State v. Adams

119 So. 3d 46, 11 La.App. 5 Cir. 1052, 2013 WL 2120749, 2013 La. App. LEXIS 950
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMay 16, 2013
DocketNo. 11-KA-1052
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 119 So. 3d 46 (State v. Adams) 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 v. Adams, 119 So. 3d 46, 11 La.App. 5 Cir. 1052, 2013 WL 2120749, 2013 La. App. LEXIS 950 (La. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

FREDERICKA HOMBERG WICKER, Judge.

12Pefendant appeals his conviction and sentence for second degree murder in violation of La. R.S. 14:30.1. For the following reasons, we affirm.

PROCEDURAL HISTORY

On January 18, 2007, a Jefferson Parish Grand Jury issued an indictment charging defendant, Steve Adams, with the second degree murder of Brandon Spincer in violation of La. R.S. 14:30.1. Defendant was [49]*49arraigned and entered a plea of not guilty.1 On December 1, 2009, the matter proceeded to trial and on December 3, 2009, a twelve-person jury found defendant guilty as charged. On December 9, 2009, defendant filed a motion for new trial, which the trial court denied. After defendant waived sentencing delays, the trial court sentenced defendant to life imprisonment at hard labor without benefit of parole, probation, or suspension of sentence. This timely appeal follows.

| FACTUAL BACKGROUND

Defendant and Ms. Charla Bell had known each other since childhood and had dated for four or five years. Throughout their relationship, the couple broke up and reunited several times, becoming engaged at one point. Each time the relationship ended, defendant took it poorly and became upset. At the time of the victim’s murder, Ms. Bell and defendant were not in a relationship and she had recently moved out of the house she shared with defendant and into an apartment with her cousin, Trelles Stamps. Ms. Bell began dating the victim, Brandon Spincer, in November of 2006.

On the date of the murder, November 20, 2006, Ms. Stamps saw defendant at or near the apartment she shared with Ms. Bell three times prior to the shooting. At one point, defendant came to the apartment with Ms. Bell’s brother, but left after Ms. Stamps informed them that Ms. Bell was not at the apartment. Later, defendant reappeared alone, but Ms. Stamps did not answer the door. That afternoon, Ms. Stamps and her friend, Monisce Hall, were out shopping when Ms. Stamps received a call from defendant, who told her that he wanted to fight for his love. When Ms. Stamps and Ms. Hall returned to the apartment complex sometime between 4:00 and 5:00 p.m., Ms. Stamps noticed defendant driving his white pickup truck down the street adjacent to the apartment complex.

At the time of the murder, Ms. Bell had been dating the victim for a week or two. After the victim finished work that day, he and Ms. Bell ran errands before heading to Ms. Bell’s apartment in the victim’s vehicle, a white Oldsmobile Alero. They arrived in the parking lot and parked behind Ms. Stamps and Ms. Hall, who had arrived minutes before and were parked in Ms. Stamps’ vehicle “chatting.”2

|4Ms. Bell exited the victim’s vehicle and approached her friends sitting in Ms. Stamps’ vehicle. She talked to Ms. Stamps and Ms. Hall briefly, then began walking to the front door of her apartment. As she did so, she heard at least four gunshots. She turned to see a white pickup truck, which she recognized as defendant’s, and a man wearing a blonde wig, which she recognized as her own wig left behind when she left the home she had shared with defendant.

Ms. Stamps testified that when she heard the gunshots, she stepped out of her vehicle and saw defendant in a wig firing a [50]*50gun into the victim’s vehicle. Ms. Hall, the passenger in Ms. Stamps’ vehicle, testified that after she heard the gunshots, she saw Ms. Bell running towards the victim’s vehicle. Ms. Hall then reached her hand out to pull Ms. Bell into Ms. Stamps’ vehicle. When Ms. Bell got into the vehicle, she screamed, “Casper just killed Brandon!”3 The women sped away in panic, thinking that defendant would follow them.

Ms. Stamps called 911.4 Before Ms. Bell arrived at the police station,5 defendant called her and told her that he loved her. Defendant told Ms. Bell that he heard someone was trying to hurt her, so he wanted to make sure she was okay. Later that evening, defendant again called Ms. Bell and she told him to turn himself in to authorities.

At the police station, Ms. Bell, Ms. Stamps, and Ms. Hall each separately identified defendant as the gunman from a photographic lineup. At trial, Ms. Stamps testified that she is one-hundred percent certain that defendant shot the victim. Ms. Bell also testified with certainty that defendant shot the victim. Ms. Hall testified that she did not see defendant shoot the victim; however, she | identified defendant by photographic lineup after the shooting because she heard her friends, who knew defendant well, screaming in the car that defendant had shot the victim.

Mr. Xenophrone Brumfield testified that he was at his girlfriend’s apartment, which is in the same complex where the murder occurred, on the evening of November 20, 2006. Mr. Brumfield is an officer with the HANO Police Department and was in the shower when he heard several noises that sounded like gunshots. He jumped out of the shower and looked out a window to see a black male wearing a white “thigh-high” jacket standing near the rear driver’s side of a white vehicle. Mr. Brumfield put on shorts, grabbed his weapon, and ran outside. He noticed the victim sitting in the driver’s seat of a white vehicle, discovered that the victim was dead, and called 911. Subsequently, Mr. Brumfield identified defendant as the gunman from a photographic lineup.

Mr. Nicholas Chisesi testified that on November 20, 2006, Chisesi Brothers Meat Packing Company employed defendant and that his time card for that day reflected that he reported to work at 6:30 а.m. and clocked out at 8:31 a.m. A notation on the time card indicated that defendant walked off the job that day.6 Mr. Chisesi also testified that defendant’s work uniform included a white jacket.7

On November 21, 2006, the day following the murder, defendant surrendered himself to police. He was advised of his rights, indicated he understood them, and executed a waiver thereof. Defendant gave an initial statement in which he denied any involvement in the murder. A few hours later, defendant gave a second statement in which he admitted that he shot the victim but claimed he did so in self-defense. In his second statement, de[51]*51fendant stated that he | fiwent to Ms. Bell’s apartment on the evening of November 20, 2006, to try to work things out with her. As he approached the victim’s vehicle, he noticed the victim sitting in the driver’s seat and thought he saw the victim reach for something to point at him. Fearing for his life, defendant shot the victim, drove away, and later threw the gun in Lake Pontchartrain.

At trial, defendant denied shooting the victim and claimed that his confession was coerced. Defendant testified that Jefferson Parish Detective Meunier, “grabbed me, he pulled on me, he pulled the chain [t]hat the handcuffs was on and was forcing me to make a statement telling me that I was going to spend the rest of my life in jail if I don’t give him something.” Defendant also testified that Detective Meunier promised to get defendant a “deal” if he confessed.

Ms. Cheryl Adams, defendant’s mother, testified that she accompanied her son to the detective bureau on November 21, 2006. Ms. Adams waited four or five hours while her son was in a back room with detectives. Officers eventually brought Ms. Adams to the interview room, where she learned that her son had confessed to the murder.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
119 So. 3d 46, 11 La.App. 5 Cir. 1052, 2013 WL 2120749, 2013 La. App. LEXIS 950, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-adams-lactapp-2013.