State v. Buttner

489 So. 2d 970
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMay 21, 1986
DocketKA 3407
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 489 So. 2d 970 (State v. Buttner) 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. Buttner, 489 So. 2d 970 (La. Ct. App. 1986).

Opinion

489 So.2d 970 (1986)

STATE of Louisiana
v.
Jerry J. BUTTNER.

No. KA 3407.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Fourth Circuit.

May 21, 1986.
Writs Denied September 19, 1986.

*971 William J. Guste, Jr., Atty. Gen., Barbara B. Rutledge, Asst. Atty. Gen., Harry F. Connick, Dist. Atty., Pamela S. Moran, Asst. Dist. Atty., New Orleans, for State.

Dwight Doskey, Orleans Indigent Defender Program, New Orleans, for defendant.

Before BYRNES and WARD, JJ., and HUFFT, J. Pro Tem.

PRESTON H. HUFFT, Judge Pro Tem.

On March 31, 1980, the defendant was charged by bill of information with the attempted second degree murder of Officer Henry Meliet on March 9, 1980 a violation of R.S. 14:27(30.1).[1] On April 2, 1980, the defendant was charged also by bill of information with the intentional or criminally negligent discharge on March 9, 1980 of a pistol, where it was forseeable that such *972 discharge might result in death or great bodily harm to a human being, a violation of R.S. 14:94.

On June 30, 1980, the State dismissed the attempted second degree murder bill of information and filed a direct bill charging the defendant with attempted first degree murder of Officer Henry Meliet in violation of R.S. 14:27(30). The defendant waived formal reading of this bill of information and entered a plea of not guilty. After a jury trial on February 18, 1981 the defendant was found guilty as charged and sentenced to twenty-five years in the custody of the Louisiana Department of Corrections. This conviction was reversed by the Supreme Court on the basis that no valid bill of information had been filed. State v. Buttner, 411 So.2d 35 (La.1982).

The defendant was re-tried on July 27, 1983 on the attempted first degree murder charge and again found guilty. The defendant was sentenced to twenty-five years in the custody of the Louisiana Department of Corrections to run consecutively with the sentence imposed as a result of his conviction on April 7, 1981 for violating R.S. 14:94. A motion for an out of time appeal was filed and granted.

On March 9, 1980, at about 6:50 a.m. Tony Ferrand, an employee of the Marriott Hotel, saw two people running toward the Marriot Hotel. They were followed by the defendant, who was shooting at them with a pistol. Mr. Ferrand went into the coffee shop and told Officer Henry Meliet, who was a patron in the coffee shop, of the incident. Officer Meliet went out of the back door and saw the defendant chasing two people. The defendant had a pistol in his belt. Officer Meliet identified himself as a police officer and told the defendant to drop his weapon. The defendant pulled his weapon out of his belt and fired twice at Officer Meliet. Officer Meliet returned the fire, striking the defendant in the leg. The defendant ran back into the Pirate's Bar Den and fired several more shots inside the bar. After a few minutes, the defendant stated that he was out of bullets and wanted to surrender.

Original Assignment of Error

Originally the defendant in his only assignment of error contended that the trial court erred in denying his motion to quash on the grounds of double jeopardy. The motion urged that the defendant's conviction on the charge of intentional discharge of a firearm in violation of R.S. 14:94 precluded prosecution on the charge of attempted first degree murder. C.Cr.P. art. 596 provides:

Double jeopardy exists in a second trial only when the charge in that trial is:
(1) Identical with or different grade of the same offense for which the defendant was in jeopardy in the first trial, whether or not a responsive verdict could have been rendered in the first trial as to the charge in the second trial; or
(2) Based on a part of a continuous offense for which offense the defendant was in jeopardy in the first trial.

Double jeopardy provisions protect an accused not only from a second prosecution on the same offense, but also from multiple punishments for the same criminal conduct. State v. Vaughn, 431 So.2d 763 (La.1983); State v. Steele, 387 So.2d 1175 (La.1980); United States v. Benz, 282 U.S. 304, 51 S.Ct. 113, 75 L.Ed. 354 (1931).

Where the same act or transaction constitutes a violation of two distinct statutory provisions, the test to be applied to determine whether there are two offenses or only one, is whether each provision requires proof of an additional fact which the other does not. Brown v. Ohio, 432 U.S. 161, 97 S.Ct. 2221, 53 L.Ed.2d 187 (1977); Blockburger v. United States, 284 U.S. 299, 52 S.Ct. 180, 76 L.Ed. 306 (1932); State v. Dubaz, 468 So.2d 554 (La.1985); State v. Coody, 448 So.2d 100 (La.1984). This test is applied to evidence required to convict, not to all evidence presented at trial. State v. Steele, supra; State v. Rogers, 462 So.2d 684 (La.App. 4th Cir.1984).

In the instant case, the defendant was previously convicted of intentional discharge of a firearm in violation of R.S. 14:94. That crime is defined as follows:

*973 A. Illegal use of weapons or dangerous instrumentalities is the intentional or criminally negligent discharging of any firearm, or the throwing, placing, or other use of any article, liquid, or substance, where it is forseeable that it may result in death or great bodily harm to a human being.

At that trial, the State produced witnesses to testify that the defendant ran into the Pirate's Den Bar and began shooting at two men. The defendant fired several more shots in the bar and then left. Outside of the bar, the defendant shot at Officer Meliet, who had been summoned to the scene.

The conviction in the second trial, from which this appeal was taken, is for the attempted murder of Officer Meliet. While evidence of the shooting of Officer Meliet was considered at the trial of the R.S. 14:94 violation, the basis of the conviction was evidence of the defendant's behavior inside of the bar before Officer Meliet was summoned. Thus, these two crimes actually involved different victims and different situations although they arose out of the same transaction.

In State v. Pettle, 286 So.2d 625 (La. 1973), the court found that trying a defendant for attempted murder after he had entered a plea of guilty to manslaughter did not place the defendant in double jeopardy. In that case the defendant entered a bar and seized a bar attendant while holding a knife to her ribs. She was able to get free of the defendant's grasp. The defendant then grabbed a second woman and forced her into his car at knifepoint. The second victim's body was found later.

In this case the defendant's crimes are separate and distinct offenses. The gravamen of the second offense (a violation of R.S. 14:27 (30)) for which the defendant was held accountable is not essentially included in the first offense (a violation of R.S. 14:94). Under these circumstances we find that the defendant has not been placed in jeopardy twice.

This assignment is without merit.

In a pro se brief the defendant assigned the following errors.

Assignment of Error Number One

This assignment is a duplication of defendant's original assignment of error— double jeopardy.

Assignment of Error Number Two

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Bluebook (online)
489 So. 2d 970, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-buttner-lactapp-1986.