Trevioun Lamont Cornelius Briggs v. State of Mississippi

225 So. 3d 1253, 2016 WL 2981728, 2016 Miss. App. LEXIS 326
CourtCourt of Appeals of Mississippi
DecidedMay 24, 2016
Docket2015-KA-00016-COA
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 225 So. 3d 1253 (Trevioun Lamont Cornelius Briggs v. State of Mississippi) 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
Trevioun Lamont Cornelius Briggs v. State of Mississippi, 225 So. 3d 1253, 2016 WL 2981728, 2016 Miss. App. LEXIS 326 (Mich. Ct. App. 2016).

Opinion

ISHEE, J.,

for the Court:

¶ 1. In 2013, a woman was attacked in the parking lot of Northpark Mall in Ridgeland, Mississippi, and her shopping bags were stolen. The assailant was identified as a black male wearing a red-colored sweatshirt. Later the same evening, authorities apprehended Trevioun Briggs after he attempted to return some of the stolen items to the stores from which they were purchased in the mall. When authorities searched Briggs’s vehicle, they discovered the remainder of the stolen items. Briggs was arrested and tried in the Madison County Circuit Court for robbery and tampering with a witness. He elected to represent himself and allow a public defender to assist in his representation. The jury convicted Briggs of both counts. The circuit court then sentenced Briggs to fifteen years for robbery and two years for tampering with a witness, all in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC), with the sentences to run consecutively. Aggrieved, Briggs now appeals. Finding no error, we affirm.

STATEMENT OF FACTS

¶ 2. In December 2013, a woman was walking through the parking lot of the mall carrying her two-year-old son and several shopping bags. As the woman opened her car door and placed the packages inside, a man came up from behind and hit her in the head. The woman dropped her son and collapsed onto the pavement. The man stole the shopping bags and ran away.

¶3. Authorities arrived at the scene, and the woman identified her attacker as a black male wearing “a reddish colored sweater.” Shortly thereafter, police and mall security were alerted by one of the stores inside the. mall that a man .was attempting to return several of the stolen *1255 items in question. Briggs was arrested as he attempted to obtain a refund for one of the stolen items. After he was apprehended, the other stolen items were found in Briggs’s vehicle, along with an orange-colored sweater. In addition to being identified by mall store clerks, the mall security videos also showed Briggs inside the mall with the victim’s packages as he entered various’ stores in attempts to return the stolen goods for cash.

¶ 4. Briggs was charged with robbery, and placed in the Madison County .Jail. While incarcerated, Briggs made numerous phone calls. Several of the phone calls were recorded. The recordings showed Briggs asking for individuals to provide him with an alibi for the times during which he was not seen on the mall video. Accordingly, Briggs was also charged with witness tampering.

¶ 5. The case went to trial, and Briggs elected to use hybrid counsel wherein he represented himself with help from appointed counsel. At the close of the trial, the jury convicted Briggs on both counts. He was sentenced to fifteen years for robbery and two years for witness tampering, with the sentences to run consecutively, all in the custody of the MDOC. On appeal, Briggs asserts the following: (1) the circuit court erred by not properly instructing the jury regarding the case being circumstantial; (2) his counsel was constitutionally ineffective for failing to request a proper, circumstantial-evidence jury instruction; (3) the indictment for witness tampering was flawed; (4), the evidence was insufficient- to convict him of witness tampering; and (5). the two charges are subject to reversal for retroactive misjoinder.

DISCUSSION

I. Circumstantial Evidence

¶ 6, Briggs presents several arguments regarding his claim that his case was, based solely on ■ circumstantial. evidence. He asserts that both' the circuit court and his counsel- erred by failing to provide a proper circumstantial-evidence jury instruction. The-record, reflects that the circuit court judge, unprompted, stated to Briggs and his appointed counsel outside the presence of the jury while discussing proffered jury instructions that, in his opinion, Briggs’s case was “non-circumstantial.” He then asked Briggs and his counsel if they were requesting “anything on the record” disputing, .the circuit court judge’s opinion. Both Briggs and his attorney specifically stated they did not. Likewise, the issue was not raised in any posttrial motions. Nothing further was mentioned regarding the issue of circumstantial evidence until Briggs’s instant appeal.

¶ 7. The Mississippi Supreme Court has repeatedly held: “It is elemental that errors cannot be raised in this Court for the first time on appeal. A trial judge cannot be put in error on a matter which was not presented to him for decision.” Patterson v. State, 594 So.2d 606, 609 (Miss.1992) (citations omitted). Moreover, we have held, that “it remains incumbent upon the defendant to request [a circumstantial-evidence] instruction. A trial court is not required to sua sponte [give] such an instruction.” Turner v. State, 945 So.2d 992, 999 (¶ 23) (Miss.Ct.App.2007) (citations omitted). Accordingly, we cannot fault the circuit court judge for not presenting the jury with a circumstantial-evidence instruction.

¶ 8. With respect to Briggs’s claim of ineffective assistance of counsel regarding the circumstantial-evidence instruction, we have previously noted:

It is unusual for this Court to consider a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel *1256 when the claim is made on direct appeal. This is because we are limited to the trial[-]court record in our review of the claim and there is usually insufficient evidence within the record to evaluate the claim. The Mississippi Supreme Court has stated that, where the record cannot support an ineffective[-]assis-tanee[-]of[-]counsel claim on direct appeal, the appropriate conclusion is to deny relief, preserving the defendant’s right to argue the same issue through a [postconviction-relief motion.]

Aguilar v. State, 847 So.2d 871, 878 (¶ 17) (Miss.Ct.App.2002) (citing Read v. State, 430 So.2d 832, 837 (Miss.1983); Edwards v. State, 797 So.2d 1049, 1060 (¶ 30) (Miss.Ct.App.2001)). Likewise, nothing was brought before the circuit court with respect to ineffective-assistance-of-counsel claims. As such, we decline to review such claims on this direct appeal.

II. Witness Tampering

¶ 9. Briggs next asserts that he was improperly indicted for witness tampering, that the jury instruction regarding witness tampering was improperly given, and that the State failed to provide sufficient evidence that he was guilty of witness tampering.

¶ 10. First, Briggs claims that the wording of his indictment improperly charged him with witness tampering. The statute for witness tampering reads:

A person commits the crime of tampering with a witness if he intentionally or knowingly attempts to induce a witness or a person he believes will be called as a witness in any official proceeding to: (a) Testify falsely or unlawfully withhold testimony; or (b) Absent himself irom any official proceeding to which he has been legally summoned.

Miss.Code Ann. § 97-9-115 (Rev.2014).

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Related

Jamar Allen v. State of Mississippi
Court of Appeals of Mississippi, 2021
Trevioun Lamont Cornelius Briggs v. State of Mississippi
226 So. 3d 59 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 2017)

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Bluebook (online)
225 So. 3d 1253, 2016 WL 2981728, 2016 Miss. App. LEXIS 326, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/trevioun-lamont-cornelius-briggs-v-state-of-mississippi-missctapp-2016.