Opinion ID: 865384
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: whether delashmit was entitled to a lesser-

Text: OFFENSE INSTRUCTION. ¶18. Delashmit argues that the jury should have been given a lesser-offense instruction on indecent exposure.3 “[A] criminal defendant is entitled to have the jury instructed regarding any offense carrying a lesser punishment arising out of a common nucleus of operative fact with the scenario giving rise to the charge laid in the indictment.” Green v. State, 884 So. 2d 733, 737 (Miss. 2004). See also Griffin v. State, 533 So. 2d 444 (Miss. 1988). However, a lesser-included-offense instruction, or a lesser-offense instruction, should be granted only if there is an evidentiary basis for such instruction in the record. Griffin, 533 So. 2d at 447. 3 Mississippi Code Annotated Section 97-29-31 on indecent exposure states as follows: A person who willfully and lewdly exposes his person, or private parts thereof, in any public place, or in any place where others are present, or procures another to so expose himself, is guilty of a misdemeanor and, on conviction, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding Five Hundred Dollars ($500.00) or be imprisoned not exceeding six (6) months, or both. It is not a violation of this statute for a woman to breast-feed. Miss. Code Ann. § 97-29-31 (Rev. 2006). 10 The test is ultimately whether “this Court – can say, taking the evidence in the light most favorable to the accused, and considering all reasonable favorable inferences which may be drawn in favor of the accused from the evidence, that no reasonable jury could find the defendant guilty of the lesser included offense (and conversely not guilty of at least one essential element of the principal charge).” Id. (citing Harper v. State, 478 So. 2d 1017, 1021 (Miss. 1985)). ¶19. Delashmit was not entitled to the lesser-offense instruction on misdemeanor indecent exposure. Based on the overwhelming evidence, no reasonable jury could have found Delashmit not guilty of any element of the principal charge. The victim, an eight-year-old girl, testified that Delashmit had offered her fifty dollars and had exposed his “middle spot” to her. Delashmit also confessed to both Sheriff Johnson and Investigator Franks that he had offered the child victim fifty dollars to have sex with him and had shown her his penis. ¶20. Therefore, for the reasons stated, this second issue is without merit.