State v. Bickham

739 So. 2d 887, 1999 WL 486956
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJune 25, 1999
Docket98 KA 1839
StatusPublished
Cited by23 cases

This text of 739 So. 2d 887 (State v. Bickham) 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. Bickham, 739 So. 2d 887, 1999 WL 486956 (La. Ct. App. 1999).

Opinion

739 So.2d 887 (1999)

STATE of Louisiana
v.
Ronald BICKHAM.

No. 98 KA 1839.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, First Circuit.

June 25, 1999.

*888 Walter P. Reed, District Attorney, Covington, Dorothy Pendergast, Metairie, for Appellee, State of Louisiana.

Frank Sloan, Covington, for Defendant/Appellant, Ronald Bickham.

Before: CARTER, C.J., SHORTESS, and WHIPPLE, JJ.

CARTER, C.J.

Following his conviction for armed robbery, Ronald Bickham was charged, adjudged, and sentenced as a second felony habitual offender to imprisonment at hard labor for sixty years without benefit of parole. In this appeal, defendant appeals his habitual offender adjudication and sentencing, urging two assignments of error. Separately, defendant appealed his conviction. See State v. Bickham, No. 98-1838, also decided this date, in which we affirmed defendant's conviction.

At about 6:30 a.m. on October 3, 1997, Mary DeSalvo, the victim of the instant offense, left home in Lacombe, Louisiana, and drove her 1995 green Dodge Neon to a store to purchase coffee and a doughnut. After making her purchase, she proceeded to go home. Along the way, she stopped her car at the intersection of North Pontchartrain and U.S. 190 before making a right turn from U.S. 190 onto North Pontchartrain. It was at this point that defendant entered DeSalvo's car from the passenger side door. DeSalvo completed her turn. Shortly after defendant got into the car, DeSalvo became aware he was armed with what she referred to as a "box cutter, razor knife." Defendant demanded her money. She gave him her purse and informed him she had only five dollars. Defendant told DeSalvo the money she had was not enough, to go to the bank, and to speed up. He began swinging the knife. DeSalvo used her left hand to shield her face and throat from getting cut. Defendant cut her left hand. It was while he *889 was cutting her that he threatened to kill her. After defendant inflicted a second cut to her hand and a cut across her face, DeSalvo in fear of losing her life opened the driver's side door of the car with her right hand.[1] Defendant grabbed her by her shirt and tried to pull her back to prevent her from getting out of the car. During this struggle, her shirt came off, leaving her naked from the waist up. She hit the ground with her left hand and the left side of her face, rolled, and got up. When she looked back as she was running away she saw her car being driven down North Pontchartrain.

After running to a nearby house which apparently was unoccupied, the victim ran to the trailer of Angie Martinez. The victim was hysterical and crying as she banged on Martinez's door. Martinez allowed the victim to come inside her home, assisted her, and called emergency 911.

The police quickly responded to the report of the instant offense. St. Tammany Parish Deputy Sheriff Wayne Wicker and Patrick McCormick received information at about 6:55-7:00 a.m. that morning concerning the crime, which included a description of the victim's car. The officers departed in their respective police units in search of the victim's car. While on 1-12 eastbound, McCormick spotted the victim's Neon being driven on 1-12. McCormick activated the emergency lights and siren on his police unit in an attempt to stop the Neon, which did not stop. A high speed chase on 1-12, at times in excess of one hundred miles per hour, followed.

The Neon exited 1-12 at the Ablta Springs exit, where Wicker was waiting in his police unit at the intersection of LA 59 and 1-12. However, Wicker was unsuccessful in stopping the Neon, which continued on LA 59 northbound with McCormick still in pursuit. According to McCormick, on LA 59, forty to fifty other vehicles were forced off the road in order to avoid a collision with the Neon or to lessen the danger of such a collision.

When McCormick's unit and the Neon approached Harrison Road, Deputy Billy Lee, who was on Harrison Road, pulled out in an attempt to stop the Neon. The Neon traveled around Lee's unit, hit a pickup truck, and continued west on Harrison Road at extremely high rates of speed.

To terminate the pursuit, McCormick forced the Neon off the road into a ditch near Arrow Wood Subdivision. Defendant exited the Neon and fled on foot eluding McCormick and Wicker who were also there. Defendant was pursued to a wooded lot. A perimeter was set up to prevent defendant's escape.

Deputy Darrell Dutsch, the handler for K-9 Rommel, was summoned and arrived with the dog. After defendant ignored several orders by Dutsch to come out or face the release of K-9 Rommel, the dog was released and quickly located defendant, who apparently was hiding in some thick underbrush, and took hold of defendant's left arm. After the dog was called off, officers moved in and handcuffed defendant, who was placed under arrest and advised of his Miranda rights.

ASSIGNMENT OF ERROR NO. 1

In this assignment, defendant contends that his 1990 guilty plea to simple robbery, the predicate offense used to enhance the instant conviction, cannot validly be utilized as a predicate, because the court that accepted the predicate guilty plea misinformed him of the sentencing range for the simple robbery. Because of the alleged invalid predicate, defendant concludes that his habitual offender adjudication must be reversed and his sentence must be vacated.

In State v. Shelton, 621 So.2d 769, 779-780 (La.1993), the Supreme Court stated the following:

If the defendant denies the allegations of the bill of information, the burden is on the State to prove the existence of *890 the prior guilty pleas and that defendant was represented by counsel when they were taken. If the State meets this burden, the defendant has the burden to produce some affirmative evidence showing an infringement of his rights or a procedural irregularity in the taking of the plea. If the defendant is able to do this, then the burden of proving the constitutionality of the plea shifts to the State. The State will meet its burden of proof if it introduces a "perfect" transcript of the taking of the guilty plea, one which reflects a colloquy between judge and defendant wherein the defendant was informed of and specifically waived his right to trial by jury, his privilege against self incrimination, and his right to confront his accusers. If the State introduces anything less than a "perfect" transcript, for example, a guilty plea form, a minute entry, an "imperfect" transcript, or any combination thereof, the judge then must weigh the evidence submitted by the defendant and by the State to determine whether the State has met its burden of proving that defendant's prior guilty plea was informed and voluntary, and made with an articulated waiver of the three Boykin rights.

(Footnotes omitted.)

Boykin v. Alabama, 395 U.S. 238, 89 S.Ct. 1709, 23 L.Ed.2d 274 (1969), requires that a trial court ascertain, before accepting a guilty plea, that defendant has voluntarily and knowingly waived his right against self-incrimination, his right to a jury trial, and his right to confrontation. Contrary to defendant's assertions, Boykin only requires that a defendant be informed of the three rights enumerated above. State v. Smith, 97-2849, p. 3 (La.App. 1st Cir.11/6/98); 722 So.2d 1048. Furthermore, Boykin does not require that a defendant be advised of the sentencing range of an offense to which a defendant enters a guilty plea. See State v. Fields, 95-2481, p. 5 (La.App.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
739 So. 2d 887, 1999 WL 486956, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-bickham-lactapp-1999.