State v. Hines

829 So. 2d 530, 2002 WL 31162989
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedSeptember 30, 2002
Docket02-KA-397
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 829 So. 2d 530 (State v. Hines) 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. Hines, 829 So. 2d 530, 2002 WL 31162989 (La. Ct. App. 2002).

Opinion

829 So.2d 530 (2002)

STATE of Louisiana
v.
Stacey HINES.

No. 02-KA-397.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Fifth Circuit.

September 30, 2002.

*531 Bertha M. Hillman, Louisiana Appellate Project, Thibodaux, LA, for defendant-appellant, Stacey Hines.

Paul D. Connick, Jr., District Attorney, Terry M. Boudreaux, Alison Wallis, (Appellate counsel), Assistant District Attorneys, Gretna, LA, for plaintiff-appellee, the State of Louisiana.

Panel composed of Judges SOL GOTHARD, MARION F. EDWARDS and SUSAN M. CHEHARDY.

SUSAN M. CHEHARDY, Judge.

Stacey Hines appeals her conviction by a jury of attempted possession with intent to distribute marijuana. She contends that there was insufficient evidence to support the conviction and that the trial court erred in allowing the introduction of the Boykin transcript and minute entry of a co-defendant's aborted plea proceeding. We affirm the conviction, but remand with an order for correction of certain clerical errors.

On July 10, 2001 Stacey Hines and five others (Leviticus Floyd, Kioca Hines, Michelle Hines, Ronald L. Polk, Jr., and Darryl A. Robinson) were charged in one bill of information with violation of La.R.S. 40:966(A), possession of marijuana with intent to distribute. Stacey Hines, Leviticus Floyd and Ronald Polk were tried before a twelve-member jury on December 10 through 13, 2001. On December 13, 2001 the jury returned a responsive verdict, finding Hines and Floyd guilty of attempted possession with intent to distribute *532 marijuana and finding Polk guilty of attempted possession of marijuana.

On January 16, 2002 the district attorney filed a bill of information charging Stacey Hines with being a second-felony offender under the Habitual Offender Law, La.R.S. 15:529.1, to which she pleaded guilty.[1] Under the multiple offender conviction the defendant was sentenced to seven years, six months at hard labor in the custody of the Department of Corrections, with credit for time served.

FACTS

The testimony at trial established the following facts:

On June 11, 2001, at approximately 8:11 p.m., officers of the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office executed a search warrant on Stacey Hines' apartment in Harvey. Narcotics Agents Jeff Heggelund, Bruce Harrison, and Anthony Synigal described the events.

Agent Heggelund testified that the officers knocked on the apartment door but received no response. They discovered the door was not locked, whereupon the officers entered the apartment, yelling, "Police, search warrant." As they entered Heggelund noticed there was a sectional sofa in the living room with a number of people sitting on it and there was a juvenile female sitting on a chair. One of the occupants, whom Heggelund identified at trial as Leviticus Floyd, stood up and ran up the stairwell. The other people remained downstairs. Heggelund followed Agent Harrison upstairs in pursuit of Floyd.

Heggelund said the main activity when the officers arrived appeared to be an assembly line for packaging marijuana for resale. He said they did not arrest the juvenile female because she was sitting separated from the main activity. Heggelund was unsure which position on the sofa Stacey Hines occupied when they entered.

Heggelund identified, as evidence seized at the scene, numerous plastic bags the officers found on the sofa. He explained that the reason for the plastic bags is to package marijuana or other types of drugs. He said distributors usually cut off the corners of ordinary sandwich bags to make small bags to hold marijuana, because the cut-off corners are the right size for the amount of marijuana to be sold. Once the marijuana is placed inside, the cut-off corners are rolled and their ends tied together to make little packages. He said that when police entered the apartment, it appeared the occupants were cutting corners off of sandwich bags and packaging small amounts of marijuana into those bags from a larger bag of marijuana. They found the plastic bags stuffed a little down into a corner of the curve of the sectional sofa.

Heggelund also identified the larger bag from which he said the occupants were taking marijuana to place into the smaller bags, as well as 18 small bags of marijuana (packaged in cut-off corners) that had been placed in a sandwich bag. According to Heggelund, the cost of the small packages of marijuana is five to ten dollars, depending on the amount that goes into the bag.

Heggelund further identified remnants of partially-smoked marijuana cigars, known as "blunts", in an ashtray atop the sofa, a blunt found on the floor, and a digital scale, which he said is used to measure larger quantifies of drugs, such as the marijuana in this case. He said the scale *533 was found inside a breadbox in the kitchen.

Heggelund said the officers found money in two places in the apartment, $85.00 in cash seized from the floor in the living room and $246.00 in cash found in an upstairs bedroom drawer. He stated that when police seize cash in a drug raid, they are looking for denominations of currency that would indicate proceeds of sales of the drugs, in this case five- and ten-dollar bills. Here, the $85.00 consisted of four twenty-dollar bills and five one-dollar bills. The $246.00 was made up of five twenty-dollar bills, three ten-dollar bills, 11 five-dollar bills, and 61 one-dollar bills. Agent Heggelund believed both quantities of cash represented proceeds from drug sales.

Finally, Agent Heggelund identified photographs of the scenes showing the layout of the apartment and the seized contraband in place where it was found.

Heggelund admitted he did not know the order in which the people were sitting on the sofa, nor did he see them holding anything, putting anything down, or smoking anything. He was unable to identify what, if any, position or "job" on the "assembly line" any of the defendants had. There were no scissors seized at the scene.

Thomas Angelica, a forensic scientist with the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office, was accepted as an expert in the examination and analysis of controlled dangerous substances. He testified that the contents of the exhibits at trial tested positive for marijuana (specifically, two partially burned hand-rolled cigarette butts, one partially burned cigar, one sandwich bag containing 18 knotted clear plastic bags, and one large Ziploc bag). He stated that the total weight for the 18 bags of marijuana was 31.8 grams and the large bag of marijuana weighted 122.9 grams.

Sergeant Bruce Harrison testified that on the night of the arrests, he was working with a team consisting of Detectives Synigal and Heggelund, Sergeant Jason Renton, and Detective Dawn Gentiner. Harrison said they approached the door to the apartment and knocked. There were sounds from inside, either a television or a stereo, and he could hear talking. He knocked and announced police presence. Not getting a response, he tried the door handle and found it was unlocked. He pushed the door open and announced, "Police with a search warrant."

When Harrison got to the end of the entry hall, in the living room area, he saw Leviticus Floyd go over the sofa and hit the stairs. He noticed there were several people along the sofa and he scanned them quickly to make sure he could see their hands. Seeing no weapons or movement, he went up the stairs after Floyd. He followed Floyd through a bedroom and a bathroom into a second bedroom, where Heggelund and Renton (who had followed Harrison up the stairs) apprehended Floyd.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
829 So. 2d 530, 2002 WL 31162989, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-hines-lactapp-2002.