miss.1990) (citing Hentz v. State, 542 So.2d 914, 917 (1989)). "Unless the trial judge's discretion is so abused as to be prejudicial to the accused, this Court will not reverse his ruling." Parker, 606 So.2d at 1136.

¶ 11. George argues that Blount's testimony should not have been allowed because she did not have a rational basis for her opinion. He cites to the portion of her testimony where she admits that she believes that George was impaired but she could not say why. Based upon this statement, George argues that her testimony should have been excluded because she could not state clearly and in detail the facts upon which she based her opinion. By focusing on Blount's statement that she did not know why she believed he was intoxicated, George ignores the rest of her testimony.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
812 So. 2d 1103, 2001 WL 1264419, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/george-v-state-missctapp-2001.