Eboni Bena White a/k/a Eboni White a/k/a Eboni B. White v. State of Mississippi

Summary

The Supreme Court of Mississippi reviewed Eboni White’s manslaughter conviction arising from the shooting death of Danielle Newsome. The court held that the trial court abused its discretion by excluding a defense witness based solely on a sequestration-rule violation and erred by refusing a jury instruction addressing Mississippi’s Castle Doctrine. The court reversed the judgments and remanded for a new trial.

Holdings

1. A sequestration-rule violation, standing alone, does not make a witness's testimony inadmissible. Before excluding the witness, the trial court must determine whether the violation caused probable prejudice or otherwise justified exclusion; the trial court abused its discretion by excluding Thompson without making that determination.
2. A defendant is entitled to an instruction embodying Mississippi Code Section 97-3-15(3)'s Castle Doctrine presumption and prerequisites when the trial evidence provides more than a mere scintilla supporting that theory. White presented sufficient evidence to raise a question whether Newsome unlawfully entered the immediate premises surrounding White's residence and blocked White's access to her vehicle, so the instruction should have been given.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the trial court abused its discretion by excluding defense witness Ricky Thompson solely because he had been present in the courtroom during another witness's testimony in violation of the sequestration rule.
2. Whether the trial court erred by refusing to give a jury instruction embodying Mississippi's Castle Doctrine statutory presumption and its prerequisites where the evidence raised a question whether the victim unlawfully entered the immediate premises surrounding the defendant's residence and blocked access to the defendant's vehicle.

Disposition

reversed_and_remanded