Court overturns sexual battery convictions, affirms child pornography sentences in Vicksburg case

VICKSBURG, Miss. (VDN) — A Mississippi appellate court has overturned two life sentences handed to a Vicksburg man convicted of sexual battery, citing insufficient evidence to prove the element of sexual penetration, while upholding his 10 convictions for possession of child pornography.

Carl Deanthony Smith, who was previously sentenced to two concurrent life terms for sexually abusing a 10-year-old boy named “Calvin” [Editors Note: the court uses an alias regarding minor children], had his sexual battery convictions reversed after the court determined that the prosecution failed to present corroborating evidence beyond his vague admissions during a police interview.

According to court documents, around midnight on January 31, 2023, officers from the Vicksburg Police Department responded to a call about a shooting victim at a McDonald’s parking lot in Vicksburg, Mississippi. Upon arriving at the crime scene, the officers determined that a bullet had struck and killed Calvin, a thirteen-year-old passenger inside Smith’s vehicle. An officer interviewed Smith as a witness to Calvin’s death.

Smith explained that he was Calvin’s godfather and that Calvin’s mother often allowed Calvin and Smith to go various places alone together, even late at night. Smith stated that he had driven Calvin around and taken him to a nearby store. The officer asked for Smith’s permission to search his cell phone for any evidence that might be relevant to the investigation into Calvin’s death. After obtaining Smith’s written consent, the officer searched Smith’s cell phone.

During the search of Smith’s cell phone, the officer discovered evidence of child pornography on the device. The officer halted his search of the cell phone and alerted his deputy police chief of his findings. Once the deputy police chief obtained a search warrant for Smith’s phone, an investigator with specialized training performed a forensic extraction of the data on Smith’s phone. The data extracted from the cell phone included sexually explicit material downloaded from the Internet as well as videos of a sexual nature that depicted Calvin, the thirteen-year-old passenger who had died inside Smith’s vehicle

Smith was questioned by an investigator regarding his sexual relationship with “Calvin” and other minors. At one point, the officer said to Smith, “You’ve been having sexual relations with this young man [(Calvin)] and with other young men.” Smith denied involvement with other minors and admitted only to sexual encounters with “Calvin” “just two or three times.” When asked if such acts constituted respect for the child, Smith replied, “No, sir.”

Police arrested Smith and later extracted sexually explicit videos and images from his phone, some of which featured “Calvin.” A Warren County grand jury indicted Smith on two counts of sexual battery and 10 counts of possession of child pornography. A jury found him guilty on all charges, and the court sentenced him to life in prison on the sexual battery charges and 40 years for each child pornography count, to be served consecutively.

On appeal, Smith challenged the sufficiency of the evidence supporting the sexual battery charges, arguing that no independent proof of penetration was presented, as required by Mississippi law. The appellate court agreed, noting that while Smith admitted to “sex” with the child, he never specified penetration, and no physical or testimonial evidence corroborated the claim.

“Even viewing the trial evidence in a light most favorable to the State,” the court ruled, “there was insufficient evidence for a reasonable jury to find that the State proved the elements of sexual battery beyond a reasonable doubt.”

As a result, the court reversed Smith’s convictions and sentences for sexual battery and entered a judgment of acquittal on those counts.

However, the court rejected Smith’s argument that the child pornography charges should have been severed and retried separately, due to “retroactive misjoinder.” Judges found that the evidence supporting the pornography charges was overwhelming, including Smith’s eventual admission that he knowingly possessed the material and a folder of saved screenshots discovered on his phone.

The court concluded that Smith failed to show that the sexual battery evidence caused “clear and compelling prejudice” against his defense on the pornography charges. The conviction and 40-year sentences for possession of child pornography were upheld.

The case has been remanded for resentencing on the affirmed charges, in light of the reversal of the sexual battery convictions.