Parker v. State

724 So. 2d 482, 1998 WL 850104
CourtCourt of Appeals of Mississippi
DecidedDecember 8, 1998
Docket97-KA-01348 COA
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 724 So. 2d 482 (Parker 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
Parker v. State, 724 So. 2d 482, 1998 WL 850104 (Mich. Ct. App. 1998).

Opinion

724 So.2d 482 (1998)

Robert L. PARKER a/k/a Robert Williams Parker, Appellant,
v.
STATE of Mississippi, Appellee.

No. 97-KA-01348 COA.

Court of Appeals of Mississippi.

December 8, 1998.

*483 Richard Flood, Ridgeland, Attorney for Appellant.

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

Before BRIDGES, C.J., HINKEBEIN and KING, JJ.

HINKEBEIN, J., for the Court:

¶ 1. Robert Parker (Parker) was convicted in the Circuit Court of Madison County of automobile burglary pursuant to Miss.Code Ann. § 97-17-33 (Rev.1994) on May 13, 1997. On May 30, 1997, Parker was sentenced to serve six years in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections with four years of the sentence suspended and five years probation. Aggrieved by his conviction, he appeals to this Court on the following grounds:

I. THAT THE TRIAL COURT ERRED WHEN IT ALLOWED THE OFFICER TO TESTIFY ABOUT WHAT THE DISPATCHER WAS TELLING HIM ABOUT WHAT THE WITNESSES WERE TELLING THE DISPATCHER OVER THE OBJECTION OF THE APPELLANT.
II. THAT THE TRIAL COURT ERRED WHEN IT DENIED THE DEFENDANT'S REQUESTED JURY INSTRUCTION D-8.
III. THAT THE TRIAL COURT ERRED WHEN IT FAILED TO REPRIMAND THE STATE IN THE PRESENCE OF THE JURY ABOUT THE RESOLUTION OF PARKER'S CO-DEFENDANT'S CASE OR IN THE ALTERNATIVE ON ITS OWN MOTION, ORDER A MISTRIAL.
IV. THAT THE TRIAL COURT ERRED WHEN IT DENIED THE DEFENDANT'S REQUESTED JURY INSTRUCTION D-1.

¶ 2. Holding these assignments of error to be without merit, we affirm the decision of the circuit court.

FACTS

¶ 3. On November 27, 1994, Stephanie Dickerson and her boyfriend went to see the seven o'clock show at the United Artists Theater in Ridgeland, Mississippi. Dickerson parked her red Chevrolet Camaro in the lot next to the theater. Shortly after eight o'clock, the Ridgeland Police Department radio dispatcher notified patrol officers that there was an auto burglary in process in the parking lot of the theater. The dispatcher's information was based on a phone call from a witness, who along with another witness, was observing two people breaking into a car. Discovery filed by the State pursuant to URCCC 9.04 reveals that these witnesses were Langston E. Gibson and Lisa Prejean, both of whom lived near the theater. At trial neither of these witnesses were called by the State. Three police officers responded to the dispatcher's call and headed toward the theater.

¶ 4. At trial, two of the officers testified that the dispatcher then told them that the witness on the phone said the two burglary suspects had gotten into a blue car and were turning northbound on Wheatley Street. Officers Mack Craig and Ken Craft stopped the vehicle on Wheatley Street while Officer Rick Miller proceeded to the theater parking lot to look for signs of any car that may have been burglarized. Officer Miller testified that he found a red Chevrolet Camaro with the passenger window broken out. That night the area was under tornado warnings and heavy rain had left several inches of water on the car's floorboards. A short time later Dickerson came out of the theater with her boyfriend and told Miller the car belonged to her. Dickerson told the officer that her purse containing about twenty dollars was missing, as well as large box-like stereo speakers, a built-in stereo graphic equalizer, and a cellular phone.

¶ 5. While Officer Miller was talking to Dickerson, Officers Craig and Craft were ordering the suspects out of the blue car. Once the suspects were secured, Officer Craft testified that he looked inside the stopped vehicle. He recounted seeing stereo speakers in the back seat and a stereo equalizer, cellular phone, and various hand tools *484 on the front seat. He testified that all of these items were wet, as if they had been rained upon. The officers then arrested the driver of the car, Keison Jones, and the appellant, Parker, and transported them to the police station. Dickerson identified the items found in the blue car as those stolen from her vehicle. The next day Dickerson found her purse, minus any cash, in a wooded area immediately behind the theater parking lot.

DISCUSSION

I. THAT THE TRIAL COURT ERRED WHEN IT ALLOWED THE OFFICER TO TESTIFY ABOUT WHAT THE DISPATCHER WAS TELLING HIM ABOUT WHAT THE WITNESSES WERE TELLING THE DISPATCHER OVER THE OBJECTION OF THE APPELLANT.

¶ 6. During the trial, Parker offered two hearsay objections when police officers recounted what they were told by the dispatcher, who was relaying the statements made by the actual witnesses to the auto burglary. The trial judge overruled the objections, saying the officers could testify as to the complaint they received and their response. Parker characterizes the testimony as double hearsay and cites it as grounds for reversal. The State asserts the testimony was admitted not for the truth of the matter asserted but as the basis for the officers' later actions and thus was not hearsay. We agree with the State.

¶ 7. The Mississippi Rules of Evidence define hearsay as "a statement, other than one made by the declarant while testifying at the trial or hearing, offered in evidence to prove the truth of the matter asserted." M.R.E. 801(c). In addition, outside of enumerated exceptions, hearsay is inadmissible. M.R.E. 802. In the case sub judice, there is no dispute that the statements of the police dispatcher and the actual witness to the crime were made outside the confines of the courtroom. The issue is whether they were offered for the truth of the matter asserted and hence inadmissible. The Mississippi Supreme Court has stated that "if the significance of a statement is simply that it was made and there is no issue about the truth of the matter asserted, then the statement is not hearsay." Mickel v. State, 602 So.2d 1160, 1162 (Miss.1992) (quoting M.R.E. 801 cmt.). In Swindle v. State, 502 So.2d 652, 657-8 (Miss.1987), the court held that an officer's testimony about a tip received from an informant as to the whereabouts of a defendant was not offered for its truth and was "admissible to the extent required to show why an officer acted as he did and was at a particular place at a particular time." Id. Likewise, in the case sub judice, the officers' testimony as to the statements of the dispatcher was offered to show why they proceeded to the United Artists Theater and intercepted the suspects' vehicle on Wheatley Street. The record reveals that in overruling Parker's objections, the trial judge was aware of the purpose of the testimony by his statement, "I will overrule the objection. You can't discuss the conversation itself but you can tell the basics of the complaint and your response." While the Mississippi Supreme Court has not previously addressed this particular issue as to police radio dispatches, a number of other states have held, in line with the legal concepts discussed above, that testimony by police officers concerning radio dispatches is not hearsay and thus is admissible for the purpose of explaining the officer's actions. State v. Kirby, 325 S.C. 390, 481 S.E.2d 150, 151-2 (S.C.Ct.App. 1996); People v. Townsend, 275 Ill.App.3d 200, 211 Ill.Dec. 599, 655 N.E.2d 982, 987 (Ill.App.Ct.1995); Commonwealth v. McLean, 387 Pa.Super.

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Bluebook (online)
724 So. 2d 482, 1998 WL 850104, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/parker-v-state-missctapp-1998.