State v. Harris

980 So. 2d 174, 2008 La. App. LEXIS 405, 2008 WL 725112
Louisiana Court of Appeal·Decided March 19, 2008·No. No. 43,069-KA·Published·Cited by 7 cases

Opinion

MOORE, J.

pRodrigus Ramone Harris was charged by bill of information with armed robbery with a firearm, La. R.S. 14:64 and 64.3. He pled guilty as charged, but at the Boy-kin hearing and at sentencing he told the court he wished to withdraw his guilty plea; both requests were denied. The court sentenced him to 15 years at hard labor without benefits for armed robbery and a consecutive 5 years at hard labor without benefits for the use of a firearm. Harris now appeals, urging the court erred in denying his motion to withdraw his guilty plea and in imposing an excessive sentence. Finding no merit in his contentions, we affirm the conviction, but on error patent review we amend the sentence to remove the order of hard labor for the 5 years under R.S. 14:64.3.

Factual Background

On December 9, 2003, the 17-year-old Harris drove three friends to the Friedman’s Jewelry Store on East Bert Kouns in Shreveport. Harris pulled the borrowed Chevy Suburban to the rear of the store and let his three accomplices out. According to employees of the store, three masked men came in, “skipping and hopping;” one of them pulled a handgun, shouted it was a robbery and demanded all the money from the cash register. The three employees, all women, described the robbers as loud, rude, obscene and very threatening. When the masked men saw the register held only about $100, they ordered an employee to open the safe. At close gunpoint and nearly paralyzed with fear, two employees managed to open the safe and give the robbers about $1,000 in cash and $14,000 in jewelry. The masked men then ran out the door and into the waiting Suburban, which | ¡¡witnesses reported driving east on East Bert Kouns.

Police quickly developed suspects when Harris and one of the other robbers tried to sell the stolen jewelry to a police informant. On December 13, police arrested Harris, advised him of his rights and took his statement. Harris admitted that he had been driving around in a borrowed Suburban with two friends, one of whom was armed with a handgun, when they picked up a third friend who “wanted to rob something.” Deciding on Friedman’s, they drove by the front to look inside, and then Harris pulled the Suburban to the rear of the store and let them out. Moments later they came back, carrying a clear container packed with jewelry in Ziploc bags. Harris admitted that he got $300 in cash. He denied getting any jewelry, but another witness stated that Harris tried to sell some rings at a house in the Ingleside neighborhood.

Procedural History

As noted, the state charged Harris with armed robbery with a firearm. Harris initially pled not guilty but withdrew that plea and agreed to plead guilty as charged. At the Boykin hearing in May 2005, the [177] prosecutor stated that Harris admitted his involvement in the offense as a principal, and that the robbers who entered the store “were armed with a firearm, they did point that at the heads of the various ladies that were inside, physically assaulted them[.]” Harris spoke up, “I don’t know if there ain’t nobody up there they assaulted,” and “I don’t feel like nobody was physically assaulted.” The court stated that with this contention, it could not accept the guilty plea. At that point, trial counsel conferred with Harris, who then admitted he wasjjinvolved with the other men who went to Friedman’s that day and he understood the law of principals. Moments later, however, the court asked Harris if he discussed the robbery with the other men; he replied, “We didn’t discuss it, it just happened as we got there,” and denied knowing why they stopped there. Counsel again conferred with Harris, who finally admitted he knew his friends intended to commit a robbery, they discussed it, he drove them there, and he received some money for his part. The court found a factual basis for the plea and accepted it.

At a sentencing hearing later that month, Harris told the court he wished to withdraw his guilty plea and instead plead to a “more appropriate offense.” Maintaining that he never touched the gun, he wanted to plead to accessory after the fact and face no more than 10 years in jail. He repeated that he did not want to go to trial. After argument, the court denied the motion, stating that only the district attorney determines the charge and how to prosecute: “Mr. Harris does not get to pick the charge.” The court then heard testimony from Detective Parker, who headed the investigation; from the three female victims at Friedman’s; from the mother and guidance counselor of one of Harris’s accomplices, Kelvin Lewis; and from Lewis and Harris themselves.

At a supplemental sentencing hearing in June 2005, an assistant district attorney in the juvenile division detailed the six docket numbers listed in Harris’s juvenile record, including four adjudications, three stretches of supervised probation and, finally, a commitment until age 21.

14As noted, the court sentenced Harris to a total of 20 years at hard labor without benefit of probation, parole or suspension of sentence. The court explicitly stated that the sentence comprised 15 years under the armed robbery statute, R.S. 14:64, and 5 consecutive years for the use of a firearm under the enhancement statute, R.S. 14:64.3.

In June 2007, the Louisiana Appellate Project enrolled to represent Harris and obtained the instant out-of-time appeal.

Discussion: Withdrawal of Guilty Plea

By his first assignment of error, Harris urges the district court erred in not allowing him to withdraw his guilty plea. He contends that under La. C. Cr. P. art. 559 A, the court may permit a plea of guilty to be withdrawn at any time before sentence, and under the jurisprudence, the defendant should be permitted to withdraw the plea when induced to make it through ignorance, fraud or intimidation. State v. Coston, 113 La. 717, 37 So. 619 (1904); State v. Manager, 149 La. 1083, 90 So. 421 (1922); State v. Lapoint, 94-1173 (La.9/23/94), 642 So.2d 1304. Specifically, he argues that his plea was induced by ignorance: he failed to understand the law of principals as it relates to criminal culpability, and even after conferring with counsel, he persisted in his belief that because he neither wielded a firearm nor entered the store, he was not guilty of armed robbery. He concludes that this ignorance warrants vacating the guilty plea.

The state responds that whether or not Harris understood the law of principals, he plainly admitted facts that made him liable [178] as a principal to armed robbery with a firearm. The state concludes that the plea was | [¡intelligently and voluntarily made, and the district court did not abuse its discretion in refusing to allow him to withdraw it.

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State v. Harris, 980 So. 2d 174, 2008 La. App. LEXIS 405, 2008 WL 725112 (La. Ct. App. 2008).

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