Troylanden Cortez Harris v. State of Mississippi, 2016-KA-00122-COA

Background

On Jan. 14, 2013, Troylanden Harris approached a running pickup, forced passenger Jasmine Polly out at gunpoint, and fled; owner Henry Judd subdued Harris and identified him. Polly later identified Harris from a photo lineup.
Harris was arrested Feb. 5, 2013. He signed a Miranda waiver form containing a short typed Q&A portion (the “written confession”) initialed by Harris; the form referenced that the rest of the interview was audio recorded.
Pretrial, defense requested the audio. The State said it would check; at a hearing the State agreed it would not use the confession if the listed audio could not be produced. The State later said no audio disk existed.
Harris was tried in absentia. At trial the State admitted the written confession into evidence despite the prior representation about the missing audio; defense objected but did not press the pretrial concession on the record.
The jury convicted Harris of attempted armed carjacking; the trial court sentenced him to 25 years (20 to serve). Harris appealed, raising four issues including admission of the written confession, defective attempt jury instruction, denial of lesser-included instruction, and ineffective assistance of counsel.

Issues

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument (Harris)	Defendant's Argument (State)	Held
1. Admission of written confession (discovery / breach of pretrial agreement)	The State violated discovery and reneged on its agreement not to use the confession absent the audio; admission was improper.	The State never recovered the audio and contends it did not make a binding agreement to forgo the confession.	The court found a pretrial agreement existed and that admitting the written confession was error, but deemed it harmless.
2. Jury instruction on attempt element	The attempt instruction failed to state the element that the defendant failed or was prevented from completing the offense.	The statute’s language and the charge invoked attempt, so an explicit attempt-definition instruction was unnecessary.	Reversed: the jury instructions were deficient for omitting language that the offense was not completed (plain error).
3. Denial of lesser-included instruction (attempted carjacking)	Harris argued the jury could have found he was unarmed, so a lesser-included instruction was warranted.	Polly’s testimony and Harris’s written admission showed a gun was used; no reasonable jury could find he was unarmed.	Affirmed: trial court properly refused the lesser-included instruction because evidence showed weapon use.
4. Ineffective assistance of counsel	Counsel failed to move for continuance/mistrial or otherwise protect Harris when discovery issues and missing statements arose.	Trial counsel did not perform deficiently: defense, not the State, raised the excluded statement and Rule remedies were inapplicable; no Strickland prejudice shown.	Denied on the record: ineffective-assistance claim lacked merit based on trial record.

Key Cases Cited

Thompson v. State, 726 So. 2d 233 (Miss. Ct. App.) (omission of failure/prevention language in attempt instruction requires reversal)
Armstead v. State, 716 So. 2d 576 (Miss.) (attempt instruction must reference failure or prevention of completion)
Henderson v. State, 660 So. 2d 220 (Miss.) (attempt instruction deficient without mentioning failure/prevention)
Hunter v. State, 684 So. 2d 625 (Miss.) (failure to submit essential elements to jury is fundamental error)
Neal v. State, 451 So. 2d 743 (Miss.) (incorrect or incomplete jury instructions generally require reversal)
Fitzpatrick v. State, 175 So. 3d 515 (Miss.) (plain-error review applies where no contemporaneous objection)
White v. State, 195 So. 3d 765 (Miss.) (instructions must be considered as a whole to determine adequacy)
Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (U.S.) (two-prong test for ineffective assistance of counsel)