Hall v. State

785 So. 2d 302, 2001 WL 192660
CourtCourt of Appeals of Mississippi
DecidedFebruary 27, 2001
Docket2000-KA-00205-COA
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 785 So. 2d 302 (Hall 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
Hall v. State, 785 So. 2d 302, 2001 WL 192660 (Mich. Ct. App. 2001).

Opinion

785 So.2d 302 (2001)

Tyrone HALL, Appellant,
v.
STATE of Mississippi, Appellee.

No. 2000-KA-00205-COA.

Court of Appeals of Mississippi.

February 27, 2001.
Rehearing Denied May 22, 2001.

*303 Thomas M. Fortner, Robert M. Ryan, Jackson, Attorneys for Appellant.

Office of the Attorney General by John R. Henry Jr., Booneville, Attorney for Appellee.

Before McMILLIN, C.J., PAYNE, and LEE, JJ.

PROCEDURAL HISTORY

PAYNE, J., for the Court:

¶ 1. A June 12, 1996 indictment charged Tyrone Hall, along with co-defendant Freddie Adams, Jr., with armed robbery in violation of Miss.Code Ann. § 97-3-79 (Rev.2000). Freddie Adams pled guilty and testified against Hall, who pled not guilty.

¶ 2. The indictment was amended on September 9, 1996, to change the phrase concerning whose property Hall and Adams stole from "the property of Chiquitta Spann" to "the property of Union Planters Bank of Central Mississippi." (Spann was a teller at the bank) Hall's trial took place in July 1998 in the Hinds County Circuit Court, First Judicial District. At the close of the State's case, Hall moved for a directed verdict; the motion was denied. Also, as the State delivered its closing statement, Hall objected to comments the prosecutor made concerning Hall's decision not to testify in his own behalf. Hall believed this warranted a mistrial, but the judge overruled this motion and instructed the jury to disregard the statements. A jury found Hall guilty as charged in the amended indictment. Hall was sentenced to ten years in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections with seven years suspended and three years to serve. Hall filed a motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict or motion for new trial in the alternative; such motion was denied. Aggrieved, Hall now appeals to this Court. Finding no reversible error, we affirm.

FACTS

¶ 3. This case stems from a bank robbery. On the morning of March 11, 1996, three masked men robbed a Union Planters Bank in Jackson at gunpoint, collecting approximately $37,000. Two of those three men were the appellant, Tyrone Hall, and Freddie Adams, who had pled guilty to the robbery and testified against Hall. The night prior to the robbery, the getaway car was stolen and, after the robbery, was found about six blocks away from the bank. The police found a gun and several ski masks inside the car, along *304 with some federal reserve bank notes scattered outside the car.

¶ 4. Just over a month after the crime, Hall and Adams were arrested and charged with robbing the bank. Having been advised of his Miranda rights, Hall told the police that he was at a McDonald's restaurant and had visited a dry-cleaning business the morning of the robbery. However, Michael Johnson testified that he saw Hall the day before the robbery in a vehicle matching a description of the stolen car, and that Hall had told Johnson he "had a major lick he wanted to do." Having already pled guilty to the robbery, Freddie Adams testified that Hall induced him into committing the robbery, that Hall used a gun in the holdup that Adams's girlfriend lent him, and that while he and Hall were in jail awaiting trial, Hall threatened him.

ANALYSIS OF THE ISSUES PRESENTED

STANDARD OF REVIEW

¶ 5. The appellant, Tyrone Hall, raises the following issues for review on appeal:

I. THE TRIAL COURT ERRED IN FAILING TO GRANT THE DEFENSE A MISTRIAL FOLLOWING THE PROSECUTION'S IMPROPER COMMENTS DURING CLOSING ARGUMENT ON HALL'S FAILURE TO TAKE THE STAND AND DENY HIS PARTICIPATION IN THE CHARGED CRIME, IN VIOLATION OF THE MISSISSIPPI AND UNITED STATES CONSTITUTIONS.
II. THE PROSECUTION COMMITTED REVERSIBLE ERROR BY DIRECTLY AND INFERENTIALLY INTRODUCING EVIDENCE OF ALLEGED OTHER CRIMES, WRONGS OR ACTS ON THE PART OF HALL IN VIOLATION OF RULES 403 AND 404(B), MISSISSIPPI RULES OF EVIDENCE.
III. THE TRIAL COURT ERRED IN ALLOWING THE PROSECUTION TO IMPROPERLY AND SUBSTANTIVELY AMEND THE INDICTMENT PRIOR TO THE TRIAL, THEREBY, INVADING THE EXCLUSIVE PROVINCE OF THE GRAND JURY.

¶ 6. Regarding Hall's request for a mistrial and concerning the introduction of evidence, our standard of review states:

"This Court has repeatedly held that the granting of a motion for a mistrial is within the sound discretion of the trial judge." The reviewing court recognizes that the trial judge is in the best position to determine whether an objectionable remark has had any prejudicial effect. For this reason, the trial court is allowed considerable discretion in determining whether a remark was so prejudicial that it warrants a mistrial.
Evidentiary rulings are also within the trial judge's broad discretion and will only be reversed if the reviewing court perceives an abuse of that discretion. Furthermore, even if erroneous, the admission of evidence does not require reversal unless it produces unfair prejudice.

Shipp v. State, 749 So.2d 300 (¶¶ 13-14) (Miss.Ct.App.1999) (citations omitted).

¶ 7. Regarding Hall's third issue: "The question of whether an indictment is fatally defective is an issue of law and deserves a relatively broad standard of review by this court." Peterson v. State, 671 So.2d 647, 652 (Miss.1996). "[T]his Court conducts de novo review on questions of law." Id.

DISCUSSION OF THE ISSUES

I. THE TRIAL COURT ERRED IN FAILING TO GRANT THE DEFENSE *305 A MISTRIAL FOLLOWING THE PROSECUTION'S IMPROPER COMMENTS DURING CLOSING ARGUMENT ON HALL'S FAILURE TO TAKE THE STAND AND DENY HIS PARTICIPATION IN THE CHARGED CRIME, IN VIOLATION OF THE MISSISSIPPI AND UNITED STATES CONSTITUTIONS.

¶ 8. Hall argues that the judge erred in not granting his motion for mistrial. Specifically, Hall asked for a mistrial after the judge overruled his objection to remarks the prosecutor made in his closing statement that Hall classifies as a comment on his decision not to testify in his own behalf. In his closing statement, the prosecutor referred to Freddie Adams's decision to plead guilty, telling the jury that Adams "had the decency to stand up in front of the Judge and say I did it." The prosecutor thereafter stated, "I've always believed that the first step to redemption is to confess your sins before men and at least Freddie Adams had the decency to do that." While these comments were perhaps inappropriate, they did not constitute reversible error for the reasons cited below.

¶ 9. In Blue v. State, 674 So.2d 1184 (Miss.1996), the supreme court addressed a similar situation, but did not find reversible error. In Blue, after describing the horrors associated with the murder the defendant was charged with committing, the prosecutor remarked, "This Defendant... has sat through this entire trial smiling." Blue, 674 So.2d at 1215. The court found these comments to be improper, but found that no reversible error had been committed because jury instructions corrected this error. In part, the Blue jury instructions read:

INSTRUCTION CR-1A
Arguments, statements and remarks of counsel are intended to help you understand the evidence and apply the law, but are not evidence. If any statement or remark has no basis in the evidence, then you should disregard that argument, statement or remark.
INSTRUCTION D-3

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Bluebook (online)
785 So. 2d 302, 2001 WL 192660, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hall-v-state-missctapp-2001.