State v. Cloud

946 So. 2d 265, 2006 WL 3613600
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedDecember 13, 2006
Docket06-877
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 946 So. 2d 265 (State v. Cloud) 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. Cloud, 946 So. 2d 265, 2006 WL 3613600 (La. Ct. App. 2006).

Opinion

946 So.2d 265 (2006)

STATE of Louisiana
v.
Tommy CLOUD.

No. 06-877.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Third Circuit.

December 13, 2006.

*267 Douglas L. Hebert, Jr., District Attorney—33rd Judicial District Court, Oberlin, LA, for Plaintiff/Appellee,—State of Louisiana.

Mark Owen Foster, Louisiana Appellate Project, Natchitoches, LA, for Defendant/Appellant,—Tommy Cloud.

Court composed of ULYSSES GENE THIBODEAUX, Chief Judge, JOHN D. SAUNDERS, and BILLY HOWARD EZELL, Judges.

THIBODEAUX, Chief Judge.

The Defendant, Tommy Cloud, was charged by bill of indictment with sexual battery in violation of La.R.S. 14:43.1, oral sexual battery in violation of La.R.S. 14:43.3, molestation of a juvenile in violation of La.R.S. 14:81.2, and indecent behavior with a juvenile in violation of La. R.S. 14:81. Pursuant to a plea bargain, the Defendant pled guilty to sexual battery and oral sexual battery. The remaining two charges were dismissed. The Defendant was sentenced to two consecutive terms of nine years at hard labor, without benefit of probation, parole, or suspension of sentence.

The Defendant appealed his conviction, claiming that his guilty plea was not knowingly and intelligently made because the plea bargain contained an impossible condition. The Defendant's conviction was subsequently reversed, his guilty plea and sentences were vacated, and the case was remanded to the trial court for further proceedings. State v. Cloud, 04-838 (La. App. 3 Cir. 2/2/05), 893 So.2d 220.

*268 Following remand to the trial court, a jury convicted the Defendant on all four counts. Prior to sentencing, the Defendant was arraigned on a multiple offender bill and pled not guilty. The trial court found the Defendant guilty of being a multiple offender. After waiving sentencing delays, the Defendant was sentenced to life at hard labor without benefit of parole, probation, or suspension of sentence. Later, the trial court clarified that the Defendant was sentenced on all four charges and ordered the Defendant's life sentences to run concurrently. He appeals, primarily on the basis of double jeopardy and excessiveness of the sentences.

LAW AND DISCUSSION

Double Jeopardy

The Defendant argues that his convictions for the previously dismissed charges of molestation of a juvenile and indecent behavior of a juvenile violated his constitutional right against double jeopardy and his procedural due process rights to an appeal. The Defendant contends that sentencing in a plea bargain begins jeopardy and the retrial of charges dismissed in the plea bargain are barred by double jeopardy.

As noted by this court in State v. Francois, 05-1385 (La.App. 3 Cir. 4/5/06), 926 So.2d 744,

The Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article 1, § 15 of the Louisiana Constitution of 1974 prohibit placing a person twice in jeopardy of life or limb for the same offense. La.Code Crim.P. art. 591. Double jeopardy protects an accused not only from a second prosecution for the same offense but also multiple punishments for the same criminal act. State v. Murray, 00-1258 (La.9/18/01), 799 So.2d 453.

Further, the supreme court in State v. Crandell, 05-1060 (La.3/10/06), 924 So.2d 122, 129 stated:

Inherent in the guarantee against double jeopardy are three constitutional protections: 1) against a second prosecution for the same offense after acquittal; 2) against a second prosecution for the same offense after conviction; 3) against multiple punishments for the same offense. North Carolina v. Pearce, 395 U.S. 711, 717, 89 S.Ct. 2089, 23 L.Ed.2d 656 (1969) . . .

In opposition to the Defendant's argument, the State maintains that pursuant to La.Code Crim.P. art. 591, double jeopardy does not attach when a defendant himself moves to set aside his conviction, citing State v. Smith, 406 So.2d 1314, 1315 (La. 1981). Article 591 states that, "No person shall be twice put in jeopardy of life or liberty for the same offense, except, when on his own motion, a new trial has been granted or judgment has been arrested, or where there has been a mistrial legally ordered under the provisions of Article 775 or ordered with the express consent of the defendant." (emphasis added).

The defendant's initial guilty pleas and sentences were vacated. Therefore, a valid sentence was not imposed in the first instance. La.Code Crim.P. art. 592. "When a defendant pleads guilty, jeopardy begins when a valid sentence is imposed." Id. (Emphasis added). Consequently, this defendant was not placed in double jeopardy by his subsequent trial on the previously filed charges and those that had been previously dismissed, since jeopardy never attached in the first place. See State v. Boudreaux, 402 So.2d 629 (La.1981) (finding that once a plea is vacated, the situation reverts to the pre-plea stage). However, the fact that he received harsher treatment, i.e., being charged with the previously dismissed crimes after he successfully *269 appealed his prior guilty pleas and received a longer sentence, requires a determination as to whether he has suffered a deprivation of due process. Id. (citing North Carolina v. Pearce, 395 U.S. 711, 89 S.Ct. 2072, 23 L.Ed.2d 656 (1969)).

The Pearce court explained the due process issue raised, as such:

Due process of law, then, requires that vindictiveness against a defendant for having successfully attacked his first conviction must play no part in the sentence he receives after a new trial. And since the fear of such vindictiveness may unconstitutionally deter a defendant's exercise of the right to appeal or collaterally attack his first conviction, due process also requires that a defendant be freed of apprehension of such retaliatory motivation on the part of the sentencing judge.

Pearce, 395 U.S. at 725, 89 S.Ct. 2089.

In Boudreaux, the supreme court held that "[t]here is no appearance of retaliation when a defendant is placed in the same position as he was before he accepted the plea bargain." Boudreaux, 402 So.2d at 633 (citing U.S. v. Anderson, 514 F.2d 583 (7th Cir.1975)). Therefore, "[w]hen the plea to conviction is vacated, the condition precedent to the Government's agreement not to prosecute on the greater offense no longer existed." Boudreaux, 402 So.2d at 631. Rather, the government is then free to prosecute the defendant without placing him twice in jeopardy, otherwise the double jeopardy clause will operate to give the defendant more than the "benefit of his bargain" and will ensure that the defendant will avoid being placed in jeopardy even once under certain circumstances. Id. (citing Anderson, 514 F.2d 583). Consequently, this approach seems to mean that, after the setting aside of the earlier plea-verdict, a later trial on those charges that were originally dismissed and which, as a result of the trial, now result in harsher punishment, does not constitute double jeopardy. Id. Instead, this is a situation of "continuing jeopardy that has application where criminal proceedings against an accused have not run their full course." Boudreaux,

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
946 So. 2d 265, 2006 WL 3613600, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-cloud-lactapp-2006.