State v. Clement

101 So. 3d 460, 11 La.App. 5 Cir. 1150, 2012 WL 3969830, 2012 La. App. LEXIS 1128
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedSeptember 11, 2012
DocketNo. 11-KA-1150
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 101 So. 3d 460 (State v. Clement) 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. Clement, 101 So. 3d 460, 11 La.App. 5 Cir. 1150, 2012 WL 3969830, 2012 La. App. LEXIS 1128 (La. Ct. App. 2012).

Opinion

SUSAN M. CHEHARDY, Judge.

| gThis is a Crosby appeal from the trial court’s ruling on the defendant’s Motion to Suppress Evidence. We affirm and remand for correction of patent errors.

On April 28, 2010, the Jefferson Parish District Attorney filed a bill of information charging Darius J. Clement with violations of La. R.S. 14:95.1, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon (count one), and La. R.S. 40:967(C), possession of cocaine (count two).1 At his arraignment on May 17, 2010, the defendant entered pleas of not guilty to both charges.

The defendant filed a motion for discovery and inspection and for exculpatory evidence, as well as a motion to suppress confession, identification, and physical evidence.2 The defendant argued that the application for a search warrant lacked sufficient probable cause because it was based on statements of an untested and unreliable informant. On September 6, 2011, the trial judge denied the motion to suppress evidence. The defendant objected.

|3On the same date, the defendant withdrew his not guilty pleas and pleaded guilty as charged to both counts, pursuant to State v. Crosby.3 The trial court sentenced the defendant to ten years of imprisonment at hard labor as to count one, and to two years of imprisonment at hard labor as to count two. These sentences were ordered to run concurrently with each other, as well as to run concurrently with the sentences imposed in case numbers 09-4389 and 10-2190.4

The defendant filed a timely appeal.

FACTS

Because the defendant pleaded guilty prior to trial, no evidence of the offenses was offered. During the plea colloquy, [464]*464however, the State offered the following factual basis for the guilty pleas:

On March 31 ..., 2010, the detectives from the narcotics division of Jefferson Parish Sheriffs Office executed a search warrant at 3525 Ames Boulevard, the defendant’s residence, and they found inside a dresser drawer a Beretta PS-4 Storm 9 millimeter handgun in a plastic bag containing off-white rocks. And also in the residence was about 4 ounces—4 grams of marijuana on top of the dresser. The cocaine was about just under 8 grams, along with the handgun. And the defendant had previously been convicted of possession with intent to distribute, and that’s the predicate for the 95.1.5

PRELIMINARY ISSUES

We note two threshold issues to be decided before the issues raised on appeal. First, whether the ruling was properly preserved for review; second, whether this Court can consider evidence that is missing from the evidence envelope in the record on appeal.

^Preservation of Crosby appeal

Although the transcript, the waiver of rights form, the commitment, and the notice of appeal reflect that the defendant’s plea was made pursuant to State v. Crosby, the record does not reflect the specific ruling preserved for review.

A plea of guilty normally waives all non-jurisdictional defects in the proceedings prior to the plea. State v. Turner, 10-995, p. 4 (La.App. 5 Cir. 9/27/11), 75 So.3d 491, 492, writ denied, 2011-2379 (La.4/27/12), 86 So.3d 625. A defendant may be allowed appellate review, however, if at the time he enters a guilty plea he expressly reserves his right to appeal a specific adverse ruling in the case. Id.

A defendant’s failure to specify which pre-trial ruling he desires to reserve for appeal as part of a guilty plea entered pursuant to Crosby may limit the scope of appellate review, but does not preclude review altogether. State v. Joseph, 03-315, p. 1 (La.5/16/03), 847 So.2d 1196 (per curiam).

Absent a detailed specification of which adverse pre-trial rulings the defendant reserved for appellate review as part of his guilty plea, an appellate court should presume that the Crosby reservation preserves review of those evidentiary rulings which “go to the heart of the prosecution’s case,” such as the denial of a motion to suppress, and not rulings that may affect the conduct of the trial but do not substantially relate to guilt, such as the denial of a continuance or severance. Joseph, 03-315 at 1-2, 847 So.2d at 1196-1197.

Considering the above, we find that the denial of the defendant’s motion to suppress evidence is properly before this Court.

Evidence not in the record

At the August 4, 2011 hearing on the motion to suppress evidence, no testimony was presented. The State introduced the search and seizure warrant and | fiits application as State’s Exhibit 1. The defendant submitted on the four corners of the warrant for a ruling on whether there was sufficient probable cause for issuance of the warrant. On August 29, 2011, the defendant filed a memorandum in support of his motion to suppress the evidence, attaching to the memorandum the application for the search and seizure warrant and its supporting affidavit, as well as the search and seizure warrant itself.

[465]*465We note that the documents filed by the State on August 4, 2011 are missing from the appellate record. Although those documents were submitted as State’s Exhibit 1 at the August 4, 2011 hearing, they are not in the exhibit envelope contained with the record in this case. The August 4, 2011 minute entry reflects that State’s Exhibit 1 was presented, however. The transcript from the suppression hearing on September 6, 2011 indicates that defense counsel assumed that the search warrant was previously introduced and was before the court. Prior to ruling on the suppression motion, the trial judge indicated she had reviewed all of the exhibits submitted.

In State v. Nichols, 03-1317, p. 6 (La.App. 5 Cir. 3/30/04), 871 So.2d 590, 593-94, this Court recognized the following:

[Bjoth the Louisiana Supreme Court and this Court have recognized that courts of appeal have no authority to receive or review evidence not contained in the district court record. State v. Oubichon, 422 So.2d 1140, 1141 (La.1982); State v. Bibb, 626 So.2d 913, 924 (La.App. 5 Cir.1993), writ denied, 93-3127 (La.9/16/94), 642 So.2d 188.

Although the exhibits are not in the record as lodged, the clerk of the district court has advised the exhibits were sent to this Court when the record was lodged.

We conclude that we may review these exhibits because they were properly introduced into evidence. Ordinarily, the absence of the exhibit from the evidence folder would require a remand to the district court for insertion of the missing |,¡exhibit into the record. However, since a copy of these exhibits is attached to the defendant’s memorandum in opposition to the motion to suppress, we can review the copy of the evidence attached to the defendant’s memorandum.

ASSIGNMENT OF ERROR NUMBER ONE
It was an abuse of the trial court’s discretion to deny the motion to suppress the evidence recovered pursuant to a search warrant based on the uncorroborated statements of an untested informant who had previously given false information to law enforcement on the same investigation.

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Bluebook (online)
101 So. 3d 460, 11 La.App. 5 Cir. 1150, 2012 WL 3969830, 2012 La. App. LEXIS 1128, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-clement-lactapp-2012.