State v. Gray

948 So. 2d 335, 2007 WL 57794
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJanuary 10, 2007
Docket41,732-KA
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 948 So. 2d 335 (State v. Gray) 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. Gray, 948 So. 2d 335, 2007 WL 57794 (La. Ct. App. 2007).

Opinion

948 So.2d 335 (2007)

STATE of Louisiana, Appellee
v.
Fredrick Dewayne GRAY, Appellant.

No. 41,732-KA.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Second Circuit.

January 10, 2007.

*336 Louisiana Appellate Project, by Peggy J. Sullivan, Monroe, for Appellant.

Paul J. Carmouche, District Attorney, Dale G. Cox, Geya D. Williams Prudhomme, Brady D. O'Callaghan, J. Dhu Thompson, Assistant District Attorneys, for Appellee.

Before BROWN, MOORE & SEXTON (Pro Tempore), JJ.

SEXTON, J.

This criminal appeal arises from the conviction in a bench trial of Defendant, Fredrick Dewayne Gray, for attempted simple kidnapping. The trial court sentenced him as a second-felony offender to three and a half years at hard labor without benefit of parole, probation or suspension of sentence. Defendant now appeals. *337 Defendant's conviction is affirmed. His sentence is affirmed as amended, and the case is remanded for correction of the minutes.

FACTS

During the early morning hours of February 9, 2003, Deputy Gary Baird of the Caddo Parish Sheriff's Office responded to a 911 call on Hiawatha Street during which a resident there had stated that there was a female on his front porch screaming that someone tried to rape her. Deputy Baird testified for the State as to his investigation of the incident, including his conversation with the victim. She told him that someone tried to rape her and described the assailant as a black male of average size wearing dark pants and top. Deputy Baird noticed swelling on the victim's left eye.

According to Deputy Baird's testimony, the victim gave the following account of the events. The victim was in the parking lot of the Econo Lodge on Monkhouse Drive when Defendant offered her a ride home and "put" her in his vehicle. She did not know him, but accepted his offer to take her home. Deputy Baird's understanding was that she did get into the vehicle voluntarily. She told Defendant where she lived; but, as "the ride went on," she became uneasy and asked him to let her out of the vehicle. In response, Defendant told her she could get out if she wanted, but that he refused to stop the car. Defendant offered her money for sex and he offered her beer and wine to drink. Defendant threatened physical harm to her if she did not allow him to touch her. He proceeded to touch her breasts and vaginal area without her consent. When Defendant drove her to the parking lot at Lakeview Baptist Church on Tacoma Street, she was able to get out of the vehicle and run away.

The victim pointed out to Deputy Baird where Defendant's car was parked. The vehicle was empty. Soon thereafter, Deputy Baird saw a man matching the victim's description running in the road where Hiawatha Drive and Tacoma Street intersect. When he stopped the man, Defendant told him that he was out jogging because it was quiet and peaceful, in spite of the fact that it was dark and raining and that he knew no one in that area of town. After placing Defendant under arrest and receiving consent to a search from the owner of the vehicle, Deputy Baird found beer and wine in the vehicle.

Defendant eventually admitted that he had a companion in the vehicle with him, a female named "Deonshay," which was not the name of the victim. He admitted that he went to the Econo Lodge to pick up this friend, whom he had known for a little over a month. He was giving her a ride home when she asked him to stop the vehicle and let her out. After he let her out of the vehicle, he followed her and asked her what was wrong, but she told him nothing was wrong and would not talk to him. Defendant told Deputy Baird that he was out looking for her when they saw him running. Defendant denied touching the victim. In addition, through Deputy Baird's testimony, the State played a videotape depicting the weather conditions, the victim and her voice and Defendant being arrested.

The State presented the testimony of Don Adley, the person who called 911, and the owner of the house where the victim went for help. Mr. Adley testified that the victim was on his front porch, very upset, and saying that someone was after her. He noticed Defendant's vehicle driving by his house twice with the occupant shouting, "I love you."

According to the victim at trial, she was leaving a bachelorette party at the Econo *338 Lodge when Defendant drove up to her in the parking lot. She had met Defendant two months earlier through her cousin when he had given them both a ride to a party, but this was the only time she had ever seen Defendant before. She got in the car with Defendant because she thought he was going to give her a ride home. She realized that he was not going to take her home when he began driving to different places and started touching her. While Defendant was driving, he touched her breasts and put his hand down her pants, touching her vagina, without her permission. She tried to stop someone driving by, but Defendant told the driver that she was his girlfriend and that they were just having problems.

The victim testified that, once they arrived at the church parking lot, she was able to get out of the vehicle and run away. Defendant was not touching her at the time they were in the parking lot. Once she got away, she went to one house, but no one came to the door. She next went to Mr. Adley's home. While he was calling 911, Defendant came onto the front porch and hit her in the head when she refused to leave with him. He then ran away from the front porch, but kept driving by the house while she was waiting for law enforcement to arrive. She saw Defendant park his SUV down the street and run away shortly before law enforcement arrived.

Defendant testified on his own behalf. According to his testimony, he had left work and took a friend to the Econo Lodge when he saw the victim leaving. She asked him for a ride home and he knew her because he had met her once before. He insisted that he was driving on the back roads because he was not familiar with the interstate due to the fact that he just gotten out of prison after serving a sentence for forcible rape. The victim asked him for $50, then took $25 from his console without his consent and refused to put the money back. Then the victim got out of the car with his money after a struggle that included the victim also taking a ring off of his finger. He followed her to the house to demand his money and ring back, but in response, the victim threw it all on the ground. He then scooped up the money and was on his way back to his vehicle when law enforcement arrived. Defendant admitted being evasive with Deputy Baird because he was nervous due to the fact that he had only gotten out of prison nine months earlier.

Based upon the evidence presented at the bench trial, the trial court found Defendant guilty of attempted simple kidnapping as a responsive verdict to the original charge of simple kidnapping and found him not guilty of sexual battery.

DISCUSSION

Defendant contends that the evidence was insufficient to support his conviction of attempted simple kidnapping because there was no evidence that he intended to forcibly seize the victim and carry her from one place to another without her consent or that he committed an overt act in furtherance of that intention. Specifically, Defendant relies upon the fact that the victim voluntarily got into his vehicle. He submits that they struggled over the money the victim was taking from him and that there is a lack of evidence indicating that he tried to put the victim back in his vehicle after she got out of it.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
948 So. 2d 335, 2007 WL 57794, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-gray-lactapp-2007.