Opinion ID: 1829968
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 47

Heading: Preventing-Arrest-or-Escape-from-Custody Instruction

Text: Hansen next takes issue with the aggravating circumstance found in Miss. Code Ann. § 99-19-101(5)(e) (Supp. 1987), The capital offense was committed for the purpose of avoiding or preventing a lawful arrest or effecting an escape from custody. It is argued some sort of limiting instruction need be given to narrow this aggravator. In Leatherwood v. State, 435 So.2d 645, 651 (Miss. 1983), we rebuffed this contention, stating, If there is evidence from which it may be reasonably inferred that a substantial reason for the killing was to conceal the identity of the killer or killers or to `cover their tracks' so as to avoid apprehension and eventual arrest by authorities, then it is proper for the court to allow the jury to consider this aggravating circumstance. Under this construction the Court properly submits this aggravator to the jury, if evidence existed from which the jury could reasonably infer that concealing the killer's identity, or covering the killer's tracks to avoid apprehension and arrest, was a substantial reason for the killing. In this case, Trooper Ladner had stopped the blue town car and issued a speeding ticket in the name of Christopher Larcinesse, a stolen driver's license Hansen was using. Although this ticket was not admitted to prove Hansen was speeding, the Court did allow it to show why Trooper Ladner pulled the car over. The consent-to-search suggests Ladner suspected more than mere speeding, and Hansen's subsequent aggression may only be seen as an effort to interdict and avoid a lawful arrest. The point for the moment is that these facts form an evidentiary predicate, such that submitting this aggravating circumstance to the jury was not error.