Saxton v. State

385 So.3d 753

John Garan SAXTON a/ka John Garon Saxton

v.STATE of Mississippi

NO. 2023-KA-00226-SCT

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

5/09/2024

MADISON COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT, HON. M. BRADLEY MILLS, JUDGE

ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLANT: OFFICE OF STATE PUBLIC DEFENDER BY: GEORGE T. HOLMES, Jackson, HUNTER NOLAN AIKENS

ATTORNEY FOR APPELLEE: OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL BY: CASEY BONNER FARMER

EN BANC.

BEAM, JUSTICE, FOR THE COURT:

¶1. John Garon Saxton was convicted of aggravated assault following a jury trial in the Madison County Circuit Court for hit- ting his father-in-law, Toby Melton, in the head with a metal bat. John appeals, claiming that the trial court erred by granting two jury instructions submitted by the State and by denying a jury instruction submitted by the defense. We find no reversible error with the trial court’s rulings. We affirm.

FACTS

¶2. John was married to Toby’s daughter Whitney Saxton when the incident occurred on August 24, 2021. Whitney’s mother, Vickie Melton, had gone to John and Whitney’s house to help clean and watch their children. Whitney had recently undergone an appendectomy, and John had recently undergone shoulder surgery, and his left arm was in a sling. Toby, who was in his early sixties at the time, was planning to come over and cut their grass when he got off from work.

¶3. Before Toby arrived, Vickie and John got into an altercation over John disciplining his five-year-old son for not picking his toys up from the yard. John admitted slapping Vickie after she pushed him near his injured shoulder. Vickie denied pushing John and said that she pointed her finger at him and barely touched him.

¶4. Conflicting evidence also was presented as to what happened next. Vickie said she went inside the house and called Toby, telling him he needed to hurry up and get there. She did not tell Toby what had happened. Both Whitney and Toby also testified that Vickie did not tell Toby on the phone that John had just slapped her.

¶5. John testified that he heard Vickie tell Toby over the phone: "The son of a bitch slapped me." (Internal quotation marks omitted.) John said that while Vickie was on the phone with Toby, he (John) yelled out, so Toby could hear him: "Your wife’s done … crossed the line as far as me disciplining my kids. Come on over. Let’s talk about it."

¶6. According to Toby, when he arrived at their house, he parked his car in front of the driveway. As soon as he got out of the car, John walked down the driveway toward him and said, "Hey, dad’o" because "that’s what my "grandkids call me." Toby thought everything was "cool" at that point. But John then leaned into him and said, "[y]ou might want to check on your wife. I just slapped the sh*t out of her big fat a**." Toby said John was "right [up] on me" when he said that, and "I was shocked" at what John had just said. Toby said to John, "[g]et off of me." Toby then did "just a brushback to get [John] off because he was right there on me when he said it and I guess maybe my adrenaline was flowing to know that he had slapped my wife."

¶7. Toby testified that about "three or four seconds" later, he saw John standing on the other side of one of the other cars in the driveway. John pulled out a gun, pointed it at him (Toby), and said that "he was just going to kill my a**…." Toby said, "I was, like - - well, I guess he - - if you’re going to do it, I guess, you know, if you’re going to do it - - I didn’t know what to say, you know."

¶8. Toby remembered "hearing Whitney screaming at me, [c]ome get in the house." She said "we got to get our kids in the house." Toby said he "turned and looked at them all sitting there watching this thing and then I - - I turned and I said, Okay." Toby remembered turning from John and walking towards the house. Whitney was in front of him (Toby), and John remained behind him.

¶9. When Toby reached the steps to the front porch of the house and began to proceed up the steps he "heard a loud aluminum bat when it makes that little tingling sound when it hits and then - - and then I remember when it hit me I just went down and that’s all I remember." Toby said he never saw it coming, "I just … remember hearing that distinctive sound with the aluminum bat." Toby said that he suffered a fractured skull, a concussion, and a broken collar bone.

¶10. Whitney testified that before her father arrived, she kept telling John to leave the house. But John "was very determined to tell my dad exactly what happened." When Toby arrived at the house and was walking up the driveway toward the house, John sprinted out to him saying, "You need to get your fat a** wife. I just slapped the b**** because she came at me."

¶11. Whitney said that at that point, "it looked like [Toby] was trying to lunge" at John, but Toby has "had knee replacements[,] so it’s not like a lunge, I don’t know what you’d call it, he was walking up the hill, and lunged and had his hand out." She said that John then backed up, "and he went towards my van." Whitney said Toby continued to walk up the driveway.

¶12. Whitney said that while Toby was checking on her (Whitney), John ran around her van to his car and pulled out a gun. She said that Toby then told her to get inside the house, and the two of them began walking toward the house. She said Toby appeared calm at this point. When they reached the steps to the front porch, Toby had his hand on her back pushing her up the steps. Whitney said that when she turned around, "I saw a bat coming and I yelled, Oh, my God." She said Toby "turned this way and put his arms up and that’s when he got hit in the head with the bat." Toby fell flat on his back, and his eyes were closed. Vickie immediately went to Toby and began rendering aid to him. Whitney then called 911.

¶13. Whitney said that while Toby was lying on the ground, John began taunting Toby, saying, "You’re not so big and bad now, are you, mother f*****[.]" she said John "taunted him on and off and he would get up and walk around and see what I was doing and then he’d go back and taunt him again."

¶14. John testified that when Toby pulled up to the house and got out of the car, he began walking down the driveway toward Toby, telling him that "you need to get your wife and get out of here[.]" Toby then said, "I'm going to kill you." The two of them met in the middle of the driveway, and Toby punched John "three our [sic] four times." John said that "I just tucked my head and ate "em." John said that Toby mostly hit him "[u]pside the head, on the top of it[.]" He said that Toby is "6’4", 6’5", 320 [lbs.,]" whereas he (John) is "5’11" and weighs "a buck-60 soaking wet."

¶15. John said he "drew away to get away from" Toby. John admitted that he went to his car and got his gun, but he did not take it out of the holster. He only put it on top of the car, and he never pointed it at Toby. John told Toby, "If you take another step towards me, I’m gone put a hole in you’re a**." (Internal quotation marks omitted.) John said that Toby then "threw his hands up and went to backing up."

¶16. John said that stopped Toby from coming at him, and he no longer felt threatened by Toby at that moment. John then put the gun back into the car. John walked around the car and proceeded toward the open garage to go inside the house. As he did so, Toby then began "coming at me again[.]" John said he made it to the garage and the first thing he saw was a bat leaning against the golf cart inside the garage. Toby was still "coming at me huffing and puffing." John said he feared for his life or bodily harm from Toby, so John grabbed the bat, "and I wrapped him." John said Toby "was looking dead at me in the eyes" when he hit Toby with the bat.

¶17. John admitted that when Toby was lying on the ground, he may have "said some things" to Toby, though he could not remember what all he said. He did remember saying, "I told you to get your wife and y’all get out of here. None of this would have happened if she wouldn’t have been trying to, you know, overstep her boundaries as far as me just disciplining my children."

¶18. The jury found John guilty of aggravated assault. John appeals, claiming that the trial court erred by granting two jury instructions submitted by the State (S-4 and S-7) and by denying a jury instruction submitted by the defense (D-3).

DISCUSSION

[1–3] ¶19. When considering whether the trial court erred by granting or denying a jury instruction, this Court reviews all of the instructions "as a whole to determine if the jury was properly instructed." Smith v. State, 835 So. 2d 927, 934 (Miss. 2002) (quoting Milano v. State, 790 So. 2d 179, 184 (Miss. 2001)). "[D]efects in specific instructions will not mandate reversal when all of the instructions, taken as a whole fairly—although not perfectly—announce the applicable primary rules of law." Boyd v. State, 47 So. 3d 121, 124 (Miss. 2010) (internal quotation marks omitted) (quoting Utz v. Running & Rolling Trucking, Inc., 32 So. 3d 450, 474 (Miss. 2010)). "[I]f the instructions fairly announce the law of the case and create no injustice, no reversible error will be found." Id. (alteration in original) (internal quotation marks omitted) (quoting Harris v. State, 861 So. 2d 1003, 1014 (Miss. 2003)).

Jury Instructions S-4 and S-7

¶20. Both S-4 and S-7 were given by the trial court without objection from the defense as to either instruction submitted as written. Accordingly, John is procedurally barred from complaining about either instruction on appeal unless he can demonstrate plain error. Spiers v. State, 361 So. 3d 643, 657 (Miss. 2023). John fails to do so.

¶21. Jury instruction S-4 reads:

The [c]ourt instructs the jury that the law in Mississippi declares that an aggressor is not entitled to assert the defense of self-defense. This means that if you find from the evidence in this case beyond a reasonable doubt that JOHN SAXTON was the initial aggressor in this confrontation with Toby Melton, then JOHN SAXTON may not claim...