State v. Camp

641 So. 2d 702, 1994 WL 388979
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJuly 27, 1994
Docket92-KA-1842
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 641 So. 2d 702 (State v. Camp) 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. Camp, 641 So. 2d 702, 1994 WL 388979 (La. Ct. App. 1994).

Opinion

641 So.2d 702 (1994)

STATE of Louisiana
v.
Norbert CAMP.

No. 92-KA-1842.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Fourth Circuit.

July 27, 1994.

*703 Harry F. Connick, Dist. Atty., Val M. Solino, Asst. Dist. Atty., New Orleans, for appellee.

Sherry Watters, Orleans Indigent Defender Program, New Orleans, for defendant.

Before BARRY, JONES and LANDRIEU, JJ.

LANDRIEU, Judge.

Norbert Camp was indicted by the grand jury for the second degree murder of Rose Stewart in violation of La.Rev.Stat.Ann. § 14:30.1 (West pre-1993 amendment). He was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced as a third offender to serve forty-two years at hard labor. On appeal, this Court reversed his conviction and sentence and remanded for a new trial. State v. Camp, 571 So.2d 195 (La.App. 4th Cir.1990). A second trial on the charge of manslaughter commenced on January 27, 1992; the twelve-person jury found the defendant guilty as charged. On May 12, 1992, the trial court granted a motion to quash the multiple bill and sentenced the defendant to twenty-one years at hard labor. This court reversed the *704 trial court's quashing of the multiple bill on September 21, 1992. Following a multiple bill hearing on June 25, 1993, the trial court found the defendant to be a second offender and sentenced him to serve forty-two years at hard labor. An oral motion to reconsider the sentence was denied. On appeal, defense counsel raises two assignments of error and the defendant raises three pro se assignments of error for the reversal of his conviction and sentence. We affirm the conviction, vacate the sentence and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

FACTS

On the morning of December 16, 1987, Angie Stewart, the daughter of the victim, Rose Stewart, was preparing to go to school while her mother prepared to go to work. The defendant came to their apartment located at 3711 N. Dorgenois Street and was admitted by the victim. He initially sat at the kitchen table. Angie Stewart and her younger sister left for school but returned a few minutes later because the younger child was complaining of a stomachache. The victim told the girls to go to school. At that time, the defendant asked Angie "Who was down the steps"? The defendant was acting frightened and was looking out the window. The two children then left for school and did not return.

At approximately 8:20 a.m., Officer John Martin received a call that a fight was in progress. He responded to the call, arriving within a minute or two. As Officer Martin approached the scene, he saw a human form hurtling out of an upper story window of the housing project apartment building. After he exited his vehicle, Officer Martin observed the defendant standing at the window from which the victim, later identified as Rose Stewart, had come. While tending to the victim, Officer Martin noticed the defendant come out of the building and run down the street. Officer Martin got back into his police car and chased the defendant who ran to a house owned by Forrest Harper.[1] Officer Martin, along with back-up assistance, went into the house and apprehended the defendant who was combative, agitated, and bleeding from the hand. Officer Martin testified that he never saw anyone chasing the defendant. He never saw the defendant with anything in his hand and did not see him drop anything nor did he see anyone throw the victim from the window. Officer Martin admitted that in his police report the first mention of seeing the defendant was when he came out of the building.

The testimony of Forrest "Pops" Harper was read to the jury.[2] Mr. Harper had testified that at approximately 8:00-8:30 a.m. on December 16, 1987, he heard a noise and disturbance at the front of his house. When Mr. Harper went to the front of the house, he saw the defendant who said "Daddy, don't let them kill me" and "They're trying to kill me".[3] The defendant could not stand well and was covered in blood. He did not try to harm Mr. or Mrs. Harper in any way. Also, according to Mr. Harper's testimony, there were three men outside his house, one of whom was armed with a sawed-off shotgun. The three men were waiting for the defendant to come out. The defendant asked Mr. Harper to call the police.

Augustine Leaper testified that she was a neighbor of the victim and lived in the apartment underneath the Stewarts. She heard voices upstairs, including the victim yelling "Stop, help, call the police". Ms. Leaper also heard a man's voice, which she could not identify, calling for help and for the police. She also heard that same man say he would beat Ms. Stewart if she did not shut up. Ms. Leaper further testified that she saw a man running down the stairs with a knife in his hand, but she could not identify this person because she saw only his back. Ms. Leaper did not see or hear the victim fall from the window. At the time of the trial, Ms. Leaper was in jail for crime against nature.

The prior testimony of another of the victim's neighbors, Clementine Jones, was *705 introduced by the defense. Ms. Jones testified that she heard the defendant, whom she knew, yelling from the victim's apartment "Please call the police, they're trying to kill me". Ms. Jones called the police.

The State established that the victim's urine was negative for alcohol and narcotics. A knife was found on the walkway outside the victim's building; it had Type B human blood on it. The victim's blood was Type O. Additionally, the crime lab technician took seventeen blood samples from the victim's apartment, the building, and Mr. Harper's house. Seven of those samples were sufficient to type; all were Type B. The sufficient samples from the victim's apartment were from a curtain in the bedroom and a kitchen cabinet. The rest of the samples which could be typed came from the building stairwell and the Harper house. A pipe found in the victim's apartment tested positive for cocaine. No fingerprints were taken from the victim's apartment. The burglar bars at the kitchen window were bent, and there was blood on the window sill and on the refrigerator. There were also blood stains on the bedroom window sill and the brick portion outside the window sill; the bedroom window was the one from which the victim fell. These bloodstains were never typed because the sample was insufficient.

Dr. Paul McGarry, an expert in forensic pathology, performed the autopsy on Rose Stewart. In addition to massive internal injuries, Dr. McGarry found that the victim had defensive knife wounds on her hands. She also had a cut on the earlobe. Dr. McGarry found recent and old track marks on the victim. Dr. McGarry viewed a diagram of the defendant's hand from his Charity Hospital records. That diagram showed cuts on the defendant's fingers which could have occurred by his hand slipping down on a knife blade. However, Dr. McGarry testified that the cuts were also consistent with a man reaching and grabbing a knife.

DISCUSSION

ERRORS PATENT

Our review of the record reveals no errors patent.

ASSIGNMENT OF ERROR NUMBER 1

In his first assignment of error, the appellant contends that the trial court erred in overruling objections made by the defendant during the State's closing arguments. Specifically, the appellant argues that the prosecutor's arguments were not supported by the evidence, went beyond the scope of permissible argument, and included a reference to the defendant's failure to testify.

La.Code Crim.Proc.Ann.

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Related

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771 So. 2d 814 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2000)
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Bluebook (online)
641 So. 2d 702, 1994 WL 388979, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-camp-lactapp-1994.