Lewis v. State

814 So. 2d 819, 2002 Miss. App. LEXIS 170, 2002 WL 485791
CourtCourt of Appeals of Mississippi
DecidedApril 2, 2002
DocketNo. 2000-KA-01094-COA
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 814 So. 2d 819 (Lewis 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
Lewis v. State, 814 So. 2d 819, 2002 Miss. App. LEXIS 170, 2002 WL 485791 (Mich. Ct. App. 2002).

Opinion

CHANDLER, J.,

for the court.

¶ 1. Rannell Lewis was convicted in the Madison County Circuit Court of kidnap-ing and sentenced as a habitual offender to life imprisonment in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections. He now appeals to this Court, asserting fifteen assignments of error. Several of the issues he raises are waived or other[823]*823wise procedurally barred. Moreover, there is no merit to the remaining issues before us. Accordingly, we affirm the jury’s finding that Lewis was guilty of kidnaping.

FACTS

¶ 2. This case arises from the April 12, 1998, kidnaping of Belhaven college student Christi Tucker. The record reflects that Tucker began her morning exercising in the Belhaven neighborhood. As she reached a secluded area in the neighborhood, she was approached by a large, black male who was standing outside a dark green Mazda. Tucker testified that he was clean cut and wearing a gray sweatshirt and dark pants. She stated that the man greeted her and asked her how she was doing; she responded “fine” and continued walking up the street. Seconds later, the man grabbed her from behind.

¶ 3. Tucker struggled with the man for several minutes. At one point she fought free from her assailant’s grasp and fell to the ground, scraping her knee and elbow. Tucker even managed to open a can of pepper spray, although she testified that her attacker grabbed it from her hand before she could fully release its contents. Ultimately, however, the man overpowered Tucker, hit her in the face, and locked her into the trunk of his vehicle.

¶ 4. While in the trunk of the vehicle, Tucker saw an electric guitar and a hammer. Tucker grabbed the hammer and began pounding on the trunk’s latch. After about five blows the latch broke and the trunk opened. By this time Tucker’s kidnapper had exited the Belhaven neighborhood and was driving north on Interstate 55. He was weaving in and out of traffic at approximately eighty miles per hour.

¶ 5. Several people witnessed Tucker in the trunk of the vehicle including Anthony Baldwin who testified that even before the trunk opened he became suspicious of the speeding vehicle because of a piece of cloth extending from the trunk over the license plate. Likewise, Merle Stribling witnessed Tucker in the trunk of the vehicle but dismissed the situation as a few kids playing a prank. Stribling quickly changed her conclusion when she witnessed Tucker jump from the speeding vehicle.

¶ 6. Tucker testified that “finally we got so far in front of those cars that I didn’t know where we were going, and we were right past north of the Madison exit, and I realized that’s getting into the country where there’s really no cities and no civilization.” At that moment she jumped from the trunk of the vehicle onto the highway. It was estimated that the vehicle was going eighty miles per hour at the time Tucker jumped. Immediately, several cars stopped including one driven by Mary McBride who witnessed Tucker jump from the speeding vehicle. McBride identified the vehicle as a dark green Mazda. McBride testified that the first officer arrived on the scene within five minutes of the incident.

¶ 7. Kim Layton, a police dispatcher for the Madison Police Department, testified that a witness to the incident called 911 and reported that a distressed girl had been flagging people down from the trunk of a car; the car, according to the caller, was green with a “gold package.” Layton recorded the call and passed the information to the Madison County Sheriffs Office which requested all officers and deputies to “be on the lookout” for a green Mazda 626 occupied by a black male. Mark Holland, an officer with the Flora Police Department, was patrolling the Flora area at the time the statement was issued. Shortly thereafter he noticed a dark green Mazda being driven by a black male. Officer [824]*824Holland followed the vehicle until it left the city limits and initiated a stop.

¶ 8. Officer Holland testified that he immediately noticed the dented trunk. At this point Officer Holland pointed his gun at the driver and ordered him to exit the vehicle. Holland then placed the individual in handcuffs.

¶ 9. The suspect, Rannell Lewis, was wearing a grey sweat shirt and blue jeans. Officer Holland noticed there was blood on Lewis’s shirt. Furthermore, investigators discovered a guitar matching the one described by Tucker and spots of blood on the trunk and window. Lewis was subsequently charged with kidnaping.

¶ 10. During the trial, Lewis testified in his own defense. He did not deny that his vehicle was the one used during the abduction. Instead, Lewis testified that the evening before the kidnaping he and a friend consumed a modest amount of marijuana, crack-cocaine, and bourbon until he passed out in a hotel room. By the time Lewis awoke, his friend had gone but Lewis’s car was parked outside. Immediately after he awoke, Lewis took his car and began driving to Yazoo City. He stopped for some water in Flora, where Officer Holland arrested him. Lewis theorizes that someone took his car, committed the crime, returned the car and Lewis awoke just at that moment and started on his trip to Yazoo City.

LAW AND ANALYSIS

I. WHETHER THE TRIAL COURT ERRED WHEN IT OVERRULED LEWIS’S OBJECTIONS TO QUESTIONS ASKED BY THE STATE DURING VOIR DIRE

¶ 11. ' In his first assignment of' error, Lewis asserts that the trial court authorized the State to begin making its opening statement during voir dire. Lewis contends that all issues pertaining to voir dire are governed by the Uniform Rules of Circuit and County Court Practice 10.01, 10.02, and 10.03.

¶ 12. The purpose of voir dire is to select a fair and impartial jury. Cotton v. State, 790 So.2d 235, 238(¶ 4) (Miss.Ct.App.2001). Accordingly, “[o]ur law allows an attorney for either side to prove the prejudices of the prospective jurors to the end that all will understand the jurors’ thoughts on matters directly related to the issues to be tried.” West v. State, 553 So.2d 8, 22 (Miss.1989). Considerable discretion is vested in the trial court “in passing upon the extent and propriety of questions addressed to potential jurors.” Crosby v. State, 760 So.2d 725, 726(¶ 6) (Miss.2000). This Court will find that the trial court abused its discretion only “where a defendant shows clear prejudice resulting from undue lack of constraint on the prosecution.... ” Jackson v. State, 791 So.2d 830, 835-36(¶ 21) (Miss.2001).

¶ 13. Lewis complains of the following passage that occurred during voir dire:

State: The State expects to call approximately 20 witnesses on its case in chief. It’s going to take me a while, but I’m going to run through them one by one and see if any of you know or are related to any of the witnesses involved. What happened on the 22nd is Christi Tucker was abducted in the Belhaven area, as the Judge told you. She was transported to Madison County to the area of the city of Madison, and just north of the Madison exit, she jumped out of the trunk.
Lewis: Your honor; I object. That sounds like opening statement. If he has a question for panel, I would ask that he asks it.
[825]*825Court: Overruled. It appears to the Court he’s trying to set up his list of witnesses. So be brief with it....

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Bluebook (online)
814 So. 2d 819, 2002 Miss. App. LEXIS 170, 2002 WL 485791, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lewis-v-state-missctapp-2002.