State ex rel. S.P.

90 So. 3d 528, 2011 La.App. 4 Cir. 1598, 2012 WL 1549506, 2012 La. App. LEXIS 596
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMay 2, 2012
DocketNo. 2011-CA-1598
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 90 So. 3d 528 (State ex rel. S.P.) 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. S.P., 90 So. 3d 528, 2011 La.App. 4 Cir. 1598, 2012 WL 1549506, 2012 La. App. LEXIS 596 (La. Ct. App. 2012).

Opinion

EDWIN A. LOMBARD, Judge.

| ]The juvenile, S.P., appeals his adjudication as a delinquent. After review of the record in light of the applicable law and arguments of the parties, the judgment of the juvenile court is affirmed in part and reversed in part.

Relevant Facts and Procedural History

On the evening of May 25, 2011, the front passenger window of a Nissan Juke parked in the 2800 block of Constance Street was broken. A man sitting on his porch, Duncan Pace, heard the sound of glass breaking, then a woman in the neighborhood yelling. He then saw, in apparent response to the woman yelling, a young man wearing shoulder-length dreadlocks, an oversized black t-shirt with a white t-shirt collar underneath, a pair of rust-colored jean shorts, and black tennis shoes running towards Washington Avenue with a woman in pursuit. Mr. Pace joined the chase while his roommate called the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD). He followed the young man down Washington Avenue towards Tchoupitoulas Street, but lost sight of him when he turned off on Annunciation Street. Shortly thereafter, Mr. Pace flagged down the police officers responding to his roommate’s call and gave them a physical description of the young man. The police officers then spotted S.P., who matched the description given by Mr. Pace, |2climbing up a porch on Chippewa Street near Third Street. The officers, exiting their vehicle, called to him. Instead of responding and coming to speak to the officers, S.P. jumped over the porch rail onto a garbage can, jumped the alleyway fence, and fled. He was apprehended underneath a house in the 700 block of Third Street and taken into custody.

That same day, the State filed a petition charging S.P. with (1) simple burglary of an automobile in violation of La.Rev.Stat. 14:62; (2) simple criminal damage to the automobile in violation of La.Rev.Stat. 14:56; and (3) resisting an officer in violation of La. Rev. 14:108. No parent ap[531]*531peared on behalf of S.P. at the hearing on May 26, 2011, so the matter was reset for the following day. On May 27, 2011, S.P.’s sister appeared as his guardian, probable cause was found to support the charges, and bond was set at $6000.00. On May 31, 2011, represented by appointed counsel, S.P. appeared, entering a denial to the charges in the petition. In addition to accepting the answer, the judge conducted an inquiry into S.P.’s family and economic circumstances and set the matter for trial on June 20, 2011. On June 20, 2011, the State’s motion for continuance was granted, the trial was reset for July 28, 2011, and S.P. was released to the custody of his father to reside in Alabama pending trial. On July 28, 2011, after hearing the testimony of three witnesses, the trial court adjudicated S.P. delinquent on all counts. At the disposition hearing on October 20, 2011, the trial court ordered that S.P. serve three concurrent six-month dispositions in the custody of the Office of Juvenile Justice, but suspended the disposition, ordering S.P. to serve a one-year period of probation in Alabama. By written judgment, additional conditions of probation, including a curfew, were imposed.

| ^Applicable Law and Standard of Review

The State’s burden of proof is the same in a juvenile adjudication proceeding as in a criminal proceeding, ie., the State must prove every element of the alleged offence beyond a reasonable doubt. La. Ch.Code art. 883. We review a sufficiency of the evidence challenge under the standard enunciated in Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979), and, accordingly, must determine “whether the evidence, viewed in the light most favorable to the prosecution, was sufficient to convince a rational trier of fact that all of the elements of the crime had been proved beyond a reasonable doubt.” State v. Captville, 448 So.2d 676, 678 (La.1984) (citation omitted). “[A]n appellate court cannot set aside a juvenile court’s findings of fact in the absence of manifest error or unless those findings are clearly wrong” and “[w]here there is conflicting testimony, reasonable evaluations of credibility and reasonable inferences of fact should not be disturbed upon review, even when the appellate court may feel that its own evaluations and inferences are as reasonable as those of the trial court.” In re A.J.F., 00-0948 (La.6/30/00), 764 So.2d 47, 61. Accordingly, if the factual findings “are reasonable in light of the record reviewed in its entirety, the court of appeal may not reverse even though convinced that had it been sitting as the trier of fact, it would have weighed the evidence differently.” Rosell v. ESCO, 549 So.2d 840, 844 (La.1989). Thus, where there are two permissible views of the evidence, the fact finder’s choice cannot be clearly wrong and an appellate court may not substitute its opinion for that of the juvenile court judge “who is in the unique position to see and hear the witnesses as they testify.” In re A.J.F., 764 So.2d at 62. Thus, absent internal contradiction or irreconcilable conflict with physical evidence, even a single ^witness's testimony is sufficient to support a factual conclusion. State v. Robinson, 02-1869 (La.4/14/2004), 874 So.2d 66.

Discussion

S.P. appeals, challenging the sufficiency of the evidence underlying each offense for which he was adjudicated and arguing that the trial court erred in allowing a police officer to testify as to a statement made to him by a non-testifying witness.

The following evidence was adduced at trial.

Officer Troy Pichón of the NOPD testified and identified S.P. as the person he [532]*532arrested in Orleans Parish on May 25, 2011. Officer Pichón stated, over defense counsel’s objection, that S.P. was positively identified by a witness to the incident as the person who committed the alleged burglary of an automobile. According to Officer Pichón, he and his partner, Officer Glenn Buckle, were canvassing the area when they were flagged down around Annunciation Street and Sixth Street by a witness who gave them a description of the alleged perpetrator’s hairstyle and clothing. Driving towards downtown on Chippewa Street, Officer Pichón saw S.P. When S.P. saw the police vehicle, he crossed the street from the park towards a house where other people were congregating on the porch of a woman who sold “candy and frozen cups to kids in the neighborhood.” Officer Pichón and his partner stopped their vehicle, exiting as S.P. reached the porch, and “asked him to come over.” In response S.P. jumped off the porch and over the fence into the side yard, then fled down the alleyway. Officer Pichón stated that S.P. was apprehended under a nearby house in the 700 block of Third Street.

Officer Buckle also testified and identified S.P. as the juvenile they arrested after responding to the call reporting a vehicular break-in. According to Officer | (¡Buckle, as he and his partner were canvassing the area, they observed a male fitting the perpetrator’s description but, upon seeing the police car “he ran, started jumping from yard to yard.” Officer Buckle stated the juvenile was eventually found underneath the residence at 726 Third Street.

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Bluebook (online)
90 So. 3d 528, 2011 La.App. 4 Cir. 1598, 2012 WL 1549506, 2012 La. App. LEXIS 596, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-sp-lactapp-2012.