State v. Chehardy

157 So. 3d 21, 12 La.App. 3 Cir. 1337, 2013 WL 1809891, 2013 La. App. LEXIS 862
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMay 1, 2013
DocketNo. 12-1337
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 157 So. 3d 21 (State v. Chehardy) 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. Chehardy, 157 So. 3d 21, 12 La.App. 3 Cir. 1337, 2013 WL 1809891, 2013 La. App. LEXIS 862 (La. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

GENOVESE, Judge.

| Rn this criminal case, Defendant, Joseph Anton Chehardy, Jr., appeals his convictions and sentences for second degree murder and two counts of aggravated battery. In his assignment of error, Defendant’s appellate counsel alleges insufficiency of the evidence. Defendant has also filed a pro se brief with assignments of error, alleging ineffective assistance of counsel, defective voir dire, illegal sentence, failure of notice of grand jury proceedings, and trial court error in denying his motions to suppress statements and quash the indictment. For the following reasons, we affirm Defendant’s conviction and sentence for second degree murder; we affirm Defendant’s conviction on both counts of aggravated battery; we vacate Defendant’s sentence on both counts of aggravated battery; and, we remand the matter to the trial court for resentencing on both counts of aggravated battery with instructions relative to post-conviction relief.

FACTS

The record indicates that two deputies, Barry McCain and Steven Logsdon, both with the Rapides Parish Sheriffs Office, responded to a domestic disturbance at Defendant’s home. After shooting his wife several times at their home, Defendant attempted to escape by running down the two deputies with his truck. As they stood in the driveway, Defendant, ignoring their calls for him to approach them with his hands up, entered his truck and sped directly towards the two men, forcing them to leap aside to avoid serious bodily injury and/or death. Defendant’s wife died as a result of the gunshot wounds.

PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Defendant was indicted on July 29, 2010, on one count of second degree murder, a violation of La.R.S. 14:30.1, and on two counts of attempted first degree murder, violations of La.R.S. 14:27 and 14:30(A)(2). Jury trial commenced on |?May 15, 2012, and, on May 17, 2012, Defendant was found guilty of one count of second degree murder and two counts of aggravated battery, violations of La.R.S. 14:34.

Defendant was sentenced on May 25, 2012, to life imprisonment without the benefit of parole, probation, or suspension of sentence on the conviction of second degree murder and to ten years imprisonment at hard labor on each count of aggravated battery, to be served consecutively with each other and with the life sentence. He filed a Motion to Reconsider Sentence, which was denied without a hearing.

ASSIGNMENTS OF ERROR

Assignment of Error by Defendant’s Appellate Counsel:

Defendant’s appellate counsel asserts that “[t]he trial court erred in finding Joseph Chehardy guilty of two counts of aggravated battery.”

Pro Se Assignments of Error:

1. The trial court erred in imposing an unservable punishment, violating La. Constitution Article 1, § 20.
2. The trial court erred in failing to protect the appellant’s right to the priviledge [sic] of self-incrimination,
[24]*24thereby violating La. Const. Articles 1, § 13 and 1, § 16.
3. The appellate counsel for Joseph Chehardy violated La. Const. Articles 1, §§ 2, 3 when he chose not to appeal appellant[’]s conviction and sentence for La. R.S. 14:30.1.
4. The trial court erred by failing to send notice to defense counsel [of] the meeting of the grand jury, violating La. Const. Articles 1, §§ 2, 3 and the 6th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
5. The trial court erred when violating La.- Con. [sic] Article 1 § 16, by allowing the prosecution team to challenge the jurors and make strikes so that as many women as possible would fill the seats against appellant.
6. The defense counsel, Mr. Joseph Kutch, did not effectively assist his client, the appellant, according to the strict demands of the' 6th IsAmendment to the U.S. Constitution and case law standard [Strickland v. Washington ].

ERRORS PATENT

In accordance with La.Code Crim.P. art. 920, all appeals are reviewed for errors patent on the face of the record. After reviewing the record, we find two errors patent.

First, Defendant’s sentences for aggravated battery are indeterminate. Louisiana Revised Statutes 14:34 carries a term of imprisonment for not more than ten years with or without hard labor. In sentencing Defendant, the court stated:

[T]he sentence of the Court is you are to serve life imprisonment, at hard labor, with Louisiana Department of Corrections. That sentence is without benefit of probation, parole or suspension of sentence. On the aggravated batteries of the police officers, you are to serve ten years on each of those sentences. Those sentences are to be concurrent with each other. I’m sorry. They’re to be consecutive with each other. That’s Count 2 and 3. Count 2 is 10; Count 3 is 10. They’re consecutive with each other and consecutive with Count 1, which is the life imprisonment. So that’s 120 years.[1]

Although the court minutes indicate the two sentences for aggravated battery were imposed at hard labor, the transcript does not reflect this. “[W]hen the minutes and the transcript conflict, the transcript prevails.” State v. Wommack, 00-137, p. 4 (La.App. 3 Cir. 6/7/00), 770 So.2d 365, 369, writ denied, 00-2051 (La.9/21/01), 797 So.2d 62.

The trial court’s failure to specify whether the sentences for aggravated battery were to be served with or without hard labor rendered those sentences indeterminate, thus requiring that the sentences be vacated and the case remanded for resentencing with the trial court being instructed to specify whether the sentences are to be served with or without hard labor. State v. Matthew, 07-1326 L(La.App. 3 Cir. 5/28/08), 983 So.2d 994, unit denied, 08-1664 (La.4/24/09), 7 So.3d 1193.

Second, we note that the trial court incorrectly advised Defendant of the time limitation for filing an application for post-[25]*25conviction relief. Defendant was informed that he has “two years to file an Application for Postconviction Relief once [his] appeal ... the delays for the appeal have [been] denied.” Louisiana Code of Criminal Procedure Article 930.8 provides that Defendant has “two years after the judgment of conviction and sentence has become final ” to seek post-conviction relief. Therefore, we direct the trial court to correctly inform Defendant of the provisions of La.Code Crim.P. art. 930.8 at resentenc-ing.

LAW AND DISCUSSION

ASSIGNMENT OF ERROR BY APPELLATE COUNSEL

Defendant contends that there was insufficient evidence to sustain his convictions for aggravated battery. Defendant argues that although actual injury is not required, a necessary element of the offense of aggravated battery is physical contact with the victim, and that element is missing.

The analysis for a claim of insufficient evidence is well-settled:

The standard of appellate review for a sufficiency of the evidence claim is whether, after viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319, 99 S.Ct.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
157 So. 3d 21, 12 La.App. 3 Cir. 1337, 2013 WL 1809891, 2013 La. App. LEXIS 862, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-chehardy-lactapp-2013.