Rankin v. State

963 So. 2d 1255, 2007 WL 2421727
CourtCourt of Appeals of Mississippi
DecidedAugust 28, 2007
Docket2006-KA-00279-COA
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 963 So. 2d 1255 (Rankin 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
Rankin v. State, 963 So. 2d 1255, 2007 WL 2421727 (Mich. Ct. App. 2007).

Opinion

963 So.2d 1255 (2007)

Melvin RANKIN, Appellant,
v.
STATE of Mississippi, Appellee.

No. 2006-KA-00279-COA.

Court of Appeals of Mississippi.

August 28, 2007.

*1256 Leslie D. Roussell, Laurel, attorney for appellant.

Office of the Attorney General by Jeffrey A. Klingfuss, attorney for appellee.

Before LEE, P.J., BARNES and CARLTON, JJ.

BARNES, J., for the Court.

¶ 1. Melvin Rankin was found guilty of statutory rape by a jury in the Circuit Court of Wayne County and sentenced to twenty years in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections. He appeals and raises the following issues:

I. The trial court committed reversible error by allowing testimony regarding *1257 a letter purported to be written by Melvin Rankin to [C.E.'s mother]. The letter was more prejudicial than probative and its introduction also violated the rules of discovery and hearsay.
II. The trial court committed reversible error by failing to allow the defendant to question the mother of [C.E.] regarding her motive for falsely testifying in this case.
III. The introduction of the DNA evidence in this case and the testimony regarding it allowed the jury to convict a man on evidence that by its very nature equaled reasonable doubt per se.
IV. The statutory rape indictment in this case required the State to prove that the victim was under fourteen years of age and that the defendant was at least twenty-four months older than the victim. The State failed to introduce any sufficient evidence about age and this conviction should be reversed and this case remanded for a new trial.
V. The cumulative effect of all the errors committed required reversal and/or a new trial.

This Court finds no error and affirms the judgment and sentence.

FACTS

¶ 2. C.E.[1] lived part-time with her mother and part-time with her father and other relatives. Her parents never married. On Saturday night August 16, 2004, C.E. spent the night with relatives and was dropped off the following morning at her mother's apartment complex in Waynesboro, Mississippi. Her mother was at church, and C.E. was left alone in the apartment with Melvin Rankin, who was her mother's live-in boyfriend.

¶ 3. According to her testimony, C.E. was sitting on her bed in her room when Rankin came up behind her, pushed her down on the bed, and had intercourse with her. C.E. thereafter left the apartment and told her cousin what had happened. Another relative called the police to report the incident. According to testimony, at the time of this incident, Rankin was thirty-six years old and C.E. had just turned twelve years old.

¶ 4. Rankin testified that when C.E. came home Sunday morning, he told her that her mother was at church and that she should go to her grandmother's house. According to Rankin, C.E. became belligerent and threw a tantrum because she wanted to stay home. Rankin contends that C.E. left the apartment, and he also left to help one of his relatives wash clothes.

¶ 5. The police were called, and a report was made that Melvin Rankin had raped C.E. A rape kit was performed on C.E. at the local hospital. Once he heard that the police were looking for him, Rankin voluntarily went to the police station and then to the hospital for testing. Evidence from the rape kit and from Rankin's test were submitted to the Mississippi Crime Lab for comparison testing. At trial, Huma Nasir from Reliagenme Technology could not testify that the blood from Melvin Rankin matched the DNA found inside C.E. What Ms. Nasir could testify to was that 91.5% of other African Americans were excluded as the DNA donor, 98.9% of Caucasians were excluded, and 97.6% of *1258 Hispanics were excluded. In other words, Rankin was a possible source of the DNA.

¶ 6. At trial, C.E.'s mother testified that she had received a letter from Rankin while he was in jail stating that "the devil made him fall weak." In the letter he also told the mother that he loved and missed her. C.E.'s mother testified that she threw away the letter. Prison records verified that Rankin had sent letters to C.E.'s mother. Rankin testified at trial that he had sent her letters, but denied admitting to the rape or having written that "the devil made him fall weak."

¶ 7. The jury returned a verdict of guilty of statutory rape against Melvin Rankin, pursuant to Mississippi Code Annotated section 97-3-65(1)(b) (Rev.2006). The court sentenced him to a term of twenty years in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

¶ 8. The standard of review for the admission or exclusion of evidence is an abuse of discretion. Chandler v. State, 946 So.2d 355, 364(¶ 41) (Miss.2006) (citing Shaw v. State, 915 So.2d 442, 445(¶ 8) (Miss.2005)). "A trial judge enjoys a great deal of discretion as to the relevancy and admissibility of evidence. Unless the judge abuses this discretion so as to be prejudicial to the accused, the Court will not reverse this ruling." Fisher v. State, 690 So.2d 268, 274 (Miss.1996).

DISCUSSION

I. Admission of Testimony Regarding the Letter From Rankin.

¶ 9. Rankin argues the trial court committed reversible error in allowing testimony regarding a letter written by Rankin to C.E.'s mother while he was incarcerated. He claims the letter was inadmissible hearsay, violates the Confrontation Clause, is more prejudicial than probative, and violates the rules of discovery.

¶ 10. At trial, investigating Officer Owen and C.E.'s mother were allowed to testify about the letter at issue. Officer Owen, over the objection of defense counsel, was allowed to testify as to its existence, and C.E.'s mother was allowed to testify as to its contents. Specifically, Officer Owen stated he had knowledge of a letter written to C.E.'s mother while Rankin was in jail. C.E.'s mother testified that she read the letter and threw it away. She testified that Rankin wrote "that the devil made him fall weak." As to the tone of the letter, she testified that "[h]e was telling me how much he loved me and miss[ed] me." Rankin admitted that he wrote letters to C.E.'s mother while incarcerated but denied they contained any admission to the rape.

¶ 11. Rankin argues that under Rule 804(b)(3), statements against interest are an exception to hearsay and only admissible if the declarant is unavailable. A declarant is "unavailable" where the declarant "[i]s absent from the hearing and the proponent of his statement has been unable to procure his attendance . . . by process or other reasonable means. . . ." M.R.E. 804(a)(5). Rankin cites Crawford v. Washington, 541 U.S. 36, 124 S.Ct. 1354, 158 L.Ed.2d 177 (2004) for the proposition that the Sixth Amendment's Confrontation Clause bars out-of-court statements by witnesses that are testimonial and used to prove the truth of the matter asserted (hearsay), unless the witnesses are unavailable and the defendant has the opportunity to cross-examine them. Id. at 53-54, 124 S.Ct. 1354. Rankin contends that *1259 in our case he was available to testify about what he had written in this letter and was thus not an unavailable declarant under Rule 803(b)(3). Therefore, he argues, the letter and its contents would not be an exception to hearsay and would be inadmissible. However, under Crawford, Rankin has not explained how a letter can be testimonial in nature.

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963 So. 2d 1255, 2007 WL 2421727, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rankin-v-state-missctapp-2007.