State v. Heins

245 So. 3d 1165
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJanuary 10, 2018
DocketNo. 51,763–KA
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 245 So. 3d 1165 (State v. Heins) 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. Heins, 245 So. 3d 1165 (La. Ct. App. 2018).

Opinion

MOORE, J.

Ashley Nicole Heins pled guilty as charged to vehicular homicide and received a sentence of 25 years at hard labor, including three years without benefits. She now appeals her sentence as excessive. We find no excessiveness, but vacate and remand the sentence for compliance with La. R.S. 14:32.1B.

Shortly after 3:00 pm on August 18, 2015, Heins was driving a 2003 Kia Optima north in the inside southbound lane of Linwood Avenue in Shreveport. Near the intersection with West 83rd Street, she collided head-on with a Suzuki motorcycle that was riding south, properly in the inside southbound lane of Linwood. Police responded to this major crash and found the cyclist, 55-year-old Franklin Jacobs, lying on the ground, unconscious and with massive injuries. He was taken to University Health, where doctors were unable to restore his consciousness; several days later, his family took him off life support.

Heins told an officer at the scene that she did not know what happened: "the motorcycle came out of nowhere and appeared in front of" her car. She also said she was on her way to rehab, and had taken four Klonopin, a tranquilizer; the officer felt that her condition contributed to the accident. (He also found that Heins had no insurance or valid driver's license, and that the Kia had switched tags.) A police corporal officer gave her her Miranda rights, and she admitted having taken Klonopin, Latuda (an antipsychotic) and Flexeril (a muscle relaxer); she repeatedly fell asleep in the patrol car, while talking to officers, and while submitting to a blood test. Officers later talked to witnesses who had seen Heins driving erratically just before this accident-swerving around an 18-wheeler on the Inner Loop and striking a cement guardrail on Linwood.

Heins's toxicology report was positive not only for Klonopin and Flexeril, but for benzodiazepines and Xanax (minor tranquilizers), Tramadol (an opioid pain medication) and Buprenorphine (a drug for treating opioid addiction), all Schedule III CDS.

*1167The state charged Heins by bill of information with vehicular homicide, La. R.S. 14:32.1A(3). She initially pled not guilty, but on March 2, 2016, she appeared before the district court, withdrew her prior plea and pled guilty as charged. There was no agreement as to sentence.

At the hearing, Heins testified that she was 36 years old, had completed 11th grade, had discussed the charge with her attorney, and understood the nature of the proceeding. The court advised her of her Boykin rights, and the prosecutor gave a brief statement of facts, which Heins confirmed as true. The court accepted the guilty plea and ordered a presentence investigation report ("PSI").

At sentencing, in January 2017, the court acknowledged letters from the victim's family members asking that Heins receive the maximum sentence. Heins apologized to family members who were present in the courtroom. The court noted Heins's criminal history, disclosed in the PSI, with prior convictions for hit-and-run, drug offenses and DWI. The court recognized Heins's expression of remorse, but found that she acted under the influence of narcotics and the crime was serious. The court sentenced her to 25 years at hard labor, with three years without benefit of parole, probation or suspension of sentence, and concurrent with any other sentence she may be serving.

Heins filed a motion to reconsider sentence, urging the court to consider her history of addiction, which is recognized as an illness by DSM-5, and the fact that she was seeking help, actually driving to rehab at the time of the accident. She asked the court to impose a lesser sentence, and one that included drug rehab. The court denied the motion; this appeal followed.

By one assignment of error, Heins urges her 25-year sentence is excessive in that the district court failed to consider her addiction to prescription drugs as a mitigating factor to sentencing. She shows that she had prescriptions for most of the drugs in her system (Klonopin, Xanax, Tramadol ), and there was no indication that she obtained any of these illegally. She reiterates that substance abuse disorder is recognized as an illness by DSM-5, she was on her way to treatment at the time of the offense, and she should not be doubly punished for her effort to drive herself to treatment. She submits that she is not a "worst offender." Finally, she urges that the entire nation is swept up in a search for noncriminal solutions to the opioid and prescription drug epidemic, and in this environment it makes no sense to disregard her addiction as a mitigating factor.

As it applies to this case, vehicular homicide is the killing of a human being caused directly by an offender engaged in the operation of a motor vehicle when the operator was under the influence of any CDS listed as a schedule drug in R.S. 40:964. La. R.S. 14:32.1A(3). The penalty for conviction of vehicular homicide is a fine of $2,000 to $15,000, and imprisonment, with or without hard labor, for 5 to 30 years, with at least three years of the imprisonment to be served without benefit of probation, parole or suspension of sentence. La. R.S. 14:32.1B. For an offender with a prior DWI conviction, at least five years of the imprisonment must be without benefits; also, the court must order any offender to participate in a court-approved substance abuse program. Id.

Appellate review of sentences for excessiveness is a two-pronged inquiry. First, the record must show that the court complied with La. C. Cr. P. art. 894.1. The court need not list every aggravating or mitigating factor so long as the record reflects that it adequately considered the guidelines. State v. Marshall , 94-0461 (La. 9/5/95), 660 So.2d 819. When the record *1168shows an adequate factual basis for the sentence imposed, remand is unnecessary even in the absence of full compliance with the article. State v. Lobato , 603 So.2d 739 (La. 1992). No sentencing factor is accorded greater weight by statute than any other factor. State v. Taves , 2003-0518 (La. 12/3/03), 861 So.2d 144.

The second prong is constitutional excessiveness. A sentence violates La. Const. art. 1, § 20, if it is grossly out of proportion to the seriousness of the offense or nothing more than a purposeless and needless imposition of pain and suffering. State v. Dorthey , 623 So.2d 1276 (La. 1993). A sentence is deemed grossly disproportionate if, when the crime and punishment are viewed in light of the harm done to society, it shocks the sense of justice or makes no reasonable contribution to acceptable penal goals. State v. Guzman , 99-1753 (La. 5/16/00), 769 So.2d 1158.

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Bluebook (online)
245 So. 3d 1165, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-heins-lactapp-2018.