State v. Hebert

991 So. 2d 40, 2008 WL 1930158
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMay 2, 2008
Docket2008 KA 0003
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 991 So. 2d 40 (State v. Hebert) 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. Hebert, 991 So. 2d 40, 2008 WL 1930158 (La. Ct. App. 2008).

Opinion

991 So.2d 40 (2008)

STATE of Louisiana
v.
Larry HEBERT.

No. 2008 KA 0003.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, First Circuit.

May 2, 2008.

*42 Richard J. Ward, Jr., District Attorney, Tony Clayton, Elizabeth A. Engolio, Assistant District Attorneys, Plaquemine, LA, for Appellee, State of Louisiana.

Frank Sloan, Louisiana Appellate Project, Mandeville, LA, for Appellant, Larry Hebert.

Before PARRO, KUHN and DOWNING, JJ.

DOWNING, J.

The defendant, Larry Hebert, was charged by grand jury indictment with one count of second degree murder, a violation of La. R.S. 14:30.1. He pled not guilty. He moved to suppress all confessions or inculpatory statements, but the motion was denied. He waived his right to jury trial and, following a bench trial, was found guilty as charged. He moved for a new trial, but the motion was denied. He was sentenced to life imprisonment at hard labor without benefit of probation, parole, or suspension of sentence. He now appeals, designating two assignments of error. We affirm the conviction and sentence.

ASSIGNMENTS OF ERROR

1. The trial court erred and/or abused its discretion in denying the defendant's motion to suppress the confession.
2. The trial court erred in denying the defendant his state and federal constitutional rights to trial by jury without first obtaining a clear, knowing, *43 and voluntary waiver of his right to trial by jury.

FACTS

On July 17, 2006, the Iberville Parish Sheriffs Office (IPSO) investigated the homicide of the victim, Cynthia Hebert, on Church Street in Maringouin. The victim suffered over thirty stab wounds, including four fatal six-inch-deep wounds to her back. The knife used to kill the victim was never recovered.

While IPSO was still on the scene, the deputies were notified by the West Baton Rouge Parish Sheriffs Office that the defendant had "turned himself in." The defendant had blood on his tennis shoes, a sock, T-shirt, shorts, and pants. Subsequent testing of the blood indicated that the DNA profile of the blood was consistent with the DNA profile of the victim's blood with one in 25.7 trillion odds that the DNA had come from someone other than the victim.

IPSO transported the defendant from Port Allen to Plaquemine. The defendant was taken into an interrogation room, and IPSO Detective Blair Favaron advised him of his Miranda[1] rights, including the right to remain silent and that anything he said could and would be used against him in a court of law. The defendant indicated he understood his rights, and he signed a rights-waiver form. The form included the warnings:

"BEFORE YOU CAN BE QUESTIONED CONCERNING THE ALLEGED OFFENSE(S), YOU MUST UNDERSTAND AND WAIVE YOUR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS. IF YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND THEM, OR DO NOT WAIVE THEM, YOU CANNOT BE ASKED ANY QUESTIONS CONCERNING THE OFFENSE(S). YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO REMAIN SILENT. IF YOU GIVE UP THE RIGHT TO REMAIN SILENT: A) ANYTHING YOU SAY CAN AND WILL BE USED AGAINST YOU IN COURT."

The form also indicated that the defendant was forty-eight years old, had completed the ninth grade, and was interviewed between 8:38 p.m. and 8:45 p.m.

Detective Favaron and IPSO Detective Jose Anderson then began recording an interview with the defendant using a tape recorder. The defendant was advised of his Miranda rights and was asked to put his initials in "the yes box[.]" Detective Favaron stated, "Having been read these rights, you want to talk to us?" The defendant replied, "No." Detective Favaron asked, "You don't want to talk to us?" The defendant replied, "No." Detective Favaron told the defendant to initial "the no box." Detective Favaron questioned the defendant concerning whether or not he was taking any medications and whether or not he had been drinking. The defendant indicated he had drunk "a little VO and about two beers" at approximately 5:30 p.m. or 6:00 p.m. Detective Favaron testified the defendant appeared coherent and not drunk. Thereafter, the following exchange occurred:

[Detective]: Okay. Why did you turn yourself in?
[Defendant]: Why run?
[Detective]: Run from what sir?
[Defendant]: Why run from anything that you have done you be a man and stand up for whatever you done done. Or whatever didn't happen.
[Detective]: What did you do?
[Defendant]: I don't know. Tell me.
*44 [Detective]: No, what you think you done?
[Defendant]: I don't know what I done, tell me. I need to know what I did `cause right now I don't know what I done. I'm being honest with you. If you think I'm lying, I swear I don't what—
[Detective]: What's your wife's first name?
[Defendant]: Cynthia.
[Detective]: How long have you been married?
[Defendant]: Huh?
[Detective]: How long you've been married?
[Defendant]: About seven years.
[Detective]: Do you know that she's dead?
[Defendant]: She's dead?
[Detective]: Let me ask you something: [y]ou say initially you wasn't going to talk to us. You want to talk to us and tell us what happened? What you know happened?
[Defendant]: All I know she came to my house.
[Detective]: Hold on, hold on, you gonna talk to us?
[Defendant]: No, this off the record.
[Detective]: Okay, that's fine. Okay, okay. That's off the record, okay. That's fine.

The defendant then stated that although he and the victim had been separated for three and one-half months, and she was living with another man, she still complained about the defendant having friends over to his house, and "today she came in with a lot of crap and that was it. Just couldn't take no more." The defendant claimed he scuffled with the victim after she took a knife from his kitchen drawer and hit him with her hand. He claimed he had to defend himself from the victim because she was bigger than he was, and so he hit her in the head with a pipe four or five times. None of the victim's injuries were consistent with her being struck with a blunt object, such as a pipe. He claimed he took the knife away from the victim while they wrestled, stabbed her with the knife a number of times, and left in the victim's truck. The defendant claimed he did not intend to kill the victim. The knife used to kill the victim was never recovered.

Doris Jones, the defendant's sister, testified that the defendant called her to his place of employment on July 17, 2006. When Jones arrived, she saw the defendant with one of her other brothers. Jones claimed that the defendant was upset and crying. He claimed he did not know what had happened to his wife. Jones also stated, however, that the defendant "knew he stabbed [the victim]." Jones indicated that the defendant claimed that the victim came to "the house," "they got into it, [the victim] grabbed the knife and they wrestled for it[,]" and the victim tried to stab the defendant.

MOTION TO SUPPRESS

In the first assignment of error, the defendant argues the totality of the circumstances surrounding the interrogation reveal that he did not have a full awareness of the right to remain silent being abandoned or the consequences of the decision to abandon the right.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
991 So. 2d 40, 2008 WL 1930158, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-hebert-lactapp-2008.