State v. Hawthorne

364 So. 2d 917, 1978 La. LEXIS 5437
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedNovember 13, 1978
DocketNo. 61808
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 364 So. 2d 917 (State v. Hawthorne) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Hawthorne, 364 So. 2d 917, 1978 La. LEXIS 5437 (La. 1978).

Opinions

SUMMERS, Justice.

Appellants Albert and Ruby Hawthorne were jointly charged with possession of heroin on October 29, 1975, a crime denounced by Section 966 of Title 40 of the Revised Statutes. In a jury trial on January 13, 1977 they were found guilty as charged. Prior to sentencing, bills of information were filed under the Habitual Offender Law charging each appellant with a prior felony conviction. La.Rev.Stat. 15:529.1. A hearing was held on these recidivism [919]*919charges and appellants were found guilty. On the State’s motion each appellant was sentenced to imprisonment for nineteen years as an habitual offender under the provisions of the Habitual Offender Law, and without entitlement to diminution of sentence for good behavior as authorized by Section 571.3 of Title 15 of the Revised Statutes.1

Only those assignments of error urged on this appeal are reviewed in this opinion.

Assignments 1, 2 and 17: Defense counsel declared in his opening statement that he intended to prove that appellant Ruby Hawthorne’s daughter, Sheryl Burton, planted narcotics in the residence occupied by Albert and Ruby Hawthorne in order to get Albert in trouble because she disliked him, and that it was the daughter Sheryl Burton who called the police and told them that narcotics were in the house. Defense counsel also stated that, without intending such a result, Sheryl’s plan also implicated her mother, Ruby Hawthorne, in the narcotic offense. Furthermore, according to defense counsel’s opening statement, appellants and other witnesses would testify that Albert was beaten by the police in his own house.

' When the State’s attorney objected to the statement that the police had beaten Albert as being irrelevant, the trial judge sustained the objection, ruling that no foundation had been laid to prove police beatings. In addition, he ruled that he would limit defense counsel in his opening statement to what he intended to prove. Because of this ruling defense counsel moved for a mistrial, which was denied. Thereafter the issue thus presented was urged as a basis for a new trial.

The correctness of the ruling, that a foundation must be laid before the defense can prove that the police beat Albert, is questionable and not supported on any rational basis by the trial judge or in the State’s argument at the trial or in brief. At the same time the defense makes no showing that the beating is relevant to the issue of possession of heroin.

In any event, the issue presents no prejudice to the defense. During the trial the State introduced evidence in an effort to show that Albert received injuries when he resisted arrest and that the arresting officers were compelled to subdue him. In doing so they testified they did not brutalize him even though Albert thrashed about during the encounter, requiring three policemen to quiet him. Apparently, because of the exertion, Albert passed out. He was revived by ingestion of sugar watér and syrup.

As the police left the house with Albert on the way to the hospital, a defense witness testified that Albert appeared sick, and blood was streaming from his mouth or nose. Albert’s mother-in-law saw him in the hospital that night. She testified for the defense that Albert was bleeding from the mouth, had scratches on his ear, and his face appeared to be “kind of beat in.”

In rebuttal the State produced the doctor who examined Albert when he entered the hospital. The doctor saw no blood or cuts on Albert’s mouth, no scratches across his neck or the side of his face, or swelling in Albert’s hands. He did observe, however, an abrasion on Albert’s left wrist.

[920]*920It is evident from this summary of the evidence on the subject, that the question of police brutality was fully explored and the limitation of defense counsel’s opening statement was inconsequential.

On appeal the concern is not the technical correctness of the ruling of the trial judge; appeals by the accused are designed to rectify injuries to him caused by improper trial court conduct, or by departure from a constitutional norm or a specific legislative enactment. La.Code Crim.Pro. art. 921.

Assignments 8, 9 and 12: Officer Robert McNeil, assigned to the Narcotic and Drug Abuse Section of the New Orleans Police, testified that early on October 29, 1975 he and several other officers obtained a search warrant to search the residence at 2026 Second Street, the Hawthorne residence. Upon entry they found Ruby and Albert Hawthorne and another black male present in the front room. Albert was presented with a copy of the warrant, and all those present were advised of their rights and informed that at that time they were under investigation for possession of narcotics. A detailed and systematic search of the residence followed, resulting in the discovery of two bags, or tinfoil packages, containing brown powder inside a radio on the refrigerator in the kitchen. At the same time that Officer McNeil discovered the two bags of brown powder he believed to be heroin, he found a larger piece of tinfoil containing a white powder. This latter item became Exhibit S-4 at the trial.

The defense contends that the State introduced the white powder (S-4) into evidence without identifying the substance either chemically or by a scientific or commercial name. Further, it is asserted the prosecutor, by intimation, gave the jury the impression that this white powder was a “cutting substance” used by dope “pushers” to dilute narcotics. By doing so, the argument goes, defendants were inferentially identified as “pushers” or distributors of narcotics, a crime more heinous and unpopular than possession of narcotics, the crime charged. From this premise defense counsel reasons that the State introduced evidence of other crimes, impermissible under the rule of State v. Prieur, 277 So.2d 126 (La.1973). The contention is not well-founded.

The trial judge sustained defense counsel’s objection to the prosecutor’s questions to Officer McNeil: “Have you ever heard of a cutting substance?” and “My question is what is a cutting substance used for if someone were merely a drug user?” The trial judge also refused to permit Officer McNeil to refer to S-4 as a “cutting substance” because it had not been properly identified, and S-4 was only admitted into evidence for the purpose of showing that it was not heroin, a fact to which a state witness testified. Therefore, S — 4 was never shown to be a cutting substance, and it was not evidence of the other more heinous crime of distribution of heroin.

Assignment 11: On direct examination Officer McNeil testified that when Albert and Ruby Hawthorne were arrested they were not transported to the narcotics office as they would have been under normal procedure because Albert wanted to go to the hospital. Ordinarily, in a narcotics case, the accused is examined for track marks at the narcotics office. In this instance, however, McNeil testified the best he could do was to perform a cursory examination of Albert’s arm in the hall at the hospital. In doing so active track marks were found on both arms.

When cross-examined by defense counsel, McNeil was asked if he had testified on direct that he examined Ruby’s arm .and found track marks.

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Related

State v. Taylor
688 So. 2d 1262 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1997)
State v. Guillory
502 So. 2d 258 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1987)

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Bluebook (online)
364 So. 2d 917, 1978 La. LEXIS 5437, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-hawthorne-la-1978.