State v. Breaux

366 So. 2d 1375
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedDecember 15, 1978
Docket62730
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 366 So. 2d 1375 (State v. Breaux) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Breaux, 366 So. 2d 1375 (La. 1978).

Opinion

366 So.2d 1375 (1978)

STATE of Louisiana
v.
Claude J. BREAUX.

No. 62730.

Supreme Court of Louisiana.

December 15, 1978.

*1376 A. J. Boudreaux, Indigent Defender Board, Kenner, for defendant-appellant.

William J. Guste, Jr., Atty. Gen., Barbara Rutledge, Asst. Atty. Gen., John M. Mamoulides, Dist. Atty., James D. Maxwell, Abbott J. Reeves, Asst. Dist. Attys., for plaintiff-appellee.

*1377 CALOGERO, Justice.

Defendant was charged by bill of information with three counts of aggravated crime against nature,[1] in violation of R.S. 14.89.1, and convicted on all counts after a bench trial. The trial court imposed six year sentences on each count, directing that the sentences be served concurrently. Defendant relies upon four arguments, encompassing eight assignments of error, for a reversal of his conviction and sentence. Because the remaining thirteen assignments appearing in the record have been neither briefed nor argued, we consider them abandoned. State v. Richey, 364 So.2d 566 (La.1978) No. 61,990.

ARGUMENT NO. 1

ASSIGNMENTS OF ERROR NOS. 2, 4, 9 AND 13

These assignments of error stem from the mid-trial amendment of the bill of information, which had charged the commission of the offenses "on or about January 25, 1976" when trial commenced. On the third day of trial, the trial court allowed the state to amend the three counts of the information to charge that the offenses were committed between the dates of January 18, 1976 and January 27, 1976. Even prior to this May 4, 1976 amendment, during the state's opening statement and during examination of witnesses, the defense complained of the state's use of the phrase "on or about January 25" because the imprecision purportedly rendered impossible the preparation of an adequate alibi defense. Subsequent to the amendment, which set forth a ten day time span within which the crimes were alleged to have been committed, the defense sought a continuance urging that the amendment materially and prejudicially affected the defense planned (which included an alibi for the date of January 25, 1976) and claiming that defendant was entitled to a continuance in accordance with the provisions of Article 489 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.[2]

Defendant complains in brief of the denial of the continuance sought as a result of the mid-trial amendment of the bill of information. However, the record reflects that the trial court granted a "continuance" as mandated by article 489, and trial resumed two days later, at which time defense sought a mistrial, claiming that the defendant's mental condition so hampered efforts to prepare a defense with respect to all time periods covered by the amended bill that defense preparation was incomplete. Counsel for Breaux complained that he had determined the witnesses he needed and would be prepared to present some defense witnesses but that he had not yet interviewed them. The court denied the mistrial motion, and the defense objected to the ruling. The trial judge stated for the record that defense counsel had telephoned on the previous afternoon, at which time he indicated to the judge that he thought he had all the witnesses needed but related that he perhaps would need instanter subpoenas when the trial resumed the next morning. No instanter subpoenas were requested, the judge observed.

In view of the fact that the trial court granted a continuance, the complaint that the court erred in denying a continuance is wholly lacking in merit. It is significant to note that while the defense moved for a mistrial on the morning that trial resumed, *1378 urging inability to complete defense preparations, at no time was the motion for continuance based on the amendment re-urged, nor was additional time to further trial preparation sought. This argument lacks merit.

ARGUMENT NO. 2

ASSIGNMENTS OF ERROR NOS. 11 AND 16

During the trial testimony of the oldest victim of the crimes, age twelve at the time of trial, the child was asked on cross-examination how he had identified the defendant and whether Mr. Muller (a detective in the juvenile division) had "shown" the child the arrested defendant. The child responded to the inquiries by stating, "He gave me some pictures to look at." Defense counsel queried, "He did?" and the child then stated, "Uh-huh. Some lady gave me some pictures to look at." At this point the state objected to the defense line of questioning, noting that the witness had made an in-court identification of the defendant, and urging that the defense had been apprised that the state was not using any photographic line-up in connection with its proof of its case. The defense argued that in light of representations of a state's witness (Muller) at a pre-trial hearing on the motion to suppress identification that there was no photographic line-up exhibited to the victims, the revelation that the same witness exhibited photographs to one of the victims warranted a mistrial.

The court's further interrogation of the young witness indicated that although he had selected one of the photographs, it appeared that perhaps the child did not know who the selected photograph depicted because when asked, "And who was the photograph of that you picked out?" the boy responded, "He didn't tell me." The trial court examined the testimony of Detective Muller given at the motion to suppress hearing and ascertained that Muller only represented that he had no knowledge of any line-up or photographic identification procedure; there was no unequivocal representation that there had been no such procedure. When the defense urged that the testimony of the young victim now revealed that Muller had, indeed, exhibited photographs and that the detective's misrepresentation at the suppression hearing precluded defense exploration of the propriety of the identification procedure, the court announced that the young witness' testimony indicated there was no photographic identification made. This conclusion was based on the testimony indicating the child did not know who it was that he identified. The court opined that the identification by the child of the defendant was "from his own information." Based on its appreciation of the evidence, the trial court denied the mistrial sought by the defendant.

Much later, during the trial testimony of Detective Muller, defense sought a response on cross-examination to its inquiry of whether the officer had shown the victims photographs. The defense received a negative response and thereupon unsuccessfully renewed its motion for mistrial, based on the earlier contrary testimony of the young victim. The denial of the two motions for mistrial is urged by this argument to warrant reversal.

Arguing this issue in brief, the defense concedes its failure to establish that the display of the photographs was impermissibly suggestive but claims that its failure stemmed from the representation at the suppression hearing that no such identification procedure was employed. It is urged that the court reversibly errs when it prohibits the defendant from eliciting circumstances surrounding the out-of-court identification procedure.

Contrary to the conclusion of the trial court, we deem it probable that the young victim did identify the defendant upon viewing the photographs displayed to him, for his disclosure that he viewed photographs was in response to this inquiry: ". . . how did you identify Mr. Breaux? Did you go up to the Gretna Courthouse and did Mr. Muller show you Mr. Breaux?" However, a review of the record reveals that the young witness continually

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366 So. 2d 1375, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-breaux-la-1978.