State v. Henson

882 So. 2d 670, 2004 WL 2101807
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedSeptember 22, 2004
Docket38,820-KA
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 882 So. 2d 670 (State v. Henson) 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. Henson, 882 So. 2d 670, 2004 WL 2101807 (La. Ct. App. 2004).

Opinion

882 So.2d 670 (2004)

STATE of Louisiana, Appellee
v.
Robert Charles HENSON, Appellant.

No. 38,820-KA.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Second Circuit.

September 22, 2004.

Carey J. Ellis, III, Louisiana Appellate Project, for Appellant.

John Schuyler Marvin, District Attorney, Carl Ekendahl and John M. Lawrence, Assistant District Attorneys, for Appellee.

Before GASKINS, PEATROSS and DREW, JJ.

GASKINS, J.

The defendant, Robert Charles Henson, appeals his conviction for aggravated battery, claiming that the evidence presented is insufficient to support his conviction. For the following reasons, we affirm.

FACTS

The defendant met Rhonda Buford in March 2001 when they were both undergoing treatment at a drug rehabilitation center. In August 2001, they had been living together at the Siesta Motel in Bossier City for about three weeks.

*671 On the evening of August 5, 2001, Buford arrived at the motel around 5:00 p.m., after working at a Shreveport restaurant. Buford ate dinner with her minor daughter and the defendant. Then Buford and the defendant drank and smoked crack cocaine. Around 11:00 p.m., the defendant gave Buford $10 and sent her out to buy more crack. Buford stated that she purchased a rock of crack, but then went to a friend's house where she continued to drink and she smoked the cocaine. While she was gone, the defendant called the father of Buford's daughter to come and get the child.

When Buford arrived at the motel room between 2:00 a.m. and 3:00 a.m. on August 6, 2001, the defendant became angry that she returned without the drugs or the money. According to Buford, the defendant threatened to kill her. In the ensuing struggle, he stabbed her in the leg with a steak knife. He then held her down while she bled profusely and refused to allow her to seek medical attention.

The next morning, he arranged to go with her to the Schumpert Hospital emergency room, but first they stopped by the Shreveport restaurant where she worked to pick up Buford's pay check. The check was not available at that time. The defendant went back to get it while Buford was treated at the hospital.

At the emergency room, Buford was treated for a cut on her right thigh which was three to four inches deep and approximately eight inches long. She told Dr. James Nichols, the emergency room physician, that she received the wound at a party.

The wound became infected and Buford went back to the emergency room twice during the week. On Friday, Buford told Dr. Nichols that the defendant stabbed her during an altercation. Because the alleged offense occurred in Bossier City, hospital personnel summoned the Bossier City Police.

The defendant was arrested at the hospital. He signed a form granting consent to search the motel room. Blood was found on the mattress, sheets, and clothing in the room. Police also discovered a steak knife which appeared to have blood on the blade. The defendant was charged with aggravated second degree battery.

The defendant was tried by a six-person jury on March 19, 2002. Buford testified at trial that she is a crack addict and met the defendant in a drug rehabilitation center. They began living together within several months. Buford stated that on the evening of this incident, she and the defendant were drinking and smoking crack. She went out to purchase more crack, but smoked it with friends before she returned to the motel.

When she arrived at the motel, Buford testified that the defendant was angry because she did not have either the crack or the money. She claimed that he hit her. She ran into the bathroom where she put her back against the door and her feet against the toilet. She said he was "ranting and raving that he's going to kill" her and he pushed on the door so hard that the commode broke.

Buford further testified that after the defendant broke into the bathroom, he dragged her out and continued to threaten to kill her. He accused her of prostitution. He picked up a knife from a dresser and while she was trying to push away from him, he aimed at her chest with the knife. She put up her legs and was stabbed in the top part of her right thigh.

She said she could feel the blood under her and that she got blood on some sheets and the mattress. She testified that the defendant dropped the knife and she put it under the bed.

*672 Buford said that she begged the defendant to call 911, but instead he sat on top of her for about 45 minutes. He then got out a Bible and told her that she was evil and had caused him to do this to her. She continued to beg him to call 911 or someone to get her to a hospital. She claims that he told her he would rather she lay there and die because he would be in jail before the day was out. The defendant eventually called a friend, but that person said he did not have money for gasoline. The defendant allowed Buford to wrap a sheet around her leg. The defendant lay through the night with his leg around her so he would know if she got up to leave or call anyone.

Buford said that she finally dozed off and that the next morning the defendant got her up. They were up, dressed, and ready to leave the motel at 8:00 a.m. She said he called his cousin to take them to pick up her pay check since the rent was due. That cousin took them to the Shreveport restaurant where she worked and left them there. Because her check was not ready, the defendant called another cousin, Dwayne Hardy, to drive them to Schumpert Hospital.

Buford testified that Dr. Nichols treated her that day and that when asked how the injury happened, she told him she was at a party in Shreveport and "someone" stabbed her. Since she had waited so long to seek treatment, she said the wound could not be sewn. She was given a prescription for antibiotics. She claimed that the defendant would not allow her to fill the prescription.

Buford said she came back to the emergency room two days later and the wound "was infected real bad by Wednesday." She was treated by a different doctor. By Friday, her leg was worse so she returned to the emergency room and was seen by Dr. Nichols again. She said she told him "exactly what had happened that Monday" and asked for help in getting away from the defendant.

Since the incident occurred in Bossier City, officers from the Bossier Police Department were alerted. Buford testified that she had given a statement to the police, but that she subsequently changed her story so the defendant "wouldn't have to go and do any jail time."

On cross-examination it was shown that she had written to the defendant indicating that the knife wound was the result of an accident where she had picked up the weapon and "he grabbed the knife and fell" onto her.

Buford was also questioned about the information she had furnished the defense which was fashioned into a written statement. Buford said that she went to defense counsel's office, but she refused to sign an affidavit declaring that the defendant accidentally stabbed her. Buford stated that members of the defendant's family contacted her frequently seeking to have her drop the charges against him.

Buford acknowledged that she had given the defendant money and visited him while he was in jail. She claimed to have ceased these activities in November 2001. Buford said that at the time she wrote the letter to the defendant stating that her injury was accidental, the defendant had total control over her and he and his family influenced her to write the letter.

The state called Dr. Nichols who testified that he initially treated Buford for a deep laceration on the inner portion of her right thigh.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
882 So. 2d 670, 2004 WL 2101807, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-henson-lactapp-2004.