State v. Guillory

773 So. 2d 794, 2000 WL 1693646
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedNovember 2, 2000
Docket00 00386-KA
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 773 So. 2d 794 (State v. Guillory) 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. Guillory, 773 So. 2d 794, 2000 WL 1693646 (La. Ct. App. 2000).

Opinion

773 So.2d 794 (2000)

STATE of Louisiana
v.
Telly GUILLORY.

No. 00 00386-KA.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Third Circuit.

November 2, 2000.

*796 Paula Corley Marx, Louisiana Appellate Project, Counsel for Telly Guillory, Defendant/Appellant.

Earl B. Taylor, District Attorney, 27th J.D.C., Counsel for State of Louisiana, Plaintiff/Appellee.

Telly Guillory, Louisiana State Penitentiary, Pro se, Defendant/Appellant.

(Court composed of Chief Judge NED E. DOUCET Jr., Judge OSWALD A. DECUIR, and Judge ELIZABETH A. PICKETT.)

PICKETT, Judge.

FACTS

On May 13, 1993, the St. Landry Parish District Attorney filed a bill of information against the Defendant, Telly Guillory, charging him in count one with unauthorized use of a movable valued in excess of $1,000.00, a violation of La.R.S. 14:68, and in count two with simple burglary, a violation of La.R.S. 14:62.[1] The Defendant entered a plea of not guilty.

After trial on May 17, 1994, a six-member jury found the Defendant guilty as charged on count one and guilty of the responsive verdict of attempted simple burglary on count two. On August 12, 1994, the district court sentenced the Defendant to six years imprisonment at hard labor for his conviction of attempted simple burglary, to be served consecutively to any other sentence the Defendant was presently serving, and three years imprisonment for his conviction of unauthorized use of a movable valued in excess of $1,000.00, to run concurrent with the six-year sentence.[2]

After the district court and this court each twice denied the Defendant's motions for an out-of-time appeal, the Louisiana Supreme Court instructed the district court to grant the Defendant an out-of-time appeal. State ex rel. Guillory v. State, 99-0400 (La.7/2/99); 745 So.2d 627. On July 12, 1999, the district court granted the Defendant an out-of-time appeal. The Defendant now appeals his convictions, asserting two assignments of error through counsel and one assignment of error pro se.

On the early morning of March 25, 1993, Irving Kerstein, owner of Louis Wright Department Store in Eunice, Louisiana, reported his 1992 Ford extended cab pickup truck missing. Kerstein testified that he had purchased the truck new and that the truck was worth well over $1,000.00. Also missing were Kerstein's wallet and his set of keys containing his house, truck, and store key, as well as the alarm key for the store.

*797 Kerstein was able to change the locks at his store that day, but not the alarm system. Shortly over an hour after Kerstein reported his truck missing, the police located the truck parked in a parking lot at a nursing home about a mile from Kerstein's store. No keys were found with the truck.

Lieutenant Donald Smith removed latent fingerprints from the truck for evaluation at a crime lab. The clearest print he obtained was a hand print on the outside of the truck, approximately ten inches above the driver's side door handle.

Lieutenant Richard Brickley started to patrol the area around the Louis Wright Department Store after being notified that Kerstein's store key was taken along with the truck. At approximately 1:30 a.m. on March 26, 1993, Lieutenant Brickley saw the front glass door of the clothing store was smashed. As he radioed for assistance, he saw someone wearing a pullover sweater with the hood on come out of the door through the broken glass and run away. Lieutenant Brickley did not see the person's features, and the person stayed stooped over and did not look at Lieutenant Brickley.

By car, Lieutenant Brickley unsuccessfully chased the person he saw, returning to secure the store less than five minutes later. Kerstein went to the store that night and found glass on the ground, items in disarray, and clothing missing.

The police found a pile of clothing with Louis Wright tags behind an apartment building a block and a half away from the store.

Shortly after 2:00 a.m. that morning, Sergeant Patrick Green saw the Defendant coming from the alley right behind the Louis Wright Store. The Defendant was walking with his back toward Green, and when he saw the police unit, he looked like he would run but instead he slipped and fell. When asked by Green where he was coming from, the Defendant first said he was coming from a convenience store which was closed, and then said he was coming from an unidentified friend's house. He said he was going to a friend named Eva's house. Believing the Defendant was intoxicated because of the way he smelled and his slurred speech, Green arrested the Defendant for public intoxication and transported him to the police station.[3] Lieutenant Brickley testified that the Defendant was definitely not the person he saw coming out of the clothing store.

Donald Ashford, a salesperson at the Louis Wright Store, testified that he was called to the store that night and saw that the alarm system located outside of the store entrance had been turned off. Ashford testified that the clothes taken were mostly men's clothing in a particular line of clothing and in large sizes. He identified the clothing as belonging to the store and said that the clothing taken was more than an armful and worth between three to five thousand dollars. He believed everything was recovered. Ashford testified that he had seen the Defendant in the store several times in the weeks before this incident.

Meanwhile, Sergeant Charles Gauntt located several shoe prints on the larger pieces of glass which had fallen inside the store. He found one complete print and several partial prints, as if the glass had been stepped over several times. Gauntt sent the Defendant's Nike tennis shoes, along with the pieces of glass showing shoe prints, to the Acadiana Crime Lab for comparison.

Chris Henderson, a chemist with the Acadiana Crime Lab, provided expert testimony in shoe print identification. After comparing the shoe prints found on the pieces of glass inside the Louis Wright Store to prints made by the Defendant's tennis shoes taken the night of his arrest, Henderson concluded, without a doubt, that both the Defendant's left and right *798 shoes made the prints found on the glass. He also found "fresh" glass particles embedded in the Defendant's shoes. Henderson stated that the prints he analyzed were made by someone stepping on the glass, not someone having kicked the glass to shatter it.

Sergeant Gauntt testified as an expert in fingerprint identification. Gauntt stated that the characteristics of fingerprints and palm prints are the same—no two people have the same prints. Gauntt testified that the palm print removed from Kerstein's truck had at least twelve points of comparison with the Defendant's left palm print. Finding this, he then sent the prints to the crime lab for verification. Sergeant Gauntt determined that the Defendant's palm print was on Kerstein's truck.

Carol Richard, a latent fingerprint analyst with the Louisiana State Police, testified as an expert in her field. She analyzed the print removed from Kerstein's truck and the Defendant's prints and also concluded that the prints matched. A few days after receiving Richard's confirmation on the fingerprint evidence, Lieutenant Brickley questioned the Defendant about the truck, and the Defendant denied ever being around the truck.

The Defendant neither testified nor put forth a defense.

ASSIGNMENT OF ERROR NO. 1:

In his first assignment of error, the Defendant argues that the evidence at trial was insufficient to support his conviction.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

State of Louisiana v. Brandon Jerome Jefferson
Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2023
State v. Guillory
129 So. 3d 108 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2013)
State of Louisiana v. Rosheed Guillory
Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2013
State ex rel. D.D.
86 So. 3d 171 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2012)
State in the Interest of D. D.
Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2012
State of Louisiana v. Ramad Sereal
Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2011
State v. Salameh
38 So. 3d 568 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2010)
State of Louisiana v. Arlene Reed Salameh
Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2010
State v. Wilson
26 So. 3d 210 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2009)
State v. Blake
872 So. 2d 602 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2004)
State of Louisiana v. Mark Edward Blake
Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2004
State v. Sias
861 So. 2d 829 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2003)
State of Louisiana v. Cedric Lynn Sias
Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2003
State v. Brown
842 So. 2d 1181 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2003)
State v. Antoine
804 So. 2d 869 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2001)
State v. White
799 So. 2d 1165 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2001)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
773 So. 2d 794, 2000 WL 1693646, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-guillory-lactapp-2000.