State v. Doise

185 So. 3d 335, 15 La.App. 3 Cir. 713, 2016 La. App. LEXIS 358, 2016 WL 716994
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedFebruary 24, 2016
DocketNo. 15-713
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 185 So. 3d 335 (State v. Doise) 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. Doise, 185 So. 3d 335, 15 La.App. 3 Cir. 713, 2016 La. App. LEXIS 358, 2016 WL 716994 (La. Ct. App. 2016).

Opinion

SAVOIE, Judge.

On October 27, 2011, Defendant, Jeffrey Steven Doise, was charged with the second degree murder of his foster mother, Susan Doise, a violation of La.R,S. 14:30.1. Defendant pled not guilty to the charge on November 3,-2011. -Thereafter, on May 29, 2012, Defendant withdrew his plea of not guilty and entered a plea of not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity. On June 15, 2012, the State filed a Motion to Appoint Sanity Commission to evaluate Defendant’s mental condition at the time of the offense. Pursuant to the motion, the trial court appointed Dr. James Anderson to examine and render a report on Defendant’s mental .condition at the time of the offense. Dr. Anderson submitted a report on May 5, 2013, concluding that Defendant did not suffer from a mental disease or defect which rendered him incapable of distinguishing right from wrong during the commission of the offense.

In Defendant’s July 19, 2012 Motion to Quash to Indictment,. Defendant argued that he was a juvenile and could not be sentenced to life imprisonment without parole.1 The trial court denied the motion to quash on August 22, 2012. Thereafter, on October 5, 2012, Defendant filed a Motion to Appoint Sanity Commission to evaluate Defendant’s mental competency to assist in his defense. On that same date, the trial court appointed a sanity commission to determine Defendant’s mental capacity to proceed. On December 5, 2012, the trial court found Defendant capable of proceeding to trial.

On February 11, 2015, Defendant filed a Motion Challenging the Constitutionality of C.Cr.P. Article 87[8].l with Incorporated Memorandum. At a hearing held on March 9, 2015, the trial court denied the motion. At that same proceeding, the Defendant withdrew his former plea of not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity and entered a Crosby plea to second degree murder. See State v. Crosby, 338 So.2d 584 (La.1976). Defendant specifically reserved his right to appeal the following: (1) the trial court’s ruling on the constitutionality of the sentencing provision; (2) the trial court’s denial of Defendant’s motion to have an expert (Dr. Bauer) testify at the guilt phase; (3) the trial court’s denial of Defendant’s Motion to 'Quash the Indictment; and (4) the trial court’s denial of Defendant’s request for a unanimous-verdict jury instruction.

Based on á joint recommendation, Defendant was sentenced to. life in prison with eligibility for parole after serving thirty-five years, otherwise the sentence was imposed without probation, parole, or suspension of sentence. Defendant filed a Motion to Reconsider. Sentence on March 11, 2015, which was denied on that same date. Defendant filed a Notice of Appeal and Motion to Appoint Appellate Counsel, which was granted on March 12, 2015. Defendant is currently before the court alleging three assignments, of error. For the following reasons, we affirm and remand with instructions.

[338]*338 FACTS

The following factual basis was'given by the State in support of the. Defendant’s plea:

Your Honor, on September 29th of 2011 Mr. Kyle Doise, who had been working out of town, returned home to his residence at 1313 Jefferson Drive. When he arrived home he found his wife, Susan, missing. He also saw that his wife’s vehicle was missing. He found his four year old son, Garrett, alone under some sheets in a ,bed. He also observed a 357 magnum under the bed in the bedroom where it should not have been. He contacted.911, indicated his wife was missing. The officers of the Lake Charles Police Department arrived, they looked in the house, and they went to the bathroom where Mr. Doise had not gone and .they found Susan Doise had been shot and found dead, in the bathtub. Garrett had been, the four year old son of Susan, had apparently been alone in the house for some 10 hours. Jeffrey Doise, who is the foster son of Susan, had left that night in the vehicle and gone to his girlfriend’s home in a Chevy Tahoe. He was later found that morning by officers of the Calcasieu Parish Sheriffs Office in a shed hiding behind the house. He was brought back 'to the Lake Charles Police Department where he gave a full confession to shooting his foster mother because he was angry. Mr. Doise’s date of birth at the time of the'shooting was September 12th of 1994, making him 17.

ERRORS PATENT

In accordance with La.Code Crim.P. art. 920, all appeals are reviewed for errors patent on the face of the record. After reviewing the record, we find no errors patent present.

ASSIGNMENT OF ERROR NUMBER ONE

In this assignment of error, Defendant claims that the trial court erred in rejecting a challenge to the constitutionality of La.Code Crim.P. art. 878.1, the sentencing provision enacted by the' Louisiana Legislature in response to the United States Supreme Court’s opinion in Miller v. Alabama, — U.S. -, 132 S.Ct. 2455, 183 L.Ed.2d 407 (2012), which held that a juvenile homicide offender cannot be sentenced to life without parole Unless certain mitigating factors are considered.2 Defendant filed a Motion Challenging the Constitutionality of C.Cr.P. Article 87[8].1 in the trial court. At a hearing held March 9, 2015, defense counsel argued the following:

I ¿Essentially it’s our position that the statute is — -the legislature passed it in 2013, it’s far outside the letter or the spirit of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Miller v. Alabama; that essentially as I read Miller the Supreme Court was giving the trial judges discretion to determine what the sentence should be. The legislature, however, in its post-Miller legislation, instead of giving the Court a range, saying 20 to life, or some other criteria, simply said that the Court should determine whether or not the offender is one of the worst offenders and this is one of the worst offenses within the realm of homicides and if they’re the worst offender and the worst [339]*339offense they get life without parole. It it’s not they get life-with parole after 35 years served and a certain quality of prison record.
I 'don’t think that’s giving the'Court much discretion at all and I think it’s less' than what the Supreme Court intended, although it’s certainly what the legislature intended and, therefore, I’m asking the Court to overturn Article 871,1[sic] of the Code of Criminal Procedure as not being in the spirit of Miller v. Alabama or the letter of Miller v. Alabama and I know we discussed this in the back and Mr. Murray gave a compelling State reason for a different position.

After the State argued that the article was constitutional, the trial court denied Defendant’s motion, finding that La.Code Crim.P. art. 878.1 in conjunction with La. R.S. 15:574.4(E) provided an adequate constitutional remedy to the United States Supreme Court’s ruling in Miller. Defendant then entered a Crosby plea to second degree murder and was sentenced to the jointly recommended sentence of life in prison with the eligibility for parole after serving thirty-five years.

On appeal, Defendant argues that La. Code Crim.P. art. 878.1 is unconstitutional in light of the United States Supreme Court’s opinion in Miller because Article 878.1 still provides for an automatic life sentence without parole, probation, or suspension of sentence, with the eligibility for parole occurring only after the defendant serves thirty-five years; In Miller,

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
185 So. 3d 335, 15 La.App. 3 Cir. 713, 2016 La. App. LEXIS 358, 2016 WL 716994, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-doise-lactapp-2016.