State v. Gay

136 So. 3d 919, 2014 WL 740142, 2014 La. App. LEXIS 470
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedFebruary 26, 2014
DocketNo. 48,832-KA
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 136 So. 3d 919 (State v. Gay) 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. Gay, 136 So. 3d 919, 2014 WL 740142, 2014 La. App. LEXIS 470 (La. Ct. App. 2014).

Opinion

MOORE, J.

|]The defendant, Corey Lynn Gay, was convicted by a jury of distribution of methamphetamine, in violation of La. R.S. 40:967(A)(1). Subsequently, he was adjudicated a seventh-felony habitual offender and sentenced to life imprisonment at hard labor without benefit of probation, parole, or suspension of sentence. The defendant now appeals his conviction and sentence. For the following reasons, we affirm the defendant’s conviction and sentence.

FACTS

Gay was charged by an amended bill of information with distribution of a Schedule II Controlled Dangerous Substance (“CDS”) in violation of La. R.S. 40:967(A)(1). The bill alleges the unlawful act occurred on June 24, 2011. The defen[923]*923dant waived arraignment and pled not guilty on September 12, 2011.

A jury trial began on July 10, 2012. In the course of the trial, the state produced evidence that on June 24, 2011, a task force of Shreveport Police Department (“SPD”) law officers commenced an undercover operation coordinated by Agent Keith Knox with the defendant as its target. Undercover SPD Officer Allen Alkire contacted the defendant and arranged a meeting with him for the purpose of buying methamphetamine. The defendant instructed Alkire to meet him at the Brook-shire’s grocery store parking lot on North Market Street in Shreveport. Agent Al-kire drove to the Brookshire’s to meet the defendant, while other officers (hereinafter called the “cover team”) watched from nearby. Alkire was carrying audio and visual surveillance equipment during his encounters with the defendant. Officer Knox listened to the interactions through a transmission from this ^equipment. Officer Alkire waited at the Brookshire’s parking lot 30 to 40 minutes before the defendant arrived in a compact sedan. He pulled up alongside Alkire’s vehicle, window to window. The defendant instructed Alkire to follow him to the Highland neighborhood where he would acquire the methamphetamine.

Agent Alkire followed the defendant to a Circle K store at the corner of Olive Street and Centenary Boulevard. The cover team followed secretly. Upon arrival, the defendant told Alkire to remain at the store while h went around the corner to get the methamphetamine. Alkire saw the defendant walking westbound on Olive Street and then lost sight of him.

A few minutes later, the defendant telephoned Alkire and told him to come pick him up on Highland Road where he would be walking. Alkire drove down Olive Street, turned left (southbound) on Highland, and saw the defendant walking northbound on the sidewalk. He drove past him and turned his vehicle around at the next intersection, driving back alongside the defendant and stopped. Gay got into the passenger side of the vehicle. Once in the vehicle, Gay gave the methamphetamine to Alkire. In exchange, Alkire gave Gay five twenty-dollar bills whose serial numbers had been recorded.

Alkire drove the vehicle to a tire shop near the intersection of Olive and Centenary where he let the defendant out of the vehicle. ' At this time Agent Knox was able to see the defendant clearly for the first time. After Gay left the vehicle, Alkire stated into the recording equipment, “That was Corey Gay.” During trial, Gay contested the admissibility of Alkire’s recorded statement identifying him, arguing that: (1) it was hearsay, (2) that [ait implied that he was targeted because the state suspected him of other bad acts, and (3) that it was more prejudicial than probative. The court decided that the statement would not be hearsay if introduced through Agent Alkire’s testimony, and that the jury would not infer from the statement that the state had investigated the defendant for other bad acts. The court allowed the statement to be presented to the jury.

After the defendant departed from Agent Alkire’s vehicle, the officers met at a predetermined place. Alkire gave Officer Knox the substance that he had bought from the defendant. The officers performed a field test upon the substance, and the test yielded a positive result for the presence of methamphetamine. Officer Knox labeled the bag and put it into a locked drop box at the police station. A property room attendant normally takes things from the drop box and brings them to the property room. At trial, Agent Alkire identified the plastic bag and crystalline substance introduced as the drugs [924]*924he bought from the defendant and gave to Officer Knox. Knox identified the writing on the plastic bag as his own. The officers did not recover the marked money used by Agent Alkire to purchase the drugs, but Knox testified that he did not expect to get it back. The state played the audio-visual recording of the entire encounter at trial, and submitted the recording into evidence.

About two weeks after the undercover operation described above, Officer Knox created a six-person photographic lineup which he presented to Agent Alkire on July 8, 2011. Alkire identified the photograph of the defendant as the person from whom he met and purchased the drugs. The state later introduced the lineup document, with Alkire’s mark on the picture 14of the defendant, at trial. Officer Knox prepared an arrest warrant for the defendant on July 13, 2011. Both Knox and Alkire noted that the defendant’s physical appearance in court was different from his appearance on the day of the offense. He wore a “doo rag” and a hat during the crime, but no glasses. In court, he wore glasses but no hat or “doo rag.” Nonetheless, both officers identified the defendant as the person who committed the crime.

Bruce Stentz, a forensic chemist at the North Louisiana Crime Lab in Shreveport, tested the purchased chemical to determine its composition. Stentz first weighed the chemical, which he did while it was still in its small plastic bag. The weight of the substance and its container together was 1.62 grams. Stentz estimated in court that the bag probably weighed about a gram, so that the chemical within it probably only weighed about 0.6 grams. He agreed with defense counsel that this is about half of the weight of a small one-gram package of sugar. After measuring the weight, Stentz performed two color tests upon the chemical. One color test was a Cobalt thiocyanate test, or Scott’s Test, which detects cocaine. The other test was the Marquis Test, which detects methamphetamine and amphetamine. The first test yielded a negative result for cocaine, but the second gave a positive result for methamphetamine or amphetamine. Stentz stated at trial that the Scott’s Test and the Marquis Test were merely presumptive. Stentz next tested the substance with a gas chromatograph mass spectrometer. The spectrometer determined that the chemical was methamphetamine.

On July 11, 2012, the jury found the defendant guilty as charged of distribution of methamphetamine, a Schedule II CDS, in violation of La. R.S. |r,40:967(A)(l). The judge ordered that a presentence investigation report be submitted, but only for the purpose of ascertaining the past convictions of the defendant.

On August 8, 2012, the state filed an habitual offender bill of information which asserted that the defendant had seven pri- or felony convictions which could serve as a basis for the present adjudication, and that the defendant therefore deserved fourth-felony habitual offender status under La. R.S. 15:529.1.

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Related

State v. Critton
251 So. 3d 1281 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2018)
State v. Minnieweather
251 So. 3d 583 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2018)
State ex rel. Gay v. State
222 So. 3d 1251 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 2017)
State v. Harvey
222 So. 3d 67 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2017)
State v. Byrd
145 So. 3d 536 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2014)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
136 So. 3d 919, 2014 WL 740142, 2014 La. App. LEXIS 470, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-gay-lactapp-2014.