Pruitt v. State

807 So. 2d 1236, 2002 WL 244850
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 21, 2002
Docket97-KA-00238-SCT
StatusPublished
Cited by42 cases

This text of 807 So. 2d 1236 (Pruitt 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
Pruitt v. State, 807 So. 2d 1236, 2002 WL 244850 (Mich. 2002).

Opinion

807 So.2d 1236 (2002)

John PRUITT a/k/a John Richard Pruitt
v.
STATE of Mississippi.

No. 97-KA-00238-SCT.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

February 21, 2002.

*1237 Lisa D. Collums, Gulfport, Attorney for Appellant.

Office of the Attorney General by Billy L. Gore, Attorney for Appellee.

Before SMITH, P.J., COBB and DIAZ, JJ.

COBB, J., for the Court.

¶ 1. On October 10, 1989, John Richard Pruitt was indicted in the Harrison County Circuit Court for the murder of Joan Easterling. At the conclusion of trial, a jury *1238 convicted Pruitt, and he was sentenced to life imprisonment without possibility of parole. Following sentencing, Pruitt's attorneys filed both a motion for a new trial and a motion to withdraw, citing Pruitt's intention to appeal based on ineffective assistance of counsel. The trial court eventually appointed new counsel for Pruitt. Pruitt's new attorney then filed an amended motion for a new trial or in the alternative a JNOV which was overruled by the trial court.[1] Aggrieved, Pruitt appeals, raising the following issues, which have been edited for clarity:

I. WHETHER PRUITT RECEIVED INEFFECTIVE ASSISTANCE OF COUNSEL.
II. WHETHER THE TRIAL COURT ERRED IN ADMITTING EVIDENCE OF OTHER BAD ACTS IN VIOLATION OF M.R.E. 404(b).
III. WHETHER THE TRIAL COURT ERRED IN DENYING PRUITT'S MOTION TO SUPPRESS HIS CONFESSIONS.
IV. WHETHER THE TRIAL COURT ERRED IN ADMITTING PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE VICTIM INTO EVIDENCE.
V. WHETHER SUFFICIENT EVIDENCE EXISTS FROM WHICH REASONABLE JURORS COULD HAVE FOUND PRUITT GUILTY OF MURDER.
VI. WHETHER THE TRIAL COURT ERRED IN DENYING PRUITT'S MOTION FOR JNOV OR ALTERNATIVELY A NEW TRIAL.

¶ 2. Finding these issues to be without merit, we affirm.

FACTS

¶ 3. On November 6, 1988, John Pruitt confessed to the murder of Joan Easterling, a Pass Christian resident. Pruitt first confessed his involvement during a conversation (initiated by Pruitt) with Kenneth Bangs, a jailer with the Harrison County Sheriffs Department. According to Bangs, Pruitt then asked to speak with Detective Thomas Ruspoli of the Pass Christian Police Department. Bangs wrote a narrative detailing his conversation with Pruitt which reads as follows:

On date listed above at approximately 17:45, I, Deputy Bangs, was making my usual cell check when above subject stopped me, John Pruitt, and stated he had something to get off his chest. I asked what, and above subject stated he killed a lady by hitting her in the head with a hammer. I asked her name. Above subject stated her name was Joan, but was not sure of her last name. Then I asked above subject, where did he kill her. Above subject then stated, in her house in Pass Christian. Above subject then stated he broke into a house and stole a gun that he was going to use to kill his ex-wife.

¶ 4. Later, Pruitt was interviewed by Detective Ruspoli and after receiving Miranda warnings, Pruitt again confessed to the killing. According to this statement, an intoxicated Pruitt persuaded Easterling to let him into the house by claiming that Nell Deronja (Pruitt's aunt and the owner of the home Easterling was renting) sent *1239 him to fix a leaking water pipe. Once inside, Pruitt first pulled a knife on Easterling. She then began screaming, and Pruitt panicked and began beating her with a ballpeen hammer he found lying on a cabinet. After killing Easterling, Pruitt tried to arrange her clothes so that it would appear to have been a rape. Pruitt admitted that his true purpose in entering the home was to rob Easterling because he "needed some money." He then left the home and threw his bloody clothes into a canal. At the time of Pruitt's statement to Detective Ruspoli, Pruitt said that he felt slightly intoxicated, but clearly admitted to his involvement in the crime. Pruitt's clothes were later recovered from the area where he claimed to have disposed of them.

¶ 5. Pruitt had been arrested earlier on the afternoon of his confession on charges of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and at the time of his arrest, he was in a Gulfport bar where he had drunk several beers. At trial, Pruitt moved to suppress his confession on the grounds that it was involuntary due to intoxication. However, several witnesses testified that he did not appear to be intoxicated at the time of his confession. Ultimately, the trial court concluded that the level of detail in Pruitt's responses combined with the number of witnesses who said he did not appear to be intoxicated at the time of his confession indicated that, assuming Pruitt was intoxicated at all, he was not so intoxicated as to render his confession involuntary. Consequently, the statement was ruled admissible, although it was edited in some places so as to eliminate any reference to past crimes, bad acts, or irrelevant information.

¶ 6. Pruitt himself was the only defense witness called, and he denied killing Easterling, claiming that his confession was a result of his intoxication and intimidation by police officers who threatened him with the death penalty. In rebuttal, Detective Ruspoli denied threatening Pruitt with the death penalty and denied telling him what to say. The State also pointed out in its cross-examination of Pruitt that his eleven-page confession was very detailed and that he would have had less than 20 minutes to memorize the information contained within it, if he had been coached by police at a time when he claimed to have been too intoxicated to know what he was doing.

ANALYSIS

I. WHETHER PRUITT RECEIVED INEFFECTIVE ASSISTANCE OF COUNSEL.

¶ 7. Pruitt first argues that he received ineffective assistance of counsel, although he limits this claim to two points. First, Pruitt notes that this attorney at trial told the jury in closing arguments that either Pruitt or Michael Deas (a handyman who worked for Nell Deronja and had an opportunity to commit the crime) killed Easterling, thereby eliminating the possibility that a third person killed Easterling. Second, Pruitt complains that his trial attorney failed to object to the admission of a transcript of his statement to Detective Ruspoli confessing to the crime and furthermore failed to object to the trial court's failure to give a cautionary instruction regarding the statement.

¶ 8. The standard of review for a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel is the familiar two-part test articulated by Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984): the defendant must prove, under the totality of the circumstances, that (1) his attorney's performance was defective and (2) the deficiency deprived the defendant of a fair trial. This review is highly deferential to the attorney, and there is a strong presumption that the attorney's conduct fell within the wide range of reasonable professional *1240 assistance. Hiter v. State, 660 So.2d 961, 965 (Miss.1995). With respect to the overall performance of the attorney, "counsel's failure to file certain motions, call certain witnesses, ask certain questions, or make certain objections fall within the ambit of trial strategy" and do not give rise to an ineffective assistance of counsel claim. Cole v. State, 666 So.2d 767, 777 (Miss.1995).

A. The statement during closing arguments.

¶ 9.

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Bluebook (online)
807 So. 2d 1236, 2002 WL 244850, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pruitt-v-state-miss-2002.