McINTOSH v. State

749 So. 2d 1235, 1999 WL 733140
CourtCourt of Appeals of Mississippi
DecidedSeptember 21, 1999
Docket97-KA-00895-COA
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 749 So. 2d 1235 (McINTOSH 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
McINTOSH v. State, 749 So. 2d 1235, 1999 WL 733140 (Mich. Ct. App. 1999).

Opinion

749 So.2d 1235 (1999)

Clinton McINTOSH a/k/a Clinton A. McIntosh, Appellant,
v.
STATE of Mississippi, Appellee.

No. 97-KA-00895-COA.

Court of Appeals of Mississippi.

September 21, 1999.

*1236 Richard Burdine, Columbus, Attorney for Appellant.

Office of the Attorney General by Dewitt T. Allred, III, Attorney for Appellee.

BEFORE McMILLIN, C.J., BRIDGES, AND PAYNE, JJ.

PAYNE, J., for the Court:

PROCEDURAL POSTURE AND ISSUES PRESENTED

¶ 1. This case is before the Court challenging the judgment of the Chickasaw County Circuit Court, after a jury trial, of conviction of murder and sentence of life imprisonment in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections. McIntosh, aggrieved by his conviction, presents this appeal raising three issues for our review: (1) whether the trial court erred by granting both jury instructions S-1 and S-2, (2) whether the trial court erred by not granting McIntosh's requested jury instructions, and (3) whether the verdict of the jury was against the overwhelming weight of the evidence.

¶ 2. Upon review of the record, we are unmoved by McIntosh's assignments of error. Accordingly, we sustain the conviction and sentence in this case.

FACTS

¶ 3. Clinton McIntosh lived with Betty Parker in a house located next door to Betty's parents, Willie Sam Hamilton, the victim in this case, and Louise Hamilton. McIntosh also worked with Willie Sam. McIntosh had spent the afternoon of May 24, 1991, with the Hamiltons' son, James Hamilton.

¶ 4. According to the testimony of Louise Hamilton, James Hamilton drove her to the grocery store in her car. When they returned from the store, McIntosh walked from Parker's house to the Hamiltons' home. As Louise and James were unloading groceries from the car, Louise, believing that McIntosh had had drugs in her car, told him not to take drugs in her car again. She instructed McIntosh to return to Parker's premises. McIntosh became angry at this remark, and words were exchanged between Louise and McIntosh. McIntosh ran toward Parker's house and shortly thereafter returned with a butcher knife and attempted to enter the Hamilton home. Louise locked the door, *1237 and Louise, Willie Sam, and James went outside.

¶ 5. McIntosh went to back of the house, opened the back door and entered the house. He walked through the house and out the front door into the yard where the Hamiltons were located, where McIntosh stabbed Willie Sam in the side. According to Louise, Willie Sam struck McIntosh in the head with a gun he was carrying. Louise then called her sister-in-law and asked her to call the police. Then, James drove Louise to a local judge's house so that she could "take out papers" on McIntosh. The judge was not home, so they immediately returned to their home where Louise saw Willie Sam lying on the ground; he had been stabbed three more times and was almost dead.

¶ 6. Betty Parker testified that she feared McIntosh's reaction to Louise's accusations about his having had drugs in Louise's car, and she drove to her son David's place of employment to get help. David called the police, and Parker returned to the Hamiltons' residence. Willie Sam was standing on the sidewalk, and Parker first learned that McIntosh had stabbed Willie Sam. After inquiring of her father about his condition, Parker proceeded to call McIntosh's mother in an effort to get her to come and attempt to make McIntosh stop his violent behavior. Before she was able to complete the call, she heard someone yelling that McIntosh was stabbing Willie Sam. Parker ran back to the Hamiltons' residence and saw McIntosh sitting on top of Willie Sam holding a butcher knife.

¶ 7. Waverly McGregory, the grandson-in-law of the Hamiltons, lived on the other side of the Hamiltons' home opposite Parker and McIntosh. McGregory corroborated Louise's testimony, testifying that he saw McIntosh enter the Hamilton home through the back door, and he saw Louise, Willie Sam, and James exit out the front door of the home into the yard.

¶ 8. McGregory did not see the first stabbing, but he talked to McIntosh and tried to get him to calm down but to no avail. McGregory tried to take Willie Sam to his house after the first stabbing, but Willie Sam would not go. As Willie Sam stood in his yard, McIntosh walked toward Willie Sam, and McGregory stepped in front of Willie Sam. McIntosh started waving the butcher knife in McGregory's face, exclaiming that Willie Sam had hit him in the head with a gun. Willie Sam pushed McGregory out of the way and tried to hit McIntosh with the butt of the gun he was holding. Willie Sam missed, and McIntosh rushed forward and stabbed Willie Sam again. At that point, Willie Sam fell to the ground, and McIntosh sat down on top of him with the knife across Willie Sam's neck.

¶ 9. Eventually officers from the Chickasaw County Sheriffs Office arrived at the Hamiltons' home. By that time, McIntosh had left and could not be immediately located. The officers secured the area so that emergency personnel could begin to help Willie Sam. Willie Sam died as a result of his injuries. McIntosh was apprehended the next morning and taken to the sheriffs office, where he signed a waiver of rights form and gave a statement relating his version of the events that had occurred on May 24, 1991. McIntosh's statement asserted that he had stabbed Willie Sam one time with a small pocket knife in self-defense. On July 18, 1991, McIntosh was indicted for the murder of Willie Sam Hamilton. Subsequently, he was convicted of murder on March 19, 1992 and sentenced to serve a term of life imprisonment in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections.

ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

Preliminary Rules Issue

¶ 10. The State raises what it perceives as a problem with our rules of court that allow a defendant to file a motion for a new trial and not seek a timely ruling from the trial court. The trial court entered its final judgment in the case sub *1238 judice on March 19, 1992. McIntosh's motion for a new trial was filed on March 30, 1992. The trial court's order denying McIntosh's new trial was not filed until July 18, 1997, more than five years after the original motion was filed. In the interim, in 1994, McIntosh filed a pro se motion seeking some relief from his conviction; however, there is no disposition of this motion in the record. McIntosh's notice of appeal was filed the same day as the trial court's order denying the motion for a new trial was filed.

¶ 11. While it is mildly disturbing that such a lengthy period passed between the filing of the motion for a new trial and the trial court's ultimate denial of that motion, McIntosh was, presumably, incarcerated during this period of time. Thus, the only harm, it seems, came to McIntosh. If he chose not to pursue a disposition of his motion, then that is his choice. However, we would encourage our trial judges, as much as possible, to avoid such long delays in disposing of routine motions such as the one at issue here so as to allow for the timely dispensation of justice. While an amendment to the Uniform Rules of Circuit and County Court Practice to address this issue may be advisable, we leave this question to the collective wisdom of our supreme court for their consideration.

¶ 12. We now move to the merits of McIntosh's appeal.

I. WHETHER INSTRUCTIONS S-1 AND S-2 ARE CONTRADICTORY AND IMPERMISSIBLY REQUIRE THE JURY TO DECIDE WHICH INSTRUCTION CORRECTLY PORTRAYS THE LAW?
II.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
749 So. 2d 1235, 1999 WL 733140, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mcintosh-v-state-missctapp-1999.