Sitton v. State

760 So. 2d 28, 1999 WL 810626
CourtCourt of Appeals of Mississippi
DecidedOctober 12, 1999
Docket98-KA-00459-COA
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 760 So. 2d 28 (Sitton 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
Sitton v. State, 760 So. 2d 28, 1999 WL 810626 (Mich. Ct. App. 1999).

Opinion

760 So.2d 28 (1999)

George SITTON, Appellant,
v.
STATE of Mississippi, Appellee.

No. 98-KA-00459-COA.

Court of Appeals of Mississippi.

October 12, 1999.
Rehearing Denied November 19, 1999.

J.B. Van Slyke Jr., Hattiesburg, Attorney for Appellant.

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

EN BANC.

MODIFIED OPINION ON MOTION FOR REHEARING

DIAZ, J., for the Court:

¶ 1. The original opinion is withdrawn and the following is substituted. The motion for rehearing is denied.

¶ 2. George Sitton was convicted by the Circuit Court of Forrest County on two counts of assault, two counts of manslaughter and one count of murder arising from a February 29, 1996 incident which left Donna Ware and her unborn twins dead. He now appeals his conviction and sentence to this Court, asserting that the circuit court erred in allowing into evidence an autopsy picture of the babies; that the State's evidence was insufficient to establish the elements of manslaughter pursuant to Miss.Code Ann. § 97-3-37 (Rev.1994); and that the circuit court failed to apply the correct standard for insanity. Finding no merit to these assignments of error, we affirm the judgment of the court below.

FACTS

¶ 3. Donna Ware died of massive internal injuries after she was struck by a van driven by George Sitton. Ms. Ware was nearly seven months pregnant at the time of her death. Her unborn twins, a boy and a girl, died as the result of injuries to her abdominal area, which caused the placenta to separate from her uterus.

¶ 4. Sitton, an Illinois resident, was passing through Hattiesburg, Mississippi on February 29, 1996. He has a long history of mental illness and has been diagnosed variously as suffering from a bipolar disorder, a schizoaffective disorder, bipolar type, as well as paranoid schizophrenia. At the time of the his arrest, Sitton was not taking any medication, and he tested negative for both drug and alcohol use.

¶ 5. Ms. Ware and Margaret Bouchee had gone to the post office on Forrest Street to pick up Mrs. Bouchee's mail. A white van driven by George Sitton pulled in behind Mrs. Bouchee's car. Ms. Ware got out of the car to go inside the post office. Sitton motioned for Ms. Ware to come over; she spoke with him for a moment and went inside. When she returned to the car, Mrs. Bouchee said that Ware had told her that "[s]ome white man talking crazy" was in the van, but did not repeat what he had said. Sitton later told authorities he had asked Ware to get in the truck.

¶ 6. Mrs. Bouchee pulled out of her parking place and headed southwest on West Pine Street, where her car was rammed in the rear by Sitton's van. He continued to ram the back of the Bouchee vehicle as Mrs. Bouchee drove around the block, up Main Street and across 7th Street in an attempt to evade him and go to the police station. The two women decided that when they reached Vernon's Liquor Store at the corner of East 7th Street and Mobile, they would jump out.

¶ 7. The Hattiesburg Police Department received reports of a white van chasing a blue Cadillac, as well of accidents involving vehicles that had been hit by either the van or the Cadillac. Officer Antonio Moore responded to the calls and attempted to intercept the Sitton and Bouchee vehicles. He saw the Cadillac pull into the parking lot of Vernon's Liquor Store, where it again was rammed by Sitton's van, sending the Cadillac across the street into the parking lot of the Mount Carmel Multipurpose Center. The van pulled out and made a turn into the day care center behind Mount Carmel Baptist Church and looped back to the liquor store where Officer Moore had positioned his patrol car in an attempt to block the Cadillac from Sitton's van. Officer Moore started to get out of his car and saw Sitton coming toward him, but motioning him out of the way with his hand. The van hit the patrol car, sending Officer Moore over the top of *30 his vehicle. Ms. Ware and Mrs. Bouchee, meanwhile, had jumped out of their car. As Officer Moore was getting up from where he had fallen, he saw the van following Ms. Ware as she ran across the front of the liquor store, around the soda machine and along the side of the building. The van struck her, ran her into the wall, dragging her body up under the wheel and fender well of the right side of the van.

¶ 8. Sitton was taken into police custody without further incident. On May 22, 1996, the grand jury of the Forrest County Circuit Court returned a five count indictment against him. Sitton was charged with one count of aggravated assault for attempting to cause bodily injury to Margaret Bouchee, one count of aggravated assault of a police officer for attempting to cause bodily injury to Officer Antonio Moore, two counts of manslaughter for the deaths of the Ware twins, and one count of murder for the death of Donna Ware.

¶ 9. The circuit court entered an order for mental examination and treatment on June 6, 1996. Sitton was sent to the Mississippi State Hospital at Whitfield for a forensic evaluation, where it was determined that although he had "a major mental disorder" and his ability to appreciate the criminality of his conduct and conform his conduct to the requirements of the law was impaired at the time of the incident, his mental state was not so disordered that he would not have known right from wrong. As a result of the evaluation, it further was determined that he would have known the nature and quality of the acts he committed and that they were wrong. He was found competent to stand trial and capable of assisting his attorney in preparing his defense.

¶ 10. Trial was held January 22 through January 25, 1998, focusing on Sitton's insanity defense. The jury found Sitton guilty on all five charges. He was ordered to serve five consecutive sentences in the custody of the MDOC: twenty years for Count I, aggravated assault; thirty years for Count II, aggravated assault of a police officer; twenty years each for Counts III and IV, manslaughter; and life in prison for Count V, murder. The circuit court overruled Sitton's motion for a new trial or, in the alternative, for a JNOV. Aggrieved by these rulings, Sitton now appeals to this Court.

DISCUSSION

I. WHETHER THE CIRCUIT COURT COMMITTED REVERSIBLE ERROR WHEN IT ADMITTED INTO EVIDENCE A PHOTOGRAPH OF TWO UNBORN FETUSES

¶ 11. Sitton first asserts the circuit court erred in allowing into evidence an autopsy photograph of Ware's unborn twins, who died as a result of the injuries she sustained. He contends that the photograph was prejudicial and had no probative value. We disagree.

¶ 12. "[T]he admissibility of photographs rests within the sound discretion of the trial judge, whose decision will be upheld absent abuse of that discretion.... Yet, photographs which are gruesome or inflammatory and lack an evidentiary purpose are always inadmissible as evidence." McFee v. State, 511 So.2d 130, 134 (Miss. 1987). When considering admissibility, a court must also consider whether the proof is absolute or in doubt as to the identity of the guilty party, and whether the photographs are necessary evidence or simply a ploy on the part of the prosecutor to arouse the passion and prejudice of the jury. McNeal v. State, 551 So.2d 151, 159 (Miss.1989); Williams v. State, 544 So.2d 782, 785 (Miss.1987).

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Bluebook (online)
760 So. 2d 28, 1999 WL 810626, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sitton-v-state-missctapp-1999.