Taylor v. State

90 So. 3d 97, 2011 WL 5529929, 2011 Miss. App. LEXIS 708
Court of Appeals of Mississippi·Decided November 15, 2011·No. No. 2009-KA-01717-COA·Published·Cited by 3 cases

Opinion

GRIFFIS, P.J.,

for the Court:

¶ 1. Charlie D. Taylor appeals his convictions and sentences stemming from a shooting into a crowd on the porch of a home located in Jackson, Mississippi. Cordarel Brown was killed, and four other individuals were injured in the shooting. On appeal, Taylor asserts numerous assignments of error concerning jury instructions, voir dire, exclusion of evidence, and the circuit court’s reading of the indictment to the jury. We find no reversible error and affirm.

FACTS

¶ 2. On May 26, 2008, a group of people gathered on the porch of Phyllis Adams’s home located at 302 Manship Street in Jackson. Among the group were Taylor, Brown, Melvin Parker, Terrence Lampkin, Martez Samuel, and Alexis London. Parker testified that he and Lampkin began to horse around, and he accidentally knocked over Taylor’s cup of liquor. Taylor began to argue with Parker, but others in the group broke them up before a fight began. [101]*101Taylor then advised the group he was leaving, and they should be gone before he got back.1 The group did not take Taylor’s threat seriously, and they remained on the porch.

¶ 3. The group later saw Taylor ride around the block in a car driven by Randy Johnson. After making the block, Johnson parked the car in front of Adams’s house. James Warren drove up behind Johnson’s car in a black jeep, which he also parked in front of the house. Lampkin was called over to Johnson’s car, and Lampkin and Taylor began to argue again. Lampkin turned away and walked back to the porch. Warren got out of his jeep and asked: “Who’s trying to jump on my little brother?” 2

¶ 4. That is when Joe Bennett, who had been lying down in the back of Johnson’s car, got out of the car with a M-16 assault rifle. He walked to the back of the car where Warren was standing and said: “I’m sick of you ni* *ers.” Then he opened fire on the porch shooting Brown, Parker, Lampkin, England, and Samuel. Parker testified that when he was lying on the ground after he had been shot, he looked back up at Taylor. Taylor looked at him and said, “Yeah, ni* *er.” Then Taylor got back in the car with Bennett and Johnson and drove off. Brown died from gunshot wounds to his chest and neck.

¶ 5. Bennett, Johnson, Warren, and Taylor were indicted for one count of murder, four counts of aggravated assault, and one count of shooting into an occupied dwelling. The jury found Taylor guilty on all counts except for Count III, aggravated assault of Lampkin.3 Taylor was sentenced to life for Brown’s murder, twenty years on each of the three convictions for aggravated assault, and ten years for shooting into an occupied dwelling, with all sentences ordered to run consecutively.

ANALYSIS

1. Jury Instructions

¶ 6. Taylor asserts that the circuit court improperly refused several of his proposed jury instructions and improperly granted several instructions proposed by the State. “Whether to give a jury instruction is within the sound discretion of the trial court.” Chamberlin v. State, 989 So.2d 320, 341-42 (¶ 80) (Miss.2008) (citation omitted). We review the jury instructions given as a whole to determine whether the refusal of a particular instruction was in error. Taylor v. State, 763 So.2d 913, 915 (¶ 8) (Miss.Ct.App.2000). If the instructions fairly state the law of the case and no injustice is created, no reversible error will be found. Id. “A defendant is entitled to have jury instructions given which present his theory of the case[;] however, this entitlement is limited in that the court may refuse an instruction which incorrectly states the law, is covered fairly elsewhere in the instructions, or is without foundation in the evidence.” Poole v. State, 826 So.2d 1222, 1230 (¶ 27) (Miss. 2002) (quoting Smith v. State, 802 So.2d 82, 88 (¶ 20) (Miss.2001)).

A Taylor’s Instruction on Aiding and Abetting

¶ 7. Taylor proposed Instruction D-16 regarding the intent required to be [102]*102found guilty as an aider or abettor, which states:

For you to find Charlie Taylor guilty of any of the crimes for which he is charged, you must find beyond a reasonable doubt that he shared the same intent as the person principally committing the crime charged.

The State objected on the grounds that this was an improper statement of the law and that the issue was covered elsewhere in the instructions. The circuit court agreed and refused the instruction.

¶ 8. On appeal, Taylor cites Sneed v. State, 31 So.3d 33 (Miss.Ct.App.2009) for the proposition that the refusal of Instruction D-16 was error. However, in Sneed, we addressed the question of whether it was reversible error for the circuit court to grant an instruction similar to D-16.

¶ 9. Instruction C-16 in Sneed included this language: “In order to be found guilty as aiders and abettors of a crime, those Defendants charged as aiders and abett[o]rs must possess the same intent as the person principally committing the crime charged.” Id. at 45 (¶ 38). There, the defendants attacked this and other instructions and claimed that there was confusion as to what intent was required for the jury to convict them as aiders or abettors. Id. at 46 (¶ 43). This Court held that the jury was properly given an instruction on aiding and abetting as set forth in Milano v. State, 790 So.2d 179 (Miss.2001); thus, there was no reversible error in granting Instruction C-16 because the instructions, as a whole, provided a proper statement of the law. Sneed, 31 So.3d at 47 (¶ 47).

1110. In Milano, the supreme court adopted the United States Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals’ model jury instruction to “avoid any further confusion” on this issue. Id. at 185 (¶ 21). That model instruction, which we relied upon in Sneed, was given verbatim in the instant case as Instruction S-12. The Milano instruction states:

The guilt of a defendant in a criminal case may be established without proof that the defendant personally did every act constituting the offense alleged. The law recognizes that, ordinarily, anything a person can do for himself may also be accomplished by that person through the direction of another person as his or her agent, by acting in concert with, or under the direction of, another person or persons in a joint effort or enterprise.
If another person is acting under the direction of the defendant or if the defendant joins another person and performs acts with the intent to commit a crime, then the law holds the defendant responsible for the acts and conduct of such other persons just as though the defendant had committed the acts or engaged in such conduct.
Before any defendant may be held criminally responsible for the acts of others it is necessary that the accused deliberately associate himself in some way with the crime and participate in it with the intent to bring about the crime.
Of course, mere presence at the scene of a crime and knowledge that a crime is being committed are not sufficient to establish that a defendant either directed or aided and abetted the crime unless you find beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant was a participant and not merely a knowing spectator.

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Taylor v. State, 90 So. 3d 97, 2011 WL 5529929, 2011 Miss. App. LEXIS 708 (Mich. Ct. App. 2011).

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