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George v. State10/23/2001
DATE OF TRIAL COURT JUDGMENT: 05/11/2000
TRIAL JUDGE: HON. GEORGE B. READY
COURT FROM WHICH APPEALED: DESOTO COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT
NATURE OF THE CASE: CRIMINAL - FELONY
TRIAL COURT DISPOSITION: DUI ASSAULT: SENTENCED TO SERVE A TERM OF 25 YEARS IN THE MDOC, 13 YEARS SUSPENDED, THE DEFENDANT'S PERIOD OF INCARCERATION WILL BE 12 YEARS.
DISPOSITION: AFFIRMED - 10/23/01
. Leighton George, Jr. was convicted of aggravated DUI in violation of Miss. Code Ann. §63-11-30(5) (Rev. 1996) in the circuit court of DeSoto County. He was sentenced to a term of twenty-five years with thirteen years suspended and twelve to serve. Aggrieved by the judgment rendered against him, George appealed and cites four issues on appeal. First, George argues that the trial court erred in denying his motion in limine to exclude the testimony of Marie Blount as improper lay testimony. The second issue contains three separate assertions of error: the trial court erred in refusing to grant his requested peremptory instruction, the verdict of the jury was not supported by the evidence, and the trial court erred in failing to grant his motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict. Next, George asserts that the trial court erred in refusing to grant a requested jury instruction. Finally, he argues that the trial court erred in refusing to grant his motion for a mistrial and motion for a second change of venue due to misconduct of the jurors which occurred during voir dire and jury selection.
. Finding no error, we affirm.
FACTS
. On March 16, 1999, Leighton George, Jr., an off-duty Memphis police officer, met some friends at a local restaurant to celebrate a birthday. They had several drinks while at the restaurant. One or two hours later while driving home from the celebration, George struck Deena Vest's vehicle from behind causing her vehicle to roll into the adjacent ravine.
. James and Sandra Smith saw the accident occur while traveling the same stretch of highway. As Smith's and George's vehicles neared an on ramp, Vest was pulling onto the highway. Smith admitted that he was driving between seventy and seventy-five miles per hour and stated that a white car came running "pretty fast and whopped" over into the lane in front of Smith and then rear-ended Vest's vehicle causing it to roll into the ravine along the highway. Smith drove his car to the location where George stopped his vehicle. He approached George and asked if he should call the police, to which George replied that he was the police. Smith then left the scene to take his wife to work but called 911. As he was returning home from taking his wife to work, Smith noticed police personnel at the accident scene. He stopped and told them he had witnessed the accident.
. George's version of the events and Smith's differed substantially. George told the officers that he had hit a brown colored "box Chevy" that suffered little damage and left the scene before he could contact the driver. It was determined that George was describing Smith's car; however, Smith's vehicle was a "white box Chevy" and Vest's jeep was red. Due to the confusion of the conflicting stories, Vest was not found until eight hours after the accident.
. Fourteen hours after the accident, George told highway patrol investigator Alan Thompson that he had had two beers and one or two rum and cokes. He stated, "I can't remember exactly what I had." The bar tab on George's credit card revealed that the three men had ordered all told twenty-eight alcoholic beverages, eight of which were beers and the others were liquor. No tests were administered to determine
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