State v. Green

873 So. 2d 889, 2004 WL 1106544
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMay 12, 2004
Docket38,335-KA
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 873 So. 2d 889 (State v. Green) 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. Green, 873 So. 2d 889, 2004 WL 1106544 (La. Ct. App. 2004).

Opinion

873 So.2d 889 (2004)

STATE of Louisiana, Appellee
v.
Darylon D. GREEN, Appellant.

No. 38,335-KA.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Second Circuit.

May 12, 2004.
Rehearing Denied June 17, 2004.

*892 William D. Hall, P.L.C., Shreveport, for Appellant.

J. Schuyler Marvin, District Attorney, Jeff Cox, John M. Lawrence, Assistant District Attorneys, for Appellee.

Before WILLIAMS, STEWART & PEATROSS, JJ.

PEATROSS, J.

Defendant, Darylon D. Green, was charged with armed robbery, in violation of La. R.S. 14:64[1] and 14:64.3.[2] He was tried by a jury and convicted as charged. Prior to sentencing, Defendant moved for a verdict of acquittal, but this motion was denied. Subsequently, Defendant was adjudicated an habitual offender and sentenced to 49 and one-half years at hard labor, without benefit of probation, parole or suspension of sentence. He was ordered to serve the sentence consecutively with any other sentence and he was given credit for time served. Defendant moved for reconsideration of his sentence, but the motion was denied. He now appeals his conviction and sentence. For the reasons stated herein, we affirm.

FACTS

This armed robbery of a Domino's Pizza employee occurred on the night of October 16, 2000. That evening, Ray Mason ("Mason") and Defendant came to the apartment of Latisha Smith ("Smith") on Edwards Street in Bossier City. Mason is Smith's cousin. Smith knew Defendant as "LaDarion Green." She also knew him as a close friend of Mason and she often saw them together. Mason and Defendant asked to use Smith's phone to call for a pizza. Smith watched and listened as Defendant ordered a pizza to be delivered to an address on Joannes Street. Defendant used Mason's name for the order. Mason was in the restroom at the time of the call. At trial, Smith could not remember the order other than hearing it was a "meatlovers" pizza. In her statement to the police the day after the robbery, Smith recalled that the order was two large pizzas and two large Cokes. The time of this call is not clear. In her trial testimony, Smith estimated that it was just getting dark when Mason and Defendant came over. Mason and Defendant later left Smith's house. She did not see them again that evening.

During the time that Mason and Defendant were at her house, Smith saw that either Mason or Defendant had a handgun. In her statement to the police, Smith said that Mason had a handgun. In her trial testimony, however, Smith stated that Defendant had a handgun that she recognized as belonging to Mason. She explained the discrepancy that it was Mason's gun, but in Defendant's possession.

On the night of the incident, Domino's Pizza received a call for a pizza to be delivered to 645 Joannes Street in Bossier City. Steve Shearin ("Shearin") made the delivery. He arrived alone at the address *893 between 11:30 and midnight. He got out of his van and asked a young man on the porch if the address was 645. The young man, Mason, told him it was 645. Mason was wearing a blue sweater jacket with a hood over his head, but Shearin could see his face. When Shearin got to the front door with the pizza, he looked up and there was a gun pointed at his head. Shearin described it as a light brown nine-millimeter automatic. Mason said, "Give me the money, dog." Shearin gave Mason all of the money he had. Mason then told Shearin to get on the ground. Shearin got down on his hands and knees. When Shearin got down, he tossed his watch and keys next to a fence.

As Shearin was on the ground, he saw another young man with a white-hooded jacket. Initially, Shearin could not see this man's face. This man kept telling Shearin that he had to have more than $48. Shearin told him that he had some money in his van. The second young man asked Shearin for the keys and Shearin told him he had lost them. As the young man paced around, agitated about the missing keys, Shearin could see that he was also holding a handgun, which he pointed at Shearin a couple of times. Shearin recognized it as an automatic.

The two robbers then went to Shearin's van to look for more money and to get the van started. As they opened the door, the interior light came on and Shearin was able to see the face of the young man in the white sweatshirt. At trial, Shearin identified this man as Defendant. Defendant got the van started without a key.

Mason then told Shearin to get up and get into the house. Shearin was nervous, but Mason told him that "You ain't going to die, I'm not going to kill you because you're black." The house was vacant, without any furniture or electricity. Mason made Shearin strip off his clothes and get into a closet and count to 150. Defendant did not go into the house with Mason. Shearin got into the closet and counted to 150. He later found his clothes in a corner of the front room. Shearin's van was gone.

Shearin walked down Texas Street, then Old Minden Road until he found a police officer, Mark Owens, who took him back to the house. Shearin found his keys where he had hidden them. At about 2:00 a.m., Shearin's van was found abandoned on Jordan Street in Shreveport.

The next day the police showed Shearin a photographic lineup in an attempt to identify the young man in the blue sweatshirt. Shearin immediately identified Mason as the first robber. The first time Shearin identified the second robber in the white sweatshirt as being Defendant was the week of trial. Shearin was sitting on a bench in the courtroom when he saw Defendant get off the elevator in the corner of the courtroom. Shearin then recognized Defendant as the other robber.

During trial, Shearin acknowledged on cross examination that he had been unable to identify Defendant in a photographic lineup that occurred a few weeks earlier. When asked how he could identify Defendant in the courtroom, yet not identify him in the photographic lineup, Shearin stated it was just like meeting someone at law school, then seeing them years later and not knowing who they are until something clicks and you recognize them. Shearin then testified that, when he saw Defendant the second time, "It came back to me in my van and it clicked, I know that guy, that's the guy." Shearin further testified that there was no doubt that Defendant was the second robber; he was a "hundred percent positive, yes."

Detective Todd Hilbert investigated the case. The phone call to Domino's Pizza *894 was traced to Smith's phone. Detective Hilbert questioned Smith. She told him that Mason and a "LaDarion Green" came to her apartment to use her phone to call for a pizza. Detective Hilbert testified that Smith told him that she saw Mason with a handgun. The day after the robbery, Smith saw Mason. Mason told her that they had robbed the pizza delivery man, but only got forty something dollars. Mason thought it was funny how they had gotten the victim to disrobe. At trial, Smith identified Defendant as the "LaDarion Green" who ordered the pizza from her apartment.

On the evening after the robbery, Detective Hilbert prepared a photographic lineup of Mason for Shearin to examine. Detective Hilbert did not prepare a photographic lineup of Defendant because he was operating on the information that the other suspect was "LaDarion" Green, not Darylon Green. The lineup contained a photograph of Mason and five other males similar in appearance. Shearin immediately, and without hesitation, picked out Mason's photograph in the lower left-hand corner. Shearin's van was processed for fingerprints and Mason's fingerprints were found on one of Shearin's cassette tapes in the van.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
873 So. 2d 889, 2004 WL 1106544, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-green-lactapp-2004.