State v. Alexander

119 So. 3d 120, 2012 La.App. 5 Cir. 194, 2013 WL 2121911, 2013 La. App. LEXIS 954
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMay 16, 2013
DocketNo. 12-KA-194
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 119 So. 3d 120 (State v. Alexander) 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. Alexander, 119 So. 3d 120, 2012 La.App. 5 Cir. 194, 2013 WL 2121911, 2013 La. App. LEXIS 954 (La. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

SUSAN M. CHEHARDY, Chief Judge.

| ^Defendant appeals his convictions of attempted forcible rape and indecent behavior with a juvenile. For the following reasons, we affirm.

Procedural History

On August 5, 2009, the Jefferson Parish District Attorney filed a bill of information charging defendant, Derrick Alexander, with forcible rape in violation of LSA-R.S. 14:42.1, to which he pled not guilty. Subsequently, on October 11, 2011, the district attorney filed an amended bill of information, charging defendant with the additional offense of indecent behavior with a juvenile in violation of LSA-R.S. 14:81. Defendant was arraigned on the amended bill and pled not guilty.

On November 8, 2011, after a two-day trial, the twelve-person jury found defendant guilty of the responsive verdict of attempted forcible rape and guilty as charged of indecent behavior with a juvenile. On December 2, 2011, after the trial court denied defendant’s motions for new trial and post-verdict judgment of acquittal, defendant waived sentencing delays and was sentenced, on the attempted forcible rape, to twenty years imprisonment at hard labor, and on the indecent ^behavior with a juvenile, to seven years imprisonment at hard labor.

Also on that day, after sentence had been imposed, the State filed a multiple offender bill of information on each count, alleging defendant to be a third felony offender. After adjudicating defendant a third felony offender, the trial court vacated defendant’s sentences on both counts and imposed concurrent enhanced sentences of life imprisonment at hard labor without benefit of parole, probation, or suspension of sentence.1 Thereafter, the trial court denied defendant’s motion to reconsider sentence and granted his motion for appeal.

Facts

At approximately 7:15 p.m. on April 25, 2009,13-year-old D.M.,2 the victim, visited [123]*123the house of M.D. to have M.D. braid her hair. M.D., the wife of defendant,3 is the cousin of D.M.’s “father,” T.C.4 At the time, M.D. resided at 4280 East Ames Boulevard in Jefferson Parish with her three children, of whom the oldest was ten years of age. Although defendant did not reside at this residence, there was testimony that he had a key.

When D.M. arrived, M.D. was there, along with her three children. M.D. started to braid D.M.’s hair, but stopped midway when she prepared to leave the house. Before leaving, M.D. called T.C. to ask if D.M. could spend the night, to which T.C. agreed. The testimony indicates that M.D. left the house sometime between 10:00 and 11:30 p.m., leaving D.M. alone with her children. Defendant arrived at the house approximately one hour after M.D. left.

When defendant arrived, D.M. exited the room where she had been watching television, and when she returned, noticed that defendant had a “nasty” Rmovie on. Defendant asked D.M. if she watched “nasty” movies; she told him “no.” Defendant asked if she had a boyfriend and if he could be her “sideline boyfriend.” D.M. left to go to the children’s room, but soon returned to watch more television, where defendant had evidently stopped watching the “nasty” movie. While D.M. watched television, defendant began “touching” her. D.M. left the room, at which point, defendant left the house to go to McDonald’s. It appears that at some point after defendant returned with food for the children— the chronology of events is not clear— defendant resumed his physical advances towards D.M.: rubbing her, touching her genitals with his hands, and kissing her neck and breasts. D.M. tried to push defendant away and told him to stop, but he did not. He then pulled off her pants and underwear, removed his pants and underwear, rolled on top of her, and put his “private part,” which D.M. indicated is his penis, into her “private part,” which she indicated is her vagina. D.M. then retreated into the bathroom to wipe herself off. Following these events, defendant gave D.M. $100.00 and wrote his phone number down for her. D.M. threw the number in the garbage.

D.D., defendant’s eldest child, testified to a different version of events. D.D. stated that when M.D. left the house that night, D.D., her two younger sisters, and D.M. were watching a movie in her bedroom. D.D. only saw defendant one time that night: when he brought them McDonald’s. After eating, they all fell asleep in the same bed; D.D. never saw D.M. leave the room and never heard a struggle in another room. The next morning, when D.D. spoke with D.M., she did not indicate anything had happened the night before.

M.D. arrived back home between 3:45 and 4:00 a.m. on April 26, 2009. As she arrived, she noticed that defendant was asleep in his truck and she did not know where he had been between 7:00 p.m. and 3:45 a.m. that night.

At some point over the next two days, D.M. told T.C. that defendant had 15“raped” her. T.C. took D.M. to M.D.’s [124]*124house, where D.M. told M.D. what had happened. Thereafter, M.D. called the police, which she explained at trial she only did because T.C. was threatening to harm defendant with “sticks.”

In the early evening of April 27, 2009, Deputy Mark Monson of the Jefferson Parish Sheriffs Office responded to the call. When he arrived, the deputy encountered D.M., T.C., and M.D. standing outside. T.C. appeared angry and teary-eyed, while D.M. seemed timid and nervous with shaky hands. Deputy Monson separated T.C. and D.M. and obtained an account of the events from each. T.C. told the deputy that defendant had raped D.M.; and D.M. gave the deputy a near-verbatim account of what T.C. had said. The deputy found the level of detail in D.M.’s story to be noteworthy. He especially found it significant that D.M. was able to recite defendant’s phone number.

Deputy Monson then spoke with M.D., who “told him all the same stuff,” including that defendant was asleep in bed when she got home that night. M.D. also gave the deputy defendant’s phone number, which he confirmed was the same as D.M. had specified. However, at trial, M.D. denied talking to Deputy Monson that day, denied giving him defendant’s phone number, and claimed defendant was asleep in his truck, not his bed, when she got home that night.

After speaking with these three individuals, Deputy Monson contacted Detective Terri Dana in the personal violence section of the Jefferson Parish Sheriffs Office. Detective Dana, along with Detective Nick Vega, responded to the scene. Upon the detectives’ arrival, D.M. and T.C. were not there as they had gone to Children’s Hospital for a sexual assault exam. Detective Dana spoke with Deputy Monson, who relayed all the information he had gathered. The detective then spoke with M.D., who consented to have her house photographed and scanned with a light used to detect bodily fluids. The scan did not detect any bodily fluids. The detectives then proceeded to defendant’s residence, where they encountered |fihis mother, Lillian Alexander, who informed them that defendant was not home at the time.

Meanwhile, Dr. Eva Blanche Centanni of Children’s Hospital conducted a sexual assault exam of D.M., in which D.M. described the details of the incident. The doctor did not find any physical trauma to D.M.’s body or vagina, which she explained is not uncommon in sexual abuse cases, the majority of which lack clear medical evidence. During the vaginal exam, Dr.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
119 So. 3d 120, 2012 La.App. 5 Cir. 194, 2013 WL 2121911, 2013 La. App. LEXIS 954, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-alexander-lactapp-2013.