State v. Banks

779 So. 2d 80, 2001 La. App. LEXIS 212, 2001 WL 125973
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJanuary 24, 2001
DocketNo. 99-KA-2981
StatusPublished

This text of 779 So. 2d 80 (State v. Banks) 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. Banks, 779 So. 2d 80, 2001 La. App. LEXIS 212, 2001 WL 125973 (La. Ct. App. 2001).

Opinion

LBYRNES, Judge.

STATEMENT OF CASE

On January 23, 1998, the defendant, Alvin Banks, was charged with violating La. R.S 14:62 relative to simple burglary of an automobile on November 20, 1997. On January 27, 1998, the defendant entered a plea of not guilty. The court advised the defendant of his right to a judge or jury trial and appointed counsel to represent him. Following a hearing on March 11, 1998, the court found probable cause and denied the defendant’s motion to suppress the identification. On February 1, 1999, the defendant waived his right to a jury trial and elected a bench trial. On February 4, 1999, the court found the defendant guilty of attempted burglary.

The State multiple billed the defendant, but on March 16, 1999, the court found the defendant not guilty of that charge. The defendant waived all legal delays and requested immediate sentence. The court sentenced the defendant to serve twenty-four months in the custody of the Department of Corrections, with credit for time served. The court granted the defendant’s oral motion for appeal.

| STATEMENT OF FACT

At the preliminary hearing and motion to suppress identification of March 11, 1998, Captain Raymond Hollard1 of the Orleans Levee District Police testified that he participated in the investigation of a burglary on November 20, 1997. He stated that he had just finished a detail and was driving down O’Keefe Street, headed for home. At O’Keefe and Lafayette he heard an alarm going off. As he looked to his left, he observed a man with a bicycle leaning inside a sports vehicle. The sports vehicle was the only vehicle in this particular parking lot at the time. Captain Hol-lard noticed that the rear passenger door of the vehicle was open. Captain Hollard initially assumed that the man was the owner of the vehicle, and that he had simply forgotten to turn the alarm off. Accordingly, the captain continued driving up the street toward Poydras. However, because the alarm was still going off, he made a U-turn at Poydras and came back up South Rampart. At that time he observed the man on the bicycle leaving the vehicle, and the alarm was still going off. Officer Hollard noticed some plastic bags hanging from the handlebars of the man’s bicycle. Captain Hollard commenced following the man. The captain activated his P.A. system and instructed the subject to pull over. When the two men came within five feet of each other, the man turned and asked why the captain was trying to hassle him. At that time the captain was able to clearly see the man. The man then turned up South Liberty and began to pedal at a faster rate as Captain Hollard pursued him with Ms overheads on. When the 13captain turned his overheads on, the man switched over into the oncoming lane and [82]*82continued up South Liberty as the captain paralleled'him. Upon arriving near

Poydras Street, the man stopped his bicycle, looked over at the captain, and reversed directions, traveling back down South Liberty in the direction the two men had just left. When the captain placed his car in reverse, the man took off in the direction the two men had previously been traveling and turned onto Poydras Street, traveling against the traffic. The captain continued to pursue the man as the man attempted to elude him until finally the man escaped through an opening in the median on Poydras Street traveling against the traffic. As he rode into the opening in the median, the man was almost struck by a truck. The man then abandoned his bicycle, left the merchandise he was carrying on the ground, and ran away. Captain Hollard continued to pursue the man.

As the two men neared the corner of Loyola and Poydras Streets, the man stopped, turned toward the captain and reached into his back pocket. Captain Hollard then observed the man discard what he believed to be a pair of pliers and a screwdriver. He then took off running again, turning left up Loyola towards Canal Street. Captain Hollard caught up with the man as he turned the corner and instructed the man to put his hands in the air. Instead of complying, the man looked at the Captain, turned around and fled behind the captain’s car in the direction from which they had just come. The captain put the car in reverse. The man fled in the direction of Poydras Street going towards the lake, cutting across the neutral ground and running through a parking lot. Captain Hollard saw a New Orleans policeman crossing the street and told him that the man was the person who had discarded the merchandise in the street and the merchandise was possibly | ¿stolen. He asked the officer to keep an eye on the merchandise while he continued pursuing the man. The man eventually ran into an alleyway and escaped.

While pursuing the man, Captain Hol-lard was using his radio to broadcast that he was in pursuit of a black male wearing a gray sweatshirt and blue jeans riding on a bicycle. He broadcast this description in various locations or streets as he pursued the man.

Several members of the Orleans Criminal Sheriffs office and NOPD arrived on the scene and started searching the area. Captain Hollard was standing on the side of a criminal sheriffs vehicle when one of the officers broadcast back that they had detained a subject fitting the description given by Captain Hollard and they were going to relocate to the area where Captain Hollard was located.

When the criminal sheriff arrived at the area where Captain Hollard was located, the defendant was seated in the rear of the vehicle with his face turned away. When he turned toward Captain Hollard, the captain recognized him as the person he had been chasing. Captain Hollard was able to identify the defendant based on his facial features and his clothing. The defendant was wearing the same gray sweatshirt and blue jeans that he wore a short time earlier when Captain Hollard was chasing him. Further, Captain Hollard testified that he recognized the defendant by his facial features because during the course of that night he saw the defendant’s face four times. Captain Hollard testified that only ten or fifteen minutes elapsed between the time the defendant escaped in the alleyway and the time he was taken to Captain Hollard for identification.

After the defendant had been identified, Captain Hollard and the other officers relocated to the scene wherein the defendant had first been seen leaning | ¡¡into a vehicle and discovered that the right passenger glass of the vehicle was broken.

The officers recovered the two plastic bags previously discarded by the defendant and found the bags contained a book bag and a musical instrument in a case. Additionally, identification was found in [83]*83the bag that matched identification found in the vehicle.

At trial, Liza Pizani testified that she was the lessor of a green 1995 Toyota Fourunner. On November 20, 1997, at around 9:00 a.m., she parked the vehicle in a parking lot located in the area bordered by South Rampart, O’Keefe, and Lafayette streets and went to work. At that time the car was in perfect condition. When she returned to the vehicle at about 10:00 p.m. the right rear passenger window was shattered. Ms. Pizani identified items in a photograph presented to her by the State as property belonging to her. Included among the items in the photograph were her daughter’s flute case, her workout bag, a shopping bag, and a zipper case which contained medication for her daughter. She opened the workout bag and identified a pair of Nike tennis shoes, body lotion, sweat shirt, workout shorts, workout shirt, and health center forms as hers.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
779 So. 2d 80, 2001 La. App. LEXIS 212, 2001 WL 125973, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-banks-lactapp-2001.