Lewis v. State

155 So. 3d 772, 2011 WL 782252, 2011 Miss. App. LEXIS 133
CourtCourt of Appeals of Mississippi
DecidedMarch 8, 2011
DocketNo. 2009-CP-02041-COA
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 155 So. 3d 772 (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, 155 So. 3d 772, 2011 WL 782252, 2011 Miss. App. LEXIS 133 (Mich. Ct. App. 2011).

Opinion

BARNES, J.,

for the Court:

¶ 1. Robert Lewis, Jr., appearing pro se, appeals the Circuit Court of Lowndes County’s dismissal of his motion for post-conviction relief. Finding no error, we affirm.

STATEMENT OF FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

¶ 2. In August 2006, Lewis was indicted for capital murder stemming from an incident that occurred in May 2006 where Lewis shot the victim twice in the head while robbing the victim of his automobile, cellular telephone, money, and other items. In June 2008, the State moved to amend Lewis’s indictment to include the proper date of the crime and his three prior felony convictions in order to reflect Lewis’s status as a habitual offender. The trial court subsequently granted the motions to amend. According to the plea-hearing transcript of August 28, 2008, Lewis’s trial had already commenced when he decided, outside of the presence of the jury, to plead guilty. The trial judge sentenced Lewis to life imprisonment without eligibility for probation or parole, as a habitual [774]*774offender under Mississippi Code Annotated section 99-19-81 (Rev.2007), in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC).

¶ 3. In November 2009, Lewis filed a motion for post-conviction relief in the circuit court, wherein he claimed his indictment was defective because it did not include the relevant subsection for capital murder; his guilty plea was involuntary; and the trial court abused its discretion in sentencing him to life imprisonment. The circuit court dismissed Lewis’s motion, finding his claims without merit. Lewis timely appeals.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

¶ 4. This Court will not disturb the trial court’s dismissal of a motion for post-conviction relief unless the decision is clearly erroneous. Williams v. State, 872 So.2d 711, 712 (¶ 2) (Miss.Ct.App.2004). Questions of law are reviewed de novo. Id.

ANALYSIS

¶ 5. Lewis raises three issues, arguing that his indictment was defective; his guilty plea was involuntary; and the trial court erred in failing to quash his indictment. Because Lewis’s first and third issues involve his indictment, we shall discuss them together.

1. The Indictment

¶ 6. Lewis argues that his indictment violates Mississippi Code Annotated section 99-17-20 (Rev.2007) because it fails to list the subsection of the capital murder statute under which he was charged. Thus, Lewis claims that the trial court erroneously denied his oral motion to quash his indictment.1 Lewis contends that because of the omission of the subsection in his indictment, he was misinformed about the true nature of the charged crimes. He frames his argument, however, around the trial court’s alleged lack of subject-matter jurisdiction, but the issue is actually one of whether his indictment was defective.

¶ 7. “The purpose of the indictment is to provide the accused reasonable notice of the charges against him so that he may prepare an adequate defense.” Brawner v. State, 947 So.2d 254, 265 (¶ 31) (Miss.2006) (citing Brown v. State, 890 So.2d 901, 918 (¶ 61) (Miss.2004)). Indictments thus must contain “a plain, concise and definite written statement of the essential facts constituting the offense charged and shall fully notify the defendant of the nature and cause of the accusation.” URCCC 7.06. The Mississippi Supreme Court has stated “that the ultimate test, when considering the validity of an indictment on appeal, is whether the defendant was prejudiced in the preparation of his defense.” Medina v. State, 688 So.2d 727, 730 (Miss.1996).

¶ 8. Additionally, when the charge is capital murder, section 99-17-20 states in pertinent part:

No person shall be tried for capital murder, or any other crime punishable by death as provided by law, unless such offense was specifically cited in the indictment returned against the accused by setting forth the section and subsection number of the Code defining the offense alleged to have been committed by the accused.... Any conviction of the accused for an offense punishable by [775]*775death shall not be valid unless the offense for which the accused is convicted shall have been set forth in the indictment by section and subsection number of the Code which defined the offense allegedly committed by the accused.

(Emphasis added.) “It is the intent of Section 99-17-20 that the relevant code section be cited to place the defendant on notice as to what makes the offense a capital one.” Davis v. State, 914 So.2d 200, 205 (¶ 19) (Miss.Ct.App.2005) (citing Gray v. State, 728 So.2d 36, 70 (¶ 173) (Miss.1998); Rhymes v. State, 356 So.2d 1165, 1167 (Miss.1978)). However, when a defendant pleads guilty, as here, it is well established that “[a] valid guilty plea waives all technical and non-jurisdictional defects in an indictment.” Garner v. State, 944 So.2d 934, 939 (¶ 14) (Miss.Ct.App.2006) (citing Brooks v. State, 573 So.2d 1350, 1355 (Miss.1990)). Such is the case here.

¶ 9. Lewis’s indictment states in pertinent part: “that ROBERT EARL LEWIS, JR. ... did unlawfully, wilfully, and feloniously, with or without the design to effect death, kill and murder [the victim], a human being, without authority of law and not in necessary self-defense, while engaged in the commission of the crime of Robbery, in violation of Section 97-3-19 MCA 1972 as amended....” At the top of the indictment is typed the offense “CAPITAL MURDER (§ 97-3-19).” Admittedly, Lewis’s indictment does not include the relevant subsection for capital murder anywhere in the document. However, the indictment does provide essential facts concerning the offense charged and adequately informs Lewis of the nature of the charges against him, meeting all of the requirements of URCCC 7.06. We cannot see from the indictment’s language how Lewis could be misinformed, as he contends, about the nature of the offenses charged.

¶ 10. In its brief, the State does not address Lewis’s argument about the indictment’s lack of a subsection for capital murder. However, the indictment specifically states that Lewis was charged with “capital murder” under section 97-3-19 “while engaged in the commission of ... robbery.” Thus, the indictment was sufficient to give Lewis reasonable notice of the crime charged so he could prepare an adequate defense. Moreover, the intent of section 97-3-19, which is to put the defendant on notice as to why the murder was capital, is met, even if the subsection of the capital murder statute is missing. We fail to see how Lewis’s defense could be prejudiced here by the missing subsection, because the indictment specifically charges him with “capital” murder and gives essential facts for the crimes of the murder while engaged in a robbery. We note that the indictment need not set forth the facts of the underlying felony of robbery. See Gray, 728 So.2d at 71 (¶ 174) (citing State v. Berryhill, 703 So.2d 250, 256 (¶ 23) (Miss.1997)) (“A capital murder indictment based on an underlying felony, other than burglary, does not have to specifically set forth the elements of the underlying felony used to elevate the crime to capital murder.”)

¶ 11. Importantly, even if Lewis’s indictment was defective for not including the subsection for capital murder, by pleading guilty Lewis waived his rights to any technical or non-jurisdictional defects in his indictment, which would include this omission.

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Related

Robert E. Lewis, Jr. v. State of Mississippi
181 So. 3d 310 (Court of Appeals of Mississippi, 2015)

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Bluebook (online)
155 So. 3d 772, 2011 WL 782252, 2011 Miss. App. LEXIS 133, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lewis-v-state-missctapp-2011.