Seales v. State

90 So. 3d 37, 2012 Miss. LEXIS 165, 2012 WL 1034436
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 29, 2012
DocketNo. 2010-KA-01525-SCT
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 90 So. 3d 37 (Seales 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
Seales v. State, 90 So. 3d 37, 2012 Miss. LEXIS 165, 2012 WL 1034436 (Mich. 2012).

Opinion

PIERCE, Justice,

for the Court:

¶ 1. Tadise Seales was convicted of grand larceny following a jury trial in the Neshoba County Circuit Court. Seales appeals his conviction, asserting that the trial court erred in (1) not suppressing his confession and (2) denying his motion for a directed verdict. Finding no merit to either averment, we affirm the trial court.

FACTS AND LEGAL PROCEEDINGS

¶2. On August 19, 2009, Johnny Holl-ingsworth discovered his “Troybilt” tiller was missing from his property located in Philadelphia, Mississippi, and he reported it missing to the Neshoba County Sheriffs Department. A few days later, Hollings-worth noticed his utility trailer was also missing. Before Hollingsworth could report the missing trailer, Sheriffs Investigator Kevin Baysinger contacted Hollings-worth and informed him that both his tiller and trailer had been located at a local pawn shop. Chris Luke, a pawn-shop employee at McKee’s Gun & Pawn, had provided Baysinger information regarding the pawn transaction of the tiller and trailer which had transpired on August 19. This led to Seales’s arrest on September 4, 2009. On September 9, 2009, Seales provided and signed a written statement, transcribed by Baysinger, confessing to the crime charged.

¶ 3. The matter went to trial on July 7, 2010. Hollingsworth testified he had purchased the tiller for approximately $1,200, three years prior to the time he had discovered it missing in August 2009. Holl-ingsworth stated he had bought the trailer for $850, nearly one year prior to his purchase of the tiller. Both items, according to Hollingsworth, were in excellent condition in August 2009. Hollingsworth stated he did not know Seales, nor had he ever seen Seales prior to trial.

¶ 4. Baysinger testified after Hollings-worth. Shortly into Baysinger’s testimony, the trial court conducted a suppression hearing on its own motion, outside the presence of the jury, to determine the admissibility of Seales’s confession. The trial court heard lengthy testimony from both Baysinger and Officer Gordon Adkins of the Philadelphia Police Department. Afterward, the trial court found that Sea-les had been properly Mimndized1 prior [39]*39to giving his statement and knew his rights, and Seales had freely and voluntarily waived those rights without any threats or promises of leniency. Accordingly, the trial court ruled Seales’s confession admissible. Despite the trial court’s ruling, the State chose not to introduce Seales’s confession during its case-in-chief.

¶ 5. Luke testified last for the State. According to Luke, Seales came into the pawn shop on August 19 seeking to pawn a tiller and trailer, both of which Seales claimed he owned. Luke entered into a pawn contract with Seales, giving Seales $450 in exchange for the trailer and tiller as collateral, with a thirty-day grace period. Luke, who stated he had sixteen year experience in the pawn business, assessed the total aggregate value of the two items at $900. Luke testified that Seales’s father came into the pawn shop thirty days later and paid off the pawn contract for $562.50; the receipt from that transaction was entered into evidence. Luke also testified that he had returned the tiller and trailer to Hollingsworth shortly after learning they had been stolen.

¶ 6. Seales was the only person to testify on his own behalf at trial. Seales admitted to pawning the tiller and trailer, but he claimed he had bought the two items from a friend for $200 and did not know they were stolen. On cross-examination, Seales acknowledged that he had provided a written statement through Baysinger on September 9, describing how he (Seales) had removed a tiller and trailer from someone’s property on August 19 and had pawned the items immediately thereafter. Seales claimed, however, the only reason he related such a story to Baysinger was because he had been in jail for “six or seven days” and both Baysinger and Adkins had promised him he would be released on bond if he told them “something.” According to Seales, he “was played with,” because despite his cooperation, he remained in jail for another three to four months on an unrelated charge of failing to pay child support.

¶ 7. After this exchange, the State sought to enter Seales’s statement into evidence. The trial court allowed the statement admitted over defense counsel’s objection.

¶ 8. Following the defense’s case-in-chief, the State called Baysinger and Adkins as rebuttal witnesses. Baysinger stated that Seales had made no mention to him of having purchased the tiller and trailer from a friend. Baysinger also testified that he had made no threats or promises to Seales in exchange for Seales’s statement. Adkins likewise testified that he had made no threats or promises to Seales.

¶ 9. Seales moved for a directed verdict after the close of evidence on the ground that the State had failed to present sufficient evidence to sustain a conviction for grand larceny. The trial court denied the motion.

¶ 10. The jury found Seales guilty. This appeal followed, with new counsel representing Seales on appeal. Additional facts will be related as necessary during our discussion of the issues.

DISCUSSION

¶ 11. We address a preliminary matter at the outset. After the appellate record was filed in this case, Seales filed a pro se motion with this Court styled “Motion for Abatement of Appeal Pending Change of Counsel, Modification of the Record, and Supplemental Briefing.” In it, Seales claimed that the trial court transcript omitted “extremely biased and prejudicial statements” by the trial judge, which influenced the jury’s guilty verdict. Seales also claimed he brought the omission to his [40]*40appellate counsel’s attention, to no avail. Seales requested that this Court issue an order abating the appeal to allow him time to supplement the record and consult with his appellate counsel regarding the matter and to possibly seek new counsel. By order dated July 20, 2011, this Court granted Seales’s motion and suspended the appeal for a period of ninety days. Additionally, on August 22, 2011, Seales filed a motion to correct the record on appeal. By order dated September 16, 2011, the motion was dismissed without prejudice because Seales did not first seek relief from the trial court as required in Rule 10(e) in the Mississippi Rules of Appellate Procedure.

¶ 12. Seales subsequently filed a pro se supplemental brief on October 24, 2011. We now address the issues properly raised and briefed to this Court for review, based on the record before us.

I. Seales’s Confession

¶ 13. Seales argues that the trial court erred in not suppressing his confession, because he was incarcerated “without charges” for four days prior to giving his statement, and because his statement was coerced by the promise of a bail bond, which rendered his statement involuntary.

¶ 14. As mentioned, Seales was arrested on September 4. Based on the testimony given at the suppression hearing, Sea-les apparently was not taken before a judge for an initial appearance until September 8, the day after Labor Day.

¶ 15. Rule 6.03 of the Uniform Rules of Circuit and County Court requires that every person in custody be taken, without unnecessary delay and within forty-eight hours of arrest, before a judicial officer or other person authorized by statute for an initial appearance.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
90 So. 3d 37, 2012 Miss. LEXIS 165, 2012 WL 1034436, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/seales-v-state-miss-2012.