Nicholson v. State

704 So. 2d 81, 1997 WL 620801
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 9, 1997
Docket93-CT-01378-SCT
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 704 So. 2d 81 (Nicholson 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
Nicholson v. State, 704 So. 2d 81, 1997 WL 620801 (Mich. 1997).

Opinion

704 So.2d 81 (1997)

Eddie NICHOLSON
v.
STATE of Mississippi.

No. 93-CT-01378-SCT.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

October 9, 1997.

James C. Mayo, Fair & Mayo, Louisville, for appellant.

Michael C. Moore, Attorney General, Pat. S. Flynn, Asst. Attorney General, Jackson, for appellee.

En Banc.

JAMES L. ROBERTS, Jr., Justice, for the Court:

Introduction

¶ 1. This matter comes before the Court, en banc, after granting petitioner's application for writ of certiorari on May 29, 1997. Eddie Nicholson was indicted by a grand jury of Winston County for the crime of sexual battery, charging sexual penetration of an eleven year old girl with his finger. Nicholson was convicted of sexual battery by a jury of his peers, and sentenced to twenty years in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections by the Circuit Court of Winston County, Mississippi, on November 30, 1993. The Court of Appeals affirmed the lower court on January 28, 1997, and denied the petition for rehearing on April 8, 1997. The petition for writ of certiorari was filed with this Court on April 17, 1997.

¶ 2. The following issues were raised for certiorari review:

I. The lower court erred in allowing rebuttal testimony of an alleged sexual act with another person;
II. The lower court erred in denying surrebuttal testimony by Nicholson;
III. The lower court erred by denying a continuance after the State was allowed to amend the indictment and *82 the State improperly amended the indictment; and
IV. The State failed to provide proper Rule 4.06 discovery.

¶ 3. The Court granted certiorari review on Issues I. and IV., found Issue II. to be moot, and denied certiorari review of Issue III.

Statement of the Case

¶ 4. Eddie Nicholson was the coach of a girls' softball team in Louisville, Mississippi, during the summer of 1993. L.T.B. testified that on a bus trip back from a game in DeKalb, Nicholson ran his hand up her leg and put his finger in her vagina.[1] She also testified that several times during that summer he had taken her and other team members home from practice and games. He would take the others home first, and then on the way to her house he would feel her breasts and between her legs. L.T.B. said this started on the second day of practice. On one occasion, he pulled out his penis and tried to make her hold it.

¶ 5. Several days after the DeKalb trip, L.T.B. told her mother about the recurring abuse. Mrs. B. then made a complaint to the Louisville Police Department. Nicholson was indicted by the grand jury of Winston County for sexual battery, convicted, and sentenced to twenty years in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections.

Analysis and Authority

I.

¶ 6. The lower court permitted the State to cross-examine Eddie Nicholson about allegedly touching and fondling the breast of C.D., a teammate of L.T.B., over Nicholson's objection and continuing objections. This allegation was not charged in the indictment against Nicholson. The court had previously denied Nicholson's motion in limine on this same issue.

¶ 7. The court, in rebuttal, permitted the State to call C.D., though she was not disclosed or listed in discovery, but was sworn as a witness before the trial commenced. Over Nicholson's strenuous objection, C.D. was permitted not only to testify, but to testify in rebuttal about alleged specific sexual acts of Nicholson toward her. Nicholson asserts that admission of evidence of remote sexual activity with someone other than the prosecutrix is reversible error.

¶ 8. The following testimony is pertinent to this issue. On direct examination of Nicholson by his attorney, in response to the question of whether or not Nicholson "did or didn't" he answered:

A. NICHOLSON: I didn't touch this child in any type form or fashion. The only thing I did was try to help them play softball better. I've never done anything wrong to any child. I never have and I never will.

¶ 9. On cross-examination by the State, Nicholson was asked:

Q. THE STATE: Do you deny that you have also committed an offense like this... .

¶ 10. At this point, counsel for Nicholson began objecting, and asked that the question be asked outside the presence of the jury; questioning continued with the jury out.

FURTHER CROSS-EXAMINATION BY THE STATE
Q. Mr. Nicholson, do you deny that before ball practice on one of the occasions that you carried C.D. to a store and at which time you were fondling her and feeling her breasts?
A. Nicholson first said he couldn't remember and when pressed said "I'm denying it."

¶ 11. The State argued that Nicholson, by stating on direct examination that "he had never done anything like this to any child," had "opened the door to us going into other acts that he had committed with other children when he did that."

¶ 12. Counsel for Nicholson objected and argued, "Your Honor, I have all kind of cases here that he cannot go into anything with *83 someone else." The State responded that "that's true, until he opens the door."

BY DEFENSE COUNSEL: No. I mean, it's just not admissible, any conduct with someone else. I mean, you've permitted him [the prosecutor] to go into whatever took place with this person, but he [the prosecutor] cannot go into it, Your Honor, and he just can't go into anything with anybody else. There is no evidence of any prior convictions and he just can't go into some third party. I mean, he just cannot do it, and he knows he can't.

¶ 13. The court then allowed the State to cross-examine Nicholson about C.D.[2] The State does not offer any authority for being allowed to do so, and Nicholson submits that under Elmore v. State, 510 So.2d 127 (Miss. 1987), and Mitchell v. State, 539 So.2d 1366 (Miss. 1989), such testimony is inadmissible. The trial court further allowed the State to call C.D. to testify as a rebuttal witness. Nicholson's counsel put a continuing objection into the record.

BY Mr. MAYO: In Order, Your Honor, that I won't run afoul, would you let the record show that I have a continuing objection to each question and answer that may be asked of this witness so I won't have to get up in front of the Jury again?

¶ 14. The Court of Appeals held concerning this issue on appeal: "The other alleged victim's testimony [C.D.] regarding her should not have been permitted." COA op. at 5. The Court of Appeals went on to note that the State had argued that the evidence was admissible as general impeachment, and stated that pursuant to this Court's holding in Jackson v. State, 645 So.2d 921, 923 (Miss. 1994), attempts to impeach the witness could only be done through cross-examination, not by "extrinsic evidence." Id. at 923-24. The Court of Appeals then held, "We reject this alleged error because it was not properly preserved [for appeal]." This statement is incorrect in light of a careful review of the record, and the standing objection read into the record by Nicholson's attorney.

Nicholson's Argument

¶ 15. Nicholson, on more than one occasion, while objecting to the questioning of C.D., cited to Elmore v. State, 510 So.2d 127 (Miss. 1987), and Mitchell v. State, 539 So.2d 1366 (Miss.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
704 So. 2d 81, 1997 WL 620801, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/nicholson-v-state-miss-1997.