State v. De Gruy

215 So. 3d 723, 2016 La.App. 4 Cir. 0891, 2017 La. App. LEXIS 591
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedApril 5, 2017
DocketNO. 2016-KA-0891
StatusPublished
Cited by30 cases

This text of 215 So. 3d 723 (State v. De Gruy) 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. De Gruy, 215 So. 3d 723, 2016 La.App. 4 Cir. 0891, 2017 La. App. LEXIS 591 (La. Ct. App. 2017).

Opinion

JUDGE SANDRA CABRINA JENKINS

|, Defendant, Gregory De Gruy, was charged by bill of information with one count of aggravated assault with a firearm, in violation of La. R.S. 14:37.4. Defendant entered a plea of not guilty and elected a trial by judge. Following a one-day bench trial, defendant was convicted of aggravated assault, a responsive verdict to the charged offense. After a hearing on defendant’s motion for post-verdict judgment of acquittal, which the trial court denied, defendant was sentenced to three months in Orleans Parish Prison, all of which was suspended, three months inactive probation, and ordered to pay a fine and court costs. Defendant now appeals his conviction. Upon review of the record in light of the applicable law, we find no merit in defendant’s assignments of error on appeal.1 Accordingly, we affirm defendant’s conviction.

STATEMENT OF FACTS

The State charged defendant with aggravated assault with a firearm upon the victim, Emmanuel Henry, III, on June 5, 2015. At trial, the following testimony and evidence was presented.

|2The seventeen-year-old victim, Emmanuel Henry, III (“Emmanuel”), testified that on June 5, 2015, around 9:00 p.m., he was walking from a friend’s house to his home at 4726 Bundy Road. Emmanuel stated that he had been playing football that evening and was wearing a tight, white t-shirt and shorts. As he was walking on the sidewalk along Bundy Road, about a block from his house, Emmanuel saw defendant retrieving mail from a mailbox. As Emmanuel got closer, defendant was standing at the mailbox and holding a gun towards him; Emmanuel heard defendant say, “keep it moving, son. I’ll knock your head in the dirt.” Emmanuel immediately put both his hands in the air and told defendant: “I’m just trying to get home.” Emmanuel then heard his father yell at defendant from down the block, saying: “Hey, what are you doing?” Emmanuel kept walking towards his father as defendant got into a car in the driveway and sped off, driving the wrong way on a one-way street. Emmanuel’s father then called the police, who arrived and took a report.

When asked whether defendant had pointed the gun at him, Emmanuel stated, “yes,” and said the gun was facing his stomach; he then indicated in court how defendant had held the gun. Emmanuel testified that he did not know why defendant pointed the gun at him. He stated he was just walking home, and he did not make any aggressive or threatening gestures toward defendant. When he heard defendant say “I’ll knock your head in the dirt,” and he saw the gun pointed at him, Emmanuel believed that defendant would shoot him “if I was to try something or anything.” When asked how he felt during this incident with defendant, |,sEmmanuel testified: “I was scared. [... ] I felt like [defendant] was going to shoot me.”

Emmanuel Henry, Jr. (“Mr. Henry”) testified that he is Emmanuel’s father and he was at 4726 Bundy Road on June 5, [726]*7262015.2 About 9:00 p.m. that night, Mr. Henry had just spoken to Emmanuel on the phone and was standing in the driveway waiting for him to return home. Mr. Henry saw Emmanuel walk around the corner onto Bundy Road about a block away from where Mr. Henry was standing. At the same time, Mr. Henry noticed defendant, who owned the house four houses down, getting mail from his mailbox with a gun underneath his arm. As Emmanuel walked by defendant, Mr. Henry saw Emmanuel pause and put his hands up in the air. Mr. Henry began to approach them and saw defendant holding the gun in his hand pointed towards Emmanuel. Upon seeing this, Mr. Henry yelled at defendant: “What are you doing? That’s my son.” Mr. Henry told Emmanuel to keep walking towards him and, once Emmanuel got past the defendant, defendant got into a gold BMW parked in the driveway and drove off in the wrong direction on the one-way street. Immediately after the incident, Mr. Henry retrieved his cell phone and called 911. Mr. Henry stated that after the incident his son was “shaken up” and “[n]er-vous bad.”

On cross-examination, Mr. Henry testified that he could not hear any words exchanged between Emmanuel and defendant, but he did not see Emmanuel make any aggressive gestures toward defendant at any time. Mr. Henry stated that he did | ¿see Emmanuel put his hands in the air and then lift up his shirt, as if to show defendant that he did not have any weapons. Mr. Henry could not estimate how long the interaction between his son and defendant lasted. He also acknowledged that another neighbor was outside and closer to defendant’s house when the incident occurred.

Shatasha Johnson, an opefator for the New Orleans Police Department (“NOPD”), briefly testified for the purpose of authenticating the 911 incident recall sheet and,audio recording of the 911 call received on June 5, 2015. Thereafter, the 911 recording was published to the trial court.

On the 911 recording, the caller identifies himself as Emmanuel Henry, Jr. Mr. Henry can be heard reporting the incident as follows: “My son was just coming from around the corner and the neighbor down the street, he [defendant] pulled a gun out on my son [... ] just now and jumped into his car and pull[ed] off.” When the operator asks for the name of the neighbor, Mr. Henry replies: “I don’t even know his name, ma’am. He has a house on Bundy Road. And this guy.. .my son was just coming from around the corner, coming from by his friend’s house. I’m watching him come from around the corner and walk down the street. I’m watching him get on the side from the man cause he see the gun and the man started pointing a gun at him.” Mr. Henry reports that the incident happened outside the neighbor’s house at 4758 Bundy Road and that his son lives at 4726 Bundy Road. Mr. Henry also tells the operator that the neighbor does not live at the house on Bundy Road and only comes by to cheek on his property. The |soperator then asked Mr. Henry to provide a description of the neighbor, the car he was driving, and the direction in which Mr. Henry last saw the car.

NOPD Detective Charles Love testified that he conducted the investigation into the incident reported in the 4700 block of Bundy Road on June 5, 2015. When he arrived at the scene of the reported inci[727]*727dent, Det. Love spoke with Officer Sartan, the responding officer, and then spoke with the alleged victim, Emmanuel, and Mr. Henry. Based on the statements he obtained, Det. Love determined that the owner of the house at 4758 Bundy Road had perpetrated an aggravated assault upon Emmanuel. Det. Love used his NOPD mobile data terminal to obtain a name and photograph of the owner of the house, defendant. Det. Love sent the photograph to the Louisiana State Police to have a six-person photographic lineup prepared, and he arranged for Emmanuel to meet with Det. Guient at the Seventh District Station to view the lineup. Det. Love later learned that Emmanuel made a positive identification of defendant from the photographic lineup. Based on the statements and identification, Det. Love obtained an arrest warrant for defendant for the offense of aggravated assault. At that point, Det. Love’s investigation was concluded.

NOPD Det. Dorjius Guient testified that he met with Emmanuel at the -Seventh District Station on June 9, 2015, at approximately 5:30 p.m. to present the six-person photographic lineup. Det. Guient identified the envelope and photographic lineup presented to Emmanuel and he explained the procedure that he | ¿followed for presenting it. Det.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
215 So. 3d 723, 2016 La.App. 4 Cir. 0891, 2017 La. App. LEXIS 591, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-de-gruy-lactapp-2017.