State v. Brown

36 So. 3d 974, 2009 La.App. 4 Cir. 0884, 2010 La. App. LEXIS 465, 2010 WL 1239317
Louisiana Court of Appeal·Decided March 31, 2010·No. No. 2009-KA-0884·Published·Cited by 14 cases

Opinion

PAUL A. BONIN, Judge.

|, James Brown was convicted by a jury of attempted first degree robbery, a violation of La. R.S. 14:27 and 14:64.1, for which he was sentenced to ten years at hard labor.1 In his sole assignment of error, Mr. Brown argues that his conviction and sentence should be reversed because the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress identification. In particular, Mr. Brown contends that the one-on-one show up procedure used to identify him was suggestive such that there is a substantial likelihood that he has been misidentified. For the reasons which follow, we find that Mr. Brown has not carried his burden of proof on the issue of suppression and, accordingly, affirm his conviction and sentence.

I

On the night of June 10, 2008, Mr. Carlos Deleon was leaving the Holiday Inn on Carondelet Street when he was attacked. His assailant approached him from behind, pulled his left arm towards his back, and put a sharp object against his neck. He was told to give up his wallet or else be killed. Mr. Deleon instinctively breached for his attacker’s arm and received a small laceration on his left ribcage in the ensuing struggle. Mr. Deleon called for help, and one of his co-workers, Leroy McDougal, responded in time to observe the assailant running away. Mr. Deleon and Mr. McDougal chased the assailant for approximately four blocks before he escaped. They then returned to the Holiday Inn garage to wait for the police, who had already been called. In the 911 tape of this call (which was introduced at trial and played for the jury without objection from the defense), an unidentified man told the dispatcher that a black man in a white shirt had just accosted Mr. Deleon with a knife. Officer Billy Tregle and his partner, Officer Brandon Ludwig responded to the dispatch call alerting them to the same: an attempted robbery had occurred near the corner of Gravier and Carondelet Streets by a black male in a white shirt armed with a knife. The officers set up a perimeter in the vicinity of Carondelet and O’Keefe Streets and then began perusing the vicinity of North Rampart Street. Within four minutes of the dispatch call, they observed a black male wearing a white shirt. Officer Ludwig claims to have observed the subject holding a knife in his left hand.

The officers stopped Mr. Brown approximately three to four blocks from the Holiday Inn, near the Gravier and O’Keefe Streets. Although there was no sign of blood on his hands, clothes, or knife, the officers arrested Mr. Brown, read him his rights, and informed him that he was under investigation for attempted armed robbery with a knife. About 30 to 40 minutes following Mr. Brown’s arrest, Mr. McDou-gal and Mr. Deleon were successively brought to Gravier and O’Keefe, where Mr. Brown had been held since the time he was apprehended, for one-on-one identifications under the supervision of Detective Sean McElrath. Detective McElrath explained that he conducted the show up identifications separately in |sorder to eliminate or minimize any collaboration between witnesses. The witness and the victim each identified Mr. Brown as the assailant within seconds, with the victim [978] noting that there was no doubt in his mind that Mr. Brown was his attacker.

II

A

In his sole assignment of error, Mr. Brown argues that his conviction and sentence should be reversed because the trial court erred in denying his pre-trial motion to suppress the one-on-one show up identification made by the victim.2 A “one-on-one show up” concerns “an identification procedure that takes place shortly after a crime is committed, usually at the scene of the crime or the apprehension of a suspect, whereby a victim is asked whether the victim recognizes a person suspected to be the perpetrator of a crime against the victim.” State v. Harold, 03-0649, p. 6 (La.App. 4 Cir. 11/12/03), 861 So.2d 262, 265, n. 2. Mr. Brown asserts that the trial court’s failure to suppress the one-on-one show up identification allowed the prosecution to elicit unreliable in-court identifications at trial.

On review, we will not disturb a trial court’s determination on the admissibility of an out-of-court identification unless the record reveals an abuse of discretion. State v. Weathersby, 09-2407, p. 4 (La.3/12/10), 29 So.3d 499 (per curiam);3 State v. Bickham, 404 So.2d 929, 934 (La.1981). Our review is not limited to the evidence adduced at the hearing on the motion to suppress, but it also extends to evidence adduced at the trial. State v. Lewis, 04-0227, p. 18 (La.App. 4 Cir. 9/29/04), 885 So.2d 641, 652.

| /fhe constitutional basis for a motion to suppress an out-of-court identification is found in the Due Process protections of the United States Constitution’s Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments. See Neil v. Biggers, 409 U.S. 188, 196, 93 S.Ct. 375, 34 L.Ed.2d 401 (1972). In a motion to suppress, “the burden of proof is on the defendant to prove the ground of his motion ...” La.C.Cr.P. art. 703 D. Accordingly, the defendant bears the burden of proof on a motion to suppress an out-of-court identification. State v. Stovall, 07-0343, p. 16 (La.App. 4 Cir. 2/6/08), 977 So.2d 1074, 1084. The burden of proof does not shift to the prosecution as it does in the context of determining the admissibility of evidence of a purported confession or due to a defendant’s assertion that his rights have been violated after he has made an initial showing of a reasonable expectation of privacy and a warrantless search or seizure. See State v. Williams, 07-700, p. 8 (La.App. 4 Cir. 2/13/08), 977 So.2d 1101, 1109 (the prosecution must establish the admissibility of a purported confession by showing that it was voluntarily made), and State v. Bazile, 386 So.2d 349, 353 (La.1980) (on a motion to suppress, the burden of proof shifts to the prosecution to prove the admissibility of evidence once the defendant makes an initial showing that his rights have been violated by a warrantless search).

To prevail on such a motion, the defendant must show two things: that the identification procedure was suggestive, and, having substantiated that, he must show that there was substantial likelihood of misidentification as a result of the suggestive identification procedure. State v. Higgins, 03-1980, p. 19 (La.4/1/05), 898 So.2d 1219, 1231-32. Accordingly, even where the defendant has proven, or the [979] court has presumed, the suggestiveness of an identification process, to carry his burden the defendant must also show that there was a substantial likelihood of 15misidentification as a result of the procedure. State v. Prudholm, 446 So.2d 729, 738 (La.1984); see also State v. Robinson, 09-0922 (La.App. 4 Cir. 3/10/10), — So.3d -, 2010 WL 830964. It is the likelihood of misidentification that violates due process, not suggestibility by itself, and thus the mere fact that an identification is unduly suggestive is not sufficient to establish its inadmissibility. State v. Harold, supra, 03-0649 at p. 6, 861 So.2d at 266.

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State v. Brown, 36 So. 3d 974, 2009 La.App. 4 Cir. 0884, 2010 La. App. LEXIS 465, 2010 WL 1239317 (La. Ct. App. 2010).

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