State v. Bouwell

48 So. 3d 335, 2010 La. App. LEXIS 1265, 2010 WL 3666149
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedSeptember 22, 2010
DocketNo. 45,635-KA
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 48 So. 3d 335 (State v. Bouwell) 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. Bouwell, 48 So. 3d 335, 2010 La. App. LEXIS 1265, 2010 WL 3666149 (La. Ct. App. 2010).

Opinion

STEWART, J.

h The defendant, Donald Lee Bouwell, pled guilty to unauthorized entry of a business, a violation of La. R.S. 14:62.4, and simple criminal damage to property, a violation of La. R.S. 14:56. He was sentenced to three years in prison at hard labor. The defendant now appeals. For the reasons discussed below, we affirm the defendant’s conviction, vacate the defendant’s sentence, and remand the case for resen-tencing.

FACTS

On March 15, 2004, the Ruston Police Department responded to a call concerning a broken window on the west side of Emmanuel Baptist Church. Officer B.R. [337]*337Davis, Officer Cates, Officer Sullivant, and Sergeant D.M. Freeman went to the church and found a second-story window broken. The police entered the church and checked each room. As Officer Davis entered the choir room, he heard someone say, “I give up.” He saw a man hiding under some choir robes, and ordered him to come out. The man told the officers that he had broken into the church because he did not have a place to stay that night. There was no damage to the church other than the broken window. Officer Cates secured the man in handcuffs, advised him of his Miranda rights and placed him in a police car. The man was later identified as Donald Lee Bouwell. Officer Cates booked the defendant for simple burglary of a religious building and simple criminal damage to property.

A bill of information was filed on April 21, 2004, charging Bouwell with violating La. R.S. 14:62.4, unauthorized entry of a place of business, in that he “did make an intentional entry of a structure used in whole or in part Ras a place of business, Emmanuel Baptist Church, without the consent of the owner thereof.” By a separate bill of information, he was charged with violating La. R.S. 14:56, simple criminal damage to property, where the damage amounted to over $500. At a hearing that day, an attorney was appointed to represent Bouwell, and he entered a plea of not guilty.

On May 24, 2004, defendant’s attorney filed a motion to quash the bill of information for the unauthorized entry of a business charge, claiming that Louisiana courts had previously held that a church was not a “business” as used in the definition of the crime of unauthorized entry of a business. Therefore, he claimed, the offense charged was not punishable under a valid statute.

On August 17, 2004, the defendant’s motion to quash was denied. The defendant’s attorney indicated that his client had chosen to accept a plea deal offered by the state, but that he intended to reserve his right to appeal the decision on the motion to quash under State v. Crosby, 338 So.2d 584 (La.1976). Under the plea agreement, in exchange for a guilty plea as to the charge of unauthorized entry of a business, the second charge of criminal damage to property in an amount over $500 would be reduced to a responsive charge of simple criminal damage to property, and the defendant would be sentenced to three years at hard labor suspended plus three years of supervised probation that would include restitution to the victim in the amount of $291.87. In the event that the denial of the defendant’s motion to quash stood on appeal, the trial court was to impose a standard sentence for the charge of simple criminal damage to property and was to order that ^sentence to run concurrently with the sentence for the unauthorized entry. Additionally, if the appeal were unsuccessful, the defendant would be brought back to court and an additional condition of probation would be that he serve six months in the parish jail with credit for time served. The trial court Boykinized the defendant, accepted the guilty plea, and set the matter for sentencing on October 12, 2004.

The defendant did not attend the sentencing hearing on October 12, 2004. No explanation for his failure to appear was given in the trial court or in this appeal.

On November 10, 2009, the trial court held a sentencing hearing, noting that the defendant had failed to appear previously. A PSI showed that Bouwell had been engaged in substantial criminal activity both before and after the entry of the plea of guilty in this matter. The trial court noted that both of those actions were vio[338]*338lations of Bouwell’s case termination agreement. The trial court sentenced the defendant to be imprisoned for three years at hard labor, the sentence to run consecutively to any other sentences he was serving. The defendant did not get credit for time served on this offense or any other offenses. Further, with respect to the simple criminal damage to property, the trial court ordered the defendant imprisoned in the parish jail subject to public work for a period of six months. That sentence was to run concurrently with the sentence for unauthorized entry because it arose out of the same facts and circumstances.

The defendant’s attorney filed a motion for an appeal of the Crosby issue. The defendant seeks review on appeal of the denial of the motion to |4 quash the bill of information, and also claims the trial court erred in failing to comply with a valid plea bargain agreement between the defendant and the state at the time of the guilty plea.

LAW AND DISCUSSION

Unauthorized Entry of a Place of Business vs. Simple Burglary of a Religious Building

In the defendant’s first assignment of error, he asserts that the trial court erred by finding that a church is a place of business for the crime of unauthorized entry of a place of business. More specifically, he argues the statutes and case law indicate that there is now a statute which specifically deals with break-ins of churches, so churches should no longer be considered businesses for purposes of the unauthorized entry statute.

In support of his argument, the defense cites State v. King, 06-0618 (La.App. 4th Cir.3/7/01), 782 So.2d 654. In King, the defendant was charged with violating La. R.S. 14:62.6, which is simple burglary of a religious building. That particular statute was enacted by Acts 1997, No. 405 § 1, and states as follows:

A. Simple burglary of a religious building is the unauthorized entering of any church, synagogue, mosque, or other building, structure, or place primarily used for religious worship or other religious purpose with the intent to commit a felony or any theft therein, other than as set forth in R.S. 14:60.
B. Whoever commits the crime of simple burglary of a religious building shall be fined not more than two thousand dollars and imprisoned with or without hard labor for not less than two years nor more than twelve years. At least two years of the sentence of imprisonment shall be imposed without benefit of probation, parole, or suspension of sentence.

|sIn King, the defendant argued that the trial court erred by its failure to include unauthorized entry into a place of business and attempted unauthorized entry into a place of business on the list of responsive verdicts. The defendant in King cited a case decided in this court, State v. Smith, 28,516 (La.App.2d Cir.8/21/96), 679 So.2d 491, which held that a church was a business for purposes of the crime of unauthorized entry of a business. However, the Fourth Circuit noted that the offense perpetrated in Smith occurred prior to the 1997 enactment of La. R.S. 14:62.6, the specific statute relative to simple burglary of a religious building. The King court stated:

The finding in Smith

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Bluebook (online)
48 So. 3d 335, 2010 La. App. LEXIS 1265, 2010 WL 3666149, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-bouwell-lactapp-2010.