State of Louisiana Versus Billy Lampton

CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedOctober 22, 2024
Docket24-K-444
StatusUnknown

This text of State of Louisiana Versus Billy Lampton (State of Louisiana Versus Billy Lampton) 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.

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State of Louisiana Versus Billy Lampton, (La. Ct. App. 2024).

Opinion

STATE OF LOUISIANA NO. 24-K-444

VERSUS FIFTH CIRCUIT

BILLY LAMPTON COURT OF APPEAL

STATE OF LOUISIANA

October 22, 2024

Linda Wiseman First Deputy Clerk

IN RE BILLY LAMPTON

APPLYING FOR SUPERVISORY WRIT FROM THE TWENTY-FOURTH JUDICIAL DISTRICT COURT, PARISH OF JEFFERSON, STATE OF LOUISIANA, DIRECTED TO THE HONORABLE JUNE B. DARENSBURG, DIVISION "C", NUMBER 23-2560

Panel composed of Judges Susan M. Chehardy, Fredericka Homberg Wicker, and Timothy S. Marcel

WRIT DENIED

Relator, Billy Lampton, seeks review of the district court’s August 23, 2024

ruling denying his motion to suppress evidence and identification. For the

following reasons, we deny Lampton’s writ application.

Procedural History

On June 1, 2023, the Jefferson Parish District Attorney filed a bill of

information charging Billy Lampton with one count of possession with intent to

distribute fentanyl, a violation of La. R.S. 40:967(A) (count one), and one count of

possession with intent to distribute marijuana weighing 2.5 pounds or greater, a

violation of La. R.S. 40:966(A) (count two), with both counts alleged to have

occurred on September 2, 2022. Lampton pled not guilty.

24-K-444 Lampton filed a motion to suppress evidence and identification. A hearing

on that motion was held on August 7, 2024.1 At the close of the hearing, the

district court took the matter under advisement after granting defense counsel’s

request to file a post-hearing memorandum. After defense counsel’s post-hearing

filing, additional arguments were heard on August 23, 2024, after which the district

court denied Lampton’s motion to suppress.2 This writ application seeking review

of the trial court’s ruling followed. The district court granted defense counsel’s

motion to stay the matter pending this Court’s ruling.

Factual Background

At the August 7, 2024 suppression hearing, Sergeant David Biondolillo

stated that he is a sergeant with the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office (“JPSO”)

Narcotics Division and has worked as a task force officer with the Drug

Enforcement Administration (“DEA”) – Height Task Force along with other

detectives, including Detectives Christopher Cade and Christopher Powe.

Biondolillo explained that beginning in 2021 or 2022, the task force investigated

high intensity drug trafficking using long-term wiretap investigations of criminal

organizations. During the wiretap investigations, the task force received

information from a confidential informant (“CI”), regarding Lampton dealing

heroin and fentanyl. This information was later corroborated by surveillance of

Lampton’s activities.3 The CI informed law enforcement that he knew Lampton

1 It does not appear from the record that Lampton ever filed a written motion to suppress. 2 The district court also denied Lampton’s motion for impeaching information regarding the “cooperative defendant” or “confidential informant” in this case. 3 According to Biondolillo, the task force researched the information provided by the CI, and through surveillance, identified Lampton’s vehicles and his residence on “Grandlake,” and observed Lampton engaging in activities consistent with hand-to-hand transactions. Biondolillo explained that Lampton was not arrested at that time because the transactions observed occurred in Orleans Parish, not Jefferson Parish.

2 and identified Lampton as the dealer in a photograph. That photograph was

presented to the CI, individually, not in a six-pack lineup.4

Biondolillo testified that the task force conducted surveillance of Lampton at

his apartment on September 2, 2022. On that day, officers observed IV Waste

empty nearby trash dumpsters. Shortly thereafter, they saw Lampton exit his

apartment with a garbage bag, discard it in the dumpster, and then re-enter his

apartment. According to Biondolillo, who had observed the dumpster both before

and after it was emptied, Lampton’s garbage bag was the only item in the

dumpster. Officers then retrieved the discarded bag, which contained “three empty

packages [kilo wrappers] immediately identified as packaging used for kilograms.”

Biondolillo testified that upon opening the trash bag, officers recognized a pungent

“pickle like vinegary smell” “consistent with the odor of heroin/fentanyl.”5

Based on these findings, Biondolillo requested a search warrant for

Lampton’s residence. He confirmed the search warrant application was true to the

best of his knowledge. In his testimony, Biondolillo explained the warrant

application referenced “federal wiretaps” related to an ongoing federal

investigation into a New Orleans organization, but there were no wiretaps

pertaining to the instant case. Biondolillo further explained that the wiretaps

involved fentanyl transactions and that Lampton may have been a third party to the

transactions. However, Lampton never spoke in the wiretaps nor was his name

mentioned in the recordings.

According to Biondolillo, the officers waited outside Lampton’s apartment

for approval of the for the search warrant. While waiting, they observed Lampton

4 The CI was subject to criminal prosecution at the time he gave the information to the task force. In briefing, and at the hearing, the CI was interchangeably referred to as the “confidential informant” and/or “cooperating defendant (“CD”).” In the search warrant affidavit, the CI was referred to as a “CD.” 5 According to Biondolillo, he has worked in narcotics investigations since 2008 and is familiar with the odor of marijuana, cocaine, fentanyl, and heroin.

3 exit his apartment and the officers stopped him in the parking lot so as to detain

him pending execution of the warrant. Lampton was handcuffed and patted down.

Biondolillo testified that he read Lampton his Miranda6 rights, during which

Lampton was cooperative and provided officers with a key to his residence. The

officers then secured Lampton’s residence for the officer’s safety to ensure no one

else was inside and to prevent the potential destruction of evidence. At Lampton’s

request, the officers relocated inside his apartment. Biondolillo stated that once he

received the signed search warrant, he executed it. The search of Lampton’s

residence yielded approximately 181 grams of what was believed to be fentanyl in

a box and a scale in the kitchen cabinet, where Lampton stated it would be located.

Additionally, the search yielded a quantity of marijuana in a cardboard box found

in the bedroom. The task force also discovered paperwork containing information

indicating another residence connected to Lampton. Lampton gave his consent for

the officers to search that residence, but nothing of evidentiary value was found

therein. Lampton was placed under arrest.

Post-Hearing Memorandum

In his post-hearing memorandum, Lampton claimed the State, through

Biondolillo, informed the district court that there was “not a single federal wiretap,

little less multiple federal wiretaps” in the task force’s investigation, and that the

officers had supplied false information to the court. Lampton alleged that there

were no calls in which he was recorded, his name was not mentioned in any federal

wiretap, and he made no transactions with the CI. Consequently, Lampton averred

that Biondolillo’s statement in the search warrant affidavit that information about

him was corroborated by “multiple federal wiretaps” was a false statement made

6 Miranda v.

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State of Louisiana Versus Billy Lampton, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-of-louisiana-versus-billy-lampton-lactapp-2024.