State v. Blanche

92 So. 3d 508, 2012 WL 1414276, 2012 La. App. LEXIS 543
Louisiana Court of Appeal·Decided April 25, 2012·No. No. 47,014-KA·Published·Cited by 4 cases

Opinion

CARAWAY, J.

| Ronald Lee Blanche was found guilty of attempted manslaughter in violation of La. R.S. 14:31 and La. R.S. 14:27, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon in violation of La. R.S. 14:95.1. Blanche received consecutive sentences of 20 years at hard labor for attempted manslaughter and 15 years at hard labor, without benefit of probation, parole, or suspension of sentence, plus a $3,000 fine for the firearm conviction. Blanche appeals his conviction and sentence. We affirm.

Facts

On February 24, 2006, Donald Lee Blanche was charged by bill of information with the attempted second degree murder of Niesha Turner and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon,1 for his actions on January 28, 2006, when Blanche shot Turner. The evidence presented by the state at the November 2010 trial was as follows.

Niesha Turner, the victim, testified that in 2006 she was living at 503 Cole Avenue, in Monroe, Louisiana, with Blanche and their biological child. Except for a three-to-four month stay at her aunt’s Dallas, Texas, home in late 2005, she and Blanche had lived together about six to seven years.

Turner stated that on January 27, 2006, Blanche told her she should stay at her cousin’s house down the street while he got the car repaired and |2that he would pick her up when he was done. She fell asleep at her cousin’s house and awoke at 6:00 a.m. the following morning to find that Blanche never came to get her. Turner walked back to her home, which was just around the corner, to get some clothes for herself and her daughter.

Upon arrival, she noticed an unfamiliar car in the driveway which had the keys in the ignition, open doors, and a purse and women’s clothing on the backseat. Turner had house keys, but discovered the front and rear doors were locked from the inside. When no one answered her knocks at either door, she went around to the bedroom window. Turner could not see into the bedroom, but could hear Blanche talking. She yelled for him to let her in so that she could get her clothes. Finally, she broke the window in, at which point she could see a woman sitting on the bed. She also saw Blanche, who was wearing camouflage clothes, reach under the mattress. Blanche pulled out a gun, pointed it at her and shot her in the neck. Turner knew that Blanche kept a gun under the mattress but she did not immediately realize that she had been shot and she continued yelling at Blanche. After discovering the blood on her neck and that she had [512] been shot, she left in the car that was sitting in the driveway in an attempt to drive to her cousin’s house. After erratic driving, she arrived at her cousin’s house, where her family called for an ambulance.

Turner was hospitalized for three weeks. The bullet remains in her shoulder, lodged between two bones, because the doctors were concerned that an attempt to retrieve the bullet might leave her paralyzed on her left side. The doctors initially stitched her chin to her chest to prevent her from |smoving her head. She maintained this position for two weeks before the stitches were removed.

On cross-examination, Turner testified that Blanche responded to her demands that she be allowed to get her clothes by saying that she was not going to get anything.

Officer James Coates, assigned to the patrol division of the Monroe Police Department, answered the dispatch call to Davis’ house on January 28, 2006. He found Turner lying on the carport at Davis’ house and observed that she appeared to have a gunshot wound to the neck. As he approached Turner, she twice said to him that Don Blanche had shot her.

Corporal Dennis Wall of the Monroe Police Department also responded to the dispatch call to Davis’ residence that morning. From there, he proceeded to Turner and Blanche’s home on Cole Avenue and en route observed a black male and a black female running from the area. He stopped the female, but the male continued running. Officer Wall was able to stop the male a short time later and noticed that the man, identified as Donald Blanche, had blood on him. Neither person was carrying a gun when stopped.

Investigating the crime scene, Captain Richard Jones and another officer located a handgun at the rear of a residence at 507 Cole Avenue, two houses down from Turner and Blanche’s house on the same side of the street. The gun was found under the edge of the raised house, behind a pier and wrapped in a white towel. The handgun contained five live rounds and one spent case. No usable prints were found on the handgun.

[¿Detective Benjamin Baw was assigned to investigate the shooting. He found broken glass on both the inside and outside of the broken bedroom window of Turner and Blanche’s home. He also found blood on the curtain at the front door, “like somebody had grabbed the doorknob and the curtain at the same time to open the door.”

Baw testified that Blanche and the female, identified as Shalonda Hill, had been taken to the police station for questioning. Blanche had a cut on his left hand and was wearing tan pants over a pair of blood-smeared camouflage pants. Baw identified a picture taken that day of Blanche’s cut hand but had no knowledge of how or when the cut occurred.

Baw also spoke with Hill, who advised him that the gun used to shoot Turner was concealed at the residence at 507 Cole Avenue. Ballistic tests were not done because the bullet remained lodged in the victim. Baw arrested Blanche for the attempted second degree murder of Turner.

After the state rested, Hill testified for the defense. She testified that she had known Blanche for about five years and they have children together. At the time of trial, she was Blanche’s fíanceé. On January 28, 2006, she and Blanche were the only people at the house at 503 Cole Street. Hill said they had just come in from partying and went to asleep. She heard a noise at the window, as if someone was trying to break in, and she tried to wake Blanche up. She heard the sound of the screen breaking and then the window breaking and she hurried to get dressed. [513] Hill said that at no time during the event did she or Blanche have a gun, nor did she ever see Blanche with a gun in the house. They left the house so that no one would lficome inside and try to do anything to them. She was going to call the police but her cell phone was dead. She said she first saw the police when she was waiting for Blanche to come back from calling the police. Hill said that she and Blanche did not run, they were just leaving to call the police. She said the police did not chase Blanche.

Hill said she did not recall Blanche ever having a gun in his possession at any time during this event and she did not recall hearing a gunshot. She said she only heard a noise and she looked outside to find her car gone.

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State v. Blanche, 92 So. 3d 508, 2012 WL 1414276, 2012 La. App. LEXIS 543 (La. Ct. App. 2012).

92 So. 3d 508 (State v. Blanche) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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