State v. Brown

719 So. 2d 146
Louisiana Court of Appeal·Decided September 23, 1998·No. 31123-KA·Published·Cited by 5 cases

Opinion

719 So.2d 146 (1998)

STATE of Louisiana, Appellee,
v.
Darrien BROWN, Appellant.

No. 31123-KA.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Second Circuit.

September 23, 1998.

*147 Pamela G. Smart, Assistant Indigent Defender, for Appellant.

Richard Ieyoub, Attorney General, Paul Carmouche, District Attorney, Catherine M. Estopinal, Assistant District Attorney, for Appellee.

Before HIGHTOWER, BROWN and STEWART, JJ.

BROWN, Judge.

Defendant, Darrien Wayne Brown, was convicted of the aggravated rape of a 70-year-old woman. Defendant has appealed his conviction. We affirm.

Facts

On the morning of July 28, 1996, the elderly victim arose at approximately 6:30 a.m., as *148 was her custom. She dressed and went outside to retrieve her newspaper before getting ready for church. While in her driveway she noticed some grass clippings that needed to be cleaned up. As she was picking up the clippings she was approached by a young black male whom she later identified as defendant.

Defendant asked the victim about her family, claiming he was interested in her insurance needs. The victim, feeling uncomfortable, began to return to her house after picking up a second pile of clippings. Defendant followed her and after she had put up her yard utensils, grabbed her from behind and dragged her to an alpine house in her backyard.[1]

The victim screamed and struggled, but was unsuccessful in evading defendant. In fact, defendant struck the victim across the face, knocking off her glasses. Once inside the alpine house defendant threatened the victim with the alleged possession of a gun and ordered her to remove her clothing. The victim, out of fear of great bodily harm, complied. After further physical assaults including trying to strangle the victim, defendant raped her on the floor of the alpine house.

Defendant then told the victim to get dressed and asked if she had any money in her home. The victim replied that she had three twenties and a ten and defendant forced her into her home, again threatening to shoot her. Once in the victim's home, defendant followed her to the bedroom where she kept her purse. The victim initially gave defendant only the three twenties, but he demanded the ten as well.

Defendant threatened to kill the victim if she reported him to the police and then fled the house. The victim called a friend who then called the police. The crime was initially reported only as a robbery. However, when the officer was questioning the victim about the robbery she broke down in tears and told him about the rape.

The victim described her attacker as being a black male with a short hair cut, a horizontally striped shirt with blue-gray and white stripes and a pair of dark colored shorts. The investigating officer remembered receiving a similar description earlier that morning from another complainant, Dewalia Hill.[2] Ms. Hill had also reported that she had known the man for about three years and that his name was Darrien Brown. The officer returned to Ms. Hill's home to question her further.

Ms. Hill gave a similar description of defendant and the general location of his home. Although her description of defendant's shirt differed somewhat from that of the victim's in the colors it contained, the rest of the description matched.

Feeling that he may have the identity of the victim's attacker, the officer went to defendant's home to question him at approximately 9:00 a.m. Defendant's mother answered the door and stated that defendant was sleeping and that she had seen him in his bed as early as 7:00 a.m. or so. She called defendant's name a few times and he came out wearing only a pair of shorts that appeared to be for sleeping. The officer asked defendant to get dressed so they could talk outside. The officer followed defendant to his room and there saw a shirt and pair of shorts closely matching the descriptions he had been given by the victim and Ms. Hill.

Once outside the officer told defendant he was there to discuss the complaint from Ms. Hill. At that point defendant fled. He was later apprehended and arrested for fleeing from an officer. The shirt and shorts were retrieved from defendant's home and he was photographed wearing them.

A potential witness, Mrs. Gorsulowsky, informed the police that she may have seen the victim's attacker that morning when she jogged by the victim's home. She stated that she had seen a black male, whom she thought was helping the elderly victim with her yard *149 work, as she jogged by at approximately 7:00 a.m. that morning.

The police showed the victim and Mrs. Gorsulowsky, separately, a photographic line-up consisting of six pictures. Both the victim and Mrs. Gorsulowsky identified defendant's photograph. They were each also shown the photo of defendant in the retrieved clothing. Although it is not clear where that picture was when the line-up was being shown, both the victim and Mrs. Gorsulowsky testified that it did not influence their decisions in picking out defendant's photo from the line-up.

The victim was taken to LSU Medical Center that same morning where she was examined and a rape kit was completed. The kit included all of the victim's clothing that she was wearing at the time of the attack, as well as biological samples. The kit was sent to the North Louisiana Crime Lab along with a sample of defendant's blood. At trial a DNA expert, Ms. Dawn Tingle, testified that defendant's DNA, which was found to be present in a sample tested from the victim's panties, was narrowed to a field of one in over 622,500 members of the black population.

Defendant was charged with aggravated rape and first degree robbery. A jury found him guilty of aggravated rape, but acquitted him of the robbery charge. Thereafter, the trial court sentenced defendant to life imprisonment without benefit of probation, parole, or suspension of sentence.

Discussion

Denial of Post-Trial Motions/ Sufficiency of the Evidence

Defendant alleges that the trial court erred in denying his motions for a new trial and for post-verdict judgment of acquittal because the evidence presented at his trial was insufficient to support his conviction of aggravated rape. Defendant questions the reliability of the DNA evidence as well as the identifications of him as the assailant.

La.C.Cr.P. art. 851(1) provides that the court shall grant a motion for new trial whenever the verdict is contrary to the law and the evidence. A motion for new trial presents only the issue of the weight of the evidence. Under article 851(1), the trial court has wide discretion to determine the weight of the evidence and refusal to grant such a motion is not subject to appellate review, except for error of law. State v. Mitchell, 26,070 (La.App.2d Cir.06/22/94), 639 So.2d 391, writ denied, 94-1981 (La.12/16/94), 648 So.2d 387.

La.C.Cr.P. art. 821 provides that a motion for post-verdict judgment of acquittal shall be granted only if the court finds that the evidence, viewed in the light most favorable to the state, does not reasonably permit a finding of guilty. This is a question of legal sufficiency. State v. Combs, 600 So.2d 751 (La.App. 2d Cir.1992), writ denied, 604 So.2d 973 (La.1992).

The relevant inquiry when reviewing a conviction for the sufficiency of the evidence is whether, upon 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

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