State v. Calhoun

554 So. 2d 127, 1989 WL 150144
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedDecember 6, 1989
Docket21202-KA
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 554 So. 2d 127 (State v. Calhoun) 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. Calhoun, 554 So. 2d 127, 1989 WL 150144 (La. Ct. App. 1989).

Opinion

554 So.2d 127 (1989)

STATE of Louisiana, Appellee,
v.
Field CALHOUN, Appellant.

No. 21202-KA.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Second Circuit.

December 6, 1989.
Writ Denied March 30, 1990.

*128 Indigent Defender Office by Richard E. Hiller, Shreveport, for appellant.

William J. Guste, Jr., Atty. Gen., Baton Rouge, Paul J. Carmouche, Dist. Atty., A.M. Stroud, III, Liddell Smith, Tommy J. Johnson, Asst. Dist. Attys., Shreveport, for appellee.

Before HALL, SEXTON and LINDSAY, JJ.

SEXTON, Judge.

The defendant was charged by grand jury indictment with first degree murder, in violation of LSA-R.S. 14:30. The defendant was convicted as charged by a unanimous 12-member jury. The jury, however, could not agree whether the defendant should receive the death penalty or be sentenced to life imprisonment. The district court accordingly sentenced the defendant to life imprisonment at hard labor without benefit of parole, probation or suspension of sentence.

Defendant now appeals, arguing that the district court erred in denying his motion to suppress and in ordering that he be shackled with leg restraints during trial. Because we conclude that defendant's assignments of error are without merit, we affirm.

FACTS

The defendant, age 17 at the time of this incident, admitted at trial that he shot and killed Robert Smith at approximately 2:00 a.m. on the morning of December 20, 1986. However, it was defendant's contention that, at the time of the shooting, he was intoxicated such that he could not possess the requisite specific intent to kill or inflict great bodily harm.

Susan Smith, the victim's widow, testified that she had picked up her husband at his place of employment, LSU Medical Center, at around 1:30 a.m. on December 20, 1986. Prior to going home, she and her husband stopped at Consumer's Grocery Store at the corner of Pierre and Poland Streets in Shreveport. Mr. Smith stayed in the car while Mrs. Smith went into the store. After purchasing several items and receiving change from a $100 bill, Mrs. Smith left the store. She testified that just after leaving the store, the defendant grabbed her, put a pistol to her head and demanded that she give him her money. Mr. Smith, seeing this, got out of the car and asked the defendant what he was doing. *129 The defendant backed up slightly and fired two shots, both of which struck Mr. Smith, killing him. The defendant and a friend, James Sherman, then ran from the scene.

The defendant presented several witnesses, including himself, who testified that he had been drinking alcohol steadily since noon of the preceding day. Additionally, the defendant testified that he had been using marijuana and cocaine. According to the defendant, he accidentally bumped into Mrs. Smith outside of Consumer's Grocery. This caused the pistol he was carrying to fall. Mrs. Smith began to scream, which caused Mr. Smith to get out of the car. The defendant stated that he was only trying to stop Mr. Smith's advance when he fired twice, killing Mr. Smith. The jury found the defendant guilty of first degree murder and this appeal follows.

ABANDONED ERRORS

Assignments of Error Numbers 1 and 4 through 31, articulated in the original specifications of error, were neither briefed nor argued; therefore, they will be considered abandoned. State v. Wright, 445 So.2d 1198 (La.1984); State v. Hahn, 526 So.2d 260 (La.App. 2d Cir.1988), writ denied, 532 So.2d 150 (La.1988).

MOTION TO SUPPRESS

In Assignment of Error Number 2, defendant asserts that the district court erred in not granting his motion to suppress. In his motion to suppress, the defendant sought to preclude from admission as evidence at trial both physical evidence seized and statements he made to the police. In brief the defendant only argues that the statements should have been suppressed. The defendant has therefore abandoned his argument that the physical evidence should also have been suppressed.

We will simply note that the physical evidence was seized from a residence of which defendant was not a resident but an occasional occupant. He was a friend of some of the residents and spent some nights there, apparently including the early morning hours of December 20, 1986, following the death of Robert Smith. The search of this residence was conducted following a valid consent by Sarah Collins, the head of the household, as well as the consent of two of her children, Calvin Collins and Jock Collins, prior to the search.

Regarding the statements made by the defendant, his contention is that he was illegally detained by the police on December 20, 1986. He therefore claims that the statements he subsequently made should have been suppressed as fruit of the poisonous tree, tainted by the earlier illegal detention. The trial court determined that there was no illegal detention of the defendant by the police.

At the hearing on the motion to suppress, the state presented the testimony of numerous police officers who went to the residence on December 20, 1986. The primary reason the police went to the Collins residence was to arrest Jock Collins for an armed robbery unrelated to the defendant's prosecution. Additionally, the police suspected that an individual known only as "Charlie Brown" might be at that residence. The police had received an anonymous tip that Charlie Brown was involved in the murder of Robert Smith. The defendant was at the residence at the time the police went to arrest Jock Collins and informed the police that he was also known as Charlie Brown.

The defendant was advised of his rights, told that he was not under arrest, informed of the homicide investigation, and he consented to come to the police station for an interview regarding the homicide investigation. Officer W.E. Scott started to put handcuffs on the defendant, but he immediately took them off when he was informed that the defendant was not under arrest, and was only going to the station to be interviewed. The defendant was then transported to the police station by Officer Scott in a paddy wagon.

At the police station, the defendant was given Miranda warnings and then interviewed by Detective Glen Schach in the presence of Detective Donald Ray Norwood. State's exhibit No. 4 shows the Miranda *130 rights card read to the defendant prior to this initial interview. It specifically shows that the word "arrest" was crossed out and the word "investigation" was written in its place by Detective Schach. Later that morning, the defendant was arrested, based not on what he said during the interview, but upon information acquired during field work performed in the interim. There were two subsequent interviews with the defendant after his arrest, one on December 21 and one on December 22.

The defendant presented several witnesses at the hearing on the motion to suppress. Jeannette Calhoun, the defendant's sister, testified that she saw him the morning of December 20, in handcuffs, at the police station. Ms. Calhoun stated that she had gone to the Collins house and discovered that the police had already left with her brother, but that she somehow got to the police station before her brother arrived. The district court found her testimony not to be credible for this reason.

The district court, for the same reason, also placed little credence in the testimony of Rosemary Glass, the defendant's cousin who accompanied Ms. Calhoun to the police station. Ms. Glass testified that she, Ms.

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Bluebook (online)
554 So. 2d 127, 1989 WL 150144, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-calhoun-lactapp-1989.