State v. Colbert

889 So. 2d 1128, 2004 WL 2715901
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedNovember 30, 2004
Docket2004-KA-538
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 889 So. 2d 1128 (State v. Colbert) 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. Colbert, 889 So. 2d 1128, 2004 WL 2715901 (La. Ct. App. 2004).

Opinion

889 So.2d 1128 (2004)

STATE of Louisiana
v.
Mark A. COLBERT.

No. 2004-KA-538.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Fifth Circuit.

November 30, 2004.

*1129 Paul D. Connick, Jr., District Attorney, Terry M. Boudreaux, Andrea F. Long, Paige J. Cline, Assistant District Attorneys, Gretna, LA, for Plaintiff/Appellee.

Holli Herrle-Castillo, Marrero, LA, for Defendant/Appellant.

Panel composed of Judges EDWARD A. DUFRESNE, Jr., SOL GOTHARD and CLARENCE E. McMANUS.

*1130 CLARENCE E. McMANUS, Judge.

STATEMENT OF THE CASE

On April 4, 2003, the Jefferson Parish District Attorney filed a bill of information charging defendant, Mark A. Colbert, with unauthorized use of a motor vehicle in violation of LSA-R.S. 14:68.4. Defendant was arraigned on April 7, 2003 and pled not guilty. On July 14, 2003, defendant waived his right to a jury trial, and the case was tried before the judge who found defendant guilty as charged.

On July 23, 2003, defendant filed a pro se motion for post-verdict judgment of acquittal and motion for new trial. Defense counsel filed another motion for new trial on August 6, 2003. Defendant's motions for new trial and motion for post-verdict judgment of acquittal were denied on August 13, 2003. On that same date, the trial court sentenced defendant to imprisonment at hard labor for ten years.[1]

The State filed a multiple bill alleging defendant to be a third felony offender on August 14, 2003. On August 20, 2003, defendant denied the allegations of the multiple bill. On August 14, 2003, defendant filed a motion for appeal that was granted.

FACTS

Samantha Matthews testified that, in October of 2002, defendant, who was her boyfriend at the time, was changing the oil and repairing the brakes on her vehicle. When she woke up, her vehicle was gone. Matthews called defendant's mother who told her that defendant had been there for a while, but that he was on his way back to Matthews. However, defendant never returned with her vehicle. Matthews testified that defendant called her two days later, and that she told him she wanted her vehicle back and had called the police. Defendant did not say anything. Matthews testified that she did not give defendant permission to take her vehicle for an extended period of time.

Matthews made a police report and filed an insurance claim in October, and the insurance company gave her $2,000 for her vehicle, which she was not satisfied with. In November of 2002, on the night of the Bayou Classic, Matthews was driving when she saw her vehicle somewhere in New Orleans. She called the police, but they said there was nothing she could do about it because the vehicle no longer belonged to her. Therefore, Matthews did not call the insurance company to advise them that she had seen the vehicle. Matthews also testified that her mother co-signed the loan for her to buy the vehicle, but that she (Matthews) paid all the notes on it.

Kenner Police Officer Keathma Connerly testified that Matthews advised him on October 16, 2002 that an acquaintance, defendant, was repairing her vehicle in front of her residence on October 12, 2002 at approximately 1:00 p.m. that day, and that when she returned to check on him at approximately 6:00 p.m., he and the vehicle were gone. Matthews told Officer Connerly that she waited several days to report the crime because she assumed that defendant had borrowed the vehicle to go to a friend's house. However, when defendant did not return, she decided to contact the police. Officer Connerly prepared a report and an arrest warrant for defendant.

At trial, the defense called Ann Barns as a witness. Barns, defendant's sister, testified that she spoke to Matthews approximately one week after Matthew's vehicle was allegedly stolen. Matthews asked Barns if she knew where defendant was, and Barns told her, "[n]o." Approximately three weeks later, Matthews called Barns *1131 and told her that she and her brother were riding around when she found her vehicle near a project. Barns testified that Matthews told her she had allowed defendant to use her vehicle, but that he had never returned with it.

Defendant testified that he was repairing Matthew's vehicle, but was unable to complete the brake work because he did not have the proper tools. He told Matthews he wanted to go back to the auto parts store, but Matthews said that her cousin who lived in the Calliope project repaired vehicles. Defendant testified that Matthews told him to bring the vehicle to the Calliope project.

At approximately 1:30 or 2:00 p.m., defendant took Matthews' vehicle to the Calliope project, left it on the side of a garbage can behind Rosenwald gym where Matthews had told him to leave it, and put the keys under the floor mat. He explained that, before he went to the Calliope project, he picked up his mother and sister and dropped them off at a bingo hall on Airline Highway.

Later on that day, defendant called Matthews and asked her "what was going on." Matthews asked him where her vehicle was. Defendant said, "[y]ou know where your car [is]." Matthews told defendant that she had called the police. Defendant then called his mother and asked her what was going on. Defendant's mother told him that Matthews had said he stole her vehicle or left in her vehicle and never returned with it. Defendant testified that he went back to the project, but the vehicle was gone.

Defendant admitted that he had prior convictions for a marijuana charge in 1986; a drug charge in 1987; attempted theft in 1987; possession of cocaine in 1992; and possession of stolen property in 1995.

Fanny Colbert, defendant's mother, testified that defendant took her and her daughter in Matthews' vehicle to the bingo hall on Airline Highway and dropped them off a little before 11:00 a.m. It was her impression that defendant was driving Matthews' car with Matthews' permission. Colbert testified that defendant told her he was going to put oil in the vehicle, and she assumed that defendant was going back to Matthews' after that.

Matthews, who was called as a rebuttal witness by the State, testified that she asked Barns shortly after the vehicle was taken where defendant was, and that Barns told her she did not know. Matthews further testified that, on the night of the Bayou Classic, she called Barns and told her she had seen the vehicle. Matthews stated that she and her mother were in the vehicle that night on the way back from visiting her brother in prison.

Matthews denied having any family members who lived in the Calliope project, and testified that neither her cousin nor her uncle ran a mechanic shop in or around Calliope. She also denied telling defendant to take her vehicle and park it there. Matthews explained that she would never have told anyone to park her vehicle there and leave the keys in the vehicle. She testified that she did not give permission to defendant to take her vehicle, and that a few days after he took it, she told him to bring it back.

Mary Wallace, Matthews' mother, who was called as a rebuttal witness by the State, testified that she was with Matthews when she (Wallace) saw the vehicle in New Orleans. Wallace further testified she saw the vehicle on a weekday, not a weekend, and that she had not gone to visit her son that day. She explained that Matthews did not give defendant permission to use her vehicle.

For the reasons which follow, we affirm defendant's conviction of unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, vacate defendant's sentence, *1132 and remand the matter for resentencing.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
889 So. 2d 1128, 2004 WL 2715901, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-colbert-lactapp-2004.