State ex rel. C.J.

60 So. 3d 46, 2010 La.App. 4 Cir. 1350, 2011 La. App. LEXIS 171, 2011 WL 565629
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedFebruary 9, 2011
DocketNo. 2010-CA-1350
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 60 So. 3d 46 (State ex rel. C.J.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State ex rel. C.J., 60 So. 3d 46, 2010 La.App. 4 Cir. 1350, 2011 La. App. LEXIS 171, 2011 WL 565629 (La. Ct. App. 2011).

Opinions

CHARLES R. JONES, Judge.

| ¡The Appellant, C.J., appeals his adjudication as a delinquent for the offense of armed robbery, and his commitment to the Department of Public Safety and Corrections until his 21st birthday. Finding no error on the part of the juvenile court with regard to the adjudication of C.J. as a delinquent, we affirm his adjudication. However, having found inconsistencies in the record, we vacate the commitment of C.J. to the Department of Public Safety and Corrections until his 21st birthday, and remand this matter to the juvenile court to clarify its ruling, or conduct a new disposition hearing and resentence C.J., pursuant to La. Ch. C. Art. 897.1 B.

In October 2007, C.J. was charged by delinquency petition with violating one count of La. R.S. 14:64, relative to armed robbery, to which he entered a denial. Later, in October 2007, C.J. filed a motion to suppress identification. In November 2007, on the date of the adjudication hearing, the juvenile court denied the motion to suppress and adjudicated C.J. a delinquent for the offense of armed robbery. A predisposition investigation was ordered by the court and a disposition hearing was scheduled. The juvenile court committed C.J. to the |2Pepartment of Public Safety and Corrections until his twenty-first birthday at the disposition hearing. C.J. filed a motion to reconsider sentence, which was denied. C.J. timely sought an appeal.

In September of 2007, a young man on a bicycle approached the victim, Nicole Tim-mons, as she walked to her parked car holding her three-month-old baby, on Cambronne St. in Orleans Parish. The young man demanded her purse at gunpoint. After approximately a five minute conversation with the robber, Ms. Tim-mons complied and gave her money to the robber, who agreed to let her keep her identification. The robber rode away after taking Ms. Timmons’ money. Thereafter, Ms. Timmons called the police to report the incident.

Detective Jerry Baldwin of the Second District of the New Orleans Police Department was the senior investigator of the subject armed robbery. Det. Baldwin testified that he learned from Ms. Timmons that the robber was a six foot tall black male between the ages of fourteen to seventeen year old, who wore an orange striped Polo shirt with a large orange “polo man” on the shirt, and dark jeans. Det. Baldwin testified that he also learned from Ms. Timmons that her assailant had a Mohawk haircut.

|sDet. Baldwin took the description given by Ms. Timmons and subsequently canvassed the area, looking for the distinctive shirt which Ms. Timmons had described her assailant as wearing. During the canvass, Det. Baldwin was advised by other juveniles that C.J. had such a shirt, and Det. Baldwin eventually located C.J. at the home of his mother. When Det. Baldwin initially saw C.J., C.J. was wearing a striped Polo shirt with dark jeans, and had a Mohawk haircut.

Det. Baldwin testified that he brought C.J. to the restaurant where Ms. Timmons was waiting. According to his testimony, Det. Baldwin presented C.J. to Ms. Tim-mons for identification approximately forty-five minutes after the robbery. The police told Ms. Timmons that they had a [49]*49possible suspect in custody and displayed C.J. — -who was still wearing the orange sweatshirt — to Ms. Timmons, who identified C.J. as her assailant. Det. Baldwin further testified that Ms. Timmons was not forced to identify C.J., who was standing alone and unhandcuffed when he was identified.

Det. Baldwin testified that C.J. was standing on a well-lit corner when Ms. Timmons identified C.J. as her assailant. Ms. Timmons was approximately ten yards away from C.J. when she identified him. The time of her identification occurred about 90 minutes after she was robbed. Neither the gun used nor the money stolen was recovered from C.J. The bicycle used in the commission of the robbery was also not found.

C.J. raises three issues on appeal:

1. The juvenile court erred in failing to grant the motion to suppress the identification made by the victim of the armed robbery from a distance of thirty feet away. The identification procedure was suggestive and an analysis of the Manson v. Brathwaite, 482 U.S. 98, 97 S.Ct. 2248, 53 L.Ed.2d 140 (1977) factors makes the likelihood of misidentification great.
2. The evidence adduced against C.J. was insufficient to sustain a delinquency adjudication. The juvenile court was “clearly wrong” in finding sufficient evidence to sustain a finding that C.J. committed the armed robbery of Ms. Tim-mons.
3. The juvenile court based the disposition on a misconception as to mandated sentencing conditions. Considering the court’s apparent misapprehension as to the penalty, the disposition should be set aside and the case remanded for resen-tencing.

|40n appeal, review in juvenile delinquency proceedings extends to both the law and the facts. State in Interest of Batiste, 367 So.2d 784, 788 (La.1979). We grant great deference to the factual findings, credibility determinations and assessment of witness testimony of the juvenile court. State ex rel W.B., 08-1458, p. 1 (La.App. 4 Cir. 4/22/09), 11 So.3d 60, 61, writ denied, 09-1129 (La.1/22/10), 25 So.3d 139, (citing State ex rel J.N., 07-1229, p. 8 (La.App. 4 Cir. 5/7/08), 984 So.2d 910, 915).

The first issue raised by C.J. is that the juvenile court erred in failing to grant his motion to suppress the identification made by the victim of the armed robbery from a distance of thirty feet away. He argues that under the analysis of the holding of the U.S. Supreme Court in Manson, the identification procedure was suggestive and an analysis of the factors makes the likelihood of misidentification great.

To prevail on a motion to suppress challenging an out-of-court identification, a defendant has to establish that the identification procedure was suggestive and that there was a substantial likelihood of misidentification. State v. Broadway, 96-2659, p. 13 (La.10/19/99), 753 So.2d 801, 812, cert. denied, 529 U.S. 1056, 120 S.Ct. 1562, 146 L.Ed.2d 466 (2000). An identification procedure is suggestive if the witness’ attention is unduly focused on the defendant during the procedure. Id. at p. 14, 753 So.2d at 812. In order to be suppressed, the identification must have indicia of unreliability. Nevertheless, “[e]ven if the identification procedure is found to be suggestive, this alone does not violate due process. Rather, it is the likelihood of misidentification that violates due process, not the mere existence of suggestiveness.” State v. Raines, 500 — 1941, p. 4 (La.App. 5 Cir. 5/30/01), 788 So.2d 635, 639, writ denied, 01-1906 (La.5/10/02), 815 So.2d 833.

[50]*50The factors set forth in Manson are used to determine whether the suggestiveness of the procedure presents a substantial likelihood of misidentification under a totality of the circumstances. Broadway, 96-2659, p. 14, 753 So.2d at 812 The Manson factors are: the witness’ opportunity to view the criminal at the time of the crime; the witness’ degree of attention; the accuracy of the prior description of the criminal; the level of certainty demonstrated at the confrontation, and the time between the crime and the confrontation. Manson, 432 U.S. at 114, 97 S.Ct. at 2253.

Ms.

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Bluebook (online)
60 So. 3d 46, 2010 La.App. 4 Cir. 1350, 2011 La. App. LEXIS 171, 2011 WL 565629, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-cj-lactapp-2011.