State v. Gordon

928 So. 2d 689, 2006 WL 802412
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMay 15, 2006
Docket06-KA-8
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 928 So. 2d 689 (State v. Gordon) 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. Gordon, 928 So. 2d 689, 2006 WL 802412 (La. Ct. App. 2006).

Opinion

928 So.2d 689 (2006)

STATE of Louisiana
v.
Troy GORDON.

No. 06-KA-8.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Fifth Circuit.

March 30, 2006.
Opinion Granting Rehearing May 15, 2006.

*690 Harry J. Morel, Jr., District Attorney, Howat A. Peters, Jr., Assistant District Attorney, Twenty-Ninth Judicial District, Parish of St. Charles, State of Louisiana, Hahnville, Louisiana, for Plaintiff/Appellee.

Holli Herrle-Castillo, Attorney at Law, Louisiana Appellate Project, Marrero, Louisiana, for Defendant/Appellant.

Panel composed of Judges JAMES L. CANNELLA, MARION F. EDWARDS, and WALTER J. ROTHSCHILD.

MARION F. EDWARDS, Judge.

Defendant, Troy Gordon, appeals his conviction for distribution of cocaine. For the following reasons, we dismiss defendant's appeal as untimely.

On July 21, 1999, the St. Charles Parish District Attorney filed a bill of information charging defendant, Troy Gordon,[1] with distribution of cocaine. Gordon was arraigned on August 10, 1999 and pled not guilty. The State amended the bill of information on June 26, 2000 to change the year when the offense was alleged to have been committed from 1998 to 1999.

Gordon was tried by a twelve-person jury on June 26, 2000. The jury returned a unanimous verdict of guilty as charged.

On August 23, 2000, the State filed a habitual offender bill of information, alleging Gordon to be a third felony offender. On that day, Gordon was apprised of the State's allegations and entered a denial. The trial court held a habitual offender hearing on September 20, 2000, and found Gordon to be a third felony offender.

On October 25, 2000, the trial court found that the mandatory life sentence to which Gordon was exposed as a third felony offender was excessive and imposed a habitual offender sentence of twenty-eight years at hard labor. The judge further ordered that the sentence be served concurrently with the five-year sentence imposed in case number 98-0685.

Gordon did not file a timely written motion for appeal in accordance with LSA-C.Cr.P. art. 914, so we must first consider whether defendant preserved his appeal rights by other means.

On December 13, 2000, Gordon filed a motion for out-of-time appeal in proper person. The trial court denied that motion, noting that the proper procedural vehicle for seeking reinstatement of appeal rights is an application for post-conviction relief.[2] On October 31, 2002, Gordon filed an untimely application for post-conviction relief in the district court, seeking reinstatement *691 of his appeal rights. On August 2, 2005, the trial court issued an order granting Gordon an out-of-time appeal. The court denied Gordon's remaining post-conviction claims of insufficiency of the evidence and excessive sentence.

LSA-C.Cr.P. art. 930.8 A provides that, unless one of the exceptions enumerated in the article is applicable, "[n]o application for post-conviction relief, including applications which seek an out-of-time appeal, shall be considered if it is filed more than two years after the judgment of conviction and sentence has become final...." Subpart A(1) of the article creates an exception where "[t]he applicant alleges, and the petitioner proves or the state admits, that the facts upon which the claim is predicated were not known to the petitioner or his attorney." Defendant's post-conviction application was clearly untimely under Article 930.8. Moreover, the exception in subpart A(1) does not apply to defendant's application, because he failed to allege that his untimeliness was due to recently discovered facts. Accordingly, we dismiss defendant's appeal as untimely.[3]

APPEAL DISMISSED.

ON REHEARING

We granted rehearing for the purpose of again reviewing whether defendant, Troy Gordon, timely filed the present out-of-time appeal. After careful reconsideration of the entire record, we reinstate Gordon's appeal rights, consider the merits of his appeal, affirm his conviction, and remand to correct errors patent on the face of the record.

On July 21, 1999, the St. Charles Parish District Attorney filed a bill of information charging defendant, Troy Gordon,[1] with distribution of cocaine. Gordon was arraigned on August 10, 1999, and pled not guilty. The State amended the bill of information on June 26, 2000, to change the year when the offense was alleged to have been committed from 1998 to 1999.

Gordon was tried by a twelve-person jury on June 26, 2000. The jury returned a unanimous verdict of guilty as charged.

On August 23, 2000, the State filed a habitual offender bill of information, alleging Gordon to be a third felony offender. On that day, Gordon was apprised of the State's allegations, and entered a denial. The trial court held a habitual offender hearing on September 20, 2000, and found defendant to be a third felony offender.

On October 25, 2000, the trial court found that the mandatory life sentence to which Gordon was exposed as a third felony offender was excessive, and imposed a habitual offender sentence of twenty-eight years at hard labor. The judge further ordered that the sentence be served concurrently with the five-year sentence imposed in case number 98-0685.

On August 2, 2005, the trial court issued an order granting Gordon an out-of-time appeal. The court denied defendant's remaining post-conviction claims of insufficiency of the evidence and excessive sentence. In our original opinion in this matter, we denied Gordon's out of time appeal as untimely.

Agent Samantha Wilson testified that she is a deputy with the St. John the Baptist Parish Sheriff's Office. On June 9, 1999, she worked with the St. Charles Parish Sheriff's Office conducting undercover *692 drug buys in St. Charles Parish. She drove an unmarked car, and was accompanied by a confidential informant. She testified that the informant did not participate in any of the drug transactions.

At about 6:00 p.m., Wilson saw defendant, Troy Gordon, on Boutte Estates Drive. He was driving a white Ford Taurus. Wilson stopped her car and asked him if he had a "twenty."[2] Gordon told her that he had to get something, and that she should meet him at the other end of Boutte Estates Drive. Wilson drove to the place Gordon indicated, and parked her vehicle behind his.

Wilson testified that Gordon exited his car and approached the driver's side window of her car. He gave her a piece of a rock-like substance, and she gave him twenty dollars in cash. Gordon also gave Wilson a business card on which was printed "Bass Head Records" and a telephone number. Gordon told her she could reach him at that number if she wanted to buy anything else.

Wilson testified that when the transaction was completed, she placed the rock in a small plastic evidence bag and marked it "number two," to indicate that it was from the second purchase she made that day. She later gave the evidence to Detective Allen Bryant of the St. Charles Parish Sheriff's Office. Wilson identified State's Exhibit 1 as the rock she purchased from Gordon.

Wilson said that the entire transaction was recorded by a camera hidden in her car. She identified State's Exhibit 5 as the videotape of the transaction. The prosecutor played it for the jury.

Detective Bryant testified that he acted as a back-up for Wilson on June 9, 1999. He listened to Wilson's transactions over a radio monitor from a remote location.

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928 So. 2d 689, 2006 WL 802412, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-gordon-lactapp-2006.