State v. Amant

169 So. 3d 535, 14 La.App. 5 Cir. 607, 2015 La. App. LEXIS 506, 2015 WL 1119483
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMarch 11, 2015
DocketNo. 14-KA-607
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 169 So. 3d 535 (State v. Amant) 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. Amant, 169 So. 3d 535, 14 La.App. 5 Cir. 607, 2015 La. App. LEXIS 506, 2015 WL 1119483 (La. Ct. App. 2015).

Opinion

ROBERT A. CHAISSON, Judge.

| ¡.Defendant, Larry St. Amant, Jr., appeals his convictions and sentences for various narcotics offenses. For the reasons that follow, we affirm defendant’s convictions and sentences, as amended, and remand the matter for correction of errors patent as noted herein.

PROCEDURAL HISTORY

On October 22, 2013, the Jefferson Parish District Attorney filed a bill of information charging defendant with eight counts of distribution of cocaine, in violation of LSA-R.S. 40:967 A (counts one, two, three, five, six, seven, nine, and eleven), and three counts of distribution of heroin, in violation of LSA-R.S. 40:966 A (counts four, eight, and ten). Defendant pled not guilty and thereafter proceeded to trial before a twelve-person jury. After considering the evidence presented, the jury, on April 10, 2014, found defendant guilty as charged.

|aOn April 21, 2014, the trial court sentenced defendant, on each count, to imprisonment at hard labor for twenty years, with the first five years to be served without benefit of parole, probation, or suspension of sentence. In addition, the trial court ordered defendant’s sentences to be served concurrently and imposed a fine of one thousand dollars.

The State thereafter filed a multiple offender bill of information on count four alleging defendant to be a second felony offender. After a hearing, the trial court found defendant to be a second felony offender, vacated its previously imposed sentence on count four, and resentenced defendant, pursuant to LSA-R.S. 15:529.1, [538]*538to imprisonment for thirty years in the Department of Corrections, to be served without benefit of probation or suspension of sentence. Defendant now appeals.

FACTS

This case involves eight separate purchases of narcotics by Mary Clare Ula-siewicz, an undercover agent for the Jefferson Parish Sheriffs Office, who used the name Tammy Smith to hide her identity.1 At trial, Agent Smith testified about the details of the transactions which occurred over the course of approximately one month.

June 25, 2013

As Agent Smith was driving on Bengal Road in River Ridge on June 25, 2013, she was flagged down by a black male who identified himself as “Wu” and asked her “what [she] was looking for.” Agent Smith replied that she was looking for a “forty.” Wu then asked Agent Smith to use her phone so he could call his “boy.” Wu dialed phone number (504) 231-9916, and after a brief conversation [¿with the recipient of the phone call, he told Agent Smith to meet him on the next street over, Providence Lane.

Agent Smith drove to that location, parked on the street, and observed Wu knocking on the front door of a house located at 307 Providence. At that time a second black male, who identified himself as “Fresh,” exited the house and approached the agent’s vehicle with Wu. Fresh engaged Agent Smith in conversation while Wu approached a tan SUV that had driven up and stopped a couple of houses down on Providence Lane. Although Agent Smith could not see the driver of the tan SUV, she observed the driver roll down the window when Wu approached. Wu then walked back to Agent Smith with two rocks of crack cocaine for which she paid him forty dollars. After this transaction, Wu walked back to the SUV, and Agent Smith left the area.

A short time later, Agent Smith received a phone call from the number Wu had previously dialed. The caller identified himself as “LaLa” and asked Agent Smith if Wu had given her “[his] s* *t.” After Agent Smith confirmed that she had received it, LaLa stated that “his s* *t was good and to hit him up later.”

June 26, 2013

The following day, June 26, 2013, Agent Smith called LaLa at (504) 231-9916 and asked for more crack cocaine. LaLa told the undercover agent to call him when she was close to the River Ridge area. When Agent Smith called LaLa at the same phone number, he asked her how much money she had on her. After informing him that she had sixty dollars, he instructed her where to stop her vehicle. Agent Smith observed the tan SUV with a temporary tag containing numbers 1552 and a black male, whom she believed to be LaLa, with “ear-toj3houlder”5 hair and possibly a hooded jacket, inside the vehicle. A second black male exited the SUV, approached her vehicle, identified himself as Craig, conducted the drug transaction, and then returned to the SUV.

July 3, 2013

Agent Smith arranged for a third undercover purchase on July 3, 2013. On that day, the undercover agent called LaLa at (504) 231-9916 and arranged to buy sixty [539]*539dollars worth of crack cocaine. When Agent Smith entered the River Ridge area, she received a phone call from LaLa setting np the deal; however, Craig was the individual who exited the passenger side of the SUV and brought the crack cocaine to Agent Smith. After the transaction Agent Smith asked Craig for some “dog food,” which is a street term for heroin. Craig gave her his phone number (338-1247), but Agent Smith never called him because she knew Craig was not the supplier and that LaLa was “always the one setting up the deal, calling to confirm the deal.” A few moments after the transaction was conducted with Craig, LaLa called Agent Smith to inform her that he had heroin available for purchase.

July 10, 2013

Officer Smith again called LaLa. at (504) 231-9916 on July 10, 2013, to set up a transaction to purchase sixty dollars worth of crack cocaine and forty dollars worth of heroin. Once she arrived in the River Ridge area, Agent Smith called LaLa, parked her vehicle near an empty lot on Providence Lane, and then waited for a few minutes. The tan SUV pulled up next to Agent Smith’s passenger side window, at which time the driver lowered his window and instructed her to “back up.” After the SUV backed up, Agent Smith likewise backed up.

|fiAt that time, a black female, whom Agent Smith had previously seen walking through a nearby empty field, stood between her vehicle and the SUV.3 LaLa handed the female the crack cocaine and heroin, and the female handed the narcotics to the undercover agent through the passenger side window. Agent Smith gave the money to this female, who then handed it to LaLa. During this transaction, which occurred during daylight hours, Agent Smith, for the first time, was able to get a profile view of LaLa’s face. She described him as “a black male with very short, if not bald, hair” who “had thick, white rim sunglasses on with a little bit of scruff on his face.”

Following this transaction, Sergeant Corey Wilson of the Jefferson Parish Sheriffs Office followed the tan SUV to a gas station. From his location, Sergeant Wilson observed the driver exit the vehicle and enter the convenience store. Sergeant Wilson immediately recognized the driver as Larry St. Amant because they “grew up in church together from small kids.”

July 12, 2013

On this occasion, Agent Smith once again called LaLa at the same phone number arid asked him for forty dollars worth of heroin and sixty dollars worth of cocaine. Since Agent Smith’s vehicle was being repaired, she took a taxicab, being driven by Agent Leon James, to the meeting site in River Ridge. While Agent Smith was in the cab, LaLa called her and told her “Craig got it,” and directed her to Craig’s location.

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Bluebook (online)
169 So. 3d 535, 14 La.App. 5 Cir. 607, 2015 La. App. LEXIS 506, 2015 WL 1119483, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-amant-lactapp-2015.