State v. Cureaux

116 So. 3d 833, 2012 La.App. 4 Cir. 0335, 2013 WL 1840236, 2013 La. App. LEXIS 875
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMay 1, 2013
DocketNo. 2012-KA-0335
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 116 So. 3d 833 (State v. Cureaux) 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. Cureaux, 116 So. 3d 833, 2012 La.App. 4 Cir. 0335, 2013 WL 1840236, 2013 La. App. LEXIS 875 (La. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

JAMES F. McKAY, III, Chief Judge.

h Kerry Cureaux, the defendant, appeals his conviction for possession of heroin and his sentence of twenty years at hard labor as a fourth felony offender pursuant to La. R.S. 15:529.1. We affirm his conviction. However, we reverse the trial court judgment sentencing the defendant as a fourth felony offender, vacate the defendant’s sentence and reinstate the defendant’s original sentence of seven years at hard labor.

STATEMENT OF CASE

On November 18, 2009, the State of Louisiana charged the defendant, by bill of information, with one count of possession of heroin. The defendant pled not guilty to this charge at his arraignment on November 23, 2009. The trial court heard and denied his motion to suppress the evidence on March 12, 2010. Although the defendant objected and noted his intent to seek writs, he did not do so. The defendant elected a jury trial, and on June 2, 2010, the jury found him guilty as charged. The defendant orally moved for a new trial, and he filed a written motion on July 7, 2010, the date that the court denied the motion. On August 13, 2010, the court sentenced the defendant to serve seven years at hard labor. On November 4, 2011, the court found him to be a fourth felony |2offender. Three days later, the court sentenced the defendant to serve twenty years at hard labor as a fourth felony offender. The court also granted the'defendant’s motion for appeal on that date.

The appeal record was lodged in this Court on March 6, 2012. Counsel for the defendant filed a brief on his behalf on July 10, 2012, and the State responded on July 30, 2012. The defendant filed a pro se brief on August 7, 2012.

FACTS

On November 12, 2009, police officers arrested the defendant after he abandoned a package containing heroin on the front steps of 2418 North Claiborne Avenue. Officer Monroe Dillon, one of the arresting officers, testified at trial that he and his partner, Officer Demond Harris, were on patrol at approximately 9:00 p.m. on that night and were driving river-bound on Music Street when they stopped at the corner of North Claiborne. They saw the defendant standing in the middle of the neutral ground on North Claiborne, and he was arguing with a woman, later identified to be Deneene Jones, who was standing in the doorway of the residence at 1428 North Claiborne. Officer Dillon testified that the defendant and the woman were cursing each other so loudly that the officers could hear them even though the windows in them police unit were closed. The officers turned the corner and pulled up in the left lane next to the defendant. Officer Dillon stated that they activated the police unit’s.lights in order to keep traffic away from the defendant. They then exited their police unit and called for the [835]*835defendant to come over to them. Officer Dillon testified that the defendant looked back at them but then he turned back around and started walking toward the woman’s residence. Officer Dillon stated that the defendant continued to berate the woman, and he approached |sher with both of his fists clenched. Fearing that the defendant was going to try to harm the woman, the officers followed him, ordering him to stop.

Officer Dillon testified that as the defendant walked up the stairs onto the porch, he opened his left hand, dropped an object, and continued walking up the stairs. Officer Harris caught up with the defendant and detained him, walking him back down the stairs. Officer Dillon retrieved the object that the defendant dropped and found it to be a torn Kool-Aid package. Officer Dillon testified that he went up to the woman and asked her if she was all right, and as he spoke with her, he looked inside the Kool-Aid package using a flashlight and noticed that a beige powder had been mixed in with the blue/purple Kool-Aid powder inside the package. Officer Dillon testified that he knew that drug users sometimes mix drugs with Kool-Aid because the acid in the Kool-Aid helps to break down the drugs for intravenous use. Officer Dillon testified that he closed up the package and placed it temporarily into his pocket. He went to the police unit and conducted a field test on the contents of the package, the result of which was positive for heroin and measured 1.8 grams.

Officer Dillon admitted on cross-examination that he did not know what caused the acid in Kool-Aid to break down drugs. He stated that he conducted the field test of the contents of the packet at the car, and he explained to the jury how he conducted the test. He identified exhibit D-2, the Central Evidence and Property receipt for the Kool-Aid package which indicated that the package contained blue and beige powder weighing 1.8 grams. He also identified defense photographs of the residence where the incident occurred.

The testimony of Officer Demond Harris basically tracked that of Officer Dillon. In addition he testified that he and Officer Dillon repeatedly asked the |4defendant to come to them, but the defendant ignored them, and they followed him because of his balled fists and his continued cursing at the woman. He testified that the defendant had gotten to the top of the stairs by the time he caught up to him. He agreed that the defendant did not resist him. Officer Harris denied that either he or his partner searched or even entered the woman’s house. He stated that the only contraband they recovered was the heroin inside the Kool-Aid package.

The parties stipulated that if Sergeant Harry O’Neal were called, he would be qualified as an expert in the testing and analysis of narcotics. They also stipulated that Sergeant O’Neal would testify that he received the evidence listed in exhibit S-l, examined it on December 4, 2009, found that it testified positive for heroin, and returned it to Central Evidence and Property on December 15, 2009. The parties also stipulated to exhibit S-2, Sergeant O’Neal’s crime lab report.

The sole defense witness was Deneene Jones, who testified that she lived at 2418 North Claiborne. She testified that she had known the defendant for thirteen to fourteen years, and on the day of his arrest, he was living with her. She characterized the incident as a “misunderstanding,” insisting that she and the defendant were not arguing on the night of his arrest. Instead, the defendant arrived at the house and knocked on the door to be admitted, but because she was in the back of the house, she did not immediately hear his knock. She testified that she eventually [836]*836heard the knock and went to the door, and when the defendant identified himself, she opened the door and told him to come inside. She testified that at that point, the two officers pulled up and told her that they had received a call which she described as “it was a misunderstanding, like a complication [sic] of somebody fussing and things like that. But it wasn’t like that.” She denied that Rshe and the defendant had been fighting; instead, the defendant had come to her house to get some food and had brought with him some Kool-Aid to go with the food. She denied that the defendant had any drugs in his possession that night, and she insisted that she did not allow drugs into her house. She testified that before the defendant could walk through the door, the officers grabbed him, put his hands behind his back, took him down the stairs to the police car, and handcuffed him. She testified that the officers searched the defendant’s pockets and pulled out two packages of Kool-Aid, one was lemonade and the other blueberry.

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Related

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State v. Gibson
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State v. Cureaux
165 So. 3d 228 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2015)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
116 So. 3d 833, 2012 La.App. 4 Cir. 0335, 2013 WL 1840236, 2013 La. App. LEXIS 875, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-cureaux-lactapp-2013.