State v. Francois

926 So. 2d 744, 2006 WL 862915
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedApril 5, 2006
Docket05-1385
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 926 So. 2d 744 (State v. Francois) 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. Francois, 926 So. 2d 744, 2006 WL 862915 (La. Ct. App. 2006).

Opinion

926 So.2d 744 (2006)

STATE of Louisiana
v.
Christopher Lane FRANCOIS, Sr.

No. 05-1385.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Third Circuit.

April 5, 2006.

*746 J. Phillip Haney, District Attorney, Jeffery J. Trosclair, Assistant District Attorney, St. Martinville, Louisiana for State of Louisiana.

G. Paul Marx, Attorney at Law, Lafayette, Louisiana, for Defendant/Appellant, Christopher Lane Francois, Sr.

Court composed of JIMMIE C. PETERS, MICHAEL G. SULLIVAN, and GLENN B. GREMILLION, Judges.

SULLIVAN, Judge.

On August 14, 2003, the State filed a bill of information charging Defendant, Christopher Lane Francois, Sr., with one count of attempted second degree murder, a violation of La.R.S. 14:27 and La.R.S. 14:30.1, one count of aggravated battery, a violation of La.R.S. 14:34, and one count of second degree kidnapping, a violation of La.R.S. 14:44.1. A plea of not guilty was entered on November 12, 2003.

Upon motion of Defendant, a sanity commission was appointed on July 14, 2003. On December 15, 2003, the trial court found Defendant able to assist counsel and proceed to trial. On the same date, Defendant was rearraigned and entered a plea of not guilty. On January 30, 2004, the State filed a second bill of information charging Defendant with unlawful possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, a violation of La.R.S. 14:95.1. The record does not indicate Defendant was arraigned on this charge.

On November 29, 2004, the matter proceeded to trial on the charge of attempted second degree murder;[1] a mistrial was granted on December 2, 2004. A second trial commenced on January 25, 2005, and the jury returned a verdict of guilty of attempted second degree murder on January 27, 2005. A Motion for New Trial was *747 filed on February 22, 2005, which was denied. On March 1, 2005, Defendant was sentenced to forty-five years at hard labor without benefit of probation, parole, or suspension of sentence. Defense counsel orally moved for reconsideration of sentence; the motion was denied.

Defendant appealed; he assigns three errors: 1) the evidence supports a conviction for attempted manslaughter rather than attempted second degree murder; 2) the testimony of witness Randall Marshall should have been excluded because there was no proof that he was unavailable; and 3) the appellate record is incomplete and does not allow a determination of whether he was subjected to double jeopardy, denying him effective assistance of appellate counsel.

Facts

On June 7, 2003, Defendant entered Toshiba Vital's place of employment, Food-N-Fun in New Iberia, where he shot at her and beat her with a gun. A more detailed account of the facts is set forth under "Sufficiency of the Evidence."

Errors Patent

All appeals are reviewed for errors patent on the face of the record. Review of the record revealed two errors patent. The first error patent involves actions taken between the appointment of a sanity commission on July 14, 2003, and the trial court's determination on December 15, 2003, that Defendant was capable of proceeding. According to La.Code Crim.P. art. 642, "[w]hen the question of the defendant's mental incapacity to proceed is raised, there shall be no further steps in the criminal prosecution, except the institution of prosecution, until the defendant is found to have the mental capacity to proceed."

A number of "steps" were taken during the pendency of the commission, including Defendant's arraignment, where he pled not guilty; the filing of several motions by Defendant; hearings on some of the motions filed by Defendant; and the filing of writ applications with this court which were addressed. The sanity commission panel members issued their findings that Defendant was capable of proceeding to trial on September 29, 2003 and October 23, 2003, and on December 15, 2003, the trial court found Defendant capable of proceeding to trial.

In State v. Davis, 94-2332 (La.App. 1 Cir. 12/15/95), 666 So.2d 400, writ denied, 96-127 (La.4/19/96), 671 So.2d 925, the court determined that an arraignment and a pretrial conference being held during the pendency of a sanity commission were harmless errors because they occurred before the defendant pled guilty and because the defendant did not allege that he was prejudiced by the trial court's failure to comply with the requirements of Article 642. In State v. Karam, 02-163 (La.App. 3 Cir. 7/31/02), 834 So.2d 1003, this court concluded that motion hearings held during the pendency of a sanity commission were harmless error, as the hearings did not prejudice defendant. The court explained that the purpose of Article 642 is to insure that no action prejudicial to the defendant is taken while the sanity commission is pending.

Not all of the motions Defendant filed were resolved in his favor; however, they were pretrial in nature and were not prejudicial to him. Furthermore, Defendant does not allege that he was prejudiced by the occurrence of these "steps" during the pendency of the sanity commission. We find any error was harmless. See State v. Prudhomme, 99-2029 (La.App. 3 Cir. 6/5/02), 819 So.2d 443, writ denied, 02-2073 (La.6/27/03), 847 So.2d 1251.

The second error patent is that the jury did not return a verdict on all of *748 Defendant's charged offenses. Louisiana Code of Criminal Procedure Article 819 provides: "If there is more than one count in an indictment, the jury must find a verdict as to each count, unless it cannot agree on a verdict as to a count." Defendant was charged by bill of information with one count of attempted second degree murder, one count of aggravated battery, and one count of second degree kidnapping. By separate bill of information filed under the same docket number, he was charged with one count of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. The State proceeded to trial on the attempted second degree murder charge only. There is no motion to sever in the record, and the St. Martin Parish Clerk of Court's Office has submitted an affidavit, stating that the jury considered the charge of attempted second degree murder only. Accordingly, this matter is remanded for proper disposition of the aggravated battery, second degree kidnapping, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon charges. State v. Hypolite, 04-1658 (La.App. 3 Cir. 6/1/05), 903 So.2d 1275.

Sufficiency of the Evidence

Defendant was convicted of attempted second degree murder. Second degree murder is "the killing of a human being ... [w]hen the offender has a specific intent to kill or to inflict great bodily harm." La.R.S. 14:30.1(A)(1). Attempt is defined in La.R.S. 14:27(A), which provides:

Any person who, having a specific intent to commit a crime, does or omits an act for the purpose of and tending directly toward the accomplishing of his object is guilty of an attempt to commit the offense intended; and it shall be immaterial whether, under the circumstances, he would have actually accomplished his purpose.

To convict Defendant of attempted second degree murder, the State had to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he specifically intended to kill Ms. Vital and that he committed an "act for the purpose of and tending directly toward the accomplishing of" that intent. La.R.S. 14:27(A); 14:30.1(A)(1). "Specific criminal intent is that state of mind which exists when the circumstances indicate that the offender actively desired the prescribed criminal consequences to follow his act or failure to act." La.R.S. 14:10(1).

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
926 So. 2d 744, 2006 WL 862915, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-francois-lactapp-2006.