Summary
The Mississippi Supreme Court affirmed Malcolm Weeks Sr.'s convictions for two counts of sexual battery and one count of child fondling. The court held that correcting the sexual-battery indictment to cite the subsection applicable to a fourteen-year-old victim was a permissible amendment of form that did not prejudice the defense. The court also held that the evidence was sufficient and that the verdicts were not against the overwhelming weight of the evidence.
Topics
Practice areas
Questions Presented
- Whether the trial court improperly permitted the State to amend the sexual-battery counts of the indictment from Mississippi Code section 97-3-95(1)(d) to section 97-3-95(1)(c), and to change the age differential from twenty-four to thirty-six months.
- Whether sufficient evidence supported Weeks's convictions for child fondling and sexual battery.
- Whether the jury's verdicts were against the overwhelming weight of the evidence and whether the trial court erred in denying a new trial.
Holdings
- The amendment changing the sexual-battery counts from subsection (d) to subsection (c), and changing the age differential from twenty-four to thirty-six months, corrected defects of form rather than substance and was permissible because the original indictment gave Weeks clear notice of the offenses and did not impair his defense.
- Sufficient evidence supported the convictions for child fondling and sexual battery, so the trial court properly denied Weeks's motion for JNOV.
- The verdicts were not against the overwhelming weight of the evidence, and the trial court did not abuse its discretion by denying Weeks's motion for a new trial.
Key quotations
“courts may amend indictments only to correct defects of form; however, defects of substance must be corrected by the grand jury.” (377)
“The test for whether an amendment to the indictment will prejudice the defense is whether the defense as it originally stood will be equally available after the amendment is made.” (377)
“The overwhelming weight of the evidence supported the jury’s verdicts, and the trial court did not err in denying Malcolm’s motion for a new trial.” (380)
Factual background
Weeks was accused by his fourteen-year-old daughter of repeated sexual abuse, including touching her vagina and performing oral sex. The victim disclosed the abuse to law-enforcement personnel, medical personnel, and a forensic interviewer, and several witnesses testified that her accounts were consistent. DNA testing established male DNA inside and outside the victim's vagina, and Weeks could not be excluded as a contributor because the profile was consistent with a male in his paternal line. Weeks denied touching the victim.
Procedural history
Weeks was indicted and tried in the Rankin County Circuit Court for child fondling and sexual battery involving his fourteen-year-old daughter. During the State's case-in-chief, the trial court allowed the State to amend the sexual-battery counts to change the cited statutory subsection and age differential. The jury convicted Weeks, the trial court denied posttrial relief, and Weeks timely appealed. The Mississippi Supreme Court affirmed.