State v. Harrison

16 So. 3d 447, 2008 La.App. 4 Cir. 1110, 2009 La. App. LEXIS 1357, 2009 WL 1874350
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJune 25, 2009
Docket2008-KA-1110
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 16 So. 3d 447 (State v. Harrison) 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. Harrison, 16 So. 3d 447, 2008 La.App. 4 Cir. 1110, 2009 La. App. LEXIS 1357, 2009 WL 1874350 (La. Ct. App. 2009).

Opinion

JOAN BERNARD ARMSTRONG, Chief Judge.

^STATEMENT OF CASE

On June 20, 2006, the State charged the defendant, Eddie Harrison III, with attempted first degree murder of NOPD Officer Andres Gonzales, a violation of La. R.S. 14:(27)30. 1 The defendant pled not guilty at his arraignment on September 5, 2006. On March 8, 2007, the trial court denied the defendant’s Motion to Suppress the Identification. Following a hearing on March 3, 2006, the trial court also denied the defendant’s Motion to Quash the Bill of Information. After a four day jury trial, the defendant was found guilty as charged on March 13, 2008. On March 19, 2008, the defendant filed a Motion for a New Trial, which the trial court denied, and the State filed a multiple bill of information. That same day, the trial court found the defendant to be a second felony offender and sentenced him to one hundred years at hard labor. This appeal follows.

STATEMENT OF FACT

At trial, former NOPD officer Rebecca Gubert testified that on May 22, 2006, she and her partner/victim, NOPD Officer Andres Gonzales, were on patrol in a marked police unit when they stopped a car for suspicion of violation of the ^window tint law. After determining that the vehicle was in fact in violation of the law, Officer Gonzales asked the driver for proof of insurance, registration and driver’s license, none of which the driver could produce. At the same time, Officer Gubert approached the passenger side of the stopped vehicle and encountered the defendant in the front passenger seat. Officer Gonzales ordered the driver to exit the vehicle. As the driver got out of the car, the defendant opened his door and ran. Officer Gubert alerted Officer Gonzales, who pursued the defendant on foot. Officer Gubert secured the driver in the back of the patrol unit, called in a report of the incident and a description of the defendant and followed the chase in the patrol unit. Officer Gubert witnessed Officer Gonzales turn on Verrett Street toward Opelousas Street as he chased the defendant. The next time she saw Officer Gonzales, he was lying on the sidewalk with a neck wound, unable to move. Officer Gubert rendered aid to Officer Gonzales and alerted police dispatch that the victim was wounded. She described the defendant as a muscularly built black male wearing twists in his hair, dark pants and a black t-shirt. Officer Gubert identified the defendant as the fleeing subject in a show up less than two hours after the shooting, and she also made an in-court identification of the defendant. She testified that by the time the defendant had been apprehended he was wearing a white t-shirt.

NOPD Sgt. Arthur Kaufman testified that on May 22, 2006 at approximately 3:15 p.m., he received a report of a shooting in the 500 block of Opelousas Street. Dispatch described the defendant as a black *451 male, approximately 5'11", six feet tall, twists in his hair, wearing a black shirt and dark jeans. Sgt. Kaufman stated that he was in charge of the investigation of the shooting and was assisted by several NOPD personnel collecting evidence. When Sgt. Kaufman arrived on the |sscene, Officer Gonzales was already en route to the hospital; however Sgt. Kaufman observed a large pool of blood, Officer Gonzales’ gun belt and equipment and several .40 caliber shell casings 2 on the ground as well as bullet fragments inside an adjoining Laundromat. At approximately 5:00 p.m., support units brought the defendant back to the scene which is where Officer Gubert and two other witnesses, Ruth Farmer and Erin Farmer, identified the defendant. Additionally, Eddie Guillory also identified the defendant as the man who struggled with Officer Gonzales prior to the shooting. Although the NOPD mounted a massive search for the weapon, it was never recovered. Because of Officer Gonzales’ critical injuries, Sgt. Kaufman was not able to interview him until June 2006, at which time Sgt. Kaufman presented Officer Gonzales with a photographic lineup from which he identified the defendant as the person who shot him. As the investigation progressed, Sgt. Kaufman learned of the existence of a surveillance video taken by the Westside Cleaners; however, Sgt. Kaufman did not view the video and later learned that it had been misplaced.

Madelyn Collins, former NOPD officer and criminalist, testified that she photographed the crime scene and collected four spent .40 caliber bullet casings, a cell phone, one white and one black t-shirt, money, a police radio, a Glock .40 caliber semi-automatic handgun (Sgt. Gonzales’ gun) and a police baton.

ATF Agent Michael H. Hutton assisted the NOPD in its investigation of this case. Agent Hutton supplied one of the agency’s explosives K-9s to search for the gun used to shoot the victim. However, the weapon was never found. Agent Hutton also shipped the gunshot residue kit assembled in this case to the Bexar |4County Texas crime lab for analysis. The test results indicated the presence of gun powder on the defendant’s hands.

Michael Martinez, a forensic scientist supervisor in the trace evidence and firearms section of the Bexar County crime lab, testified that he received and tested the gunshot residue kit sent to him by ATF Agent Hutton. Mr. Martinez’s analysis of the kit revealed the presence of gunshot residue on the defendant’s right and left hand palms.

Mr. Edward Delery, a crime scene technician and former member of the NOPD crime lab, testified that he sketched the crime scene including the 600 blocks of Opelousas and Slidell streets all the way to the levee. The sketches identify the locations of bullet casings, pellet fragments, money and Sgt. Gonzales’ police equipment found on the scene.

Sgt. George Waguespack testified that he assisted in the investigation of the shooting by collecting Officer Gonzales’ clothing and his police equipment from the hospital. Upon examining Officer Gonzales’ bullet proof vest, Sgt. Waguespack discovered a loose spent bullet located in the front panel of the vest. He was present when Officer Gonzales viewed the photo lineup and identified the picture of the defendant as the man who shot him.

*452 Former NOPD Detective Gus Bethea testified he assisted in the investigation of the crime by contacting the owners of Westside Cleaners, a dry cleaning business located at Opelousas Street adjacent to the crime scene, on the day of the shooting. Bethea learned that the owners had a video surveillance camera pointed in the direction of the scene of the shooting. Be-thea and Officer Ronald Ruiz along with the owners of Westside Cleaners viewed the black and white videotape which caught the image of two people running past the front window of the |r,business. Because of the poor quality of the tape and because the images on the tape were so fleeting, no identification of the subjects could be made. Bethea had the tape duplicated and placed the original and the copy into the inter-departmental mailbox for delivery to Sgt Kaufman. However, Sgt. Kaufman never received the tape. 3 Along with the video tape, Bethea logged into evidence one Louisiana State Driver’s license in the name of Eddie Harrison, one green cigarette lighter, one stocking cap and a black leather wallet retrieved from the scene of the shooting.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
16 So. 3d 447, 2008 La.App. 4 Cir. 1110, 2009 La. App. LEXIS 1357, 2009 WL 1874350, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-harrison-lactapp-2009.