State v. Bates

853 So. 2d 71, 3 La.App. 5 Cir. 352
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJuly 29, 2003
Docket03-KA-352
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 853 So. 2d 71 (State v. Bates) 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. Bates, 853 So. 2d 71, 3 La.App. 5 Cir. 352 (La. Ct. App. 2003).

Opinion

853 So.2d 71 (2003)

STATE of Louisiana
v.
Charles E. BATES.

No. 03-KA-352.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Fifth Circuit.

July 29, 2003.

*72 Paul D. Connick, Jr., District Attorney, Margaret E. Hay, Terry M. Boudreaux, Nancy A. Miller, Assistant District Attorneys, Gretna, LA, for State.

Holli Herrle-Castillo, Marrero, LA, for defendant-appellant.

Panel composed of Judges EDWARD A. DUFRESNE, JR., SOL GOTHARD and CLARENCE E. MCMANUS.

CLARENCE E. McMANUS, Judge.

The Jefferson Parish District Attorney filed a bill of information charging the defendant, Charles Bates, with distribution of cocaine, a violation of LSA-R.S. 40:967(A). The defendant pled not guilty at arraignment. On May 14, 2002, a twelve-person jury found the defendant guilty as charged. Defendant was sentenced on May 22, 2002 to serve fifteen years of imprisonment at hard labor.

Thereafter, the State filed a multiple offender bill of information alleging defendant to be a third felony offender based on two previous convictions. The State commenced the multiple offender hearing but amended the multiple bill to allege defendant to be a second felony offender. After defendant executed a multiple offender waiver of rights form, the trial judge advised defendant of his multiple offender rights, and accepted his stipulation that he was a second felony offender. The trial *73 judge vacated the original sentence and imposed a multiple offender sentence of fifteen years of imprisonment at hard labor without benefit of parole, probation or suspension of sentence. This appeal followed.

FACTS

On May 3, 2000, Agent Megan Carter, a narcotics agent with the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office, was working undercover with the Kenner Police Department driving a vehicle equipped with video and audio recording devices, as well as an audio transmitter. Detective George Ansardi was a member of the surveillance team and monitored the transaction at issue on the audio transmitter.

At trial, Agent Carter testified that she pulled into a trailer park at 150 West Airline Highway in Kenner and stopped her vehicle. Agent Carter asked a woman there, later identified as Natalie Turner, if she knew where to obtain a "20," which Agent Carter explained was street language for one rock of crack cocaine. Turner replied that she could help her and that a man was on his way over to Turner's trailer to bring some crack cocaine. Turner also stated that a friend of hers in the trailer park had some crack cocaine. Turner then walked through the trailer park and talked to someone as Agent Carter followed slowly in her vehicle.

Turner returned to Agent Carter's vehicle and explained that the man who was on his way to Turner's trailer was the son of a man (later identified as defendant) who lived in the trailer park. Turner also told Agent Carter that the son was the person whom she really ought to deal with, but that "this guy's cool too." The defendant walked up to Agent Carter's vehicle, and Agent Carter said, "You got that bro?" The defendant said to "hold up," and walked away from the car for a moment. Agent Carter said she would turn the car around, and defendant replied that was okay. Agent Carter drove to the front of the trailer park and waited while defendant and Turner were inside of another trailer near the entrance of the park. Agent Carter testified that when the defendant returned to her car, she exchanged $20 for one rock of crack cocaine with defendant.

The videotape of this transaction was played for the jury at trial. According to Agent Carter, the rock-like object that defendant sold her weighed .10 gram.

After the transaction, Agent Carter gave Detective Ansardi the rock-like object and the videotape of the transaction. The State's narcotics expert, Charles Krone, testified the rock-like substance tested positive for the presence of cocaine. Mr. Krone testified that he did not weigh the material because the material was in "small fragments" when he received it.

Sometime after the transaction, Detective Ansardi obtained still photographs from the videotape and showed them to a confidential informant, who supplied the defendant's name to the police. After viewing a photographic lineup prepared by Detective Ansardi, Agent Carter identified the defendant as the person who sold her the crack cocaine. Agent Carter also positively identified defendant at trial.

DISCUSSION

Defendant contends that the evidence was insufficient to convict him of distributing cocaine as he established a defense of entrapment. The State asserts that the evidence was sufficient to support defendant's conviction and that defendant failed to meet his burden of proving entrapment.

The constitutional standard enunciated in Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979) requires that a conviction be based on proof sufficient *74 for any rational trier of fact, viewing all of the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, to find the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. See, State v. Bishop, 01-2548, p. 4 (La.1/14/03), 835 So.2d 434, 437. The defendant was convicted of violating LSA-R.S. 40:967(A), distribution of cocaine. Pursuant to that statute, the State was required to prove that defendant knowingly or intentionally distributed cocaine. See, State v. Raines, 00-1941, p. 7 (La.App. 5 Cir. 5/30/01), 788 So.2d 635, 640, writ denied, 01-1906 (La.5/10/02), 815 So.2d 833.

Entrapment is a defense that arises when a law enforcement official or a person acting in cooperation with such an official for the purpose of obtaining evidence of a crime, originates the idea of the crime and then induces the person to engage in conduct constituting the offense when that person is not otherwise disposed to do so. State v. Brand, 520 So.2d 114, 117 (La.1988); State v. Petta, 98-745, pp. 7-8 (La.App. 5 Cir. 2/10/99), 729 So.2d 29, 32, writ denied, 99-0692 (La.9/3/99), 747 So.2d 533, cert. denied, 528 U.S. 1125, 120 S.Ct. 956, 145 L.Ed.2d 830 (2000).

The entrapment defense is composed of two elements, which are (1) an inducement by a state agent to commit an offense, and (2) the lack of defendant's predisposition to commit the offense. The defendant has the burden of proving by a preponderance of evidence that a state agent induced him to commit a crime. Once the defendant meets this burden, the State has the burden of proving beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant was predisposed to commit the crime prior to government involvement. State v. Lewis, 01-1084, p. 6 (La.App. 5 Cir. 3/13/02), 815 So.2d 166, 171, writ denied, 02-1053 (La.11/15/02), 829 So.2d 424.[1]

However, it is not entrapment if the officers or agents have merely furnished a defendant who is predisposed to commit the crime the opportunities to do so. As stated by the Louisiana Supreme Court, "In entrapment line must be drawn between the trap for the unwary innocent and the trap for the unwary criminal." State v. Brand, 520 So.2d at 116; Accord, State v. Petta, supra.

The first inquiry is whether defendant proved by a preponderance of the evidence that he was induced to commit the crime.

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Bluebook (online)
853 So. 2d 71, 3 La.App. 5 Cir. 352, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-bates-lactapp-2003.