Sims v. State

928 So. 2d 984, 2006 WL 1229631
CourtCourt of Appeals of Mississippi
DecidedMay 9, 2006
Docket2004-KA-02106-COA
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 928 So. 2d 984 (Sims 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
Sims v. State, 928 So. 2d 984, 2006 WL 1229631 (Mich. Ct. App. 2006).

Opinion

928 So.2d 984 (2006)

Gary G. SIMS, Jr., Appellant
v.
STATE of Mississippi, Appellee.

No. 2004-KA-02106-COA.

Court of Appeals of Mississippi.

May 9, 2006.

*985 Daniel Kyle Robertson, attorney for appellant.

Office of the Attorney General by W. Daniel Hinchcliff, attorney for appellee.

Before LEE, P.J., GRIFFIS and ROBERTS, JJ.

LEE, P.J., for the Court.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

¶ 1. During the fall of 2003, Shannon Nash told her husband, Billy Nash, that she and Gary Sims had been having an affair. While reconciling with her husband, Shannon attempted to end the affair. Although Billy Nash had never met Sims, he was familiar with Sims's white Dodge Dakota pickup truck because after the affair ended, Shannon would occasionally spot the vehicle in traffic and point it out to Nash.

¶ 2. On the night of December 23, Sims waited in his truck outside the Lone Star Steakhouse in Hattiesburg where Nash worked as a manager. As Nash drove home, Sims followed him in his Dodge truck. Sims pulled his truck beside Nash's vehicle and shot Nash in the face with a Winchester 12 gauge shotgun and drove away.

¶ 3. Dazed, Nash testified that he stopped his vehicle, looked in the mirror and began to pray. Realizing that he was only a few miles from his house, Nash drove himself home, where Sims sat parked on the driveway, fumbling inside his truck. As Nash stumbled from his vehicle, Sims shot at him again, striking the driver's side door near Nash's head. Screaming for his wife, Nash ran inside, while Sims fled in his truck. Sims soon abandoned the truck and fled on foot until he surrendered to deputies of the Jones County Sheriff's Department. Inside his truck investigators discovered the shotgun, another gun, and a shotgun shell. Sims made a videotaped confession at the sheriff's department.

*986 ¶ 4. As a result of the shooting, Nash sustained serious, permanent, disfiguring injuries to his face and has, to date, endured eight of a series of twelve operations.

¶ 5. Sims was convicted of a drive-by shooting and aggravated assault. For the drive-by shooting he was sentenced to serve thirty years in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections with five years suspended. Sims also received a sentence of twenty years with ten years suspended for the aggravated assault charge, with the sentence running consecutively to the sentence he received for the drive-by shooting.

¶ 6. It is from this conviction that Sims appeals, arguing five assignments of error which we have framed as follows: (1) whether the trial court erred in denying his motion for a continuance; (2) whether the sentence imposed is unconstitutional and excessive; (3) whether the trial court erred in admitting two gruesome photographs into evidence; (4) whether the trial court erred in failing to conduct a Rule 403 balancing test; and (5) whether it was error to allow the State to comment on Sims's failure to testify and Sims's lack of remorse during closing arguments.

¶ 7. Finding no error, we affirm.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

¶ 8. "In reviewing rulings of a trial court regarding matters of evidence, relevancy and discovery violations, the standard of review is abuse of discretion." Montgomery v. State, 891 So.2d 179, 182(¶ 6) (Miss.2004).

I. DID THE TRIAL COURT ERR IN DENYING SIMS'S MOTION FOR A CONTINUANCE?

¶ 9. During trial, Deputy Jason Stricklin of the Jones County Sheriff's Department was called to testify. The State asked Stricklin if Sims made any spontaneous statements to him, and Kyle Robertson, one of Sims's attorneys, objected, arguing that the defense had not been provided with "anything" from Deputy Stricklin. The State then moved on to another question without a response from Stricklin.

¶ 10. When Robertson began to cross-examine Stricklin, he observed that Stricklin was holding a report and commented on the record that the defense had not been provided with the report. Robertson requested some time to review the document, and the court dismissed the jury for lunch. The State noted that it, too, had not received any report from Stricklin.

¶ 11. After lunch, Sims requested a continuance due to the untimely disclosure of the report. The court inquired as to what information in the report necessitated a continuance, and Robertson replied as follows:

I'm telling you, Your Honor. They're talking about the second shot, evidence of the second shot from where the bullet made a mark inside of the front door of the driver's side window of the victim's vehicle. This is the first time that's been given to us as testimony that's going to be provided. Up until this day I didn't have anything in the discovery that informed the defense that there was any evidence of where the second shot landed. And at this time, you know, we move for a continuance on that fact.

¶ 12. The State argued that it had already provided the defense with pictures of the bullet hole, indicating where the second shot struck the vehicle, but reiterated that it was unaware of the content of the report Stricklin held. The court ruled that the defense had not presented anything contained in the report which would prejudice Sims and denied the continuance.

*987 ¶ 13. In support of his argument that the court improperly denied the continuance, Sims points to an exchange which occurred later in the trial during Investigator Matt Ishee's testimony. Ishee testified that he went to the Nash home after receiving a dispatch from the sheriff's office. Robertson objected as follows:

Your Honor, I hate to keep jumping up and down, but I'm going to object to any of this testimony. There is no report from Matt Ishee. The only report — the only thing that I have from Matt Ishee is his involvement in a videotape. There is no report as to any investigation he might have performed up until the time the videotape was made. That's the only involvement I know, as the defendant's counselor, of Matt Ishee's involvement in this case.

¶ 14. The State then ascertained that Ishee created the report and requested an opportunity to review the report, stating that it had furnished the defense with copies of all the reports in the State's possession. The court then dismissed the jury. After reviewing the report, the State again noted that it had not received the report from the sheriff's office, but in the interest of time it would only question Ishee about his involvement in Sims's confession.

¶ 15. Robertson again objected, reiterating that the State had failed to disclose the report. The court ruled that Ishee's testimony would be limited to his involvement in Sims's confession.

¶ 16. The procedure for addressing an alleged discovery violation was enunciated in Box v. State, 437 So.2d 19 (Miss.1983) (Robertson, J., specially concurring), and codified in URCCC 9.04 I., which provides as follows:

If during the course of trial, the prosecution attempts to introduce evidence which has not been timely disclosed to the defense as required by these rules, and the defense objects to the introduction for that reason, the court shall act as follows:
1. Grant the defense a reasonable opportunity to interview the newly discovered witness, to examine the newly produced documents, photographs, or other evidence; and
2.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
928 So. 2d 984, 2006 WL 1229631, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sims-v-state-missctapp-2006.