State v. Arnold

970 So. 2d 1067, 2007 WL 2726720
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedSeptember 19, 2007
Docket2007 KA 0362
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 970 So. 2d 1067 (State v. Arnold) 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. Arnold, 970 So. 2d 1067, 2007 WL 2726720 (La. Ct. App. 2007).

Opinion

970 So.2d 1067 (2007)

STATE of Louisiana
v.
Christopher Sheldon ARNOLD.

No. 2007 KA 0362.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, First Circuit.

September 19, 2007.

*1069 Joseph Waitz, District Attorney, Juan Pickett, Ellen Daigle Doskey, Assistant District Attorneys, Houma, Counsel for Appellee State of Louisiana.

Prentice White, Baton Rouge, Counsel for Defendant/Appellant Christopher Sheldon Arnold.

Before: GAIDRY, McDONALD, and McCLENDON, JJ.

McCLENDON, J.

The defendant, Christopher Sheldon Arnold, was charged by bill of information[1] with armed robbery, a violation of LSA-R.S. 14:64. The defendant pled not guilty. Following a jury trial, the defendant was found guilty as charged. The defendant was sentenced to forty (40) years imprisonment at hard labor without benefit of parole, probation, or suspension of sentence. The defendant now appeals designating two counseled and two pro se assignments of error. We affirm the conviction and remand.

FACTS

On June 27, 2003, Darryl Price and another perpetrator, identified at trial by Price and other witnesses as the defendant, committed an armed robbery at the Bank One University Branch in Terrebonne Parish. They took over $35,000 from the bank.

According to the testimony of Price and Roger Parker, Jr., Price, Parker, William Smith, and Alicia, a friend of Parker, drove to Louisiana from California several days before the robbery. In California, Price, Parker, and William Tribble had discussed robbing a bank in Louisiana. A day or so after arriving in Louisiana, Price and Parker picked up Tribble and the defendant from the New Orleans Airport. They rented two rooms at the Deauville Motel in Thibodaux and formulated a plan to rob the bank. Present at this meeting were Price, Tribble, Parker, Milton Livas (Parker's cousin from Louisiana), and the defendant. In preparation for the robbery, they bought a car, phones, and walkie-talkies. The guns to be used were obtained from Tribble and Livas.

On the day of the robbery, Price and the defendant parked in the bank parking lot. Parker, Tribble, and Livas sat in the newly-bought car across the street from the bank. Gladys Harris, a friend of Price, was waiting in a third car at an arranged location. Price entered the bank and stood in line. Ten to twenty seconds later, the defendant entered the bank, pulled out his gun, announced it was a holdup, and ordered everyone to get down on the floor. Price jumped the counter, pulled out his gun, and told one of the female employees to open the safe. She opened the safe, but it contained only coins. At this point, another female employee *1070 approached the defendant and told him to take the money "in the teller." The defendant went to three different teller spots and had an employee put money from each spot into a pillowcase. When the defendant told Price that their time was up, Price and the defendant exited the bank and drove away in their car. Moments later, a red dye pack exploded in the pillowcase full of money. Price continued to drive. Several blocks later, however, he lost control of the car and crashed into a ditch. Price and the defendant ran in opposite directions. According to Price, the defendant had the money with him.

Brian Davis, an eyewitness to the accident, testified at trial that, prior to the car going into a ditch, he saw "red stuff" fly out of the passenger window. After the car crashed, Davis described the person who got out of the driver's seat as a "black guy." He described the person who got out of the passenger seat as a "Mexican guy." He further testified that the "black guy" was running with a white bag in his hand, and that the other man had nothing.

Moments later, Tribble picked up the defendant. Unable to find Price, they returned to the motel room. Price, who had run to an enclosed shed-like area of a nearby house, removed the outer layer of his clothing and exposed another layer of clothes underneath. After hiding for a while, Price emerged and was apprehended by six police officers. Price was arrested and Mirandized. He then gave a recorded statement to Detective Malcolm Wolfe. According to Price, his testimony given at trial was essentially the same as the statement he gave to Detective Wolfe. In his statement, Price told Detective Wolfe about all those involved in planning the armed robbery and about the rented motel rooms. Price also stated that he and the defendant went inside the bank with guns. Based on Price's statement, Detective Wolfe was able to apprehend some of those involved with the armed robbery, including the defendant. However, Parker, Tribble, and Harris drove back to California before they could be apprehended. Parker was arrested about thirty days later in California. Parker identified the defendant as a perpetrator of the armed robbery.

Three eyewitnesses to the robbery at the bank testified at trial. Tommy Picou, a customer, positively identified the defendant as one of the two perpetrators of the armed robbery. According to Picou, as he was walking out of the bank with his family, the defendant walked in, pointed a gun at Picou, and told him and his family to get back into the bank and get on the floor. As the defendant was walking in, Picou stated that, as the defendant was walking in, it looked as if the defendant was putting on a hat and covering his face with a bandanna. On cross-examination, Picou testified that, although he was asked by a police officer to try to identify any suspects shortly after the robbery, he could not.

Curt Domangue, the bank manager, testified that the person who was pointing a gun at Picou had a cap on and a bandanna covering his face. Domangue stated that the gunman had a light tan and described him as "almost Hispanic" or Indian. On cross-examination, Domangue stated that when he gave a recorded statement to the police, he did not mention that the perpetrator was Hispanic or Indian. When asked if he could see the perpetrator's face, Domangue testified, "Not with the bandanna over his nose and mouth."

Julie Olin, the assistant manager at the bank, positively identified the defendant as one of the perpetrators of the armed robbery. She testified that she and the defendant were looking at each other when the defendant entered the bank. According *1071 to Olin, the defendant then pulled his sweatshirt up over his face and screamed, "Don't look at my face!" Olin described the defendant as "white complected — like real light."

ASSIGNMENT OF ERROR NO. 1

In his first assignment of error, the defendant argues that the evidence was insufficient to support the armed robbery conviction. Specifically, the defendant contends that the state failed to prove his identity as a perpetrator of the armed robbery.[2]

A conviction based on insufficient evidence cannot stand as it violates Due Process. See U.S. Const. amend. XIV; LSA-Const. art. I, § 2. 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, any rational trier of fact could conclude that the state proved the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. See LSA-C.Cr. P. art. 821(B). The Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 2789, 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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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
970 So. 2d 1067, 2007 WL 2726720, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-arnold-lactapp-2007.