State v. Grant

641 So. 2d 691, 1994 La. App. LEXIS 2202, 1994 WL 388973
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJuly 27, 1994
DocketNo. 93-KA-2183
StatusPublished

This text of 641 So. 2d 691 (State v. Grant) 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. Grant, 641 So. 2d 691, 1994 La. App. LEXIS 2202, 1994 WL 388973 (La. Ct. App. 1994).

Opinion

| JONES, Judge.

STATEMENT OF THE CASE

The defendant-appellant, Wayne H. Grant, was charged with one count of aggravated battery, a violation of La.R.S. 14:34. He was arraigned and entered a plea of not guilty. Following a jury trial, he was found guilty of second degree battery, a violation of La.R.S. 14:34.1. The trial court sentenced appellant to three years at hard labor. The court denied the defendant’s motion to reconsider the sentence and granted the motion for appeal.

STATEMENT OF THE FACTS

On December 15, 1992 New Orleans police officer James Parker and his partner responded to a call of an armed robbery in the 2400 block of General Taylor Street. Officer Parker saw the victim William Phillips. Mr. Phillips was saturated in blood from the top of his head to his waist; he did not have a shirt on. The officer called for emergency medical service and entered the victim’s [692]*692house. In a rear bedroom the police officers saw blood on the bed, floor, and ^furniture. The officers also observed a broken coffee table with a glass top and a broken chair. In three other rooms they saw blood as well as a trail of blood from one room to another. The officers did not see any weapons as such but did observe several household items which could be used as weapons, as a number of things had blood on them. However, in the rear bedroom where the fight occurred, the officers did not see anything which would be considered a weapon.

William Phillips testified at trial that he was a former contractor who was doing some work on his mother’s house which had burned. Mr. Phillips had hired the defendant to do electrical work. Mr. Phillips had some problems with the defendant’s performance in that it was not done on a timely basis; however, he intended to pay the defendant the balance of what was owed him.

On the night of December 15, 1992, the defendant called Mr. Phillips at about ten o’clock and asked to come over so he could give Mr. Phillips the electrical inspection from City Hall. The defendant arrived, and the two men went to the back of the house to a bedroom which Mr. Phillips used as an office. Mr. Phillips, who ha;d been drinking margueritas, offered one to the defendant, who accepted. The defendant asked Mr. Phillips for some money. Mr. Phillips responded that he only had $25 and that he needed it. He explained to the defendant that the insurance had not paid for the fire damages. As he turned to his desk to look for some papers pertaining to another job that he was offering to the defendant, the defendant hit Mr. Phillips from behind with a big ashtray. As Mr. Phillips turned, the defendant was coming at him with a captain’s chair; the victim was struck and four ribs cracked. A piece of the chair struck Mr. Phillips’s head, resulting in four broken teeth. The defendant also stabbed Mr. Phillips three times with a screwdriver.

_|jAfter the attack, the defendant made Mr. Phillips walk on his knees to the next room to get his wallet, whereupon Mr. Phillips gave the defendant $25. The defendant, who was by then armed with a pair of scissors, made Mr. Phillips crawl through the house on his knees until they reached the front door, and then the defendant left. As a result of the attack, the victim suffered injuries requiring fifty-one staples in his head and four stitches in his body.

The defendant later had two telephone conversations with Mr. Phillips, the first one occurring three days after the incident and the second one after the defendant was in jail. Mr. Phillips taped both conversations, and the tape was played to the jury.

On cross-examination, Mr. Phillips admitted that there had never been any evidence of malice or hatred from the defendant and that he had not feared for his safety prior to the attack. He also testified that he kept firearms in the house, a shotgun and two pistols, but that none of them were in the room where the fight occurred.

The defendant testified on his own behalf. He confirmed that he had worked for Mr. Phillips, that Mr. Phillips owed him approximately $300, that he had called Mr. Phillips on the night of the incident to bring him the final certificate, and that they had a drink together when he arrived at the house. The .defendant testified, however, that Mr. Phillips said he would give him a $25 check toward the balance owed, which he could not pay until he received the money from the insurance company. According to the defendant, when he was ready to go and asked for his money, Mr. Phillips became vulgar and violent. Mr. Phillips then jumped up and reached for a chair; the defendant grabbed the chair to keep from being hit. As they struggled over the chair, Mr. Phillips fell over the glass coffee table, breaking it. Mr. Phillips then grabbed a pair of scissors, and as they struggled over the scissors, the defendant pprotected himself by hitting the victim with a piece of wood from the broken chair. Finally the defendant got the scissors away from Mr. Phillips, who then grabbed a piece of glass. The defendant hit Mr. Phillips again. After fifteen or twenty minutes, the struggling between the men stopped. The victim at that time was lying in the broken glass with the defendant sitting on his chest. The defendant demanded and was given the house keys. He made Mr. Phillips [693]*693lie on his stomach and then fled the house. According to the defendant, he knew Mr. Phillips kept firearms in the house and had special training in the military. The defendant denied taking any money; he also denied that Mr. Phillips told him he was taping then’ phone conversations.

When questioned on cross-examination on whether he gave his version of events to the police, the defendant testified that the police did not come to him until two months later and never asked for a statement. The defendant admitted he had prior convictions for theft involving a credit card, attempted theft, and burglary; the convictions occurred over ten years previously.

ERRORS PATENT

A review of the record for errors patent reveals that there are none.

ASSIGNMENT OF ERROR NUMBER 1

In his first assignment of error the appellant argues that the evidence was insufficient to support the conviction. He relies on State v. Mussall, 523 So.2d 1305 (La.1988), in which this court found that the evidence was insufficient, under the standard enunciated in Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979) 1, even though the purported victim of an armed robbery testified |sas to each element of the offense, because the victim’s story was bizarre, unsupported, and self-serving. In reviewing this Court’s decision in a response to the State’s writ application contending that the appellate court substituted its factual determination of credibility for that of the trier-of-fact, the Supreme Court stated:

Applying these precepts [Jackson v. Virginia and progeny] to the present case, we conclude that any rational trier of fact, after viewing all of the evidence as favorably to the prosecution as a rational fact finder can, necessarily must have a reasonable doubt as to the • defendant’s guilt.

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Related

Jackson v. Virginia
443 U.S. 307 (Supreme Court, 1979)
State v. Scott
593 So. 2d 704 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1991)
State v. Mussall
523 So. 2d 1305 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1988)
State v. Dorthey
623 So. 2d 1276 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1993)
State v. Smith
639 So. 2d 237 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1994)
State v. Lobato
603 So. 2d 739 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1992)
State v. Gibson
550 So. 2d 263 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1989)

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Bluebook (online)
641 So. 2d 691, 1994 La. App. LEXIS 2202, 1994 WL 388973, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-grant-lactapp-1994.