The Mississippi Supreme Court upheld the aggravated assault conviction of an Oktibbeha woman who attacked her brother’s wife with a frying pan in 2021.

The court issued its ruling Thursday.

An Oktibbeha County Circuit Court jury convicted Sapireya Smith in May 2024 for the aggravated assault of Denise Neely and sentenced her to 10 years in prison.

Smith and her boyfriend, Donye Cannon, were cooking breakfast Aug. 17, 2021 at an apartment Smith rented with her brother Devontae Smith. Devontae and his wife Neely arrived to gather his belongings to move back in together when Sapireya and Neely got into an argument.

The fighting escalated and Smith hit Neely three times with a frying pan from the kitchen.

Neely and Devontae then left the apartment and called an ambulance from the apartment’s leasing office. Neely was taken to OCH Regional Medical Center, where she received 15 stitches, a CT scan and facial surgery.

Smith argued the two physicians, who were called as lay witnesses, gave opinions that could only be given by expert witnesses. Lay witnesses testify about facts they perceive using personal knowledge.

One physician testified that Neely sustained an orbital bone fracture and a deep facial laceration which could run the risk of infection. Smith argued that testimony went beyond what a lay witness can provide. Without that testimony, Smith argued the evidence supported a simple assault verdict rather than aggravated assault.

In its opinion, the court said a physician can testify as a lay witness so long as the testimony focuses on the facts surrounding the care of a patient, what the records of a patient reveal and what conditions the patient was suffering from if that opinion is acquired during the care of the patient.

Alternatively, a physician cannot testify about the significance of a patient’s condition or industry standards without being accepted as an expert witness, the court said.

The court agreed with part of Smith’s claim, ruling the physician’s testimony as inadmissible because it exceeded the boundaries provided for lay witnesses.

However, because that testimony was not objected to in court and it “did not explain to the jury how Neely’s injuries were significant to a claim of aggravated assault,” it ultimately amounted to a “harmless error,” the court ruled.

The court found no error with the other physician’s testimony.

Smith also argued that because her attorney failed to object to the physician’s testimony, she received ineffective assistance from counsel.

The court in its ruling said that the objections of an attorney “fall within the ambit of trial strategy and cannot give rise to an ineffective assistance of counsel claim.”

With no objection to the physician’s testimony, the victim’s medical records or Neely’s own testimony about the severity of her injuries, the court ruled there was overwhelming evidence to support a verdict of aggravated assault despite Smith’s claims.

“There was overwhelming evidence to support a verdict of aggravated assault—that Smith ‘did purposely, knowingly, and feloniously cause or attempt to cause bodily injury to Denise Neely, with a deadly weapon, or other means likely to produce death or serious bodily harm,’” the opinion said.

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