State of Mississippi v. Donald Quinn a/k/a Donald Ray Quinn

Jackson, Mississippi criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with sexual battery.

Donald Quinn was indicted in the Circuit Court of the First Judicial District of Hinds County, Mississippi, for the sexual battery of his seventeen-year-old niece, Jane[1] which resulted in her pregnancy. Specifically, he was indicted under Mississippi Code Section 97-395(2) (Rev. 2014).



The record reflects pretrial motions by the defense. Initially, the indictment alleged that Quinn committed the crime "on and about" January 31, 2016. The State filed a Motion to Amend the Indictment to change the date of the alleged sexual battery to "on, about and/or between the 1st day of July, 2015 and the 1st day of July, 2016," and to "correct the age of



the victim from sixteen (16) years of age to (17) years of age." The trial court granted the State's Motion to Amend the Indictment, but it only allowed the State to change the dates to July 1, 2015, to May 25, 2016, which is the day Jane gave birth to her son.



Additionally, Jane and her mother became unavailable to testify at trial, so the defense made an ore tenus motion to exclude at trial any and all of their previous statements, arguing the statements were hearsay and would violate the Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment.



In response, the State agreed to only call Detective Samuel Neal, the lead investigator assigned to the case, to testify about his course of investigation into the matter. The trial court, citing Montson v. State, agreed to allow Detective Neal's testimony but ruled that he could only testify as to how he received the complaint and how he responded to the complaint, without going into details. Montson v. State, 318 So.3d 1133, 1142 (Miss. Ct. App. 2020).



The Defendant was found guilty and was sentenced to twenty years' in prison.



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Did the State adequately prove venue in a criminal case, particularly when the main testimony relied upon was potentially hearsay, and was without objection?



Key Phrases Sexual battery conviction. Insufficient proof of venue. DNA evidence authentication. Confrontation Clause violation. Expert witness designation.

Affirmed