Opinion ID: 864420
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: whether the circuit erred by refusing jury

Text: INSTRUCTIONS D-31 AND D-32. ¶20. Murray argues that the trial judge erred in refusing to instruct the jury on the spoliation of evidence. He argues that such instruction was necessary since the lost evidence was exculpatory in nature and hindered his ability to put on a comprehensive defense. Murray contends that the circumstances in this case warrant such instruction due to the extreme inferences of fraud and suppression of evidence which establish an intentional spoliation of evidence. ¶21. Murray's proposed Jury Instruction D-31 read as follows: 8 The Court instructs you the Jury that, if you believe that a sealed container with a blue lid was placed into the Columbus Police Department evidence room by Lt. Carl Kemp on July 24, 2000, and the sealed clear container with the blue lid remained in the custody of the Columbus Police Department until sometime after the District Attorney and the Columbus Police Department detectives unsealed that container and discovered therein a spent projectile and, further, you also find that the spent projectile, but not the clear container with a blue lid, disappeared sometime afer this Court ordered that spent projectile sent, by Columbus Police Department, to the FBI Laboratory for testing and analysis, then you must decide if the loss, or spoliation, of that spent projectile indicates fraud and a desire to suppress the truth or if the loss was intentional or negligent. If you find from the evidence, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the loss of the spent projectile which had been in the sealed clear container with the blue lid in the Columbus Police Department evidence room was intentional or indicates fraud with a desire to suppress truth, then you may infer that the testing and analysis of the lost, spent projectile would have been unfavorable detrimental to the prosecution of the State's case against Antonio Murray and you the Jury may give the loss of that evidence such weight, worth, credibility and importance as you determine it entitled. Murray's proposed Jury Instruction D-32 read as follows: The Court instructs the jury that if you believe Officer Keith Worshaim retrieved a clear plastic container with a blue top and containing a spent projectile inside that container and that Officer Worshaim turned that container and its contents over to Cpl. Carl Kemp who placed the container into the evidence locker at the Columbus Police Department and that, after this Court ordered the forensic examination of the spent projectile found in the clear plastic container with a blue lid, the Columbus Police Department could not, and has yet, located that spent projectile then the failure of the State of Mississippi to produce that spent projectile at this trial creates an inference that the production of the spent projectile would have been detrimental to the State's prosecution of this case. ¶22. The well-established standard of review for challenges to jury instructions is as follows: Jury instructions are to be read together and taken as a whole with no one instruction taken out of context. A defendant is entitled to have jury instructions given which present his theory of the case, however, this entitlement is limited in that the court may refuse an instruction which 9 incorrectly states the law, is covered fairly elsewhere in the instructions, or is without foundation in the evidence. Austin v. State, 784 So.2d 186, 192 (Miss. 2001)(quoting Humphrey v. State, 759 So.2d 368, 380 (Miss. 2000)). Smith v. State, 802 So.2d 82, 88 (Miss. 2001). ¶23. As we have previously stated, there is no evidence in the record the police department intentionally spoiled any evidence pertaining to this trial. Because there was no evidence supporting these instructions, the trial court did not abuse its discretion in refusing to grant the instructions requested by Murray.