Hopkins v. State

799 So. 2d 874, 2001 WL 1382754
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 8, 2001
Docket2000-KA-00894-SCT
StatusPublished
Cited by24 cases

This text of 799 So. 2d 874 (Hopkins 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
Hopkins v. State, 799 So. 2d 874, 2001 WL 1382754 (Mich. 2001).

Opinion

799 So.2d 874 (2001)

Gary HOPKINS a/k/a Gary L. Hopkins
v.
STATE of Mississippi.

No. 2000-KA-00894-SCT.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

November 8, 2001.

*876 Allan D. Shackelford, Clarksdale, Attorney for Appellant.

Office Of The Attorney General by Dewitt T. Allred, III, Jackson, Attorney for Appellee.

Before PITTMAN, C.J., SMITH, P.J., and WALLER, J.

PITTMAN, C.J., for the Court:

¶ 1. Gary Hopkins (Hopkins) appeals his conviction in the Circuit Court of Tunica County for vehicular manslaughter while driving under the influence of alcohol. Hopkins was tried and convicted the same day and later sentenced by Judge Kenneth L. Thomas to twenty years in prison with five to be served under post-release supervision. By objection at trial, two questions were raised for this Court to consider: 1) whether it was reversible error to allow the investigating officer to testify about statements Hopkins made at the scene of the wreck and at the hospital without first informing him of his Miranda rights and 2) whether it was reversible error to admit Hopkins's medical records into evidence.

FACTS

¶ 2. Joyce H. Canups (Canups) died after being injured at the intersection of U.S. Highway 61 and Casino Center Drive in Tunica County, Mississippi, when the car she was driving was struck from behind by a red pickup truck allegedly being driven by Gary Hopkins. About forty minutes after the wreck, Mississippi Highway Safety Patrol Sergeant William Williamson arrived at the scene of the wreck and began an investigation into its cause. There he found Hopkins wrapped in a blanket and seated in the median of the highway. Sergeant Williamson approached Hopkins and asked him if he was the driver of the red pickup to which Hopkins responded affirmatively. Sergeant Williamson also asked if Hopkins was the only occupant of the pickup, and Hopkins again answered affirmatively. Hopkins also told Sergeant Williamson that he did not see the car Canups was driving until he had hit it. During this conversation, Sergeant Williamson noted that Hopkins appeared intoxicated as his eyes were glassy and bloodshot and he smelled of alcohol. Sergeant Williamson also observed Hopkins had blood on his hands and face. Williamson then inspected Hopkins's red pickup.

¶ 3. Williamson found beer bottles and cans in the bed and cab of the pickup. He also saw no signs to indicate another person was inside the truck at the time of the wreck. The windshield of the pickup was broken in a spider-web shape on the driver's side of the car but the passenger's side was only crossed with stress cracks. There was no blood on either the passenger's side or the driver's side of the truck.

¶ 4. Hopkins was transported to the hospital to be treated for his injuries. Sergeant Williamson followed Hopkins thirty minutes later, ostensibly to complete his accident report, and asked Hopkins again *877 whether he was driving the red pickup and who else was in the car. Hopkins again admitted he was driving the pickup at the time of the wreck and made no mention of other passengers in the truck. At this time, it is apparent the Sergeant Williamson knew that Canups had died from her injuries and state law required him to obtain a blood sample from Hopkins. Therefore, Sergeant Williamson asked the hospital's lab technician to draw Hopkins's blood with a standard blood collection kit which he later forwarded to the Mississippi Crime Lab. Williamson testified that at no time was Hopkins under arrest. Hopkins was not informed of his Miranda rights either at the scene of the wreck or at the hospital.

¶ 5. This case has been tried four times. The first time, the trial judge declared a mistrial after Hopkins was brought before the jury wearing shackles. The second and third times, the jury could not reach a unanimous verdict and the judge again declared a mistrial. Lee Snipes, formerly incarcerated with Hopkins, testified in the third trial that Hopkins had told him that he was driving the pickup when the wreck happened. Snipes's testimony was read into the record after he could not be subpoenaed for the fourth trial. The State also introduced the medical records generated when Hopkins was treated at the hospital after the wreck as rebuttal to Hopkins's testimony. These records came into the hands of the State after Hopkins's counsel subpoenaed them from the hospital and provided the State with a copy during the third trial. Hopkins testified in his own defense in the final trial and claimed a friend, Tammy Hudsmith, was driving the pickup when the collision occurred.[1] He also claimed he never told Sergeant Williamson he was driving the pickup. In this fourth trial, the jury found Hopkins guilty of vehicular manslaughter while driving under the influence of alcohol.

ANALYSIS

I. WHETHER IT WAS REVERSIBLE ERROR TO ALLOW THE INVESTIGATING OFFICER TO TESTIFY ABOUT STATEMENTS HOPKINS MADE AT THE SCENE OF THE WRECK AND AT THE HOSPITAL WITHOUT FIRST INFORMING HIM OF HIS MIRANDA RIGHTS.

¶ 6. Hopkins first asks this Court to find the trial judge committed reversible error by allowing Sergeant Williamson to testify, over his objection, concerning statements Hopkins made at the scene of the collision and again at the hospital. It is uncontested that Hopkins was not informed of his Miranda rights prior to making the statements at either place. Hopkins asserts these statements were obtained in violation of his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination and only cites the holding of Miranda v. Arizona in support of his claim:

[T]he prosecution may not use statements, whether exculpatory or inculpatory, stemming from custodial interrogation of the defendant unless it demonstrates the use of procedural safeguards effective to secure the privilege against self-incrimination. By custodial interrogation, we mean questioning initiated by law enforcement officers after a person has been taken into custody or otherwise deprived of his freedom of action in any significant way.

*878 Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 444, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 1612, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966). It is clear from this passage that Hopkins must be in custody when he made the statements in order for the privilege to apply. Accord, Oregon v. Mathiason, 429 U.S. 492, 97 S.Ct. 711, 50 L.Ed.2d 714 (1977); Moore v. State, 344 So.2d 731 (Miss.1977), appeal after remand, 374 So.2d 821 (Miss.1979). The following excerpt appears further into the Miranda opinion and sheds more light on that Court's holding:

Our decision is not intended to hamper the traditional function of police officers in investigating crime.... General on-the-scene questioning as to facts surrounding a crime or other general questioning of citizens in the fact-finding process is not affected by our holding.

Miranda, 384 U.S. at 477, 86 S.Ct. 1602. The Miranda Court was concerned about the voluntariness of statements made in a coercive environment, given under a badge of intimidation and in conditions designed to subjugate the individual to the will of his examiner. Id. at 457, 86 S.Ct. 1602.

¶ 7. This Court has previously held that certain situations are excluded from Miranda's scope. "In a non-custodial setting where interrogation is investigatory in nature (general on-the-scene-investigation), Miranda

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
799 So. 2d 874, 2001 WL 1382754, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hopkins-v-state-miss-2001.