State v. Guiden

873 So. 2d 835, 2004 La. App. LEXIS 1178, 2004 WL 1103279
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMay 12, 2004
DocketNo. 38,230-KA
StatusPublished

This text of 873 So. 2d 835 (State v. Guiden) 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. Guiden, 873 So. 2d 835, 2004 La. App. LEXIS 1178, 2004 WL 1103279 (La. Ct. App. 2004).

Opinion

I iWILLIAMS, J.

The defendant, Cesar D. Guiden, Jr. was charged by bill of information with armed robbery, a violation of LSA-R.S. 14:64. Thereafter, the state amended the bill to charge the defendant with the use of a firearm as a dangerous weapon in the commission of an armed robbery, a violation of LSA-R.S. 14:64.3. After a jury trial, the defendant was found guilty of first degree robbery and was sentenced to serve twenty-eight years at hard labor without the benefit of parole, probation or suspension of sentence. The defendant now appeals. For the following reasons, we affirm.

FACTS

On June 27, 2001, employees of the Fina Mart in Shreveport, Louisiana contacted police officers to report a robbery. Kiesha Oneal (“Oneal”), a store clerk, informed an officer that she was doing inventory when a man came into the store. Assuming that the man was a customer, Oneal went behind the counter to assist him. The assailant dropped a gun on the counter and then immediately picked it up and pointed it at Oneal’s head. He told her to give him the money from the cash register. He placed a yellow plastic bag on the counter and she gave him the money. As the assailant left the building, another employee was entering the store to report to work. Both employees described the assailant as a black male who was wearing a white tee shirt, blue jeans and a blue hard hat. Two other individuals who were about 50 yards from the convenience store, told an officer that a man had run out of the store and changed into all white clothing.

| {.The defendant was stopped by police officers approximately a block and a half from the Fina Mart because he was a black male dressed in all white clothing. He had a yellow plastic sack which contained $109 in cash in his pocket. The defendant was handcuffed and detained. The officers brought the employees over to the defendant and asked them whether he was the man who had robbed the store. Both employees responded, ‘Yes.”

[837]*837A short time later, a blue hard hat, a gun and a sack of clothes were found in a nearby field. There were no fingerprints on the gun. Subsequently, the investigating officers learned that at the time of the robbery, the cash register should have contained between $110 and $120. A partial palm print on the hard hat matched the defendant’s palm print that was on file with the police department from a prior arrest.

At trial, the two store employees and five police officers testified. The employee from whom the money was taken made an in-court identification of the defendant, the yellow bag in which he had put the money, the handgun and the blue hard hat. The officers informed the jury of their initial investigation, the arrest of the defendant and the collection and chain of custody of the physical evidence found on the defendant and in the field. The trial court denied the defendant’s motion for mistrial and required the defendant to give both a fingerprint and a palm print sample in the presence of the jury. The fingerprint expert testified that the defendant’s palm print taken in court matched the palm print found on the hard hat in the field.

UOn December 6, 2002, the jury in an 11-1 decision found the defendant guilty of a responsive verdict of first degree robbery. He was subsequently sentenced to serve 28 years at hard labor without the benefit of parole, probation or suspension of sentence. The trial court denied the defendant’s motion for post-verdict judgment of acquittal and this appeal ensued.

DISCUSSION

Assignment of Error Number One:

Sufficiency of the Evidence

By this assignment, the defendant contends the evidence was insufficient to support his conviction. He argues that the in-court identifications were tainted by the earlier improper actions of the officers when they asked the witnesses to identify him in handcuffs at the scene. He further argues that the circumstantial evidence was insufficient to exclude every reasonable hypothesis of innocence.

When issues are raised on appeal both as to the sufficiency of the evidence and as to one or more trial errors, the reviewing court should first determine the sufficiency of the evidence. The reason for reviewing the sufficiency of the evidence first is because the accused may be entitled to an acquittal under Hudson v. Louisiana, 450 U.S. 40, 101 S.Ct. 970, 67 L.Ed.2d 30 (1981), if a rational trier of fact, viewing the evidence in accord with Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979), in the light most favorable to the prosecution, could not reasonably conclude that all of the elements of the offense have been proved beyond a [ reasonable doubt. State v. Hearold, 603 So.2d 731 (La.1992); State v. Bosley, 29,253 (La.App.2d Cir.4/2/97), 691 So.2d 347, writ denied, 97-1203 (La.10/17/97), 701 So.2d 1333.

The Jackson standard is applicable in cases involving both direct and circumstantial evidence. An appellate court reviewing the sufficiency of evidence in such cases must resolve any conflict in the direct evidence by viewing that evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution. When the direct evidence is thus viewed, the facts established by the direct evidence and inferred from the circumstances established by that evidence must be sufficient for a rational trier of fact to conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant was guilty of every essential element of the crime. State v. Sutton, 436 So.2d 471 (La.1983); State v. Owens, 30,903 (La.App.2d Cir.9/25/98), 719 So.2d 610, writ denied, 98-2723 (La.2/5/99), 737 So.2d 747.

[838]*838The crime of first degree robbery is defined in LSA-R.S. 14:64.1, which reads as follows:

A. First degree robbery is the taking of anything of value belonging to another from the person of another, or that is in the immediate control of another, by use of force or intimidation, when the offender leads the victim to reasonably believe he is armed with a dangerous weapon.
B. Whoever commits the crime of first degree robbery shall be imprisoned at hard labor for not less than three years and for not more than forty years, without benefit of parole, probation or suspension of imposition or execution of sentence.

The defendant’s contention that the at-the-scene identifications and the in-court identification are tainted is without merit. While one of the store clerks was shown to not have actually been looking at the man’s face |sand admitted that she may have been in error about her at-the-scene identification of the robber, the testimony shows that the other store clerk did see the defendant’s face. She was the clerk who was actually robbed and had seen him face to face. He had pointed a gun at her from across the counter. She had given the defendant the money. Neither her at-the-scene identification nor her in-court identification of the defendant was controverted on cross-examination. The defendant has failed to sufficiently show why he contends the in-court identification was tainted by the prior at-the-scene identification.

This court’s authority to review questions of fact in a criminal case does not extend to credibility determinations made by the trier of fact. La. Const, art. 5, § 10(B); State v. Williams,

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Related

Jackson v. Virginia
443 U.S. 307 (Supreme Court, 1979)
Hudson v. Louisiana
450 U.S. 40 (Supreme Court, 1981)
State v. Grissom
448 So. 2d 757 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1984)
State v. Robertson
358 So. 2d 931 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1978)
State v. Sutton
436 So. 2d 471 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1983)
State v. Owens
719 So. 2d 610 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1998)
State v. Bosley
691 So. 2d 347 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1997)
State v. Hearold
603 So. 2d 731 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1992)

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Bluebook (online)
873 So. 2d 835, 2004 La. App. LEXIS 1178, 2004 WL 1103279, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-guiden-lactapp-2004.