Neal v. State

936 So. 2d 463, 2006 WL 2348081
CourtCourt of Appeals of Mississippi
DecidedAugust 15, 2006
Docket2004-KA-00669-COA
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 936 So. 2d 463 (Neal 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
Neal v. State, 936 So. 2d 463, 2006 WL 2348081 (Mich. Ct. App. 2006).

Opinion

936 So.2d 463 (2006)

Pervis DeWayne NEAL, Appellant
v.
STATE of Mississippi, Appellee.

No. 2004-KA-00669-COA.

Court of Appeals of Mississippi.

August 15, 2006.

*465 Lisa Mishune Ross, Jackson, attorney for appellant.

Office of the Attorney General by Deirdre McCrory, attorney for appellee.

Before LEE, P.J., SOUTHWICK and ISHEE, JJ.

SOUTHWICK, J., for the Court.

¶ 1. Pervis DeWayne Neal pled guilty in 2001 to the charges of manslaughter and armed robbery in the Copiah County Circuit Court. Three years later he sought post-conviction review of the judgment. We agree that the armed robbery conviction is invalid because he had never been properly charged with that offense. We reverse and remand for sentencing on robbery.

FACTS

¶ 2. On July 19, 1998, Neal and three other occupants, Jonathan and Joseph McGriggs and Susan Mitchell, drove to W.Q. Bradley's house in order to rob him. Once arriving, Joseph McGriggs and Mitchell exited the vehicle. They argued with Bradley on the front porch. Neal exited the vehicle with Jonathan McGriggs, who was armed with a shotgun. McGriggs shot Bradley when he tried to go into his house. The group then fled in their vehicle. Bradley died from the gunshot.

¶ 3. In 2000, Neal was indicted for capital murder. About nine months later, on March 12, 2001, Neal filed a waiver of indictment for the crime of manslaughter and also for robbery. An Information[1] was prepared charging those crimes. An accused who is represented by counsel, as was Neal, may waive indictment and allow himself to be prosecuted based on an Information. Miss. Const. Art. 3, § 27. These are the relevant sections of the key documents:

WAIVER OF INDICTMENT
1 . . . . that I have been accused of robbery on or about the 19th day of July, 1998, in violation of Section 97-3-73 of the Mississippi Code of 1972, and did then and there wilfully, unlawfully and feloniously attempt to take, steal and carry away United States currency, the personal property of the said W.Q. Bradley.
INDICTMENT: COUNT TWO
[T]hat on or about the 19th day of July, 1998, in Copiah County, Mississippi, and within the jurisdiction of this court, the said Pervis Neal in the presence and against the will of W.Q. Bradley, a human being, and with the unlawful and felonious intent to take, steal and carry away the personal property, of value, of one W.Q. Bradley, he, the said Pervis Neal, by violence to the person of the said W.Q. Bradley, did then and there wilfully, unlawfully and feloniously attempt to take, steal and carry away United States currency, the personal property of the said W.Q. Bradley, contrary to and in violation of Section 97-3-73 of the Mississippi Code of 1972, and against the peace and dignity of the State of Mississippi.

*466 ¶ 4. Later in the month in which Neal waived indictment, M.A. Bass, Neal's attorney, notified the court that Neal wanted to withdraw his plea of not guilty and enter a plea to manslaughter and armed robbery, the latter not having been charged in the Information. The court stated:

[W]e'll proceed in both causes, and we'll proceed in Cause Number XXXX-XXXXCR [the manslaughter and robbery charge] and also in 2000-103CR [the capital murder charge]. One, in the event that this is a lesser included offense, and in the event it's not, we'll proceed otherwise.. . . Mr. Neal, I believe you want to plead guilty to manslaughter and armed robbery. . . .

The plea colloquy proceeded for the charge of manslaughter and armed robbery. Neither armed robbery nor the exhibition of a deadly weapon was mentioned in Neal's indictment, Information, or waiver of indictment.

¶ 5. On March 4, 2004, Neal filed a motion to vacate his conviction and sentence. The motion alleged that the Information was fatally defective, that he had been subjected to double jeopardy, that his plea was involuntary, and that he had received ineffective assistance of counsel. The motion was denied by the Copiah County Circuit Court. Neal has appealed.

DISCUSSION

ISSUE 1: Defective Charging Documents

¶ 6. Neal argues that due to defects in the charging documents, the circuit court was without jurisdiction and his plea was involuntary. His argument focuses on the failure of the Information to state the armed robbery element of "exhibition of a deadly weapon." The Information also referred to the robbery statute instead of to the statute for armed robbery. Miss.Code Ann. §§ 97-3-73 & 97-3-79 (Rev.2000). Finally, the waiver of indictment document failed to refer to armed robbery.

¶ 7. An accused has a constitutional right "to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation." U.S. Const. Amend. VI. This State's Constitution does not expand the right. Miss. Const. art. III, § 26. Entering a guilty plea does not waive an indictment's failure to include an element of a crime, nor does the plea waive subject matter jurisdiction. Conerly v. State, 607 So.2d 1153, 1156 (Miss.1992). An indictment charging the essential elements of a crime must be served on a defendant in order for a court to obtain subject matter jurisdiction over the subject of a particular offense. Jefferson v. State, 556 So.2d 1016, 1021 (Miss.1989).

¶ 8. The State concedes that count two of the Information was not sufficient for the court to have jurisdiction over the offense of armed robbery but argues that it was sufficient to convey jurisdiction for the offense of simple robbery. We look no further than the State's concession in deciding that Neal, despite his plea, could not be convicted of armed robbery.

¶ 9. There is no reason that a shortcoming in describing one offense would infect and neutralize another charge in the same instrument. We conclude that the invalidity of the charge of armed robbery does not affect jurisdiction over manslaughter, or the guilty plea, conviction, and sentence on that count. We reach this conclusion despite that there was a plea bargain between the prosecution and Neal which joined both counts. Such bargains are not binding on the trial court. URCCC 8.04(B)(2)(b) (recommendation on sentence may be made as a result of plea negotiations, "with the understanding that such recommendation or request will not *467 be binding upon the court."). The trial court's deciding upon a sentence on either offense greater than the bargain would not have permitted Neal to withdraw his plea. Similarly, our setting aside the sentence on the armed robbery charge, a sentence that sustained the bargain reached before the plea hearing, does not require us to set aside the entire bargain-based judgment of conviction and sentence. Neal's request that this appellate court set aside his plea to both offenses is denied.

¶ 10. However, a trial court itself has discretion to allow a withdrawal of a guilty plea should something have occurred that in the court's view justifies a withdrawal. URCCC 8.04(A)(5). We are remanding this judgment for reasons we will explain. On remand, if Neal determines to pursue the demand to set aside the entire plea, such a motion may be filed prior to resentencing and ruled upon under the explicit authority of the trial court to determine whether good cause exists to permit the withdrawal. URCCC 8.04(A)(6).

¶ 11.

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Bluebook (online)
936 So. 2d 463, 2006 WL 2348081, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/neal-v-state-missctapp-2006.