State v. Gobert

865 So. 2d 779, 2003 WL 22664455
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedNovember 12, 2003
DocketKH02-771
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 865 So. 2d 779 (State v. Gobert) 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. Gobert, 865 So. 2d 779, 2003 WL 22664455 (La. Ct. App. 2003).

Opinion

865 So.2d 779 (2003)

STATE of Louisiana
v.
Steven D. GOBERT.

No. KH02-771.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Third Circuit.

November 12, 2003.

*780 Robert Richard Bryant, Jr., District Attorney, Lake Charles, LA, Counsel for State/Respondent.

Mathew D. Henrich, Lake Charles, LA, Counsel for Defendant/Applicant.

Court composed of BILLIE COLOMBARO WOODARD, MICHAEL G. SULLIVAN, and BILLY HOWARD EZELL, Judges.

WOODARD, Judge.

We must consider whether the Defendant, Steven D. Gobert, who entered a plea of guilty to criminal charges of manslaughter and attempted manslaughter, may assert a double jeopardy violation when he knowingly and intelligently entered a plea that raised double jeopardy concerns. We deny the Defendant's writ.

* * *

The trial court convicted Mr. Gobert on May 18, 1994 for committing a second degree murder and, later, sentenced him to life imprisonment. On appeal, this court found that the State withheld evidence that was favorable and material to his defense. Accordingly, we overturned his conviction.[1]

After a second trial of this matter, the trial court found him guilty of second degree murder and sentenced him to life in prison. Once again, this court reversed his conviction due to the State's prejudicial comments made during its rebuttal-closing argument.[2]

On October 18, 2001, a few days before the third trial of this matter, Mr. Gobert pled guilty to one count of manslaughter, a violation of La.R.S. 14:31, and one count of attempted manslaughter, a violation of La. R.S. 14:27. Under the plea agreement, he received a sentence of forty years on the conviction for manslaughter and twenty years on the conviction for attempted manslaughter. The sentences were to run consecutively.

In his "Motion to Correct or Modify Illegal Sentence," filed on November 7, 2001, Mr. Gobert contends that he illegally received multiple punishments for the same offense. The trial court denied this motion on March 20, 2002. In its written reasons for the denial, it states:

It is true that the manslaughter and attempted manslaughter in this case involved the same deceased victim, and occurred on the same day. Defendant's motion could have merit but for the fact that his current convictions and sentences were pursuant to a plea agreement, to which he was a fully informed defendant.

Later, Mr. Gobert filed an application for post conviction relief in which he asserts that his conviction and sentence for attempted manslaughter violated his constitutionally protected right against double jeopardy. On May 29, 2002, the trial court denied his application for post conviction relief for the same reasons it assigned on March 20, 2002: "[T]he sentences were imposed on the basis of a plea agreement which the Defendant fully understood and *781 which benefitted him significantly, and of which he cannot now be heard to complain."

Mr. Gobert believes the trial court should have granted him post conviction relief. Specifically, he asserts that it erred: (1) in failing to grant him post conviction relief because convicting him of, both, attempted manslaughter and manslaughter violates the double jeopardy clause of the federal and state constitutions;[3] (2) in convicting him of, both, manslaughter and attempted manslaughter when the facts indicate that the crime arose from one victim and one event; and (3) in convicting him of attempted manslaughter when no factual basis exists for his attempted manslaughter conviction independent of the factual basis given for his manslaughter conviction and when he never, unequivocally, plead guilty to attempted manslaughter.

On the other hand, he is not challenging his manslaughter conviction. As such, he requests that we reverse his attempted manslaughter conviction and affirm his manslaughter conviction.

We will address the Defendant's interrelated assignments of error together. Essentially, each is based upon his assertion that the trial court's sentence of forty years on the conviction for manslaughter and twenty years on the conviction for attempted manslaughter constitutes a double jeopardy violation because it is giving him multiple punishments for the same conduct.

* * *

DOUBLE JEOPARDY

In post conviction matters, the petitioner has the burden of proving that the trial court improperly denied him relief.[4] Therefore, Mr. Gobert must prove that a double jeopardy violation occurred in relation to his guilty plea.

In State v. Love, this court explained:

Both the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article 1, § 15 of the Louisiana Constitution guarantee that no person shall be twice placed in jeopardy for the same offense. The purpose of these provisions is to protect a person from a second prosecution after he has already been acquitted or convicted of that offense and also to protect an accused against multiple punishment for the same conduct.[[5]]

(Emphasis added.)

Review of a double jeopardy claim is limited to the charging documents and plea colloquy.[6]

Originally, the bill of indictment charged Mr. Gobert with second degree murder. On the day of his plea, the State amended the bill to reflect the charges of manslaughter and attempted manslaughter. The bill does not, however, contain any additional information on the particular circumstances of the crime. At the guilty plea hearing, the trial court asked for a recitation of the facts to support a guilty plea, only, for manslaughter:

THE COURT:
Okay. Briefly, Mr. Gobert, what did you do to be guilty of manslaughter?
*782 THE DEFENDANT:
I engaged in a heated argument and a fight with the victim, John Kirkley, and during the course thereof, I shot him one time in the head.
THE COURT:
All right.
THE DEFENDANT:
And, he subsequently died from those wounds.

The Defendant gave no separate factual basis for his attempted manslaughter conviction. A review of the entire plea colloquy reveals that the State, merely, charged him with manslaughter and attempted manslaughter in order to reach a term of imprisonment that was amenable to him and the victim's family. The plea agreement is accurately set forth beginning with a summary of the agreement by Defendant's attorney, Randall Hart:

MR. HART:
Your Honor, at the outset, I want to say on behalf of Mr. Gobert, we recognize the impossibility of being convicted of the charge of attempted manslaughter, and manslaughter, if he were to be tried on that issue. However, this is a settlement, or a plea agreement, whereby Mr. Gobert will not have to face trial on the charge of second-degree murder which, of course, holds the awful sentence of mandatory life in prison, without benefit of parole.

The concurrence of Assistant District Attorney, Donald Guidry, immediately follows Mr. Hart's summary of the agreement:

MR. GUIDRY:
And on behalf of the State, Judge, as you are aware, this case has been tried twice and was scheduled this—I think, this past Monday, to be tried again, but was continued.
The State has met with the victims— the victim's family, and discussed this matter, and have discussed this matter with the defendant, as well as his lawyer, and reached an agreement.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
865 So. 2d 779, 2003 WL 22664455, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-gobert-lactapp-2003.