Lyle v. State

908 So. 2d 189, 2005 WL 1805141
CourtCourt of Appeals of Mississippi
DecidedAugust 2, 2005
Docket2003-KA-02280-COA
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 908 So. 2d 189 (Lyle 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
Lyle v. State, 908 So. 2d 189, 2005 WL 1805141 (Mich. Ct. App. 2005).

Opinion

908 So.2d 189 (2005)

Tara Regina LYLE, Appellant,
v.
STATE of Mississippi, Appellee.

No. 2003-KA-02280-COA.

Court of Appeals of Mississippi.

August 2, 2005.

*191 Jonathan Thomas Crump, Tupelo, Darrell Fayne Brown, attorneys for appellant.

Office of the Attorney General, by Jeffrey A. Klingfuss, attorney for appellee.

Before KING, C.J., MYERS and ISHEE, JJ.

KING, C.J., for the Court.

¶ 1. Tara Regina Lyle was convicted in the Circuit Court of Union County of the murder of her husband. She was sentenced to life imprisonment in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections. From her conviction she appeals claiming the following errors which we quote verbatim:

I. WHETHER THE APPELLANT WAS DEPRIVED OF HER RIGHT TO EFFECTIVE ASSISTANCE OF COUNSEL, DUE PROCESS AND A RIGHT TO A FAIR TRIAL BY THE COURT'S DENIAL OF HER REQUEST FOR A CONTINUANCE
II. APPELLANT WAS NOT REPRESENTED BY AN ATTORNEY LICENSED TO PRACTICE IN MISSISSIPPI
III. APPELLANT SUFFERED INEFFECTIVE ASSISTANCE OF COUNSEL

¶ 2. Finding no error, we affirm.

STATEMENT OF THE FACTS

¶ 3. Tara Regina Lyle and Kenneth Gerald Lyle were married for fourteen years. The marriage was a volatile one and ended when Mrs. Lyle shot Mr. Lyle three times, resulting in his death. Mr. Lyle would move away from the marital home then come back. He did this several times causing Mrs. Lyle to file for divorce in May 2002.

¶ 4. The Lyles lived in Memphis. However, Mr. Lyle worked in Columbus and commuted to the family home in Memphis. During the last years of their marriage Mrs. Lyle discovered that Mr. Lyle had a girlfriend, Vanessa Brown, in Columbus, Mississippi.

¶ 5. Mr. Lyle was not at home for Thanksgiving 2002, which enraged Mrs. Lyle. She called Vanessa Brown's home and got her elderly father. She identified herself and asked to talk to his daughter because "somebody is fixing to get hurt." On the Saturday before she killed her husband, Mrs. Lyle went to Vanessa Brown's home in Columbus. Only Brown's elderly father was at home. Mrs. *192 Lyle gained entry to the home under the pretense that she had car trouble and wanted to use the telephone and bathroom. As Mrs. Lyle was looking around, Mr. Brown recognized her voice from the earlier telephone call, and asked her to leave which she did. When Mr. Lyle and Vanessa Brown came back to the house, Mr. Brown said he told them not to get out of the car because he feared what Mrs. Lyle might do to them. He took them to another house because he was "afraid for their life because she had already said somebody was going to get [hurt] and after she came down, you know, I was afraid...." Earlier Mrs. Lyle had called her husband's brother and told him that "some one was going to pay for her feelings." The brother testified that he considered this a threat, and immediately tried to call his brother and warn him but had to leave a message.

¶ 6. On December 2 Mr. Lyle called his wife and asked her to bring to him his clothing and other items, including his knife and pistol. He also told her to bring their daughter, Kelcy, and her clothing because he was going to put her in school in Columbus.

¶ 7. They agreed to meet that day at a convenience store in New Albany for the swap. What happened next was not disputed. They parked near each other and Mr. Lyle went to her car. He pounded on the trunk when she did not get his personal items out. She walked toward the trunk with his .380 caliber semi-automatic pistol in her pocket. She then took the gun out and shot him. The shot severed his spinal cord causing him to fall face down in the parking lot. Mrs. Lyle then walked over to where he was laying face down in the parking lot and shot him two more times in the back. He died of these wounds.

¶ 8. When the first officers arrived on the scene they secured the weapon from Mrs. Lyle, who stated that she had shot her husband. The shooting was observed by a customer at the convenience store, who identified Mrs. Lyle as the shooter. Kelcy, the Lyles' twelve-year-old daughter, who was lying in the back seat, heard the gun shots, jumped out of the car and ran into the convenience store telling the attendant that "my dad has been shot by my mom."

¶ 9. Mrs. Lyle testified that she remembered shooting her husband once but does not remember what happened next. Additionally, Mrs. Lyle testified that she and her children suffered mental and physical abuse at the hands of Mr. Lyle. However, neither she nor her children had sought medical attention for any injuries Mr. Lyle was alleged to have caused them.

¶ 10. Other facts will be set out during the discussion of the issues.

ANALYSIS

I. WHETHER THE APPELLANT WAS DEPRIVED OF HER RIGHT TO EFFECTIVE ASSISTANCE OF COUNSEL, DUE PROCESS AND A RIGHT TO A FAIR TRIAL BY THE COURT'S DENIAL OF HER REQUEST FOR A CONTINUANCE

¶ 11. Mrs. Lyle makes two arguments under this issue.

A. The Trial Court Improperly Chose Appellant's Attorney

¶ 12. Mrs. Lyle had hired attorney Jimmy Shelton of Tupelo to represent her in this cause. On May 23, the date of her arraignment, she learned Shelton's license was suspended. Another member of the Shelton law firm, William C. Stennett, represented her at the arraignment. At a September 8, 2003 hearing, Stennett moved the court to allow him to withdraw from the case. Stennett said that Mrs. Lyle had told him she wanted someone *193 from another law firm to represent her. Stennett said that he had been contacted by Arkansas attorney Darrell Brown, who told him he was representing Mrs. Lyle, but Brown was not in court for the hearing. Although Stennett apparently was allowed to withdraw from representing Mrs. Lyle, another member of the Shelton law firm, Jonathon Crump, was present on her behalf at her September 10, 2003 trial. Arkansas attorney Brown was the lead counsel representing Mrs. Lyle at her trial.

¶ 13. Stennett also moved for a continuance. The judge denied the motion for continuance saying that he tried cases in his district based upon their importance and he thought that this case was an important case and needed to go forward. The trial judge stated a "definite aversion" to granting a continuance because of a last minute change of lawyers. During the September 10 trial, attorney Brown indicated that he had been hired on the case "less than two weeks" before the trial. The court said that although the new counsel did not have a "great deal of time" to prepare for the trial, he had "an adequate time" to mount a defense.

¶ 14. On appeal Mrs. Lyle argues that she was denied her right to choose the counsel of her choice to represent her at her murder trial. The record simply does not support that claim. Mrs. Lyle first employed Jimmy Shelton as her attorney, and upon his suspension from the practice of law, employed Darrell Brown.

¶ 15. Mrs. Lyle argues Faretta v. California, 422 U.S. 806, 95 S.Ct. 2525, 45 L.Ed.2d 562 (1975) in support of her position that a criminal defendant should not be forced to accept the services of an attorney that she did not hire and does not want to represent her. The holding of Faretta is that a criminal defendant has a constitutional right to self representation and a trial court cannot force a lawyer upon the defendant. Id. at 836, 95 S.Ct. 2525. Such is far from the situation in the case sub judice. Mrs.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
908 So. 2d 189, 2005 WL 1805141, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lyle-v-state-missctapp-2005.