State v. Demease

756 So. 2d 1264, 2000 WL 349005
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedApril 5, 2000
Docket33,047-KA
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 756 So. 2d 1264 (State v. Demease) 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. Demease, 756 So. 2d 1264, 2000 WL 349005 (La. Ct. App. 2000).

Opinion

756 So.2d 1264 (2000)

STATE of Louisiana, Appellee,
v.
Marcus DEMEASE, Appellant.

No. 33,047-KA.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Second Circuit.

April 5, 2000.

*1265 Amy C. Ellender, Louisiana Appellate Project, Steven R. Thomas, Mansfield, Counsel for Appellant.

Richard Ieyoub, Attorney General, William R. Jones, District Attorney, B. Kevin Holland, Assistant District Attorney, Counsel for Appellee.

Before BROWN, GASKINS and PEATROSS, JJ.

GASKINS, J.

Following a jury trial, the defendant, Marcus Demease, was convicted of armed robbery, in violation of La. R.S. 14:64. Subsequently, he was adjudicated a second felony offender, and a sentence of 25 years at hard labor without benefit of probation, parole or suspension of sentence was imposed. The defendant's timely motion to reconsider sentence was denied. The defendant appealed. We affirm the defendant's conviction and sentence.

FACTS

On July 19, 1997, the defendant and Kory McCray were involved in the armed robbery of the Kajun Seafood restaurant in Coushatta, Louisiana. At about 8:00 p.m., Thanh Du, his wife Marie, and their daughter Hahn were working in the restaurant. Mr. Du was standing at the window in the front of the restaurant when McCray, a regular customer, came in with a gun and demanded money. Although McCray's face was covered with a "towel," it momentarily fell away, allowing Mr. Du to positively identify him later as the gunman. McCray heard Mr. Du's wife making noise in the kitchen and ordered her to move, demanding money.

Hahn Du heard the commotion and quickly came to the front of the restaurant to see McCray, his face covered with a bandana, holding a gun and demanding money from her scared, screaming parents. She recognized McCray even with his face covered because of his build, coloring and eyes. McCray ordered her to sit down and threatened to shoot her; she knelt down on the floor. McCray demanded more money than he found in the front register and began shooting the gun.[1] Hahn screamed, and McCray ordered her to "shut up." Hahn saw her mother direct McCray to the back of the restaurant where there was more money. McCray went to the back, took the money and ran out of the front of the restaurant, taking *1266 a cash register and cash drawer.[2] Mr. Du initially followed the robber out of the restaurant but did not give chase.

James Troquille, owner of a nearby convenience store, heard a loud bang. Investigating, he saw a man holding a pistol in the face of one of the restaurant workers. Troquille went back into his store and got his pistol. Initially, he squatted down beside a coke machine and waited for the gunman to come out of the restaurant. A customer, not realizing the situation, relieved Troquille of the pistol. Consequently, Troquille returned to his store, obtained his SKS Chinese assault rifle, and then ran back toward the restaurant.

Troquille saw Mr. Du out on the road pointing up the hill on Oak Street, also known as "the Alley." Troquille immediately gave chase. As he ran after the gunman, Troquille thought he was about to catch up with him. However, he momentarily lost sight of the gunman when the man rounded a street corner. As Troquille rounded the corner himself, he saw a white car approximately 50 feet from him, but he did not see the fleeing gunman. Troquille recalled seeing, out of the corner of his eye, a foot and the back door closing on the driver's side of the white car just before the vehicle drove off. He could not see inside the vehicle.

Johnny Ray Lewis was a lifelong acquaintance of the defendant. On the day of the robbery, he encountered the defendant in the late morning or early afternoon. They went back to Lewis' house, where they were "playing, talking chatchatting." Late in the evening, they were still at Lewis' house when they were invited to attend a fish fry. However, McCray drove up in a small white car. The defendant had a private conversation with McCray wherein they whispered with each other. Then the defendant got into the white car and left with McCray; they were the only two persons in the car. Lewis eventually went to the fish fry. About an hour after his arrival there, he was outside playing dominos when he saw the same white car pass by, going "very fast."

A photographic line-up was shown to the victims of the armed robbery. All three members of the Du family identified McCray as the gunman in the armed robbery. Further investigation revealed that the white getaway car seen in the alley belonged to McCray's girl friend. It was located in the parking lot of her Natchitoches apartment complex in the early morning hours following the robbery. Additionally, a cash register (and/or a cash register drawer) and clothing fitting the description of that worn by the robber were found in close proximity to one another on Red Oak Road, also known as Highway 480.

Investigators quickly developed the defendant as an additional suspect; however, they were unable to locate him or McCray. Learning that the defendant had a brother in St. Louis, Missouri, the authorities obtained warrants for flight from prosecution for the defendant and McCray. In late August 1997, the defendant and McCray were arrested in St. Louis.

FBI Special Agent Kevin Darrah, who executed the fugitive warrant on the defendant, questioned him following his arrest. The defendant gave a statement in which he claimed that on the night of the robbery, he and McCray were driving in McCray's girl friend's car down the alley behind the restaurant when they saw two men exit the restaurant; he knew one man as "Chunkie" but did not know the other. Chunkie was carrying a cash register, and another man was running after these two *1267 men with a shotgun. The defendant stated that they stopped the car and let the two fleeing men get in the car with the cash register. In exchange for transporting the men out of the area, they were paid $800. The defendant denied any prior knowledge of the armed robbery.

After a jury trial, the defendant was convicted of armed robbery. He was subsequently charged as a second felony habitual offender. The defendant filed a motion to quash his previous conviction. At the hearing on the habitual offender charge, the state submitted proof that the defendant pled guilty to obscenity in May 1993 and was convicted of armed robbery within ten years of his discharge on the obscenity conviction. The trial court denied the defendant's motion to quash and adjudicated the defendant to be a habitual offender. However, the trial court exercised its discretion under State v. Dorthey, 623 So.2d 1276 (La.1993), and imposed a sentence of only 25 years at hard labor without benefit of probation, parole or suspension of sentence, well below the minimum mandatory sentence of 49½ years without benefit mandated for a second felony offender.

The defendant appeals, making three assignments of error. One assignment of error pertaining to his sentence was specifically abandoned by appellate counsel and is thus not before this court. The remaining assignments challenge the sufficiency of the evidence of armed robbery and the propriety of the defendant's adjudication as a habitual offender.

SUFFICIENCY OF EVIDENCE

The defendant argues that the evidence adduced at trial was not sufficient to convict him of the crime of armed robbery. Maintaining that the state's case against him is circumstantial, he contends that every reasonable hypothesis of innocence was not excluded.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
756 So. 2d 1264, 2000 WL 349005, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-demease-lactapp-2000.