State v. Green

84 So. 3d 573, 2010 La.App. 4 Cir. 0791, 2011 La. App. LEXIS 1750, 2011 WL 6937630
Louisiana Court of Appeal·Decided September 28, 2011·No. No. 2010-KA-0791·Published·Cited by 23 cases

Opinions

DANIEL L. DYSART, Judge.

\,PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Defendants Rayshaud E. Green and Dominique Hawthorne were jointly charged by bill of information with armed robbery, La. R.S. 14:64, while armed with a gun, of Johan Agurcia.

Defendants pleaded not guilty at their arraignment. The trial court denied defendants’ motions to suppress the evidence and identifications. At the end of a two day jury trial on August 24, 2009, a twelve-person jury found both of the defendants guilty as charged. On November 6, 2009, defendant Green was sentenced to fifty years at hard labor, without benefit of probation, parole, or suspension of sentence. Also on November 6, 2009, the trial court denied defendant Hawthorne’s motion for postverdict judgment of acquittal before sentencing him to fifty years at hard labor without benefit of probation, parole, or suspension of sentence. Both defendants subsequently filed this appeal.

FACTUAL BACKGROUND

New Orleans Police Officer Raymond Ambrose III testified that on October 19, 2008, he and his partner, Officer Molten, responded to a call of a car-jacking. They met the victim, Johan Agurcia, at a 24-hour convenience store in the 1500 |2block of Franklin Avenue. Mr. Agurcia was upset and had a small tear to his forehead, from which blood seemed to be trickling. The victim directed the officers to the 3100 block of N. Roman Street, where he believed the car-jacking had occurred. Officer Ambrose said there was a streetlight on each corner of that block and one in the middle of the block. The officers can[577] vassed the area for witnesses, but found none. He found no evidence on the scene.

New Orleans Police Sergeant Asish Shah testified that on October 19, 2008, he received a call of a suspicious person in a green Honda at Allard Boulevard and City Park Avenue. When Sgt. Shah pulled up behind the vehicle, three males left the vehicle, leaving the engine running. He believed the driver was wearing a black t-shirt, and the other two were wearing white t-shirts. The three men were detained with the assistance of Detective Hal Amos. Sgt. Shah identified crime scene photos of the victim’s vehicle and the scene. He also identified both defendants in court as being two of the individuals who had been in the victim’s vehicle.

Detective Harold Amos testified that when the three individuals in the victim’s car saw a marked police unit come on the scene, they exited and walked briskly toward Delgado College. Det. Amos identified defendants in court as two of the individuals who had been in the victim’s car. He recalled that one of the defendants was wearing basically all black and the other a white t-shirt and blue jeans. Det. Amos participated in an on-the-scene identification procedure during which he displayed each of the three individuals to the victim, one at a time. He recalled that the victim made an identification. Det. Amos testified that he went to the scene at approximately 11:57 a.m., and that the victim made his identification |sat approximately 2:00 p.m. Det. Amos confirmed on cross examination that the victim had been in his vehicle prior to identifying the defendants.

NOPD Detective Mary Colon met with the victim on the scene. He did not speak English well, but had a friend with him who translated. The victim identified the two defendants at the scene. Det. Colon identified photographs of the defendants, confirming that the photos depicted the defendants as they appeared at the time they were arrested. The victim identified both defendants at the scene that day, from a distance of approximately one car length.

Through the use of an interpreter, the victim, Johan Nahun Agurcia, testified that on October 2008 he had been out with friends on Bourbon Street. At approximately 3:30 a.m., along with his friend Alex, they drove to Chalmette to drop off another friend who had been with them on Bourbon Street. On his way back home from Chalmette he became lost and at approximately 4:00 a.m. he came to a stop sign at the 3100 block of North Roman Street in New Orleans when two individuals appeared. One of the men put a gun to his head, told him he was going to kill him, and struck him in the forehead, with the gun. The victim described that gunman— Det. Colon said the gunman was defendant Hawthorne — as wearing a black t-shirt with a white square with some type of drawing in the white square. The victim testified that he could not see the gunman’s face as he was wearing a mask. However, the victim identified the black t-shirt seized from defendant Hawthorne at the time of his arrest as the one Hawthorne was wearing at the time of the robbery. The victim stated that he had described to the police the t-shirt the gunman was wearing at the time of the initial interview. Further, the victim testified that the gunman was taller than he was which was confirmed when the defendant Hawthorne was directed to stand next to the victim before the jury.

|4The victim described the second robber, who robbed his friend Alex, as wearing a white shirt and his hair in long, little, twisted braids. The victim identified both defendants in court.

The victim testified that when he went to the location where police had recovered his car, he saw the individual wearing the [578] black shirt, who was wearing a mask during the robbery, and the one with the white t-shirt. He did not recognize the third person. When asked whether the police told him who to identify, the victim said, “No, no. I recognized them.” The victim was asked if the robber wearing the white t-shirt was wearing a mask, and he replied in the negative. The follow-up question was, “So, you were able to see his hair and face that night?” Id. The victim replied, “Only the hair and the shirt.” Id. The victim stated that while he recovered whatever had been in his vehicle when it was stolen, he did not recover any of the items that were in his pockets that had been taken by the robber, specifying his passport, cell phone and eyeglasses.

The victim testified on cross examination that he had consumed two beers on Bourbon Street on the night/early morning of the robbery — from approximately 11:30 p.m. to 3:00 a.m. The victim admitted that he could not see the face of the gunman who robbed and struck him in the face because the gunman was wearing a mask. He could not identify what type of hair the robber had. The victim was only able to identify the gunman by the black shirt that he was wearing at the time of the robbery and which he again identified at the scene where his car was recovered. He recalled that the gun used by the robber in the black shirt was a silver colored semi-automatic handgun. The victim confirmed that the individual with the white t-shirt went to the passenger side of the car during the robbery and robbed his friend, Alex.

| .GREEN — ERRORS PATENT

GREEN — ASSIGNMENT OF ERROR NO.l

HAWTHORNE — PRO SE ASSIGNMENT OF ERROR NO. 1

We will address these assignments of error and errors patent collectively, as they all concern the same issue.

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State v. Green, 84 So. 3d 573, 2010 La.App. 4 Cir. 0791, 2011 La. App. LEXIS 1750, 2011 WL 6937630 (La. Ct. App. 2011).

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