State v. Anderson

603 So. 2d 780, 1992 WL 163424
Louisiana Court of Appeal·Decided June 29, 1992·No. KA 91 0735, KA 91 0736·Published·Cited by 5 cases

Opinion

603 So.2d 780 (1992)

STATE of Louisiana
v.
Vincent Paul ANDERSON.

Nos. KA 91 0735, KA 91 0736.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, First Circuit.

June 29, 1992.

*782 Jason Lyons, Asst. Dist. Atty., Houma, for plaintiff and appellee, State.

Anthony P. Champagne, Indigent Defender, Houma, for defendant and appellant, Vincent Paul Anderson.

Before SHORTESS, LANIER and CRAIN, JJ.

CRAIN, Judge.

The defendant, Vincent P. Anderson, was charged by bill of information with simple burglary, a violation of LSA-R.S. 14:62. The defendant pled not guilty and, after trial by jury, was found guilty as charged. The defendant was subsequently adjudicated a second felony habitual offender.[1] The trial court sentenced the defendant to twenty years at hard labor. The defendant appealed, urging seven assignments of error.

The defendant expressly abandoned assignment of error number three.

On July 14, 1990, police officers Freddie Williams and Milton Wolfe were working as security at a wedding reception in Houma, Louisiana. A woman told the officers that she saw someone inside Officer Wolfe's personal vehicle, which was parked outside of the building where the reception was being held. The officers ran outside and found the defendant in the front seat of Officer Wolfe's vehicle. Officer Wolfe noticed that the face of his car stereo was missing and several screws from the stereo were gone. The defendant was arrested and advised of his rights. The officers then searched the defendant and found the knobs to the car stereo in his pocket. Officer *783 Wolfe testified that he did not give the defendant permission to enter his vehicle.

ASSIGNMENTS OF ERROR NUMBERS ONE AND TWO:

In his first assignment of error, the defendant contends that the trial court erred in granting the State's cause challenge of potential juror, Nellie Cato. The defendant argues that Cato would have been able to follow the law and evidence put before her.

On voir dire examination, Cato stated that she would have a problem passing judgment on the defendant because she had seen the defendant numerous times at her husband's store and that the defendant was a friend of her husband. Later, when questioned by the defense as to her being able to find the defendant guilty if the State presented evidence beyond a reasonable doubt, she responded that she thought she could. Cato also stated that she thought she could give the defendant a fair trial even with her attitude of not wanting to pass judgment. However, Cato additionally expressed that she felt sorry for the defendant, which she thought would cause a problem with her ability to serve as a juror.

In his second assignment of error, the defendant argues that the trial court erred in denying the defendant's cause challenge of potential juror, Leon St. Martin. The defendant contends that St. Martin was prejudiced and biased.

During the voir dire examination, defense counsel asked St. Martin if he had ever been drunk; and St. Martin responded that it was none of his business. When questioned as to his ability to apply the defense of being intoxicated to the point where it eliminates the possibility of having specific criminal intent, St. Martin responded that he would have a problem with it and did not think he could apply the defense. However, St. Martin was rehabilitated when he affirmed that he would be able to apply the law regardless of his personal feelings about the law.

An accused in a criminal case is constitutionally entitled to a full and complete voir dire examination and to the exercise of peremptory challenges. La. Const. Art. 1, Sec. 17. The purpose of voir dire examination is to determine prospective jurors' qualifications by testing their competency and impartiality and discovering bases for the intelligent exercise of cause and peremptory challenges. State v. Burton, 464 So.2d 421, 425 (La.App. 1st Cir.), writ denied, 468 So.2d 570 (La.1985). A challenge for cause should be granted, even when a prospective juror declares his ability to remain impartial, if the juror's responses as a whole reveal facts from which bias, prejudice, or inability to render judgment according to law may be reasonably implied. State v. Martin, 558 So.2d 654, 658 (La.App. 1st Cir.), writ denied, 564 So.2d 318 (La.1990). A refusal by the trial court to excuse a prospective juror on the ground that he is not impartial is not an abuse of discretion where, after further inquiry or instruction, he has demonstrated a willingness and ability to decide the case impartially according to the law and the evidence. State v. Copeland, 530 So.2d 526, 534 (La.1988).

The State or the defendant may challenge a juror for cause on the ground that the relationship, whether by blood, marriage, employment, friendship, or enmity, between the juror and the defendant is such that it would influence the juror in arriving at a verdict. La.C.Cr.P. art. 797(3). A trial court is accorded great discretion in determining whether to seat or reject a juror for cause, and such rulings will not be disturbed unless a review of the voir dire as a whole indicates an abuse of that discretion. State v. Martin, 558 So.2d at 658.

Based on the answers given by Cato, the trial court found that Cato's relationship with the defendant would prevent Cato from being a fair and impartial juror. A review of the voir dire examination convinces us that the trial court did not abuse his discretion in excusing Cato.

The defendant challenged prospective juror St. Martin because of his initial statements that he did not think he could find intoxication to be a defense for the defendant's *784 crime. Nonetheless, St. Martin was rehabilitated when he stated that he would be able to apply the law as given to him by the trial court. The defendant also argued that the juror was uncooperative because he told defense counsel that a question was none of his business. However, defense counsel responded: "Well, that's fine. If you don't think it is, that's fine." The trial court stated in his denial of the defendant's challenge for cause of St. Martin that the court would have stepped in, but defense counsel did not pursue this line of questioning. A review of the voir dire examination assures us that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying the cause challenge of St. Martin.

The defendant has shown no prejudice arising from the trial court's dismissal of Cato or from the denial of the challenge for cause of St. Martin. Thus, we find these assignments of error to be without merit.

ASSIGNMENTS OF ERROR NUMBERS FOUR AND FIVE:

The defendant contends in these assignments of error that the trial court erred in denying his motion for post-verdict judgment of acquittal and that the jury's verdict was contrary to the law and evidence.

The standard of review for the sufficiency of the evidence to uphold a conviction is whether or not, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, a rational trier of fact could conclude that the State proved the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. See La.C.Cr.P. art. 821. The Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979), standard of review, incorporated in Article 821, is an objective standard for testing the overall evidence, both direct and circumstantial, for reasonable doubt. When analyzing circumstantial evidence, LSA-R.S.

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State v. Anderson, 603 So. 2d 780, 1992 WL 163424 (La. Ct. App. 1992).

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