State of Louisiana v. Charles Joseph Stevens

Louisiana Court of Appeal·Decided March 5, 2008·No. KA-0007-0976·Unknown

Opinion

STATE OF LOUISIANA

COURT OF APPEAL, THIRD CIRCUIT

07-976

STATE OF LOUISIANA VERSUS CHARLES JOSEPH STEVENS **********

APPEAL FROM THE

SIXTEENTH JUDICIAL DISTRICT COURT PARISH OF IBERIA, DOCKET NO. 06-1933 HONORABLE GERARD B. WATTIGNY, DISTRICT JUDGE

**********

JAMES T. GENOVESE

JUDGE

**********

Court composed of Billy H. Ezell, J. David Painter, and James T. Genovese, Judges.

AFFIRMED AND REMANDED

WITH INSTRUCTIONS.

Mark O. Foster Louisiana Appellate Project Post Office Box 2057 Natchitoches, Louisiana 71457 (318) 572-5693 COUNSEL FOR DEFENDANT/APPELLANT:

Charles Joseph Stevens

J. Phil Haney District Attorney - Sixteenth Judicial District ADA Jeffrey J. Trosclair St. Mary Parish Courthouse, 5th Floor Franklin, Louisiana 70538 (337) 828-4100, EXT. 550 COUNSEL FOR APPELLEE:

State of Louisiana

GENOVESE, Judge.

On November 14, 2006, the Defendant, Charles Joseph Stevens, was charged by bill of information with one count of communication of false information of planned arson, a violation of La.R.S. 14:54.1, and with one count of aggravated assault, a violation of La. R.S. 14:37. On April 26, 2007, a jury trial was held on count one, a felony charge, while count two, a misdemeanor charge, was presented to the trial court for bench trial. The Defendant was subsequently found guilty on both the felony and misdemeanor charges.

On May 22, 2007, the Defendant was sentenced to eight years at hard labor on the felony conviction of communication of false information of planned arson, with credit for time served, and six months in the parish jail on the misdemeanor conviction of aggravated assault, to run concurrently with each other, but consecutively to all other sentences. On June 7, 2007, the Defendant filed a motion to reconsider the sentence imposed for his felony conviction of false communication of planned arson. The motion was summarily denied on June 11, 2007. The Defendant is now before this court on appeal, asserting that the evidence was insufficient to convict him of false communication of planned arson and that his eight-year sentence for same is excessive. We affirm the Defendant’s conviction and sentence.

FACTS

On October 2, 2006, the Defendant engaged in a verbal altercation with his girlfriend, Cheryl Thibodeaux (Cheryl), while at the home of Rita G. Williams (Rita). Rita asked the Defendant to leave, and he refused to do so and pushed Rita to the side. Next, Cheryl raised a hammer as if she was going to hit the Defendant. The

Defendant then took the hammer from her and threw it, striking her in the ankle area. When Rita picked up the phone to call the police, the Defendant exited the home. Before leaving on his bicycle, the Defendant threatened to return to the home, nail the door shut, and set the home on fire with Cheryl, Rita, and Rita’s two young children inside. Upon the arrival of the police, Rita reported the incident. The Defendant was later located, arrested, and charged as set forth above.

ERRORS PATENT

In accordance with La.Code Crim.P. art. 920, all appeals are reviewed for errors patent on the face of the record. After reviewing the record, we note that there is an error patent, an error in the court minutes, and one procedural issue that must be addressed.

In this case, there was a misjoinder of offenses in the bill of information. In a single bill of information, the State charged the Defendant with a felony, communication of false information of planned arson, and a misdemeanor, aggravated assault. Louisiana Code of Criminal Procedure Article 493 provides for the joinder of offenses in a single bill of information under limited circumstances, if the offenses joined are triable by the same mode of trial. The misdemeanor offense of aggravated assault is triable by a judge only; whereas, the felony offense of communication of false information of planned arson is triable by a jury. See La.R.S. 14:37, 14:54.1, and La.Code Crim.P. arts. 779 and 782. Because the Defendant was entitled to a jury trial for the felony charge and was not entitled to a jury trial on the misdemeanor charge, the offenses were not triable by the same mode of trial and should not have been charged in the same bill of information. See La.Code Crim.P. art. 493. However, because the Defendant failed to file a motion to quash the bill of

information based on the misjoinder, he waived any objection to the error. See La.Code Crim.P. art. 495 and State v. Mallett, 357 So.2d 1105 (La.1978), cert. denied, 439 U.S. 1074, 99 S.Ct. 848 (1979). Accordingly, we find the issue of misjoinder to have been waived.

Next, we note that since the aggravated assault charge was not triable by a jury, the proper mode of appellate review for that offense is an application for writ of review rather than an appeal. See La.Code Crim.P. art. 912.1. In State v. Turner, 04- 1250 (La.App. 3 Cir. 3/2/05), 896 So.2d 286, writ denied, 05-871 (La. 12/12/05), 917 So.2d 1084, this court severed a misdemeanor conviction for possession of marijuana from the defendant’s appeal of two felony convictions. This court ordered the “defendant to file a writ of review regarding the possession of marijuana conviction in compliance with the Rules of Court.” Id. at 289. In Turner, the court noted that the defendant did not make any specific arguments regarding the misdemeanor conviction. This court considered the notice of appeal as a notice to file a writ of review within thirty days of its opinion, if the defendant desired to seek review of his misdemeanor conviction.

As in Turner, the Defendant has not raised any assignment of error regarding his misdemeanor conviction. Therefore, as was done by this court in Turner, we sever the misdemeanor conviction from the appeal and order the Defendant to file a writ of review regarding the misdemeanor conviction in compliance with the Uniform Rules of Court, should he so desire.

Additionally, the minutes of sentencing contain an error. The minutes of sentencing state in pertinent part:

The court sentenced the defendant in [sic] the charge of communication of False Information of a Planned Arson to serve eight

(8) years at hard labor, with credit for time served. The defense requested to make these sentences concurrent. The court denied this motion. The Court sentenced the defendant in [sic] the charge of Aggravated Assault to serve six (6) months in the parish jail to run concurrent with the Communication of False Information of a Planned Arson and consecutive with each other.

The transcript of sentencing provides in pertinent part: “For those reasons, the court sentences Mr. Stevens to serve eight years at hard labor. . . No, it’s consecutive. On the other matter, I sentence him to serve six months in the parish jail. The sentence is concurrent with the sentence for the false information but consecutive to all other sentences.” (Emphasis added). Therefore, we remand the case to the district court with instructions to amend the minutes of sentencing to correctly reflect the transcript of sentencing.

ASSIGNMENTS OF ERROR

The Defendant presents two assignments of error:

1. The evidence was insufficient to support a conviction for communication of false information of a planned arson in violation of La. R.S. 14:54.1.

2. The sentence imposed by the trial court was cruel, unusual, and excessive in violation of Article I, §20 of the Louisiana Constitution of 1974.

Assignment of Error Number One In this assignment of error, the Defendant argues that the evidence was insufficient to support a conviction for communication of false information of a planned arson. The analysis for a claim of insufficient evidence is well-settled:

When the issue of sufficiency of evidence is raised on appeal, the critical inquiry of the reviewing court is whether, after viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct.

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