Holmes v. State

740 So. 2d 952, 1999 WL 367142
CourtCourt of Appeals of Mississippi
DecidedJune 8, 1999
Docket97-KA-00640-COA
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 740 So. 2d 952 (Holmes 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
Holmes v. State, 740 So. 2d 952, 1999 WL 367142 (Mich. Ct. App. 1999).

Opinion

740 So.2d 952 (1999)

Dale HOLMES a/k/a Dale Wayne Holmes, Appellant,
v.
STATE of Mississippi, Appellee.

No. 97-KA-00640-COA.

Court of Appeals of Mississippi.

June 8, 1999.

*953 Derek L. Hall, Jeanine M. Carafello, Jackson, Attorneys for Appellant.

Office of the Attorney General by Dewitt T. Allred III, Attorney for Appellee.

BEFORE McMILLIN, C.J., COLEMAN, AND PAYNE, JJ.

COLEMAN, J., for the Court:

¶ 1. A grand jury in Lauderdale County indicted the appellant, Dale Holmes, for driving under the influence (third offense). In compliance with Rule 11.03 of the Uniform Circuit and County Court Rules, the trial court bifurcated Holmes's trial on the principal charge of driving under the influence and on the charge of previous convictions. Pursuant to the jury's finding him "guilty of driving under the influence," the trial court conducted a separate trial the next day on the "charge of previous convictions [of two misdemeanor DUI's]" and entered its judgment of conviction of "felony driving under the influence." However, the trial court deferred sentencing Holmes to allow a parole officer to prepare a presentencing investigation. After it had concluded its sentencing hearing, the trial court sentenced Holmes "to serve a term of five (5) years in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections with three (3) years and six (6) months of such sentence suspended and one (1) year and six (6) months to serve and also to five (5) years reporting probation under the supervision of the Mississippi Department of Corrections." After the trial court denied *954 Holmes's motion for a new trial, Holmes appealed from that court's judgment of conviction and its sentencing and probation order. Holmes presents the following six issues, quoted verbatim from his statement of issues required by Mississippi Rule of Appellate Procedure 28(a)(3), for this Court's analysis and resolution:

1. Did the trial court commit reversible error by allowing a police officer to render expert opinion testimony regarding the administration of certain field sobriety tests?
2. Did the trial court commit reversible error by failing to suppress the testimony and videotape evidence concerning Mr. Holmes'[s] performance on certain ... field sobriety tests considered invalid if administered to persons fifty pounds overweight?
3. Did the trial court commit reversible error by failing to suppress the testimony concerning the administration of the horizontal gaze nystagmus test?
4. Did improper comments by the prosecution during closing argument amount to reversible error?
5. Did the trial court commit reversible error by permitting a previous uncounseled misdemeanor DUI conviction to be considered for enhancement purposes in the sentencing phase?
6. Did the prosecution of this criminal action[] amount to a second punishment for the same offense for which the defendant had already been punished, thus in violation of the Double Jeopardy Clause of the Fifth Amendment?

Young v. City of Brookhaven, 693 So.2d 1355 (Miss.1997), which was decided after this case was tried in the circuit court but which held that the horizontal gaze nystagmus (HGN) test could only be used as a basis for probable cause to require the detainee to submit to a breath test, requires that this Court hold that the trial court erred when it "fail[ed] to suppress the testimony concerning the administration of the [HGN] test." Because we remand this case for a new trial, we also resolved Holmes's fifth and sixth issues.

I. Facts

¶ 2. As Meridian policeman R.L. Thomas drove his police cruiser into the parking lot of a Shell service station located on Highway 39 North in Meridian around midnight on the night of October 7-8, 1995, a male customer emerged from the service station and spoke to Officer Thomas and Officer Troy Smith, who was riding in the front passenger's seat with Officer Thomas. Officer Smith exited the cruiser and entered the service station to investigate the information which the male customer had conveyed to them. While Officer Smith entered the service station, Officer Thomas drove behind and around the service station and parked the police cruiser near the corner of the building. As Officer Thomas prepared to join Officer Smith inside the service station, Officer Smith emerged from the service station and identified Holmes, who was also leaving the service station, as the man who had been the subject of the male customer's information.

¶ 3. Holmes entered his pickup truck, in which there was one passenger, and drove off the service station parking lot across Highway 39 Bypass. Holmes then began driving his truck west on North Frontage Road. Officers Thomas and Smith pursued Holmes with the blue lights of their police cruiser flashing. Holmes had driven less than a quarter of a mile from the Shell service station when he stopped his truck in a motel parking lot in response to the flashing blue lights. Officer Thomas approached Holmes as he sat in his truck and explained to Holmes that he, Officer Thomas, had stopped him because a customer emerging from the Shell service station had reported to Officer Thomas that Holmes was "being obscene in the store."

¶ 4. Officer Thomas noted "the odor of alcohol coming off of [Holmes's] breath," and he observed that Holmes "had bloodshot eyes." According to Officer Thomas, Holmes's "pupils were very dilated." Because *955 of these observations and because Officer Thomas considered Holmes's talking to be "aggressive," he summoned Meridian's DUI police officer, J.G. Crain. Holmes did not exit his truck while Officer Thomas was at the scene. As soon as DUI Officer Crain arrived, Officer Thomas "advised [Officer Crain] why the subject [Holmes] had been stopped." Officers Thomas and Smith then immediately left the scene because Officer Thomas had received another call. Officer Crain returned to his police car and turned on a compact VHS camcorder mounted on the car's dashboard to record his encounter with Holmes. Officer Crain also wore a microphone in his pocket so that the audio of his conversation with Holmes might be recorded "while we [were] giving the field tests."

¶ 5. Officer Crain observed that Holmes had "slurred speech" and that Holmes's eyes "were dilated, bloodshot." When Holmes spoke to Officer Crain, Crain "detect[ed] an intoxicating beverage coming from him." After Holmes got out of his truck as Officer Crain had requested, the DUI officer noticed that Holmes "appeared to be a little unsteady on his feet." Officer Crain then administered the HGN test on Holmes and "received six distinct clues out of his eyes." The [HGN] test is but one of three field tests which Officer Crain administered to drivers whom he suspected of driving under the influence. The other two field tests were "the walk and turn test and the one-leg stand test," but Officer Crain did not administer these latter two field tests because Holmes told Officer Crain that he "had something wrong with his knees," which explanation Officer Crain accepted.

¶ 6. Because Officer Crain "received six distinct clues out of [Holmes's] eyes" from his administration of the HGN test, he escorted Holmes to the headquarters of the Meridian Police Department to administer "the intoxilizer [breath] test." However, Holmes declined to submit to the test. From these events, Holmes's indictment ensued.

II. Analysis and resolution of the issues

A. Holmes's third issue

¶ 7.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
740 So. 2d 952, 1999 WL 367142, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/holmes-v-state-missctapp-1999.