State v. Blackson

108 So. 3d 859, 2013 WL 163484, 2013 La. App. LEXIS 22
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJanuary 16, 2013
DocketNo. 47,624-KA
StatusPublished

This text of 108 So. 3d 859 (State v. Blackson) 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. Blackson, 108 So. 3d 859, 2013 WL 163484, 2013 La. App. LEXIS 22 (La. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

LOLLEY, J.

JLjBrandon Deshon Blaekson was convicted by the Fourth Judicial District Court, Parish of Ouachita, State of Louisiana, of purse snatching in violation of La. R.S. 14:65.1 and was sentenced to 20 years’ hard labor. Blaekson now appeals. For the following reasons we affirm Blackson’s conviction, vacate his sentence, and remand this matter to the trial court for resentencing with instructions to impose a sentence no greater than 12 years at hard labor.

FACTS

On August 2, 2009, 85-year-old Joe Combs was shopping at a Family Dollar store when a young man approached him and stole his wallet, containing one dollar and various forms of identification, from the front pocket of his shirt. As Combs called out for help, Cassandra Hall and Shashun Eleam, both employees of Family Dollar, saw a young man carrying a wallet rush past and exit the store. Monroe Police Department Detective Mark Johnson responded to the incident and obtained surveillance video footage from both the Family Dollar store where the crime took place and Mac’s Fresh Market, a neighboring store. Detective Johnson showed the surveillance footage to his fellow police officers, and Detective Stephanie McDan-iels identified the suspect in the surveillance footage as Blaekson. Detective Johnson showed a photographic lineup containing a photo of Blaekson to Combs and the two Family Dollar employees who witnessed the incident. All three separately identified Blaekson as the person who took Combs’ wallet. Police recovered Combs’ wallet from a nearby trash can; however, they were unable to lift any fingerprints from it.

| gBIackson was charged by bill of information with one count of purse snatching in violation of La. R.S. 14:65.1. After a trial, a jury found him guilty as charged. The trial court, after articulating the reasons for its ruling, sentenced Blaekson to serve the maximum sentence of 20 years’ hard labor. Blackson’s motion to reconsider sentence was denied. This appeal followed.

DISCUSSION

As his first assignment of error, Blaekson argues that the evidence adduced [862]*862at trial was not sufficient to support a conviction of purse snatching. First, Blackson claims that the quality of the surveillance footage from which Det. Stephanie McDaniels identified him was too poor to make a positive identification. Next, Blackson argues that the photographic lineup shown to Combs and the Family Dollar employees was unduly suggestive. Blackson alleges that Detective Johnson had the witnesses initial the front of the photograph which they identified and that after the first witness identified and initialed Blackson’s photograph in this manner, Detective Johnson had to conceal the top edge of that photograph in order to avoid prejudicing the other two witnesses. Blackson asserts that because his photograph was the only one concealed in this way, it stood out from the other photographs in the lineup and, therefore, the lineup was unduly suggestive. We disagree.

Louisiana R.S. 14:65.1, the crime of purse snatching, states in pertinent part:

A. Purse snatching is the theft of anything of value contained within a purse or wallet at the time of the theft, from the person | ¡¡of another or which is in the immediate control of another, by use of force, intimidation, or by snatching, but not armed with a dangerous weapon.

The standard of appellate review for a sufficiency of the evidence claim is whether, after viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979); State v. Dorsey, 2010-0216 (La.09/07/11), 74 So.3d 603, cert denied, - U.S. -, 132 S.Ct. 1859, 182 L.Ed.2d 658 (2012). This standard, now legislatively embodied in La. C. Cr. P. art. 821, does not provide the appellate court with a vehicle to substitute its own appreciation of the evidence for that of the factfinder. State v. Pigford, 2005-0477 (La.02/22/06), 922 So.2d 517. The trier of fact is charged to make a credibility determination and may, within the bounds of rationality, accept or reject the testimony of any witness. State v. Casey, 1999-0023 (La.01/26/00), 775 So.2d 1022, cert. denied, 531 U.S. 840, 121 S.Ct. 104, 148 L.Ed.2d 62 (2000). The reviewing court may impinge on that discretion only to the extent necessary to guarantee the fundamental due process of law. Id.

The appellate court does not assess the credibility of witnesses or reweigh evidence. State v. Smith, 94-3116 (La.10/16/95), 661 So.2d 442. A reviewing court accords great deference to a jury’s decision to accept or reject the testimony of a witness in whole or in part. State v. Eason, 43,788 (La.App.2d Cir.02/25/09), 3 So.3d 685, writ denied, 2009-0725 (La.12/11/09), 23 So.3d 913.

|4The Jackson standard is applicable in cases involving both direct and circumstantial evidence. An appellate court reviewing the sufficiency of evidence in such cases must resolve any conflict in the direct evidence by viewing that evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution. When the direct evidence is thus viewed, the facts established by the direct evidence and inferred from the circumstances established by that evidence, must be sufficient for a rational trier of fact to conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that a defendant was guilty of every essential element of the crime. State v. Sutton, 436 So.2d 471 (La.1983); State v. Speed, 43,786 (La.App.2d Cir.01/14/09), 2 So.3d 582, writ denied, 2009-0372 (La.11/06/09), 21 So.3d 299. When a conviction is based on circumstantial evidence, such evidence must exclude any reasonable hypothesis of innocence. La. R.S. 15:438.

[863]*863In the absence of internal contradiction or irreconcilable conflict with physical evidence, one witness’s testimony, if believed by the trier of fact, is sufficient support for a requisite factual conclusion. State v. Gullette, 43,032 (La.App.2d Cir.02/13/08), 975 So.2d 753.

Where there is conflicting testimony about factual matters, the resolution of which depends upon a determination of the credibility of the witnesses, the matter is one of the weight of the evidence, not its sufficiency. State v. Speed, supra.

Here, there was more than sufficient evidence to convict Blackson. Combs testified that Blackson took his wallet from the front pocket of his shirt without his consent and fled the store. Cassandra Hall, an employee at |.^Family Dollar, stated that after Combs shouted that someone had robbed him, she witnessed Blackson run past her carrying Combs’ wallet and immediately exit the store. Shashun Eleam, another Family Dollar employee, testified that she was standing at the cash register near the front of the store when she heard someone say “the guy took his wallet.” She then witnessed a man she later identified as Blackson leaving the store. While Det. McDaniels’ positive identification of Blackson appears extraordinary considering the low quality of the video footage, such an identification is plausible considering the number of years McDaniels had known Blackson through her work as a detective with the Monroe Police Department.

Finally, the photographic lineup used by Det. Johnson to identify Black-son as a suspect was not unduly suggestive as Blackson argues.

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Related

Jackson v. Virginia
443 U.S. 307 (Supreme Court, 1979)
State v. Guillot
353 So. 2d 1005 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1977)
State v. Smith
661 So. 2d 442 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1995)
State v. Speed
2 So. 3d 582 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2009)
State v. Eason
3 So. 3d 685 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2009)
State v. Dorthey
623 So. 2d 1276 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1993)
State v. Swayzer
989 So. 2d 267 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2008)
State v. Ates
989 So. 2d 259 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2008)
State v. Casey
775 So. 2d 1022 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 2000)
State v. Weaver
805 So. 2d 166 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 2002)
State v. Pigford
922 So. 2d 517 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 2006)
State v. Jones
398 So. 2d 1049 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1981)
State v. Sutton
436 So. 2d 471 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1983)
State v. Smith
839 So. 2d 1 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 2003)
State v. Gullette
975 So. 2d 753 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2008)
State v. Smith
433 So. 2d 688 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1983)
State v. Lanclos
419 So. 2d 475 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1982)
State v. Dorsey
74 So. 3d 603 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 2011)
State v. Moton
73 So. 3d 503 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2011)
State v. Washington
86 So. 3d 697 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2012)

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Bluebook (online)
108 So. 3d 859, 2013 WL 163484, 2013 La. App. LEXIS 22, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-blackson-lactapp-2013.