State v. Cole

900 So. 2d 15, 4 La.App. 5 Cir. 615
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMarch 1, 2005
Docket04-KA-615
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 900 So. 2d 15 (State v. Cole) 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. Cole, 900 So. 2d 15, 4 La.App. 5 Cir. 615 (La. Ct. App. 2005).

Opinion

900 So.2d 15 (2005)

STATE of Louisiana
v.
Taniel COLE.

No. 04-KA-615.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Fifth Circuit.

March 1, 2005.

*17 Paul D. Connick, Jr., District Attorney, Terry M. Boudreaux, Cameron M. Mary, William C. Credo, III, Assistant District Attorneys, Gretna, Louisiana, for Plaintiff/Appellee.

Sherry A. Watters, Louisiana Appellate Project, Bureau of General Counsel, New Orleans, Louisiana, for Defendant/Appellant.

Taniel Cole, # 378015, Allen Correctional Center, Kinder, Louisiana, in Proper Person Defendant/Appellant.

Panel composed of Judges JAMES L. CANNELLA, THOMAS F. DALEY, and CLARENCE E. McMANUS.

JAMES L. CANNELLA, Judge.

The Defendant, Taniel Cole, appeals his conviction by guilty plea of armed robbery. We affirm and remand.

On January 23, 2002, the Defendant was charged with armed robbery, a violation of La.R.S. 14:64. He was arraigned and pled not guilty on February 15, 2002. He subsequently filed a motion to appoint a sanity *18 commission. On May 29, 2002, a hearing on the Defendant's competency was held, during which the parties entered into a stipulation that Dr. Rafael Richoux and Dr. Richard Salcedo are experts in the field of forensic psychology and that, if they were to testify, their testimony would be consistent with their reports. The trial judge accepted the stipulation and found the Defendant competent to stand trial.

On July 8, 2002, the trial judge heard a defense Motion to Suppress Confession, the Evidence and Identification. The Defendant withdrew the motion to suppress the identification since that was not an issue in the case. The trial judge held the other two motions open to allow the Defendant to obtain a witness relative to suppressing the evidence and for further investigation relative to suppressing the confession. The hearing was never concluded because the Defendant pled guilty on January 29, 2003.[1] The Defendant waived sentencing delays and the trial judge sentenced him to 20 years imprisonment at hard labor without benefit of parole, probation, or suspension of sentence. The sentence was ordered to be served concurrently with the sentence that the Defendant was serving at the time.

On January 16, 2004, the Defendant filed a pro se application for post-conviction relief and request for an evidentiary hearing raising three claims, a request for an out-of-time appeal, an allegation that he was not properly Boykinized[2] since the trial judge failed to inform him that he could not be compelled to testify against himself had he chosen to go to trial, and an assertion that defense counsel was ineffective in advising him to plead guilty. He specifically claimed that counsel was ineffective by advising him that his inculpatory statement could not be suppressed, even though, at the time the statement was procured, he had been ruled incompetent to stand trial.

On January 24, 2004, the trial judge granted the Defendant an out-of-time appeal.[3] The trial judge then denied the Defendant's second and third claims raised in the post-conviction relief application. The trial judge found that the Defendant had been advised of his right against self-incrimination prior to pleading guilty and that his defense counsel was well within the range of professional competence, noting that he had obtained a 20 year sentence for the Defendant under a plea bargain agreement when the Defendant could have received a 99 year sentence. Following the sentence, the Defendant filed a motion to amend the judgment to include an order appointing the Louisiana Appellate Project to handle his appeal. The trial court granted the Defendant's request, following which she issued another ruling on the Defendant's application for post-conviction relief. The trial judge again granted the Defendant an out-of-time appeal and denied his post-conviction claims. The Defendant's appeal was initially assigned to the November 2004 docket. The Defendant's appointed appellate counsel filed an Anders[4] brief, asserting *19 that the record presented no non-frivolous issues for appeal. Counsel also asserted that the ineffective assistance of counsel claim was not a proper issue for appeal and that the Defendant's claim that the trial judge failed to advise him of his privilege against self-incrimination had already been ruled on by the trial judge and would be most appropriately reviewed in an appeal of the trial judge's denial of post-conviction relief. Although she stated that her brief conformed to the Anders requirements for withdrawal, she did not specify the issues that she considered and rejected. Counsel stated that she discussed potential issues with the Defendant, but claimed that she was obligated by the attorney-client privilege and attorney-client loyalty not to disclose what she reviewed and why she rejected the issues as non-frivolous appealable issues. Counsel also filed a Motion to Withdraw in accordance with Anders.[5]

In reviewing the Defendant's case, we determined that the Defendant had properly sought and obtained reinstatement of his appeal rights through his application for post-conviction relief and because of the out of time appeal, the other post-conviction claims were premature, as the Defendant had not exhausted his appellate rights. We noted that appellate counsel was correct in her assertion that ineffective assistance of counsel claims are most appropriately raised in an application for post-conviction relief. However, they may also be raised by assignment of error on appeal. The trial court also pointed out that claims of a defective Boykin colloquy are also reviewable on appeal. Thus, we determined that counsel had not fulfilled the requirements of Anders and its progeny that she diligently review the entire appeal record and satisfy this Court that there are no non-frivolous errors to arguably support the appeal. On October 29, 2004, we issued an Order to defense counsel to supplement her brief and denied the motion to withdraw at that time.[6]

Counsel filed a supplemental brief and a Second Motion to Withdraw. Attached to counsel's motion is a copy of a second letter in which she informs the Defendant that she has filed a supplemental brief in this case and that he may file a pro se appellate brief. Counsel notes in the letter that she has enclosed a copy of her supplemental brief and her Second Motion to Withdraw. The Defendant subsequently filed a supplemental pro se brief assigning five errors.

Because the Defendant pled guilty under Alford, the only facts in the record were provided by the prosecutor as follows:

Your Honor, the State would prove that a victim working at an E-Z Serve restaurant on April 11th, 2001, had the Defendant come in and point a gun at him, take money from the register, wait while the time release button on the safe opened, and forced the victim to pump gas, and then took Crown Royal, lottery scratch off tickets, and cash from the victim. While doing so, and driving away, the license number of the car used by the Defendant in the armed robbery was copied down.
Approximately the next day or several days—some, a few days later, at the max, that car was being driven again by the Defendant and seen by Sergeant *20 Kenneth Harris when it backed into a dumpster. Upon investigating, Sergeant Harris took the Defendant out of the car because there was a gun lying on the seat.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

State v. Jackson
259 So. 3d 533 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2018)
State v. Carroll
224 So. 3d 1179 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2017)
State v. Williams
179 So. 3d 878 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2015)
State v. Ellison
168 So. 3d 862 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2015)
State v. Jones
123 So. 3d 758 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2013)
State of Louisiana v. Harvey G. Love
Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2013
State v. Miller
102 So. 3d 956 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2012)
State v. Kimbrough
38 So. 3d 1258 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2010)
State v. Fowler
40 So. 3d 1136 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2010)
State v. Shelton
39 So. 3d 601 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2010)
State v. Allemand
30 So. 3d 939 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2009)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
900 So. 2d 15, 4 La.App. 5 Cir. 615, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-cole-lactapp-2005.