Skinner v. State

385 So.3d 406

Jason SKINNER a/k/a Jason Kyle Skinner, Appellant

v.STATE of Mississippi, Appellee

NO. 2022-KA-00622-COA

Court of Appeals of Mississippi.

09/12/2023

WARREN COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT, HON. TONI DEMETRESSE TERRETT, JUDGE

ATTORNEY FOR APPELLANT: OFFICE OF STATE PUBLIC DEFENDER, BY: GEORGE T. HOLMES, Jackson

ATTORNEY FOR APPELLEE: OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL, BY: ALLISON ELIZABETH HORNE

BEFORE CARLTON, P.J., LAWRENCE AND SMITH, JJ.

CARLTON, P.J., FOR THE COURT:

¶1. A Warren County Circuit Court jury convicted Jason Skinner of first-degree murder for fatally shooting Courtney Anderson at the home of their mutual friend Matthew Koestler. The trial court sentenced Skinner to life imprisonment in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC). Skinner appeals, asserting three assignments of error, reordered as follows: (I) the trial court erred when it refused his requested imperfect self-defense manslaughter jury instruction; (II) the trial court erred by denying his requests for a mental evaluation for competency and for the viability of an insanity defense; and (III) his counsel was constitutionally ineffective for failing to request an instruction on second-degree murder. For the reasons addressed below, we find that as to Issue I, the trial court erred when it refused to give Skinner’s requested imperfect self-defense jury instruction. Accordingly, we reverse Skinner’s conviction and sentence and remand this case for a new trial. Regarding Issue II, based upon the argument, evidence, and testimony in the record presented to the trial court, we find no. abuse of discretion or error in the trial court’s denial of Skinner’s requests for a mental evaluation for competency and for the purpose of determining the viability of an insanity defense. With respect to Issue III, we find that because this case has been reversed and remanded, Skinner’s ineffective-assistance-of-counsel claim is moot. Hodges v. State, 285 So. 3d 711, 723 (¶49) (Miss. Ct. App. 2019).

PROCEDURAL HISTORY AND STATEMENT OF FACTS

¶2. In August 2020, a Warren County grand jury indicted Skinner for first-degree murder in violation of Mississippi Code Annotated section 97-3-19 (Rev. 2020). Prior to trial, Skinner’s counsel filed a motion seeking a mental evaluation for competency to stand trial and for sanity at the time of the offense. After a hearing, the trial court denied Skinner’s motion. The details of the parties’ arguments and the trial court’s ruling are discussed below.

1. The State Begins to Present Its Case

¶3. A four-day jury trial was held in May 2022. The State presented eyewitness testimony from Koestler that Skinner shot and killed Anderson in November 2019 at Koestler’s home. Koestler and Anderson were longtime friends. Skinner. and Anderson had been in a relationship for a few months and were temporarily living in Koestler’s home after Anderson’s mother asked them to leave Anderson’s home. Skinner, Anderson, and Koestler all struggled with drug addiction and were using drugs the evening before the shooting.

¶4. In the days before the shooting, Koestler said Skinner had become "more and more paranoid," and Koestler was afraid someone was going to end up getting hurt In Koestler’s words, "it was not a good situation." The night before Skinner killed Anderson, Koestler testified that Skinner was acting erratically. Koestler said Skinner thought "that people were trying to harm him" and that Skinner was really concerned about his "child’s mother," Danielle Shoops; Skinner thought that somebody had done something to her.¹

¶5. Koestler testified that early the next morning, he took Skinner to Shoops’s house to show him that everything was fine. They drove for over an hour until Skinner settled down. After they returned to Koestler’s house, Koestler went to sleep while Anderson and Skinner ran an errand. koestler, woke up around 3:30 in the afternoon and saw that Anderson and Skinner had returned. As Koestler was looking out of a window, he heard footsteps and then heard, Anderson say to Skinner, "Don’t walk away from me."

¶6. Koestler walked toward the kitchen and saw Anderson and Skinner there standing across from each other. Skinner then said to Anderson, "You killed Danielle," and Koestler saw a flash and heard a boom. Anderson grabbed his chest and stumbled back into the living room where he fell.

¶7. Koestler then heard Skinner pump the shotgun, and Skinner asked Koestler, "What do you know about this?" Koestler said Skinner had the shotgun pointed at him. Koestler dove behind a wall and then heard Skinner leaving out the back door of the house. Koestler checked on Anderson and then ran to his phone and called 911. As Koestler was talking to the dispatcher, Anderson lost his pulse. Koestler started performing CPR on Anderson until emergency responders arrived. Koestler identified Skinner as the shooter and later identified Skinner to the responding law enforcement officers. Koestler said that he believed the shotgun belonged to Anderson.

2. Skinner Interrupts the Proceedings and Is Allowed to Read His Handwritten Statement to the Trial Court

¶8. In the middle of Koestler’s testimony, Skinner interrupted and said that he "would like to say something, please …. I have to tell it." Skinner said that his attorney did "not know anything about this." The trial court excused the jury and recessed for lunch to allow Skinner to calm down.

¶9. When they returned, the parties met with the trial judge. Skinner’s counsel told the court that Skinner had a three-to-four-page written statement that counsel had never seen, and that Skinner wanted to read it to the court. For the second time, Skinner’s counsel requested a mental evaluation pursuant to Rule 12.2 of the Mississippi Rules of Criminal Procedure. Counsel told the trial court that he "[had] serious concerns about the defendant’ mental condition and his ability to stand trial at this point." Counsel urged the court "to please review the document that he [(Skinner)] has in his hands [(the handwritten statement)]. He won’t give it to me, but I feel that the Court should review it and read it and make a determination about the defendant’s mental competency." The trial court then allowed Skinner to read his statement aloud to the court.

¶10. The statement began with Skinner describing his belief that Anderson and Koestler were involved in a satanic cult:

There is a satanic cult in Vicksburg, Mississippi. They call themselves the Vampires of Vicksburg. I’m pretty sure people have heard about this, which Courtney Anderson and Matthew Koestler are a part of. The day of the Lord is upon you. This occult [sic] consists of human trafficking, sex trafficking, money laundering, money printing, murder for hire, identity theft with murder. And they also find elderly people that live by themselves, kill them and collect their social security checks.

¶11. Continuing to read his statement, Skinner said he met Anderson in a trailer park while Skinner was "trying to find out the truth about one of my friend’s death, Corey Fulg[h]am. Supposedly[,] he committed suicide." Skinner asked Anderson for a ride, and they became close friends in the following weeks. Then Skinner said that Anderson told him the "real reason" he came to the trailer park, as follows:

[Anderson] told me that he came out to the trailer park that day because he was going to kill me because of a girl— because of a girl. Me and this girl were having sexual relations and she told a lie and said that I raped her. She was lying. And he found out the truth. If it were not the truth, then I would be dead right now.

Skinner said he asked Anderson about Fulgham, and Anderson told him that the Vampires of Vicksburg had killed Fulgham.

¶12. Skinner then described the days that preceded Anderson’s death, explaining that "[t]his all happened within [a three]-day period," with the first day starting at night when Skinner, Anderson, and Koestler were in Anderson’s bedroom. Skinner was sitting by Anderson, "[a]nd [Koestler] looked very serious and said to me, ‘Do you know who you are sitting beside?’ And I said nothing and looked at [Anderson] and then back at [Koestler]. And [Koestler] said back to me, ‘You’re sitting beside the devil.’ " Skinner said he looked at Anderson, and "[Anderson] gave me a big grin and said nothing at all. And I looked back at [Koestler,] and he said to me, ‘[Skinner], you could be a vampire. This could be a life changing experience.’ And I said nothing and the night was over."

¶13. Skinner said the next day, "it got a whole lot stranger." Skinner said Koestler and another man took him to a church parking lot and seemed to encourage him to fill out a contract that Skinner thought looked like a job application. Skinner said, "I was scared for my life then and knew that if I did not put something on this form they might kill me. So I filled a bunch of BS on it." Skinner said filling out the form made him feel like he was going "straight to hell," but after he completed it, "nothing happened."

¶14. The next day, Skinner was worried about Shoops, so he asked Koestler to drive past where she was staying. Although they drove by Shoops’s house, Skinner said he "did not point out where she was staying because [he] did not want [Koestler] to know where she was living and for good reason." Koestler and Skinner returned to the house, and then Anderson and Skinner left together for some errands.

¶15. Anderson and Skinner returned to Koestler’s house and went into a bedroom. Skinner then described what happened:

While we were in the room, I was still worried about Danielle Shoops. So I asked [Anderson] if he had Danielle’s number. I did not own a phone. He didn’t have it. I was sitting right beside him when I asked. Danielle was seeing a man by the name of Greg [Davis]. And I asked [Anderson] if he had Greg’s number. He said yes. So he starts texting Greg to get Danielle’s number. But as I was sitting there, I acted

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