State v. Calzadilla

455 So. 2d 1244
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedAugust 31, 1984
DocketKA 1666
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 455 So. 2d 1244 (State v. Calzadilla) 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. Calzadilla, 455 So. 2d 1244 (La. Ct. App. 1984).

Opinion

455 So.2d 1244 (1984)

STATE of Louisiana
v.
Lidio P. CALZADILLA.

No. KA 1666.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Fourth Circuit.

August 31, 1984.

*1246 William J. Guste, Jr., Atty. Gen., Barbara Rutledge, Asst. Atty. Gen., Criminal Div., Harry F. Connick, Dist. Atty., Beryl M. McSmith, Asst. Dist. Atty., Alison Gosselin, Law Student, New Orleans, for plaintiff-appellee.

Calvin Johnson and Ramon Abadin, Supervising Attys., Teri-Ann Gross, Student Practitioner, New Orleans, for defendant-appellant.

Before GARRISON and WARD, JJ., and L. JULIAN SAMUEL, J. Pro Tem.

GARRISON, Judge.

The defendant, Lidio Calzadilla, was charged by bill of information with armed robbery in violation of La.R.S. 14:64 and with attempted murder in violation of La. R.S. 14:27 and 14:30. The jury found the defendant guilty as charged. The trial judge gave the defendant the maximum sentence for armed robbery of ninety-nine years at hard labor without benefit of parole, probation or suspension of sentence. For the attempted murder conviction, the defendant was given the maximum sentence of fifty years at hard labor. The trial judge also specified that these sentences are to be served consecutively. Defendant appeals his conviction and sentence.

The facts of this case are as follows: On November 5, 1982 at approximately 1:00 a.m., Paulino Lopez was escorting one of his employees, Maria Christina Ruvio, to her home on Abundance Street in New Orleans. As they approached Ms. Ruvio's front porch, two men suddenly appeared and began shooting at Ruvio and Lopez. One of the men shot Lopez four times before Lopez fell to the ground. This assailant then stood over Lopez and shot him one more time. Following the shooting, the assailant retrieved Lopez's wallet and fled with his co-assailant. Lopez suffered serious injuries but survived the attack.

Lopez gave the police a detailed description of his assailant. An anonymous informant gave the police a tip that the defendant was the person who shot Paulino Lopez. Officer Randy Adams of the New Orleans Police Department was familiar with the defendant and noted that the description given to police by Lopez matched the defendant's description. Officer Adams then included a picture of the defendant from his files in a group of photographs of similar looking men to be used in a photographic lineup. This photograph of Calzadilla was a regular small photograph and was not a mug shot. Several days after the incident, Lopez selected the defendant's picture from the photographic lineup and told police that the defendant was his assailant. He also identified the defendant at trial saying that he was "100% sure" of his identification. Lopez added that he had seen the defendant several times previously around his restaurant. Ms. Ruvio was unable to make an identification of the assailants from the photographic lineup. The other assailant in this case has not been apprehended.

The defendant claimed that he had never seen Lopez before these proceedings and that he did not commit the armed robbery and attempted murder of Paulino Lopez. *1247 He did testify at trial, however, that he had reason to believe that his acquaintances, Juan Casere and Mario Pedro Vego, were the perpetrators of this crime.

A review of the record reveals that there are no errors patent.

Although not alleged as an assignment of error, the sufficiency of the evidence in this case must be reviewed in accordance with State v. Raymo, 419 So.2d 858 (La.1982). According to the case of Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979), a conviction must be based on proof sufficient for a rational trier of fact, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, to find that the essential elements of the crime charged have been proven beyond a reasonable doubt. In this case, the defendant was charged with armed robbery[1] and attempted[2] murder[3]. Evidence was presented at trial which showed that the defendant shot Paulino Lopez five times. He and his co-assailant then robbed Lopez of his wallet and fled the scene. Lopez identified the defendant as his assailant at trial and in a pre-trial photographic lineup.

The evidence indicates that the defendant's intent was to kill or to inflict great bodily harm upon his victim. Both Lopez and Ms. Ruvio were present and conscious during the armed robbery and attempted murder and their eyewitness testimony provides sufficient evidence in the record to support the jury's guilty verdict.

Defendant urges three assignments of error on appeal. In his first assignment of error, the defendant claims that the trial court erred in denying his motion for a physical lineup. At the photographic lineup conducted for Paulino Lopez, Lopez identified the defendant as his assailant stating that he was "almost sure but would like to see the man in person." Pursuant to this request, the defense filed a pre-trial motion requesting a physical lineup. The trial judge denied this motion. At trial, Lopez testified that the defendant was definitely the person who robbed and shot him in the early morning of November 5, 1982.

In the case of State v. Boettcher, 338 So.2d 1356 (La.1976), the Louisiana Supreme Court held:

"... we conclude that an accused has no constitutional or legal right to order a lineup. However, we likewise conclude that a district court has broad discretion to order one or not, in the interests of the fairness of the identification of the defendant, upon proper showing of an exceptional nature that otherwise the trial testimony as to his visual identification (if a material issue) may not be reliable."

To determine if an exceptional nature exists which would warrant the necessity of a physical lineup, the five factor reliability test of Manson v. Brathwaite, 432 U.S. 98, 97 S.Ct. 2243, 53 L.Ed.2d 140 (1977), should be implemented. These factors include:

(1) the opportunity to view
(2) the degree of attention
(3) the accuracy of the description
(4) the witness' level of certainty
(5) the time between the crime and the confrontation *1248 Testimony in this case indicated that the defendant stood only three feet away from Lopez as he fired the shots and only fifteen inches away as the two men searched Lopez. A streetlight located twenty feet away from the defendant was shining directly in his face during the entire incident. Lopez testified that he concentrated totally on his assailant and because of this, he could not give the police a detailed description of the other assailant. Lopez's description of his assailant was so detailed that Officer Adams noted that this description matched a picture of the defendant which he already had in his possession. After being shown at least fourteen photographs of similar looking men, Lopez was able to select the defendant's photograph in only a couple of minutes. This photographic lineup took place ten days after the date of the crime.

These factors certainly seem to indicate Lopez's ability to make an accurate identification which is crucial to this case.

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