State ex rel. J.D.

63 So. 3d 153, 2010 La.App. 4 Cir. 1115, 2011 La. App. LEXIS 170, 2011 WL 458621
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedFebruary 9, 2011
DocketNo. 2010-CA-1115
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 63 So. 3d 153 (State ex rel. J.D.) 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. J.D., 63 So. 3d 153, 2010 La.App. 4 Cir. 1115, 2011 La. App. LEXIS 170, 2011 WL 458621 (La. Ct. App. 2011).

Opinions

JAMES F. McKAY III, Judge.

|/The defendant, J.D., appeals the judgment of the trial court adjudicating him delinquent relative to La. R.S. 14:63.3 and La. R.S. 14:108. J.D. appeals his adjudication based upon insufficiency of the evidence. We disagree with the appellant’s assertions and affirm the judgment of the trial court.

STATEMENT OF THE CASE

On January 26, 2010, J.D. was charged by delinquency petition with violating one count of La. R.S. 14:63.3, to wit, entry on or remaining on property after being forbidden, and La. R.S. 14:108, to wit, resisting an officer. On May 17, 2010, the court held an adjudication hearing where J.D. was found to be guilty on both charges.

A disposition hearing was held and the trial court committed J.D. to the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections for a period of six months on each count with the commitments to run concurrent. The trial court suspended six months of the commitment and placed J.D. on active probation for one year.

| .STATEMENT OF THE FACTS

On January 22, 2010, New Orleans Police Department Sergeant Michael Stalbert was working a paid detail at 3708 Forest Park Apartments. It is notable that Sergeant Stalbert was wearing his official New Orleans Police Department uniform while working this detail. While patrolling the grounds he observed J.D., a juvenile, which he had previously warned to stay off the apartment property, loitering on the property. After J.D. made eye contact with Sergeant Stalbert, he began to run away. J.D. was observed entering the apartment at 3821 Texas, which in within the Forest Park Apartments. Sergeant Stalbert eventually discovered J.D. sitting down behind a “stair wall”. When questioned by the Sergeant, he said his name was Randy D. He also informed the Sergeant that his date of birth was March 8, 1995.

Sergeant Stalbert testified that he knew J.D. because his family once lived at the Forest Park Apartments and previous juvenile encounters with J.D. Sergeant Stal-bert initially detained J.D. for truancy and for failing to remain away from the complex after being advised that he was trespassing.

The Forest Park Apartment Complex’s assistant manager, Shelly Lejeune, testified that on January 21, 2010, she observed J.D. on the apartment complex property. She testified that J.D. and his parents had resided in the complex until their eviction January 8, 2010.

I .ASSIGNMENTS OF ERROR

The appellant asserts that the trial court erred in finding that the State met its burden of proof that J.D. was in violation of La. R.S. 14:631 and La. R.S. 14:1082.

[155]*155The State’s burden of proof in a juvenile delinquency proceeding, just as in a criminal proceeding against an adult, is to prove every element of the offense alleged beyond a reasonable doubt. La. Ch.C. art. 883. Appellate review of ]4juvenile cases extends to law and fact. La. Const. Art. V, § 10(B). As a court of review, we grant great deference to the juvenile court’s actual finding, credibility determination and assessment of witness testimony. State in the Interest of J.N., 2007-1229, p. 8 (La.App. 4 Cir. 5/7/08), 984 So.2d 910, at 915.

In State v. Brown, 2003-0897 (La.4/12/05), 907 So.2d 1, the Louisiana Supreme Court reiterated the standard for determining a claim of insufficiency of evidence. The appellate courts must follow the standard set forth in Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979). Id. Thus, this Court must view the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, and determine if it was sufficient to convince a rational trier of fact that all of the elements of the crime were proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Id.

To support J.D.’s conviction for violation of La. R.S. 14:63.3, the State must establish beyond a reasonable doubt that J.D. went on to or remained upon the Forest Park Apartment’s property, without authority, after being forbidden to do so either orally or in writing by an authorized person.

The appellant argues that the State has failed to prove all of the requisite elements of La. R.S. 14:63.3. Specifically, the appellant asserts that the State failed to prove that J.D. was given a reasonably contemporaneous request to leave prior to being arrested for remaining on the premises contrary to the wishes of the owner and [156]*156that Sergeant Michael Stalbert had the authority to forbid J.D.’s entry onto the apartment complex property or to make demands for him to leave. He also asserts that he lacked the criminal intent to be in violation of the statute.

|fiIn State in the Interest of J.A.V., 558 So.2d 214, 215 (La.1990), the Court noted, “As jurisprudentially construed, La. R.S. 14:63.3 prohibits its entering or remaining in places or on land after being forbidden to do so, either orally or in writing, only after a reasonable contemporaneous request to leave. State v. Johnson, 381 So.2d 498 (La.1980).” In State in the Interest of J.A.V. and in State v. Johnson, both Courts reversed adjudications for this failure to contemporaneous request that the defendant leave the premises. Interestingly, the Court in State in the Interest of J.A.V., went on to say, referencing the case that:

On occasion some weeks or months before September 4, 1988, the juvenile had been involved in a dispute with El-Mart store officials regarding allegations of shoplifting. Nothing came of that encounter, because the juvenile was able to produce receipts for the items in her possession. The security guards nonetheless warned her not to come back into the store. When the juvenile did in fact return to the store on September 4, she was arrested and charged with violating R.S. 14:63.3, without having first been told to leave on that occasion.
While that statute, pertinently, simply prohibits going into a store such as K-Mart after having been forbidden to do so, this Court has determined that a logical interpretation of the statute “requires a reasonably contemporaneous or written request to leave as an indispensable element of the offense.” State v. Johnson, 381 So.2d at 500. A request is “reasonably contemporaneous if given a few hours prior to the arrest, the same day as the arrest or such other pre-arrest interval reasonable under the facts and circumstances of each particular case.” Id.

State in the Interest of J.A.V., at 215.

Although the exact meaning of a “contemporaneous” request is not crystal clear from the above opinion, the Louisiana Supreme Court does give some guidance to the lower courts by interjecting the language “other pre-arrest ‘interval’ reasonable under the facts and circumstances of each particular case.” The very use of the word “interval” is indicia of some time and space between factions, not contemporaneous in the common and familiar meaning of the word. Therefore, we can only conclude that contemporaneous request to leave the premises prior to arrest has to be reasonable period of time considering the facts and circumstances of the case.

Here, the State presented evidence that Sergeant Stalbert initially detained J.D.

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Bluebook (online)
63 So. 3d 153, 2010 La.App. 4 Cir. 1115, 2011 La. App. LEXIS 170, 2011 WL 458621, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-jd-lactapp-2011.