Case Name: Arden HARRIS, Appellant, v. STATE of Mississippi, Appellee
Court: Mississippi Court of Appeals
Jurisdiction: Mississippi
Decision Date: 2002-08-27
Citations: 830 So. 2d 681
Docket Number: No. 2001-KA-00845-COA
Parties: Arden HARRIS, Appellant, v. STATE of Mississippi, Appellee.
Judges: Before KING, P.J., LEE, AND IRVING, JJ.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 830
Pages: 681–686

Head Matter:
Arden HARRIS, Appellant, v. STATE of Mississippi, Appellee.
No. 2001-KA-00845-COA.
Court of Appeals of Mississippi.
Aug. 27, 2002.
Rehearing Denied Nov. 12, 2002.
Leslie D. Roussell, Laurel, attorney for appellant.
Office of the Attorney General by: Jeffrey A. Klingfuss, attorney for appellee.
Before KING, P.J., LEE, AND IRVING, JJ.

Opinion:
LEE, J.,
for the court.
¶ 1. Arden Harris was convicted of felony DUI and sentenced as an habitual offender by the Circuit Court of Wayne County. He appeals asserting four errors: 1) the evidence was insufficient to prove the charged offense; 2) the State failed to prove his blood alcohol content was greater than .10% as the traffic citation charged; 3) the jury instructions failed to instruct the jury on the issue of whether he refused a chemical test as the indictment charged; and 4) cumulative error resulted in his not receiving a fair trial. Finding no error, we affirm.
FACTS
¶ 2. On November 25, 2000, at approximately 7:00 p.m., Holt Ross, a patrolman with the Mississippi State Highway Patrol, "clocked" Harris driving a Ford Mustang at eighty-four miles per hour. Ross stopped the vehicle and he smelled alcohol inside of it. Officer Ross asked Harris if he had been drinking, and Harris said he had drank "several beers" that day. Officer Ross then conducted a field sobriety test, including the use of a portable Breathalyzer, and based upon the results he arrested Harris. Officer Ross then transported Harris to the Wayne County Sheriffs Office, where he attempted to test Harris on an Intoxilyzer, but Harris could not, or did not, give a sufficient breath sample for the machine to analyze. Harris was then issued a traffic citation for DUI. At some later time during the January 2001 circuit court term, Harris was formally indicted for felony DUI and was subsequently convicted of the charge.
ANALYSIS
I. SUFFICIENCY OF THE EVIDENCE
¶ 3. Harris asserts that Ross's testimony was insufficient to prove that he was driving while under the influence of alcohol, and the circuit court erred in denying his motion for a directed verdict. Ross testified that he smelled alcohol in Harris's vehicle, on his breath and his clothes. He testified that Harris admitted he had consumed alcohol that day. He further testified that Harris could not pass the field sobriety test, that his gait was impaired, and that he swayed when standing still. When the trial court judges the legal sufficiency of the evidence presented, as opposed to the weight of the evidence on a motion for a directed verdict, the trial court is required to consider evidence introduced in the light most favorable to the State and accept as true all of the evidence introduced at trial by the State, including all reasonable inferences that may be drawn therefrom. Jones v. State, 783 So.2d 771(¶11) (Miss.Ct.App.2001). In this case, we find that Ross's testimony was sufficient to support the guilty verdict, and the motion for a directed verdict was properly denied. There is no merit to this assignment of error.
II. .10% BLOOD ALCOHOL CONTENT
¶ 4. Harris contends that because the traffic citation issued to him charged him with driving while having a blood alcohol content of .10% or greater, the State was required to prove this fact as an essential element of the offense. This argument fails to acknowledge that the indictment, not a traffic citation, is the charging instrument utilized in a criminal prosecution for a DUI offense. Williams v. State, 708 So.2d 1358(1125) (Miss.1998). Thus, Harris's assignment of challenges actually goes to whether the indictment was sufficient. Article 3, section 27 of the Mississippi Constitution requires that an indictment enumerate all essential elements of the criminal offense. Burrell v. State, 727 So.2d 761(¶ 10) (Miss.Ct.App.1998). In this case, the indictment simply charged Harris with operating "a motor vehicle while under the influence of intoxicating liquor," which is the exact language of the offense codified at Mississippi Code Section 63-ll-30(l)(a) (Supp.2001). This statement adequately informed Harris of the elements that the State was required to prove. There is no merit to this assignment of error.
III. AMENDMENT OF THE INDICTMENT
¶ 5. The indictment included the statement that Harris "refused to submit to a chemical test of his breath." Because this language was included in the indictment, Harris contends that the State was required to prove that he had actually refused the test, even though the refusal was not an element of the offense codified at Mississippi Code Section 63-ll-30(l)(a) (Supp.2001). Jury instruction S-l originally included language requiring the jury to find that Harris did refuse the chemical test, but the circuit court deleted the language after finding that the refusal to submit to the chemical test was not. an essential element. Harris asserts the circuit court erred in amending the jury instruction. Harris actually raises two issues in this assignment of error: whether the indictment itself was fatally flawed by including the allegation that he refused the chemical test, and whether the circuit court erred in deleting language from the jury instruction not essential to the crime charged. We find that neither issue has merit.
¶ 6. Even assuming that the inclusion of the surplus language in the indictment was improper, an indictment may be amended so long as the amendment does not alter the elements of the crime of which the indictment gives notice. Spann v. State, 771 So.2d 883(¶46) (Miss.2000). In this case, the indictment gave clear notice that the charge was operating "a motor vehicle while under the influence of intoxicating liquor." As such, the indictment was not fatally flawed by the inclusion of the surplus language.
¶ 7. Moreover, it is not error for jury instructions to reflect a constructive amendment to an indictment. Id. In this case, the deletion of language in the jury instruction simply removed language that was unnecessary to prove the offense charged in the indictment, and Harris makes no showing of any prejudice that could have occurred to his defense. Therefore, amending the jury instruction was not error. This assignment of error is without merit.
IV. CUMULATIVE ERROR
¶ 8. Harris asserts that even if no one error rose to reversible error, cumulative error requires a new trial. Having found that no error occurred, we find no merit to the issue of cumulative error.
¶ 9. THE JUDGMENT OF THE CIRCUIT COURT OF WAYNE COUNTY OF THE CONVICTION OF FELONY DUI AS AN HABITUAL OFFENDER AND SENTENCE OF FIVE YEARS IN THE CUSTODY OF THE MISSISSIPPI DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS TO RUN CONSECUTIVELY TO ANY OTHER SENTENCE AND FINE OF $2,000 IS AFFIRMED. ALL COSTS OF THIS APPEAL ARE ASSESSED TO WAYNE COUNTY.
KING, P.J., IRVING, MYERS AND BRANTLEY, JJ., CONCUR. SOUTHWICK, P.J., DISSENTS WITH A SEPARATE WRITTEN OPINION JOINED BY MCMILLIN, C.J., THOMAS AND CHANDLER, JJ. BRIDGES, J., NOT PARTICIPATING.