Magee v. State

966 So. 2d 173, 2007 Miss. App. LEXIS 120, 2007 WL 656839
Court of Appeals of Mississippi·Decided March 6, 2007·No. No. 2003-KA-02768-COA·Published·Cited by 3 cases

Opinion

CHANDLER, J., for the Court.

¶ 1. After a six-day trial in November 2003 in the Circuit Court of Walthall County, Willie A. Magee was convicted of rape and of burglary of a dwelling. The court sentenced Magee to serve thirty years for rape and to serve twenty-five years for burglary, to run consecutively, as a habitual offender, in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections. Magee appeals, arguing that (1) the trial court erred in failing to grant a directed verdict as to rape and burglary, (2) the trial court erred by allowing testimony on Magee’s prior bad acts, (3) the court should have disqualified the district attorney, (4) the court should have excused a juror who read a newspaper article related to the case, (5) the trial court should have dismissed Magee’s indictment, (6) Magee’s sentence amounts to a life sentence and constitutes cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment, and (7) the trial court erred by admitting evidence of a conviction that was over ten years old.

¶ 2. Finding no error, we affirm.

FACTS

[177] ¶3. E.P.,1 age eighty-two, owned and operated a business behind her residence in Tylertown, Mississippi. E.P. testified that, in the early morning hours of October 15, 2002, she was asleep in bed when she was awakened by someone forcefully placing a piece of cloth over her face. E.P. had difficulty breathing and told the attacker that there was money in the dresser by the bed. The attacker stated, “I didn’t come after your money, I came after you.” The attacker then ripped E.P.’s pajama top off, pulled down her pajama pants, and performed oral sex on E.P. The attacker placed a knife to E.P.’s ear and told her that he would cut her throat if she was not quiet. Then, the attacker had sexual intercourse with E.P. When the attacker was finished, he began scraping the knife tip up and down E.P.’s chest and stomach while he threatened to kill her. The attacker stated that he was not going to let E.P. see him so that he would not be sent back to prison. Then, the attacker asked E.P. where her money was. E.P. told him it was in the dresser near her bed. The attacker took a bank bag filled with cash from the dresser and departed. When E.P. heard the back door slam, she removed the cloth from her face and called 911.

¶ 4. Tylertown Police Officer Aubrey Hill was dispatched to E.P.’s residence just before 2:00 a.m. When Officer Hill arrived, he observed that E.P. was distraught and that she had injuries including bruising around her eyes, cuts on her nose, lip, and left hand, and long red lines on her stomach. E.P. told Officer Hill that she had been raped and that she had recognized the attacker’s voice as that of Willie Magee. Magee occasionally performed yard work for E.P. and had been released from prison in early 2002. E.P. testified that the bank bag contained between one and two hundred dollars in cash collected from her business.

¶ 5. In E.P.’s bedroom, Investigators Truett Simmons and Tony Rushing with the Walthall County Sheriffs Department recovered several buttons from E.P.’s pajama top as well as a pillow sham that had been placed over E.P.’s head. These items were on the bed. There were stains resembling blood on the pillow sham and bedsheet and a damp spot on the bedsheet. The pillow sham had been taken from a spare bedroom across from E.P.’s bedroom.

¶ 6. Investigator Simmons testified that he determined the attacker had entered E.P.’s house through a door off the carport which led into an interior apartment that was vacant and separate from E.P.’s living area. The apartment was divided from E.P.’s living area by a door which E.P. testified was kept locked. Deputy Simmons testified that, when he arrived, the interior door was ajar but the locking mechanism was in the locked position. Deputy Simmons observed and photographed fresh tool marks on the door latch. Deputy Simmons testified that he concluded that the interior door was opened by force.

¶7. E.P. was transported to Walthall County General Hospital where Dr. Renie Jordan examined her and performed a rape kit. Dr. Jordan testified that E.P. suffered vaginal cuts, bruising, and trauma, but that, due to E.P.’s age, she could have received such injuries from consensual sex. However, Dr. Jordan’s impression from the totality of the information before him was that E.P. had been raped.

¶ 8. The police obtained blood samples from four suspects, including Magee, whose sample was obtained pursuant to a warrant. Vaginal swabs from the rape kit were sent to the Mississippi Crime Labo[178] ratory, where they tested positive for the presence of semen. Deedra Hughes, a forensic biologist at the Mississippi Crime Laboratory, obtained DNA from each blood sample and compared the DNA from the samples with the DNA from the semen taken from E.P. Hughes testified that Ma-gee’s DNA sample matched the DNA from the semen taken from E.P.

¶ 9. Magee testified. Magee denied having raped E.P. and testified that he did not know how E.P. had been injured. Magee, age forty-six, maintained that he had been involved in a long-term sexual relationship with E.P., which had begun in 1978. Ma-gee indicated that the relationship was kept secret due to fear of community backlash because the relationship was interracial. He stated that E.P. was “like family” and that he visited E.P.’s home on a regular basis. He testified that, on the evening of October 14, he visited E.P. at her home and they engaged in consensual sex. Afterward, Magee asked E.P. to borrow money and she lent him sixty-five dollars. Magee testified that he entered and exited E.P.’s house through the front door. Ma-gee stated that he walked home from E.P.’s house and arrived at his house at around 10:15 or 10:30 p.m. Magee testified that, at around midnight, he went to his neighbor Aaron Lee Washington’s house and asked Washington for a ride to Salem to visit a friend. Washington agreed, and the two drove to the friend’s home. Ma-gee stated that he and Washington left Salem in the morning. He stated that he did not buy any cocaine that night.

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Magee v. State, 966 So. 2d 173, 2007 Miss. App. LEXIS 120, 2007 WL 656839 (Mich. Ct. App. 2007).

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