Goff v. State

778 So. 2d 779, 2000 WL 760944
CourtCourt of Appeals of Mississippi
DecidedJune 13, 2000
Docket98-KA-00723-COA
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 778 So. 2d 779 (Goff 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
Goff v. State, 778 So. 2d 779, 2000 WL 760944 (Mich. Ct. App. 2000).

Opinion

778 So.2d 779 (2000)

Barron James GOFF a/k/a James Barron Goff, Appellant,
v.
STATE of Mississippi, Appellee.

No. 98-KA-00723-COA.

Court of Appeals of Mississippi.

June 13, 2000.
Rehearing Denied November 21, 2000.
Certiorari Denied February 22, 2001.

*781 Gene Melvin Coxwell, Jr., Jackson, Attorney for Appellant.

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

BEFORE KING, P.J., PAYNE, AND THOMAS, JJ.

THOMAS, J., for the Court:

¶ 1. Barron James Goff was convicted of non-capital murder and sentenced to life imprisonment by the Circuit Court of Madison County on February 5, 1998. He appeals asserting the trial court erred in:

I. Refusing to give jury instructions on the defense's theories of manslaughter through culpable negligence, excusable homicide through either accident and misfortune or sudden combat and not guilty because of self-defense.
II. Giving a depraved-heart murder instruction.
III. Denying motion for a judgment notwithstanding the verdict or in the alternative a new trial.
IV. Failing to grant a change of venue.
V. Allowing testimony as to the victim's good character.

FACTS

¶ 2. On the evening of December 31, 1996, Goff and his wife, Tish Goff, went to a nightclub in Madison County known as the Dock. Goff testified he consumed a quantity of alcohol and was probably legally intoxicated. Around 2:30 a.m., the morning of January 1, 1997, they went by taxicab in search of a party they believed was being held at a private residence but were unable to locate this party, so they returned to the Dock. Tish Goff testified she walked to a public phone outside the Dock to call the person who was going to give them a ride home. As she was talking on the phone a man walked by her and knocked her into a wall and called her a name. She did not recognize the man.

¶ 3. Goff testified he was standing some 45 feet away and witnessed the man run into his wife. He came to his wife's aid, and as he reached her he saw the man turn into a dark "breezeway" near the entrance to the Dock. He saw his wife was not seriously injured as she stood up and examined her knees to see if they scraped. He then pursued the man. Upon entering the darkened breezeway someone grabbed his shirt. He responded by hitting the person twice and kicking him twice, and the man fell hitting his head with a sound that indicated he might be seriously injured.

¶ 4. The man was identified as Herman Carson, who was well known by Dock employees and patrons as being mentally retarded and a quiet person. He stood five feet four inches tall and weighed 140 pounds. Goff stood six feet two or three inches and weighed 240 of 250 pounds. Carson was transported to a hospital and later transferred to a hospital in Texas where more than a month after he was injured, he died of head injuries.

I.

¶ 5. The jury was instructed on both murder and manslaughter. Goff requested instructions going to several other theories which were denied. A defendant is entitled to jury instructions on his theory of the case whenever there is evidence that would support a jury's finding on that theory. Jackson v. State, 645 So.2d 921, 924 (Miss.1994). Even the "flimsiest of evidence" is sufficient to mandate a trial court's giving an instruction on the proposed *782 theory, but there must be some "probative value" to that evidence. Miller v. State, 733 So.2d 846 (¶ 7) (Miss.Ct.App. 1998). See also Strong v. State, 600 So.2d 199, 203 (Miss.1992).

¶ 6. Goff contends that the trial court should have given his requested instruction on culpable negligence. Goff is incorrect. He testified he intended to punch and kick Carson. An intentional act that causes death cannot constitute culpable negligence. Hums v. State, 616 So.2d 313, 321 (Miss.1993). As such there was no evidence to submit the case to the jury on the theory of culpable negligence, and denying the instruction was not error.

¶ 7. Goff further contends that the trial court should have given his requested instruction on accident and misfortune. An intentional act cannot fit the doctrine of accident or misfortune. Triplett v. State, 666 So.2d 1356, 1362 (Miss.1995). As such there was no evidence to submit the case to the jury on the theory of accident or misfortune, and denying the instruction was not error.

¶ 8. Goff additionally contends that the trial court should have given his requested instruction on self-defense. For a killing to be in self-defense, a person must reasonably be in fear of death or great bodily harm. Ellis v. State, 708 So.2d 884, 887 (Miss.1998). It is not error for a trial court to refuse a self-defense instruction where a person could not have had reasonable grounds to be so placed in fear. Strong, 600 So.2d at 203 (citing Wadford v. State, 385 So.2d 951, 954-55 (Miss.1980)). Goff testified that he chased a man who had knocked down his wife into a darkened passageway or breezeway and described the area as:

[i]t is a dark area that is ... right before you enter the Dock there is a double door where you enter at. It is right before you get to the double doors on the left and there is a gate and it is just a dark area, just a dark.... I walked, I stepped into the breezeway, I was grabbed by the shirt. I just reacted spontaneously ... I swung and kicked, just reacted.

The record reflects that the trial court considered the proposed instruction in light of this testimony and found that even taken as true, and excluding the evidence which contradicted it, Goff did not put forth facts upon which a jury could find he acted in reasonable fear for his safety. We agree. At the time he struck Carson, Goff could not have believed his wife was in danger. Moreover, at that point in time, Goff was admittedly intoxicated and had actual notice that he encountered Carson in a darkened public entryway. He admitted that he did not know whether the man who grabbed him in the public entrance way into the Dock was the same man whom he saw push his wife or just someone leaving the nightclub. Upon these unique facts, the trial court did not err in denying the instruction upon self-defense.

¶ 9. Lastly, Goff contends that the trial court should have given his requested jury instruction on sudden combat. The doctrine of sudden combat is not often invoked although it was contained in Mississippi's earliest Codes and has been carried forward. See Jeffcoat v. State, 21 So.2d 8, 9 (Miss.1945). It is currently codified at Miss.Code Ann. § 97-13-17(c) (Rev.1994). In the one case cited by Goff where it is discussed, Justice Sullivan wrote that sudden combat theoretically could be used in a case involving a dangerous weapon, though that case actually involved accident or mistake. Miller v. State, 677 So.2d 726, 730 (Miss.1996). Nevertheless, what authority there is directly on point establishes that sudden combat is not available to a defendant unless the victim performs "an overt act in or towards a combat." Conner v. State, 179 Miss. 795, 177 So. 46 (1937). See also Jeffcoat, 21 So.2d at 9. No evidence shows that Carson engaged Goff in combat. As such, there was no evidence to support this instruction, and it was properly denied.

*783 II.

¶ 10.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
778 So. 2d 779, 2000 WL 760944, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/goff-v-state-missctapp-2000.