Harris v. State

979 So. 2d 721, 2008 WL 852492
Court of Appeals of Mississippi·Decided April 1, 2008·No. 2006-KA-01695-COA·Published·Cited by 3 cases

Opinion

979 So.2d 721 (2008)

Lacory HARRIS a/k/a Lecorry Harris Laccory Fredreko a/k/a Cory Harris a/k/a Lil C, Appellant
v.
STATE of Mississippi, Appellee.

No. 2006-KA-01695-COA.

Court of Appeals of Mississippi.

April 1, 2008.

*723 James Kevin Rundlett, Jackson, attorney for appellant.

Jeffrey A. Klingfuss, Jackson, attorney for appellee.

Before LEE, P.J., CHANDLER and BARNES, JJ.

BARNES, J., for the Court.

¶ 1. Lacory Harris was convicted in the Hinds County Circuit Court of two counts of aggravated assault for using an automobile to cause injury to his former girlfriend and her young daughter. He was sentenced to twenty years in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC) on each count with the sentences to run concurrently with one another and consecutively to a Madison County sentence. Aggrieved, Harris appeals on the following grounds: (1) the trial court erred in allowing the prosecution to display the child to the jury; (2) the trial court erred in admitting highly prejudicial and unreliable hearsay statements into evidence as an "excited utterance"; (3) the trial court erred in refusing to grant Harris's motion for a new trial; and (4) trial counsel rendered ineffective assistance. Finding no error, we affirm.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

¶ 2. Shantanner Montgomery testified that the romantic relationship between her and Harris had been over for approximately *724 five months when, on September 16, 2001, Harris deliberately caused an automobile wreck, which resulted in serious injuries to both Montgomery and her fifteen-month-old daughter, Kennedy.

¶ 3. On the Friday before the wreck, Montgomery received a telephone call from Harris at her work place in which Harris told her that he was going to get her "one way or the other." She testified that she perceived the call as a threat. On the following Sunday morning at 6:30 a.m., Harris appeared without invitation at Montgomery's house on West Capitol Street in Jackson, Mississippi, where she lived with her brother. Montgomery testified that Harris was calm and said that he wanted to talk to her. Before letting Harris in, Montgomery informed her brother that Harris was there and that she was going to talk with him. Montgomery's brother confirmed this in his testimony. Montgomery stated that she and Harris talked for about twenty minutes and that she told him she had moved on with her life. After the discussion, Harris asked her to take him to his mother's house. Montgomery said she agreed to do so because Harris had appeared calm during their talk. She placed her daughter in the back seat of her SUV, and Harris sat in the front seat. Montgomery testified that about fifteen minutes into the drive, as the vehicle was on the Interstate 220, Harris had been singing the "patty cake song" along with her daughter when, without warning, he turned to Montgomery and said, "Well, you know I'm going to have to kill you. You know I'm going to have to hurt you in the worse way possible." He then grabbed the steering wheel and jerked it, causing the SUV to move into the right-hand lane, then flip and roll over four or five times. Montgomery and her child were thrown from the vehicle and severely injured. Harris fled the scene.

¶ 4. At trial, three "Good Samaritans" and the Jackson police officers who investigated the wreck confirmed much of Montgomery's recollection of the events. Sherry Green, who was driving directly behind Montgomery's vehicle, stated that as the SUV flipped, people and things went flying out of the vehicle. Green confirmed Montgomery's testimony as to Harris's flight from the scene. She testified that she saw a young man running from the wreck and asked him if he needed help, but he just kept running. Montgomery stated that when she found her fifteen-month-old daughter, one of the child's legs was completely severed and the foot on her other leg was dangling. Green, who was a licensed practical nurse, stated that she took a scarf from a bystander and tied it around the toddler's leg to stop the bleeding and covered the child. According to Green, Montgomery was so hysterical that she shook her and told her that she had to be quiet so that the child would become quiet. Green said that she told Montgomery to lie beside the baby to keep the child from going into shock. Green testified that Montgomery told her that Harris had snatched the wheel from her and caused the accident.

¶ 5. Patricia Hayes, a registered nurse who also stopped at the scene, testified that when she arrived other people were already there, and the injured mother and child were on the ground. She could see that the child's leg had been cut off. Hayes stated that Montgomery was very upset and crying. Hayes testified that Montgomery said that the man who was riding with her had grabbed the steering wheel and caused the SUV to swerve off the road, causing the wreck. Hayes testified that she checked the scarf that had been applied to the child's leg, tightened it, and made sure that pressure was applied "so that the baby didn't bleed to death." A local minister, Rev. Jeffrey Stallworth, *725 also stopped to render assistance shortly after the wreck occurred. According to Rev. Stallworth, when he arrived on the scene he saw the mother lying on the ground with the child; the mother was very upset and was saying "things like he did this to me." Rev. Stallworth also recounted that Montgomery told him that the man who was riding with her told her that he had to hurt her and then pulled the steering wheel from her, causing the wreck. Jackson Police Officer Jackie Watson arrived at the scene and took a statement from Montgomery, who told her that Harris had grabbed the steering wheel, causing the SUV to wreck. Detective Azell Smith testified that Montgomery told her that Harris suddenly grabbed the steering wheel; the SUV flipped; she and the child were thrown out; and Harris left the scene, running. Detective Smith was unable to locate Harris to take his statement.

¶ 6. As a result of the wreck, both of Montgomery's arms were broken in eight-to-ten places, and she had to be placed in a full body cast. The toddler, Kennedy, had her left leg amputated, but the physicians were able to reattach the foot on her other leg.

¶ 7. Harris's testimony of the events, not surprisingly, differed significantly. He stated that he spent the night before the wreck with Montgomery and that on the morning of the wreck, Montgomery was acting unusual. Harris related an earlier event in which Montgomery chased him and the mother of his child at a high rate of speed after he and Montgomery had broken up. Harris stated that on the day of the wreck he asked Montgomery to take him to his brother's house, but instead, Montgomery got on the interstate. According to Harris, he kept telling her to strap Kennedy into her baby seat "cause I don't want no confrontation with the police behind us seeing the thing up on the baby seat and pulling us over about the baby not being strapped down. . . . [b]ecause at the time I had two warrants out for my arrest and I wasn't trying to get in no confrontation with the law." He testified that she became angry and told him not to tell her how to treat her own child. Harris stated that he asked to use her cell phone, and he called his "fiancée at the time," Antoinette. He claimed that when Montgomery heard him talking to Antoinette, she grabbed for her cell phone and lost control of the SUV, causing the wreck. Harris denied jerking the steering wheel.

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Harris v. State, 979 So. 2d 721, 2008 WL 852492 (Mich. Ct. App. 2008).

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