McIntosh v. State

917 So. 2d 78, 2005 WL 3006671
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 10, 2005
Docket2004-KA-02204-SCT
StatusPublished
Cited by32 cases

This text of 917 So. 2d 78 (McIntosh 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
McIntosh v. State, 917 So. 2d 78, 2005 WL 3006671 (Mich. 2005).

Opinion

917 So.2d 78 (2005)

Tyrone McINTOSH
v.
STATE of Mississippi.

No. 2004-KA-02204-SCT.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

November 10, 2005.

*80 Tommy Wayne Defer, attorney for appellant.

Office of the Attorney General by Jose' Benjamin Simo, attorney for appellee.

Before COBB, P.J., EASLEY and GRAVES, JJ.

EASLEY, Justice, for the Court.

STATEMENT OF THE CASE

¶ 1. Tyrone McIntosh (McIntosh) was indicted in the Circuit Court of the Second Judicial District of Tallahatchie County, Mississippi, in a three-count indictment. The indictment charged McIntosh as follows: (1) Count 1: capital murder, (2) Count 2: aggravated assault, and (3) Count 3: first degree arson. On August 25 to September 2, 2004, McIntosh received a jury trial in the Circuit Court of Tallahatchie County, Circuit Judge Ann H. Lamar, presiding. The State of Mississippi *81 only prosecuted the capital murder and aggravated assault. McIntosh was convicted of capital murder and aggravated assault and sentenced on Count 1, capital murder, to serve a term of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, good time or early release and on Count 2, aggravated assault, to serve a term of twenty (20) years consecutively to Count 1 in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections. The trial court denied McIntosh's post-trial motion for J.N.O.V. or new trial. McIntosh now appeals to this Court.

FACTS

¶ 2. On October 1, 2002, Arthur Featherston (Featherston) and Creola McIntosh (Creola) lived in a home in Webb, Mississippi. On that day the electricity was cut off in the house. Featherston planned to go the store to buy some candles. Prior to leaving the house to buy candles, Featherston gave Creola some money. McIntosh was present and asked Featherston for some of the money. Featherston refused to give McIntosh any money. Featherston helped to support Creola's son, the defendant, McIntosh. When Featherston refused to give McIntosh some money, he became angry. At this point, Featherston stated "I told him I wasn't going to take care of him anymore. He couldn't use my car anymore. I couldn't give him no money anymore. I couldn't help him with his clothes anymore, so he got angry at me and left."

¶ 3. Thereafter, Featherston lay down to sleep. Creola woke Featherston sometime later and told him that someone was in the house. According to Featherston, "all of a sudden [Creola] went down on the floor." Featherston turned to see what happened to Creola, and he was hit in the head and knocked unconscious. When Featherston regained consciousness, he smelled smoke, and he saw McIntosh setting the house on fire. Featherston asked McIntosh why he was setting the house on fire. McIntosh told Featherston that he was going to burn down the house and burn Featherston. McIntosh then sprayed Featherston with fluid on his face, head, arms and back, Featherston caught on fire and ran out of the house and jumped into a pile of leaves. Featherston returned to the house and burned his hand on the door knob as he tried to open the front door.

¶ 4. Vincent Nolan, a volunteer fire fighter who responded to the house fire, saw a blue base to the flames. After the fighting the fire, Nolan found Creola dead in a back bedroom of the house.

¶ 5. Dr. Steven Hayne, state forensic pathologist, testified as to Creola's cause of death. Dr. Hayne determined that Creola died in a house fire which was secondary to smoke inhalation. Her cause of death was listed as smoke inhalation.

¶ 6. Nolan assisted Featherston at the scene of the fire and saw what appeared to be second degree burns. Dr. Robert Love, a plastic and reconstructive surgeon at the Greenville Burn Center, stated that Featherston arrived at the Burn Center with extensive burns on his back, arms, face and hands. Featherston's total burn surface area was 51 to 61 percent.

¶ 7. On appeal, McIntosh raises the following issues:

I. Whether the trial court erred by admitting the testimony of Annie McIntosh.
II. Whether the trial court erred by admitting overly gruesome photographs, Exhibits 3, 4, 16, and 27, at trial.
III. Whether the trial court erred by denying McIntosh's motion for JNOV or in the alternative motion for new trial.

*82 DISCUSSION

I. Testimony of Annie McIntosh.

¶ 8. McIntosh argues that the trial court erred by admitting hearsay testimony by Annie McIntosh (Annie) at trial. Annie testified that about a week before the death of her mother, Creola McIntosh, Creola told Annie that she and Featherston planned to evict McIntosh from their home. McIntosh objected to the testimony as hearsay. The trial court admitted Annie's testimony at trial under M.R.E. 803(3), then existing mental, emotional, or physical condition. The trial court ruled as follows:

The State is offering the statements as an exception under Rule 803(3), then existing mental, emotional, or physical condition. The Court, after considering the matter, has had an opportunity to read the case of State v. Nathaniel Edwards, which was cited to the Court by the defendant at 856 So.2d 578[587], a case that came out of this same county last year. The State also pointed the Court to the case of State v. Boggan, a case likewise out of this district several years ago. Each of those deal with statements that were admitted under Rule 803(3).
The Court has reviewed the rule. The Court in considering this exception is going to allow the statement as it related to Creola's statement of what she intended to do, that is, if in fact she told her daughter that she intended to put him out of the house.
As far as the further statements as to what McIntosh had told her, what she believed might happen, the Court does not feel that it is proper to be put in, at least not at this point in the trial and past the point of what Creola stated that day that she that she [sic] intended to do, which the Court finds would fall under 803(3), the Court will not allow that further testimony as proffered by the State.

In Price v. State, 898 So.2d 641, 653 (Miss. 2005), this Court set out the standard of review for the admission of evidence:

"Relevancy and admissibility of evidence are largely within the discretion of the trial court, and reversal may be had only where that discretion has been abused." White v. State, 742 So.2d 1126, 1134 (Miss.1999). "Furthermore, the trial court's discretion must be exercised within the scope of the Mississippi Rules of Evidence, and reversal will be appropriate only when an abuse of discretion resulting in prejudice to the accused occurs." Id. at 1134. "A trial judge enjoys a great deal of discretion as to the relevancy and admissibility of evidence. Unless the judge abuses this discretion so as to be prejudicial to the accused, the Court will not reverse this ruling." Walker v. State, 878 So.2d 913, 915 (Miss.2004) (quoting Jefferson v. State, 818 So.2d 1099, 1104 (Miss.2002)).

Price, 898 So.2d at 653.

¶ 9. The Court of Appeals addressed this same hearsay issue in Edwards v. State, 856 So.2d 587 (Miss.Ct.App.2003). The facts in Edwards are very similar to the case sub judice. Prior to his death, Nathaniel Edwards, Sr. (the victim) went to the home of his neighbor, a deputy police officer. Id. at 591. The victim stated "I want you to come get my son out of the house because he is going to hit me in the head and take my money." Id. at 592.

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Bluebook (online)
917 So. 2d 78, 2005 WL 3006671, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mcintosh-v-state-miss-2005.