State v. Ellender

274 So. 3d 144
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJune 5, 2019
Docket18-891
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 274 So. 3d 144 (State v. Ellender) 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. Ellender, 274 So. 3d 144 (La. Ct. App. 2019).

Opinion

THIBODEAUX, Chief Judge.

Defendant, Ramon L. Ellender, appeals his conviction by a six-person jury for his fifth offense of driving while intoxicated. He was sentenced to fifty years at hard labor under the habitual offender statute. His appeal focuses on insufficiency of the evidence, excessive sentence, and an improper jury composition.

We affirm his conviction and sentence.

I.

ISSUES

We must decide:

(1) whether there was sufficient evidence to convict Defendant;
(2) whether the trial court deprived Defendant of a twelve-person jury and unconstitutionally convicted him by a six-person jury; and
(3) whether Defendant's sentence is unconstitutionally excessive.

II.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Defendant, Ramon L. Ellender, was charged by Bill of Information with "Driving While Intoxicated, Fifth Offense," in violation of La.R.S. 14:98 and 14:98.4. A six-person jury unanimously found Defendant guilty as charged. The State filed a bill charging Defendant as a habitual offender under La.R.S. 15:529.1. Prior to jury selection, the State and Defendant stipulated to Defendant's four prior DWI convictions, which were not subject to the ten-year cleansing period.

Defendant filed a "Motion for Arrest of Judgment," alleging that his conviction should be reversed and that he should receive a new, twelve-person jury trial because La.R.S. 14:98.4(C) requires individuals who receive probation, parole, or suspension of sentence on a prior DWI, fourth offense, to serve a hard labor sentence of not less than ten nor more than thirty years. The trial court found that Defendant was properly tried by a six-person jury. In its written reasons, the trial court *147noted that the State and defense counsel had discussed the makeup of the jury prior to selection, that La.R.S. 14:98.4(C) was never discussed, and that everyone agreed that the proper jury size was a six-person jury.

The trial court, citing State v. Brown , 11-1044 (La. 3/13/12), 85 So.3d 52, ruled that Defendant had not waived his right to object to an improper jury composition because La.Code Crim.P. art. 859 lists errors in jury composition as a ground for arrest of judgment, an exception to the contemporaneous objection rule. The trial court further cited the supreme court's ruling in State v. Dahlem , 14-1555 (La. 3/15/16), 197 So.3d 676, which held that a similarly-situated defendant was not entitled to a twelve-person jury because the bill of information did not specifically charge him with the sentencing provision that required a hard labor sentence.

Defendant then filed a "Motion for New Trial," as did his defense counsel. Following a hearing, the trial court denied both of the motions. After a hearing and multiple memoranda submitted by defense counsel and the State, the trial court issued a written ruling and adjudicated Defendant "a fifth felony offender subject to sentencing under La.R.S. 15:529.1." Subsequently, Defendant was sentenced to fifty years at hard labor, the first two years to be served without benefit of probation, parole, or suspension of sentence; the remainder to be served without probation or suspension of sentence; and the sentence to run consecutively with any other sentence that Defendant may have. Defendant was also fined $ 5,000 as required by La.R.S. 14:98.4.

Defendant filed a "Motion to Reconsider Sentence," alleging that his sentence was "excessive and based, at least partially, on evidence[ ] in dispute." The trial court denied the motion. The State also filed a "Motion to Reconsider Sentence," arguing that Defendant should have been sentenced under the habitual offender law as it stood when the offense was committed in 2015, not under the 2017 amendments to the law. Following a hearing, the trial court noted that Defendant's sentence, which remained unchanged, was imposed in accordance with the language of La.R.S. 15:529.1 as it stood at the time of the offense. The trial court noted:

So what that does for Mr. Ellender's case is it changes the sentencing range in his case from 20 to 60 years under the habitual offender law that took effect by the 2017 amendments to go back to the law in effect as of October of 2015, which makes the habitual offender sentencing range 20 to life.
The other thing it does, as long as the bill of information was filed prior to November 1, 2017, is it changes the cleansing period back to the ten-year prior cleansing period as opposed to the five-year cleansing period which took effect as of the 2017 amendment. And in this case the habitual offender bill of information was filed prior to that date; and, therefore, the ten-year cleansing period applies to Mr. Ellender's case. And most, if not all, of the legal arguments raised by the defense as to some of the prior convictions being within ten years but not within five years of one another is now a moot issue in the Court's opinion legally; because the cleansing period is back to one of ten years as it applies to Mr. Ellender's case.

III.

LAW AND DISCUSSION

Evidence and Testimony

The State's first witness was Ms. Mary Benson. Ms. Benson testified that on October *1489, 2015, she was standing on the sidewalk on West North Street, when she saw a red truck speed past her followed by a "little grey car." She said she believed the grey car rear-ended the red truck before the car turned around and sped past her going in the opposite direction. She said she saw the grey car hit multiple signs near or on the road both times it passed, noting parts of the car came off when the vehicle hit the signs. Ms. Benson testified that there were signs on both sides of the street, noting "[w]hen he went up the street he knocked that sign down; and when he c[a]me back down the other side, on [the] other side where the school bus c[a]me down, the school bus sign, they tore that sign down; and that church sign, they tore it down." Ms. Benson clarified that "the car did all the damage." She identified Defendant as the person driving the grey BMW shortly after the incident, and she identified him in open court as the driver of the vehicle.

Mary Benson's 911 Call

Ms. Benson called 911 at 6:40 p.m. and told the operator that a white guy was driving a little BMW going around one hundred miles per hour. She stated that the BMW hit the back of a red Ford truck, turned around at the bank, then came back and almost tore up a woman's car. She stated that the bottom of the car should be torn up, and there was debris all over the road.

Ms. Benson testified that she was about twenty to twenty-five feet away from the vehicle at the time of the incident, and she had no doubt that the Defendant was driving the BMW, "[f]ast, flying like a bat out of hell." Ms. Benson also identified Defendant in a six-man photo lineup roughly a year after the incident. On cross-examination, Ms.

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Bluebook (online)
274 So. 3d 144, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-ellender-lactapp-2019.