State v. Carter

522 So. 2d 1100, 1988 WL 15846
Louisiana Court of Appeal·Decided February 23, 1988·No. KA 87 0766·Published·Cited by 8 cases

Opinion

522 So.2d 1100 (1988)

STATE of Louisiana
v.
Michael Ray CARTER.

No. KA 87 0766.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, First Circuit.

February 23, 1988.

*1102 Bryan Bush, Dist. Atty., Baton Rouge by Louis Daniel, Asst. Dist. Atty., for plaintiff/appellee.

Office of the Public Defender, Baton Rouge, for defendant/appellant.

Before COVINGTON, C.J., and SAVOIE and LeBLANC, JJ.

COVINGTON, Chief Judge.

Michael Ray Carter was charged by bill of information with armed robbery, a violation of LSA-R.S. 14:64. He was tried by a jury which convicted him as charged; and he was subsequently sentenced to imprisonment for a term of sixty years at hard labor without benefit of parole, probation or suspension of sentence. He has appealed, urging seven assignments of error, to wit:

1. The trial court erred by denying defendant's motion to quash the jury panel and his motion for a mistrial.
2. The trial court erred by denying defense counsel's objection to an irrelevant question.
3. The trial court erred by overruling defense counsel's objection to statements made by the prosecutor during the state's closing rebuttal argument.
4. The trial court erred by overruling defense counsel's objection to statements made by the prosecutor during the state's closing rebuttal argument.
5. The trial court erred by denying defendant's request for a limiting jury instruction.
6. The trial court erred by imposing an excessive sentence and failing to follow the sentencing guidelines provided in LSA-C.Cr.P. art. 894.1.
7. The verdict is contrary to the law and/or the evidence.

Assignment of error number two was not briefed on appeal and, therefore, is considered abandoned. Uniform Rules— Courts of Appeal, Rule 2-12.4.

The instant offense pertains to the armed robbery of First Federal Savings and Loan Association (hereinafter referred to as First Federal) in East Baton Rouge Parish. The crime was committed on August 15, 1986.

At about 10:00 a.m. on the day in question, Tyressa Decuir (a teller) was working at her teller station; and Leander Percy Winfield, III, a First Federal assistant vice-president and Loan Administration Manager, was getting a money order at another teller's station, approximately two stations away from Decuir. A man walked up to the counter at Decuir's teller station. Decuir asked the man if she could help him. He responded, in a stuttering voice, that he wanted to withdraw some money from his savings account. Decuir told him he would have to fill out a withdrawal slip. After completing a transaction for another First Federal employee, Decuir observed that the man was still standing at the counter. She repeated to him that he needed to complete a withdrawal slip in order to make a withdrawal. The man then slid a note across the counter to Decuir. Decuir testified that the note was written on what appeared to be a blue check. While she read the note, the man pulled out a white pillowcase from inside his pants. He also pulled out a small silver pistol which he pointed at her. Decuir then realized that a "hold-up" was in progress.

In the meantime, Winfield noticed that Decuir was "shaking a pillowcase out." Winfield looked at the robber who told him: "Yes, it's a robbery and don't you move." For about one—two minutes, Winfield merely continued to stand where he was and look at the robbery.

Decuir testified that she complied with the instructions in the robber's note, which specifically forbade her to activate any *1103 alarm and stated that otherwise "you're dead." She removed all the money from her drawer, approximately three thousand dollars, put it inside the pillowcase and handed it to the robber. The robber then took the pillowcase and walked out the front door of First Federal, leaving the note he had used on the counter.

Decuir and Winfield testified that the robber wore a pair of sunglasses and a "sailor's cap" which was "turned down" and that the robber had a mustache. The testimony of Decuir and Winfield revealed that both had recently attended a security training class approximately two days before the robbery. Winfield testified that while he was looking at the robber he thought that he would later be asked to make an identification and that he paid attention to the robber. Similarly, Decuir testified that, because she had attended the security class, she realized that she might be later asked to identify the robber. Decuir also testified that she got a "good look" at the robber, that she was face-to-face with the robber and that the lighting inside First Federal was "normal."

After the robber left First Federal, the police were summoned to the scene. Investigating officers discerned that the note used by the robber, had been written on a printed check form of Freddie Samuel Williams who was then incarcerated in the downtown jail. The police talked to Williams that same day; and, later that evening at about 9:00 p.m., defendant was arrested at the Universal Motel when he apparently returned to his room there. Sgt. Greg Phares of the Baton Rouge City Police Department testified that, after defendant's arrest, defendant signed a form consenting to a search of his motel room. Phares noted that, in talking to the police, defendant stuttered. The actual search was conducted between approximately midnight and 1:00 a.m. the morning after defendant's arrest. According to Phares, the search revealed only that the pillowcase was missing from the bed in defendant's motel room.

On the evening following defendant's arrest, Phares conducted separate photographic lineups with Decuir and Winfield. The lineups consisted of six photographs, one of which was defendant's. Decuir and Winfield each selected defendant's photograph as positively depicting the robber. On August 20, both Decuir and Winfield identified defendant as the robber at a six man physical lineup held at the parish prison. Decuir stated that she was positive in making her selection at the physical lineup. Furthermore, at trial, both Decuir and Winfield made positive in-court identifications of defendant as the robber.

Additionally, the testimony of Winfield and Norbert Rayford (the chairman of the board of directors and president of First Federal) revealed that four cameras were operating in First Federal on the day of the robbery and that the robbery was recorded on video tape. The state introduced into evidence the video tape, and the jury was allowed to view the pertinent portion of the tape. Also introduced into evidence were a series of photographs of the person depicted on the tape. The photographs were taken by George Robert Skaluba, an audio-visual specialist, employed at the Laboratory Division of the FBI in Washington, D.C. Some of the photographs introduced into evidence had been enhanced by Skaluba.

ASSIGNMENT OF ERROR NO. ONE:

By means of this assignment, defendant contends that the trial court erred by denying his motion to quash the jury panel and his motion for a mistrial. He argues that, because he is a member of the black race, the trial court should have granted either one or the other of his motions on the basis of the prosecutor's use of peremptory challenges to exclude black prospective jurors.

A peremptory challenge by the state shall not be based solely upon the race of the juror. LSA-C.Cr.P. art. 795(B). In Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 90 L.Ed.2d 69 (1986), the U

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State v. Carter, 522 So. 2d 1100, 1988 WL 15846 (La. Ct. App. 1988).

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