Opinion ID: 1763897
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: whether the trial court erred in granting instruction c-16.

Text: ¶ 43. Both of these questions deal with the same issue, so will be analyzed together. Brawner filed a motion to quash the capital murder component of count one of the indictment, challenging the underlying felony of child abuse. Additionally, Brawner objected to sentencing instruction C-16, charging the aggravator of felony child abuse, arguing that there was no evidentiary basis for felonious child abuse and/or battery of a child. Brawner argues that the autopsy report prepared by Dr. Steven Hayne noted that Paige had two gunshot wounds and that each gunshot would have been fatal independent of the other. He asserts that since there was no underlying child abuse causing death, the charge should be simple murder. The State relies on Faraga v. State, 514 So.2d 295 (Miss.1987), and Stevens v. State, 806 So.2d 1031 (Miss.2001), to contend that under Mississippi law, the intentional act of murdering a child by any manner or form constitutes capital murder. ¶ 44. The Mississippi statute governing when a killing shall be capital murder states in pertinent part: (2) The killing of a human being without the authority of law by any means or in any manner shall be capital murder in the following cases: ... (f) When done with or without any design to effect death, by any person engaged in the commission of the crime of felonious abuse and/or battery of a child in violation of subsection (2) of Section 97-5-39, or in any attempt to commit such felony; ... Miss.Code. Ann. § 97-3-19(2)(f) (Rev. 2000). Subsection 2 of Section 97-5-39 reads as follows: (2) Any person who shall intentionally (a) burn any child, (b) torture any child or, (c) except in self-defense or in order to prevent bodily harm to a third party, whip, strike or otherwise abuse or mutilate any child in such a manner as to cause serious bodily harm, shall be guilty of felonious abuse and/or battery of a child and, upon conviction, may be punished by imprisonment in the penitentiary for not more than twenty (20) years. Miss.Code. Ann. § 97-5-39 (Rev.2000) (emphasis added). In Faraga, the defendant was indicted for capital murder in the killing of a two month-old-child. Faraga took the child and threw him onto the hood of a car, then twice threw the child to the pavement. The child died of head wounds received during this episode. Faraga argued that the statutes were passed by the Legislature to deter persistent child abuse, and in his case there was a single act and no pattern of abuse. This Court dismissed this argument stating that Faraga's act of throwing a child to the pavement which resulted in skull fractures and broken bones clearly was intended to be classified as felonious abuse of a child under Miss. Code Ann. § 97-5-39(2). 514 So.2d at 302. The Court also said [t]he intent of the Legislature was that serious child abusers would be guilty of capital murder if the child died and clarified that the abuse need not be dispensed over a period of time. Thus, if conduct fits the description of felonious child abuse, and the child subsequently dies, it is capital murder. Id. at 302. In Stevens, the facts are not as evident as in Faraga that felonious child abuse occurred. As discussed previously, the Stevens shot everyone in his ex-wife's home when he came to kill his ex-wife. We found that it was the intent of the Mississippi Legislature under Miss.Code Ann. § 97-5-39(2) that the intentional act of murdering a child by any manner or form constitutes felonious child abuse and, therefore, constitutes capital murder under Miss.Code Ann. § 97-3-19(2). [5] 806 So.2d at 1044. Here, Brawner shot his daughter's grandmother as his daughter watched, then shot his daughter's mother as she watched. He again shot both the grandmother and the mother two additional times, all as Paige looked on. He then shot his daughter twice. Shooting Paige fits the description of felony child abuse in that it is a strike to the child in a manner as to cause serious bodily harm. Therefore, we reject Brawner's assertion that the killing of Paige Brawner was not capital murder.