State v. Berroa-Reyes

109 So. 3d 487, 12 La.App. 5 Cir. 581, 2013 WL 336674, 2013 La. App. LEXIS 152
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJanuary 30, 2013
DocketNo. 12-KA-581
StatusPublished
Cited by24 cases

This text of 109 So. 3d 487 (State v. Berroa-Reyes) 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. Berroa-Reyes, 109 So. 3d 487, 12 La.App. 5 Cir. 581, 2013 WL 336674, 2013 La. App. LEXIS 152 (La. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

HANS J. LILJEBERG, Judge.

On April 25, 2011, the Jefferson Parish District Attorney’s Office filed a bill of information charging defendant, Carlos Berroa-Reyes, and co-perpetrator, Jose Morales, with one count of armed robbery while armed with a shotgun in violation of LSA-R.S. 14:64 and 14:63.3.1 Defendant pled not guilty at arraignment.2 On June 30, 2011, defendant filed various pre-trial motions including motions to suppress evidence and statements. On August 31, 2011, the trial court heard and denied defendant s motions.

The matter was tried before a 12-person jury on November 7-9, 2011, and upon conclusion, defendant was found guilty as charged. Thereafter, the trial court sentenced defendant to 25 years at hard labor, to be served without benefit of probation, parole, or suspension of sentence. Defendant timely appealed. For the following reasons, we affirm.

FACTS

The victim, Rafael Abreu-Valerio, testified that he and the defendant “more or less” friends, having known each other for seven months prior to the robbery.3 He further testified that on March 9, 2011, he was living at 1433 Utah Beach, in Bridge City, when he decided to play a practical joke on defendant and co-perpetrator, Jose Morales. Thus, the victim went over to the apartment defendant and Morales were seen visiting and pretended to be the police, which prompted the men to discard their drugs down the toilet. Defendant and Morales became upset, threatened to injure the victim, and demanded money for the drugs that had been destroyed. The victim paid the men and went back to his apartment, where he started drinking.

Angered by the events that had just transpired, the victim slashed the tires on a vehicle occupied by defendant and Morales. The men exited their vehicle, each carrying a gun and pointing it at him. The victim lifted his hands in the air, dropped the knife he had used to slash their tires [490]*490and pleaded with the men not to shoot him. The victim also gave the men $120.00 to pay for the damaged tire. The victim testified that when he tried to go back to his apartment, defendant put down the gun, picked up the knife, and followed him to his apartment with Morales close behind and still armed with a shotgun. The men then followed the victim into his apartment, where they locked the door, “turned up the music loud,” and told the victim to get them more money. The victim told them that he did not have any more money, so Morales proceeded to punch the victim in the face and then hit him with the shotgun. Once Morales stopped punching the victim, the defendant then took the victim’s cellular phone and some money out of the victim’s pockets. Unsatisfied with the amount of money recovered, the men continued to punch the Uvictim while demanding more money.4 The victim further testified that the defendant came towards him with the knife as if he was going to stab him, but Morales intervened and was able to stop the defendant. After the men left his apartment, the victim used a neighbor’s phone to call his girlfriend, who then reported the incident to the police due to the victim’s inability to speak English.

The victim’s girlfriend, Liseyda Montoya, testified that she and the victim were living in an apartment at 1438 Utah Beach Drive at the time of the incident. Montoya testified that she is acquainted with the defendant and Morales (a.k.a. Larry). Montoya further testified that on March 10, 2011, she received a call from the victim to advise her of the incident involving the defendant and Morales. Because the victim does not speak English, Montoya called the police to report the incident. When Montoya arrived home from work, she observed that the victim had a black eye and had sustained injuries to his mouth and head. Montoya accompanied the victim to seek medical treatment the following day.

Co-perpetrator, Jose Morales, testified that he pled guilty to the armed robbery of Rafael Abreu-Valerio with a firearm.5 Morales confirmed that the victim had “played a prank” on him and the defendant that resulted in the disposal of his marijuana. Morales testified that he confronted the victim, who paid him fifty dollars for the marijuana that was destroyed. Later that evening, Morales testified that he and the defendant were in the defendant’s car when they caught the victim slashing one of their tires.

Morales further testified that he had a shotgun in the trunk of the car that was later recovered by the police at his home, but maintained that defendant did not know about the shotgun. Morales also stated that the shotgun remained in the defendant’s car the entire time and was never brandished in the parking lot or brought into the victim’s apartment.

Morales explained that the victim offered the defendant 20 or 30 dollars to pay for the tire, but that the defendant told him it was not enough money to pay for a Cadillac tire. Morales further testified that he followed the victim and the defendant upstairs, where he observed the victim and defendant “having a little fight,” which he attempted to break up. According to Morales, the victim had a knife in his pocket, so Morales took the knife and “threw it out the door.” At that time, the [491]*491victim and defendant started fighting again, so Morales pushed the victim into the kitchen and left with the defendant.

Morales testified that they did not rob the victim, but that he decided to plead guilty to armed robbery because he was in possession of the victim’s cellular phone. Morales noted that the victim’s phone had fallen to the ground during the altercation with the defendant, and that he picked it up and put it in his car because he believed it was the defendant’s phone.

Morales’ trial testimony was in direct contradiction to a statement provided by Morales after the incident. Thus, Morales admitted that he had previously lied to the police when he was interviewed and told them that it was the defendant who had pulled the shotgun on the victim, and that he had taken the shotgun away from the defendant because he did not want to see the victim get shot. Morales also admitted that he lied to the police when he told them that the defendant had taken the victim’s knife and threatened to use it on the victim. Morales explained that he had lied to the police because at the time of his arrest he “wanted [the defendant] to look like the bad guy.” Morales further stated that he had originally told the police that the defendant and the victim had been arguing about money, but that his | statements to the police were falsehoods intended “to pin everything down on him [the defendant].”

Deputy Jesus Falcon, of the Jefferson Parish Sheriffs Office, testified that he arrested the defendant and assisted in the taking of defendant’s statement. Deputy Falcon testified that he advised defendant of his rights in Spanish from a Rights of Arrestee form written in Spanish.6

In his statement, defendant told the officers that the victim had slashed the tires to his friend’s car so they started arguing about how the victim was going to pay for the damage. Defendant denied ever seeing a shotgun that night, but admitted that he has used a shotgun before for hunting purposes. The defendant also told the police that because they were neighbors, he went with the victim to his apartment where the victim attempted to pay him $50.00 for the tire, which defendant refused because it would not cover the cost.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
109 So. 3d 487, 12 La.App. 5 Cir. 581, 2013 WL 336674, 2013 La. App. LEXIS 152, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-berroa-reyes-lactapp-2013.