Herrington v. State

690 So. 2d 1132, 1997 WL 33795
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 30, 1997
Docket93-KA-00581-SCT
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 690 So. 2d 1132 (Herrington v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Herrington v. State, 690 So. 2d 1132, 1997 WL 33795 (Mich. 1997).

Opinion

690 So.2d 1132 (1997)

David HERRINGTON
v.
STATE of Mississippi.

No. 93-KA-00581-SCT.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

January 30, 1997.

*1133 Merrida Coxwell, Charles R. Mullins, Keyes, Danks, Coxwell & Leonard, Jackson, for Appellant.

Michael C. Moore, Attorney General, Laura Hogan Tedder, Sp. Asst. Attorney General, Jackson, for Appellee.

Before PRATHER, P.J., and JAMES L. ROBERTS, Jr. and MILLS, JJ.

MILLS, Justice, for the Court:

David Herrington was convicted by a Simpson County jury of the capital rape of a twelve-year-old female. The trial court sentenced him to life in prison. From this conviction and sentence Herrington appeals. This Court reverses and remands for a new trial.

FACTS

On June 6, 1992, M.S., a twelve-year-old girl, was at home in the mid-afternoon with her stepfather, David Herrington. Herrington is married to the non-custodial mother of M.S.M.S. went into a bedroom to check on her infant half-sister. Herrington entered the room. According to M.S., Herrington pushed her down on the bed and fondled her breasts. Herrington then pulled his pants partially down and inserted his penis in her vagina. After the incident, M.S. went to the bathroom to clean herself. She testified she saw no blood, but that she saw white, sticky stuff. M.S. testified at trial that she was a virgin before June 6, 1992. She further testified that the next day that (1) she told her cousin of the event[1] and, (2) she was spotting from what she thought was menstruation.

M.S. did not report the rape until July 28, 1992, when she told her grandmother of the incident. On August 14, 1992, Dr. Harriette Hampton examined M.S. and found two lacerations, which were at least two weeks old. The doctor testified that these lacerations were more likely to occur with forced penetration than in consensual relations and that bleeding would be expected at the time of the injury.

Unknown to the jury, the defense proffered the testimony of Maxine McMillan, the victim's friend. McMillan related the following:

Q. Do y'all live close to [M.S.]'s grandmother?
A. Right behind her.
Q. Do you know [M.S.]?
A. Yes, sir. I know her.
Q. Has she been there to visit with her Grandmother on occasions when you have seen her there?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Okay. I'm going to call your attention to the early part of July of 1992, and ask you if you remember seeing [M.S.] there about that time?
A. Yes, sir. It was sometime in July.
*1134 THE COURT:
Speak up a little bit, please, a little louder.
Q. Sometime in July?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Was it after July the 4th?
A. Yes, sir. I believe so.
Q. Did you and did [M.S.] go to the trailer there?
A. Sir?
Q. — on that day? Did [M.S.] go to a trailer there that day, mobile home?
A. Yes, sir. She went to my house.
Q. Do you live in a mobile home there?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. All right. And did [M.S.] stay there some time in the mobile home?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Was — there anyone else there at the time?
A. Uh-huh. It was me, my sister, [M.S.], and Amanda, me and Charles Kelly and Bobby Rachcliff.
Q. What, if anything, did [M.S.] do there that day?
A. Sir?
Q. What, if anything, did [M.S.] do that day there?
A. Well, all of us was sitting around. We were going to go to the game room. And me, Amanda and [M.S.] left and went to the game room and left my sister there. And then we come back, and my sister went to the game room. And we was all sitting outside talking and stuff, and I asked him how old was he — you know — I thought he was about eighteen —
Q. Who were you talking to?
A. Charles Kelly.
Q. Okay.
A. And he said — there was a bet made — he said that he was under eighteen. He said that if I lost it, he was going to sleep with me, and then me and [M.S.] was sitting on the car and she — she told — she whispered in my ear and said, "Well, I want to be with him." And then her and Charles went in the trailer.
Q. Who said that?
A. [M.S.].
Q. Okay.
A. And then her and Charles went in the trailer and me and Bobby Rachcliff went behind. They went in the room and shut the door, and me and Bobby sat in the living room and watched T.V. and talked. And when they come back out, we went to — they carried us to the game room. And then she went to the bathroom and she was bleeding. And she come back out and told me she was bleeding, and I gave her a pad.
Q. Was this at the game room?
A. Yes, sir, when she said she was bleeding.
Q. Is the game room where the trailer is or is it uptown?
A. No, sir. It's up the road.
Q. Okay.
A. It's in town.
Q. All right. Did she complain to you at the game room, when she said she was bleeding, did she complain to you that she was hurting anywhere?
A. Well, she told me she was hurting, you know, in her — in her bottom part — you know — that's all she said, I'm hurting and I'm bleeding, that's all she said.
Q. Okay. Was she hurting — did she indicate to you she was hurting in her pubic area; was that what she was talking about?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. All right. Did she say at that time what caused her to have the hurting?
A. No, sir.

The Court did not allow this testimony to be offered in evidence.

LAW

I.

Did the trial judge commit reversible error by refusing to allow evidence offered by Herrington to rebut the contention *1135 that Herrington was the source of the victim's injury?

The defendant alleges that the trial court erred in not allowing the defendant to prove he was not the source of the injury, but rather that Charles Kelly was. The trial court ruled that "[I do not] see that the evidence showing opportunity or the testimony of Maxine McMillan was sufficient to characterize this as an incident of sexual behavior... ." Mississippi Rule of Evidence (M.R.E.) 412, in relevant part states:

(a) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, in a criminal case in which a person is accused of a sexual offense against another person, reputation or opinion evidence of the past sexual behavior of an alleged victim of such sexual offense is not admissible.
(b) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, in a criminal case in which a person is accused of a sexual offense against another person, evidence of a victim's past sexual behavior other than reputation or opinion evidence is also not admissible, unless such evidence other than reputation or opinion evidence is:

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
690 So. 2d 1132, 1997 WL 33795, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/herrington-v-state-miss-1997.