State v. Goldston

868 So. 2d 196, 2003 La.App. 4 Cir. 1215, 2004 La. App. LEXIS 437, 2004 WL 389033
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedFebruary 11, 2004
DocketNo. 2003-KA-1215
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 868 So. 2d 196 (State v. Goldston) 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. Goldston, 868 So. 2d 196, 2003 La.App. 4 Cir. 1215, 2004 La. App. LEXIS 437, 2004 WL 389033 (La. Ct. App. 2004).

Opinions

JjTERRI F. LOVE, Judge.

Defendant was convicted of aggravated burglary and sentenced to thirteen years at hard labor. After the State filed a multiple bill, the defendant was adjudicated a third felony offender. The original sentence was vacated and the defendant was re-sentenced as a habitual offender to 20 years. On appeal, the appellant by counsel alleges the State failed to provide sufficient evidence to support the appellant’s conviction and the trial court erred in finding the appellant is a third felony offender. The appellant pro se also urges the trial court erred in its instruction regarding reasonable doubt, a new trial should be granted because new evidence was discovered, and two key witnesses committed perjury. For the reasons assigned below, we affirm the defendant’s conviction and sentence.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Ms. Gail Bowlin, an addiction therapist from Bloomington, Illinois, testified that in March of 2002 she and her fourteen-year-old daughter were spending a week in New Orleans at the Avenue Plaza Hotel on St. Charles Avenue. On March 28th about 6:30 p.m., Ms. Bowlin left her Toyota in front of the hotel for valet parking. She and her daughter went upstairs. She decided to go out for a sandwich; when she returned to the hotel about 7 p.m., she noticed her car was still Ron the street where she had left it. She went to her room and began packing because the two were leaving early the next morning. Ms. Bowlin’s daughter, Rachael, was watching television when Ms. Bowlin heard a knock on the door and a man’s voice announcing, “I’m from security. Your Toyota has been damaged.”

She cracked the door open a few inches and asked the man standing there what he meant. He did not respond. She told him she would go to the front desk for information. When she attempted to close the door, he pushed it open and forced his way into the room, saying, “I’m from maintenance. I’m here to fix your toilet. Your toilet is broken, and the front desk sent me up.” Ms. Bowlin knew that nothing was wrong with the toilet, and she asked the man for identification. When he could not produce any, she told him that she would call the front desk. The man responded that he would call and walked over to the telephone, but instead of calling, he ripped the cord from the wall.

Immediately, Ms. Bowlin screamed to her daughter to run. Both women tried to leave the room; however, the man grabbed Ms. Bowlin around her shoulders and.Rachael by her tank top. The tank top ripped and Rachael’s back was scratched by his nails. Ms. Bowlin [199]*199screamed for help, and a man and his son from a nearby room came in. The intruder released Ms. Bowlin, who had pinched him on his lower lip, but he was still holding Rachael. The neighbor told his son to call security and tried to get between the intruder and Rachael. At that point another couple appeared and began questioning the intruder. He told them he was part of the maintenance crew and was there to fix the toilet. He then ran down the hall.

Ms. Bowlin explained that her daughter was not in court to testify because she was still too traumatized by the incident to talk about it. She also stated under Rcross-examination that she did not know if the intruder took anything from her room. However, the wedding ring she was wearing during the altercation was found in the hotel hall about twenty feet from her room by a detective.

Mr. Robert Payne of Skokie, Illinois, was vacationing in New Orleans with his family on March 28, 2002. He, his wife, and two children were in their suite at the Avenue Plaza Hotel about 7 p.m. when he heard screams coming from across the hall. When he opened his door, he looked diagonally across the hall and saw a young girl trying to escape the grasp of someone within her room. She was being pulled backward by the strap of her blouse.

Mr. Payne ran into her room and put his hands on the man holding her and demanded he release the girl. The man told Mr. Payne that he was from maintenance and this was all a “misunderstanding.” Mr. Payne responded by repeating that he should let go of the girl. The man then said that he was there to fix the toilet, and when Mr. Payne again told him to release the girl, the man did so. The girl collapsed in the hallway.

Mr. Payne, who had had maintenance workers in his room, noticed that the intruder did not have on the Avenue Plaza uniform; in fact he was wearing a T-shirt wrong side out and black pants. The intruder announced that he was going downstairs to talk with his supervisor, and Mr. Payne warned him that someone in his family had already called downstairs. Mr. Payne asked Ms. Bowlin and her daughter if they were okay, and both answered affirmatively. He then followed the intruder into the hall and saw him get on the elevator. Ms. Bowlin and Rachael went to Mr. Payne’s room to calm down, and he saw then that Rachael’s back was scratched. Early the next morning, police officers showed Mr. Payne a photo lineup, and he selected Kevin Goldston’s picture.

| ¿Mr. Charles Cañedo, the Director of Housekeeping at the Avenue Plaza Hotel, testified that he received a telephone call on March 28th from police officers who wanted him to view a videotape to determine if a person on the tape was one of his employees. Mr. Cañedo recognized Kevin Goldston and testified that Mr. Goldston was wearing the same clothes he had on earlier that day when he left work. Mr. Goldston had been working at the hotel for only three or four weeks. Mr. Cañedo explained that the hotel policy is that no employee is to return to the hotel after the end of his workday. On March 28th Mr. Goldston worked from 8:39 a.m. until 2:10 p.m.; his job involved collecting dirty linen and distributing clean linen as well as hauling trash. He would never be expected to go to a room to clean it. Mr. Gold-ston did not come to work on March 29th, and Mr. Cañedo did not remember if Mr. Goldston quit or was fired. However, when he was shown a document verifying Mr. Goldston’s dismissal for violating company policy, Mr. Cañedo recognized the name of the Human Resources Director as authorizing the action.

[200]*200Sergeant Andre Carter was called to the Avenue Plaza Hotel on the evening of March 28th where he met with Ms. Bowlin, her daughter, and Robert Payne. He also spoke to a manager at the hotel who told him that the halls were monitored by video cameras. The sergeant watched the videotape with some of the employees who told him that the man pictured on the video worked in housekeeping. Sergeant Carter then called the head of housekeeping to view the tape, and he identified Kevin Goldston as the man depicted on the tape.

The next morning the sergeant showed a photo lineup to Mr. Payne who selected the defendant’s picture. Ms. Bowlin and her daughter left New Orleans at 5 a.m. on March 29th, and so the sergeant mailed photo lineups to each of them. | ¡^Neither was able to identify the defendant. The sergeant was'asked if the defendant was wearing glasses in the videotape showing him walking toward the victims’ room and he answered affirmatively. After the incident, glasses — which did not belong to either of the victims — were found in their room.

When the sergeant spoke to Mr. Gold-ston after he was arrested, the sergeant read him his Miranda rights, and Mr. Goldston made a statement in which he stated that he had gone to a room on the eighth floor of the hotel and asked a guest if she needed any service. She opened the door, “looked at me like I was up to something,” and began screaming. When asked if he went to the room as part of his job, Mr.

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Related

State v. Brown
56 So. 3d 1095 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2011)
State v. Washington
900 So. 2d 1072 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2005)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
868 So. 2d 196, 2003 La.App. 4 Cir. 1215, 2004 La. App. LEXIS 437, 2004 WL 389033, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-goldston-lactapp-2004.