State v. Badon

664 So. 2d 1291, 1995 WL 684791
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedNovember 16, 1995
Docket95-KA-0452
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 664 So. 2d 1291 (State v. Badon) 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. Badon, 664 So. 2d 1291, 1995 WL 684791 (La. Ct. App. 1995).

Opinion

664 So.2d 1291 (1995)

STATE of Louisiana
v.
Edward BADON.

No. 95-KA-0452.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Fourth Circuit.

November 16, 1995.

*1292 Harry Connick, District Attorney, Parish of Orleans, Kim Madere Graham, Assistant District Attorney, New Orleans, for State.

Archie B. Creech, Orleans Indigent Defender Program, New Orleans, for Edward Badon.

Before BYRNES, PLOTKIN and WALTZER, JJ.

WALTZER, Judge.

STATEMENT OF THE CASE:

Edward A. Badon was charged by Grand Jury bill of indictment with the second degree murder of his grandmother, a violation of La.R.S. 14:30.1. At his arraignment, he pleaded not guilty, but subsequently amended his plea to not guilty by reason of insanity. Following a lunacy hearing, Badon was *1293 found competent to proceed to trial. The trial court denied Badon's Motion to Suppress Evidence. On defense motion, a second sanity commission was appointed, and again Badon was found to be competent. After trial, a twelve-member jury found him guilty as charged, and he was sentenced to life imprisonment without benefit of parole, probation, or suspension of sentence.

STATEMENT OF THE FACTS:

HEARING ON MOTION TO SUPPRESS EVIDENCE

Officer Byron Adams of the New Orleans Police Department's Homicide Investigations Division testified at the motion hearing. He testified that during his investigation of the death of Gollia McGee, Badon made several statements. In the first, Badon told Adams that at 9:30 a.m., he and Mrs. McGee (Badon's grandmother) were sleeping. Badon answered a knock on the door, and, upon opening the door, saw two black males in Sewerage and Water Board uniforms. One of the men grabbed Badon around the neck, dragged him to the back room, cut him, punched him in the jaw and rendered him unconscious. Badon awoke to the ringing telephone, kicked it off the hook and asked whoever was on the phone to call the police because he and his grandmother had been stabbed. In response to Badon's initial statement, Adams and other NOPD officers conducted a thorough scene investigation, lasting approximately 45 minutes to one hour which revealed that Badon's story was untrue. The doors were locked from the inside with a deadbolt, and there was very little blood in the room wherein Badon claimed he was stabbed and beaten. The scene investigation was the normal procedure implemented at every crime scene in every house wherein a dead body is found. Adams then approached Badon, advised him he was under arrest for first degree murder and advised him of his Miranda rights. The officers photographed Badon's injuries and had him transported to Charity Hospital for treatment.

After having been brought to the Homicide Division from the hospital, after treatment, Badon was advised of his rights by NOPD form and said he wished to give a formal statement. During the interview prior to the formal statement, Badon said a drug dealer to whom he owed a great deal of money sent people to Badon's apartment to collect the debt. Because Badon did not have the money owed, the collection agents beat and cut him and killed his grandmother as an example. Adams questioned Badon about details of his story, and Badon offered a third version, that he brought a man named Charles to his house, where they smoked crack cocaine, became intoxicated, and Charles killed Badon's grandmother, took the hammer and knife used in the murder, wrapped them in a bag and threw them into a sewer drain. Badon and Adams went to the drain and found the evidence. Badon told Adams he did not think Adams believed his story, and admitted that he had killed his grandmother.

The keys to the residence were missing, and Badon told Adams they were hidden under the dresser. Badon asked to speak to his mother prior to making a formal statement. Adams' partner went to retrieve the keys and told Badon's mother Badon wanted to speak to her. Badon met with his mother at the Homicide Division. She told the officers that she asked Badon if the police had beaten him, that he denied that the police had done so, and that Badon was willing to give the NOPD a formal statement, and left.

During his interview, Badon told the officers that he had been drinking, wanted some crack, and asked his grandmother for the use of her car. When she refused, he went to the kitchen, picked up a hammer and knife, returned to his grandmother's bedroom and stabbed and beat her. He then went to the bathroom, cut himself with a box cutter (subsequently recovered by NOPD) and a knife so that he would appear to have been injured by the phantom strangers who had broken into the house. He then left in the car, dropped the evidence in the storm drain, returned to the house, locked up everything and hid the keys under the dresser. When his brother called later in the morning, Badon told him someone had broken into the *1294 house and stabbed him and his grandmother, and that the telephone was not allowing him to place outgoing calls.

At the beginning of the taking of Badon's formal statement, Badon revealed that he could neither read nor write, and refused to give an audio or video recorded statement.

Adams testified that he seized the following evidence: the victim's bedding, a box cutter, samples of blood, tennis shoes, blood stained clothing from Badon's room, a kitchen knife from the sink, a machete from next to the victim's bed, all from the victim's residence; a bag containing a hammer and butcher's knife seized from the sewer drain; and keys seized as a result of Badon's statements, from beneath the dresser in Badon's room. Adams testified that the keys were obtained with the consent of the victim's daughter-in-law, and the remaining items seized in the victim's residence were obtained after entry in response to Badon's distress call, and with Badon's mother's permission.

The trial court denied Badon's motion to suppress the evidence, finding that the police had a right to be present at the crime scene, and were under no obligation to leave the scene to obtain a search warrant when they began to suspect that Badon was his grandmother's murderer.

TRIAL TESTIMONY

Officer Edmond Henry testified that on 26 November 1994 he and his partner, Lionel Wettles, investigated a reported aggravated burglary. They knocked on the door of 2135 Jourdan Avenue but got no response. An inspection of the house proved that every entrance was locked. They called ranking officers to the scene who gave them permission to break the door down. They heard moaning sounds at the end of the hallway, entered a bedroom and found Badon on the floor moaning and complaining of being hurt. In the next bedroom, the officers found the motionless body of Gollia McGee, and called an Emergency Medical Services unit. The E.M.S. personnel pronounced McGee dead on the scene. Henry identified photographs of Badon, showing lacerations to his left side, and photographs accurately representing the scene in the victim's bedroom. Badon told the officers that at about 1 a.m. he heard knocking on the kitchen door, and when he answered, two men in Sewerage and Water Board uniforms entered the house and beat him until he was unconscious. Henry testified that Badon did not appear to have been beaten unconscious nor did he have any injuries consistent with having suffered such a beating. Henry testified that the investigators then notified the Crime Lab and Homicide detectives of their findings, and when the latter arrived at the scene, they gathered pertinent evidence.

Mr.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

State ex rel. Badon v. State
198 So. 3d 126 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 2016)
State v. White
22 So. 3d 197 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2009)
State v. Bell
947 So. 2d 774 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2006)
State v. Jones
891 So. 2d 760 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2004)
State v. Hall
843 So. 2d 488 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2003)
State v. Huckabay
809 So. 2d 1093 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2002)
State v. Rodriguez
781 So. 2d 640 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2001)
State v. Carter
762 So. 2d 662 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2000)
State v. Harper
754 So. 2d 286 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1999)
State v. Lewis
736 So. 2d 1004 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1999)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
664 So. 2d 1291, 1995 WL 684791, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-badon-lactapp-1995.