Carter v. State

385 So.3d 488

Brittany CARTER, Appellant

v.STATE of Mississippi, Appellee

NO. 2023-KA-00052-COA

Court of Appeals of Mississippi.

05/07/2024

HINDS COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT, FIRST JUDICIAL DISTRICT, HON. BETTY W. SANDERS, JUDGE

ATTORNEY FOR APPELLANT: OFFICE OF STATE PUBLIC DEFENDER BY: JUSTIN TAYLOR COOK

ATTORNEY FOR APPELLEE: OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL BY: BARBARA WAKELAND BYRD, Jackson

BEFORE BARNES, C.J., WESTBROOKS AND EMFINGER, JJ.

EMFINGER, J., FOR THE COURT:

¶1. On November 8, 2021, a Hinds County grand jury returned an indictment against Brittany Carter for first-degree murder. After a four-day trial, a jury found Carter guilty of the lesser-included offense of second-degree murder. Carter was sentenced to forty years, with ten years suspended and thirty years to serve, in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections. On appeal, Carter argues that the trial court erred by refusing to give a jury instruction on excusable homicide tracking Mississippi Code Annotated section 97-3-17 (Rev. 2020). Secondly, Carter argues that the "evidence presented at trial [was] insufficient to overcome the presumption that Carter acted in reasonable self-defense."

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

¶2. On the morning of March 30, 2017, Brittany Carter drove her children to school, and instead of going home after she dropped off her kids, she drove over to her sister Ashley’s house. When she arrived at Ashley’s home, nobody answered the door, so Carter got back in her car and left. At trial, Carter testified that as she was leaving Ashley’s home and driving up Weeks Street, Chomell Mayfield jumped out from behind some bushes near the front passenger side of Carter’s car. According to Carter, Mayfield began to bang on the car door and hood. Carter also claimed that Mayfield was throwing bricks and rocks at the vehicle while screaming profanities. In response to Mayfield’s actions, Carter testified as to her own reaction, stating:

So, [Mayfield] was steadily banging on my car and banging on my car and banging on my car, and I guess, with a brick or whatever she had in her hand. She was banging on my car. And so I just backed my car up, and she was still coming to my car. And I was … trying to back up and [Mayfield] was steadily coming up to my car, banging my car, and that is when I revved up trying to get her to the fence - I mean the fence at the house that was straight ahead.

During her initial interview with investigators and again at trial, Carter admitted that she was driving between twenty and forty miles per hour when her car struck Mayfield. While Carter initially testified that she "revved up trying to get [Mayfield] to the fence," Carter later testified that she did not intentionally hit Mayfield; instead, she was scared of Mayfield and what she might do.¹ After Carter struck Mayfield with her car, Carter proceeded to drive her car straight ahead into a fence and through a yard before she turned her car around in the driveway and drove back down Weeks Street. Carter testified that she did not have a cell phone in her car to call for help, and she did not stay at the scene because she feared for her safety. Carter testified that she then drove back to Ashley’s house and tried to convince Ashley to pack up her kids and leave with her because she was afraid of what Woods might do to them when he found out that Carter had hit Mayfield with her car. When Ashley would not leave with her, Carter drove back to her own house, where she lived with her mom, uncle, and three children. According to Carter, shortly after arriving home, Woods and several other men showed up in front of her house with guns. Carter called the police in response to men’s presence outside her home. When the police arrived, she confessed to hitting Mayfield with her car. Carter was arrested and taken for questioning.

¶3. At Carter’s trial, La’Tisha Michael testified for the State. According to Michael, she was walking back into her house from taking her children to school on the morning of March 30, 2017, when she heard a "boom" coming from her front yard. When she looked out her front door, she saw a blue truck pulling out of her yard. Michael testified that she heard one of her neighbors scream, "[S]he [is] dead, she [is] dead." According to Michael, she did not see the person her neighbor was talking about until she walked to the end of her driveway and saw Mayfield on the ground. Michael testified that Mayfield regularly walked around the neighborhood at all hours of the day. Michael stated that she witnessed the blue truck drive back up Weeks Street. She witnessed Carter get out of the truck and run up to Ashley’s and "Little Mike’s" (Woods) front door. She then witnessed Carter come out, get back in her truck, and leave. Michael testified that she immediately ran down the road to Mayfield’s relatives’ homes to tell them what happened to Mayfield, and people soon began arriving on the scene in front of Michael’s home.

¶4. Jacorey Ross also testified at trial. Ross was a high school student at Lanier High School and was walking toward his bus stop on Weeks Street on the morning of March 30, 2017. Ross testified that as he was walking toward his bus stop, he saw Mayfield "get hit." According to Ross, he heard a car engine revving up immediately before Mayfield was hit and identified the vehicle as a "bluish truck." Ross testified that once Mayfield was hit by the truck, he saw her body "fly up in the air and land back on the car." Ross stated that Mayfield’s body then bounced off the car and went into the fence in front of Michael’s home. According to Ross, Mayfield’s head was under the fence. After the blue truck hit Mayfield, Ross stated that the car continued to drive up the fence and out of the driveway. Ross testified that he did not know where the truck went after it left the scene, but he stated, "I was just trying to get away from her." When he was asked to explain what he meant, Ross stated, "She tried to hit me, too." Ross testified that he attempted to run over to Mayfield and see if she was okay, but the driver of the truck tried to hit him. Ross explained that he dodged the truck by running behind a tree in the next yard. Ross testified that the truck came and left the scene in a "fast manner," According to Ross, he observed Mayfield lying on the ground and breathing heavily after the truck left the scene. He did not notice anything in Mayfield’s hands and did not witness her throw any objects at the truck. Ross testified that he was able to call Mayfield’s family and waited for the police to come to the scene before he left to go to school. Later that day, Ross went to the police station and gave his account of what he had witnessed that morning.

¶5. Mayfield was taken to the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) for her injuries. According to Dr. Risa Moriarity, Mayfield had "a significant brain injury, with blood in her brain, swelling of the brain. She had bruising of both lungs. She had multiple abrasions and what we would call soft tissue injury, lacerations, abrasions to her face, her chest, all four extremities." Mayfield remained in the intensive care unit at UMMC until April 27, 2017, when she was transferred to Methodist Specialty Care Center (Methodist). Mayfield remained at Methodist until her death on May 7, 2019. Mayfield’s mother, Pamela Davis, testified that during those two years Mayfield was unable to speak or communicate. According to Davis, Mayfield was awake, but she could not see and "had w[a]ndering eyes." Davis testified that Mayfield had a feeding tube for nutrition, a catheter for urination, and a "trach" in her neck for air.

¶6. After Mayfield died, Carter was indicted for first-degree murder. After a four-day trial, Carter was acquitted of first-degree murder but convicted of the lesser offense of second-degree murder. Carter was sentenced to the maximum term of forty years in custody, and the court ordered ten years be suspended. Carter’s post-trial motion was denied by operation of law, and Carter appealed.

ANALYSIS

I. Did the trial court err by refusing Carter’s accident instruction?

¶7. In Davis v. State, 18 So, 3d 842, 847 (¶¶14-15) (Miss. 2009), the supreme court stated:

The standard of review when appellate courts consider issues involving jury instructions is well-established. Jury instructions must be read as a whole to determine if the instructions were proper. Milano v. State, 790 So. 2d 179, 184 (Miss. 2001). Jury instructions must fairly announce the law of the case and not create an injustice against the defendant. Id. This rule is summed up as follows: "In other words, if all instructions taken as a whole fairly, but not necessarily perfectly, announce the applicable rules of law, no error results." Id. See Adams v. State, 772 So. 2d 1010, 1016 (Miss. 2000).

A defendant has a right to jury instructions that present his theory of the case, but that right is not absolute. "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." Phillipson v. State, 943 So. 2d 670, 671 (Miss. 2006). Also, jury instructions arewithin the discretion of the trial court. Higgins v. State, 725 So. 2d 220, 223 (Miss. 1998). Finally, when serious doubt exists as to whether an instruction should be included, the doubt should be resolved in favor of the accused. Stringfellow v. State, 595 So. 2d 1320, 1322 (Miss. 1992).²

(Emphasis added).

¶8. Carter claims that the trial court erred by refusing to give her proposed jury instruction D-18, which stated:

The Court instructs the jury that the killing of any human being by the act, procurement, or omission of another shall be excusable:

(a) When committed by accident and misfortune in doing any lawful act by lawful means with usual and ordinary caution, and without any unlawful intent;

(b) When committed by accident and misfortune, in the heat of...