State v. Beauchamp

49 So. 3d 5, 2010 La.App. 1 Cir. 0451, 2010 La. App. LEXIS 1214, 2010 WL 3517900
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedSeptember 10, 2010
DocketNo. 2010 KA 0451
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 49 So. 3d 5 (State v. Beauchamp) 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. Beauchamp, 49 So. 3d 5, 2010 La.App. 1 Cir. 0451, 2010 La. App. LEXIS 1214, 2010 WL 3517900 (La. Ct. App. 2010).

Opinion

CARTER, C.J.

|2The defendant, Russell J. Beauchamp, Jr., was charged by bill of information with one count of distribution of cocaine, a violation of La. R.S. 40:967 A(l), and entered a plea of not guilty. Following a jury trial, he was found guilty as charged by unanimous verdict. He moved for a new trial, for a post-verdict judgment of acquittal, and for arrest of judgment, but the motions were denied. He was sentenced to thirty years at hard labor, with the first two years of the sentence without benefit of probation, parole, or suspension of sentence. On appeal, the defendant contends the admission of the scientific analysis report into evidence violated his rights under the Confrontation Clause of the United States Constitution. For the following reasons, we affirm the conviction and sentence.

FACTS

On June 14, 2007, Tri-parish1 Narcotics Task Force Agents Bryan Mannino and [7]*7Garrett Fitzgerald were driving on Summer Street in Denham Springs in an undercover vehicle equipped with a video camera. Agent Mannino saw the defendant riding a bicycle and held up four fingers, signaling he wanted to buy forty dollars worth of crack cocaine. The defendant asked, ‘You want a 40?” Agent Man-nino answered affirmatively, and the defendant told him to pull over at a nearby bar. The defendant left Agent Mannino’s field of vision, returning shortly thereafter and placing the crack cocaine on the hood of the undercover vehicle. Agent Mannino put forty dollars on the ground, as instructed to by the defendant, and secured the cocaine. The State played a recording of the drug transaction at trial.

| „MELENDEZ-DIAZ VIOLATION

In his sole assignment of error, the defendant argues the State failed to prove all of the elements of the offense, alleging the use of a scientific analysis report to establish that the substance distributed was cocaine violated Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts, - U.S. -, 129 S.Ct. 2527, 174 L.Ed.2d 814 (2009).

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to be confronted with the witnesses against him. U.S. Const, amend. VI. The Confrontation Clause bars “admission of testimonial statements of a witness who did not appear at trial unless he was unavailable to testify, and the defendant had had a prior opportunity for cross-examination.” Crawford v. Washington, 541 U.S. 36, 53-54, 124 S.Ct. 1354, 1365, 158 L.Ed.2d 177 (2004). Statements are non-testimonial when made in the course of a police interrogation under circumstances objectively indicating that the primary purpose of the interrogation is to enable police assistance to meet an ongoing emergency. Davis v. Washington, 547 U.S. 813, 822, 126 S.Ct. 2266, 2273, 165 L.Ed.2d 224 (2006). Statements are testimonial when the circumstances objectively indicate there is no ongoing emergency, and the primary purpose of the interrogation is to establish or prove past events potentially relevant to later criminal prosecution, Davis, 547 U.S. at 822, 126 S.Ct. at 2273-2274.

Melendez-Diaz involved the review of convictions for distribution of cocaine and trafficking in cocaine. Melendez-Diaz, — U.S. at -, 129 S.Ct. at 2530-2531. At trial, over a defense objection under Crawford, the prosecution relied upon “certificates of analysis” to establish that the |4substance hidden in the police car used to transport the defendant and two other men contained cocaine. Melendez-Diaz, — U.S. at -, 129 S.Ct. at 2531. As required under Massachusetts’s law, the certificates were sworn to before a notary public by analysts at the State Laboratory Institute of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. Melendez-Diaz, — U.S. at -, 129 S.Ct. at 2531.

The Court in Melendez-Diaz held that the certificates were “quite plainly affidavits,” falling within the core class of testimonial statements subject to the Confrontation Clause and that the analysts were “witnesses” for purposes of the Sixth Amendment. Melendez-Diaz, — U.S. at -, 129 S.Ct. at 2532. Additionally, the Court held that the power to subpoena the analysts could not substitute for the right of confrontation because compulsory process was of no use to a defendant if the witness was unavailable or simply refused to appear. Melendez-Diaz, — U.S. at -, 129 S.Ct. at 2540. The Court held that converting the prosecution’s duty under the Confrontation Clause into the defendant’s privilege under state law or the [8]*8Compulsory Process Clause would shift the consequences of adverse-witness no-shows from the State to the accused. Melendez-Diaz, — U.S. at -, 129 S.Ct. at 2540. The value of the Confrontation Clause to a defendant cannot be replaced by a system in which the prosecution presents its evidence via ex parte affidavits and waits for the defendant to subpoena the affiants if he chooses to do so. Melendez-Diaz, — U.S. at -, 129 S.Ct. at 2540.

The Court in Melendez-Diaz, however, contrasted the statutory scheme in Massachusetts with other states’ “notice-and-demand statutes,” Iswhich require the prosecution to provide notice to the defendant of its intent to use an analyst’s report as evidence at trial and give a defendant a period of time in which to object to the admission of the evidence absent the analyst’s appearance live at trial. Melendez-Diaz, — U.S. at -, 129 S.Ct. at 2541. The Court held that notice-and-demand statutes do not shift the burden because “[t]he defendant always has the burden of raising his Confrontation Clause objection; notice-and-demand statutes simply govern the time within which he must do so.” Melendez-Diaz, — U.S. at -, 129 S.Ct. at 2541. The Court noted that it is common to require a defendant to exercise his rights under the Compulsory Process Clause in advance of trial, announcing the intent to present certain witnesses. Melendez-Diaz, — U.S. at -, 129 S.Ct. at 2541. “There is no conceivable reason why [a defendant] cannot similarly be compelled to exercise his Confrontation Clause rights before trial.” Melendez-Diaz, — U.S. at -, 129 S.Ct. at 2541.

Louisiana Revised Statutes 15:499 A authorizes all criminalistics laboratories established by the laws of Louisiana or of the United States and all coroners, forensic pathologists, and other persons, partnerships, corporations, and other legal entities practicing in fields of knowledge and expertise in the gathering, examination, and analysis of evidence by scientific means to make proof of examination and analysis of physical evidence by the certificate of the person in charge of the facility in which such examination and analysis are made.2 -

1 ^Louisiana Revised Statutes 15:500 in pertinent part provides:

In all criminal cases ... the courts of this state shall receive as evidence any certificate made in accordance with R.S. 15:499 subject to the conditions contained in this Section and R.S. 15:501. The certificate shall be received in evidence as prima facie proof of the facts shown thereon, and as prima facie proof of proper custody of the physical evidence listed thereon from time of delivery of said evidence to the facility until its removal therefrom.

Louisiana Revised Statutes 15:501 provides:

A.

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Bluebook (online)
49 So. 3d 5, 2010 La.App. 1 Cir. 0451, 2010 La. App. LEXIS 1214, 2010 WL 3517900, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-beauchamp-lactapp-2010.