Opinion ID: 1757479
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Whether the trial court erred in refusing to grant Appellant a one week continuance.

Text: Eakes claims the State failed to use due diligence in discovery and disclosure of witness statements, expert reports, and other exculpatory materials. More specifically, Eakes finds fault in the State's late disclosure of his blood test results, results of any tests performed on a bedspread taken from the home of Ricky's mother, allegedly upon which April said her blood was located, a search warrant for tissue samples from Eakes, and DHS records compiled by Linda Palmer regarding the Myers children. The State contends that: no blood or tissue tests were run; therefore, there were no results to disclose to the defense; no tests were run on the bedspread; therefore, there were no results to disclose to the defense; the bedspread was handed over to the defense at the time it was requested; the prosecution did not plan to use the bedspread at trial and informed both the defense and the trial judge of their decision. Therefore, failure to provide the defense the bedspread until the defendant asked for it was a technical violation with no resulting prejudice. Eakes complains that the trial judge refused to agree to a one week continuance of the trial to allow Eakes to examine (DHS) records not tendered until just prior to trial. Eakes claims the continuance would have put the trial at the second week of the court term, which the trial judge had no ability to pretermit by holding court in other counties in the district. Eakes announced he was ready for trial, proceeded through voir dire, and questioned two witnesses before he renewed his motion, which was precipitated by Eakes' need to study the welfare records of the Myers children. According to the State, Eakes was at fault because he had failed to request these records until four days prior to trial. Moreover, the State claims Eakes suffered no prejudice from denial of his motion.
1. Box v. State, 437 So.2d 19 (Miss. 1983) (Robertson, J., specially concurring), first set forth the procedure trial courts should follow when confronted with a discovery violation. Miss.Unif.Crim. R.Cir.Ct.Prac. 4.06 now reflects the Box procedure. When faced with previously undisclosed evidence to which the defendant has objected, the trial court should give the defendant a reasonable opportunity to familiarize himself with the evidence. If the defendant thereafter believes he may be prejudiced by admission of the evidence because of his lack of opportunity to prepare to meet it, he must request a continuance. Should the defendant fail to request a continuance, he has waived the issue. If he indeed requests a continuance, the State may opt to proceed without the undisclosed evidence, else the trial court must grant the continuance. Cole v. State, 525 So.2d 365, 368 (Miss. 1987), cert. denied, 488 U.S. 934, 109 S.Ct. 330, 102 L.Ed.2d 348 (1988). The chancellor's order authorizing disclosure of the youth court records was not obtained by the district attorney until the morning of trial. [11] The district attorney in turn obtained the records, photocopied them, and delivered them to defense counsel at approximately 9:15 a.m. The trial judge also noted that the following week was not available to try the case as trial had been pending for ten months. The judge denied the motion for continuance. Eakes argued that he had mentioned the motion to the trial judge earlier that morning, prior to receipt of the youth court records, but the judge had denied the motion. Eakes explained that he had renewed the motion now to get a denial on the record. The trial judge responded that perhaps he had given the distinct impression that he would deny the motion, but that he had not actually denied the motion. While the prosecuting attorney could have obtained the youth court records via a youth court order, [12] that was not done in this case because the district attorney did not feel these records were necessary for trial. The prosecution had a report from Linda Palmer, lab results from tests on April, and copies of reports from the testing lab, all of which were furnished to Eakes during discovery. The prosecution had also provided the defense with a list of witnesses and copies of April's statements. Eakes did have the records at issue from the time the trial began to the time he filed his appeal. Still, Eakes has yet to assert any particulars regarding how he was prejudiced or what he would have done differently had he been provided the records any earlier. [13] This Court finds that Eakes' delay in requesting a continuance until after the trial had begun, in combination with his failure to affirmatively show any prejudice, waives any error and prevents reversal.