State v. Holliday

623 So. 2d 127, 1993 La. App. LEXIS 2555, 1993 WL 254375
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJuly 2, 1993
DocketNo. 92 KA 1487
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 623 So. 2d 127 (State v. Holliday) 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. Holliday, 623 So. 2d 127, 1993 La. App. LEXIS 2555, 1993 WL 254375 (La. Ct. App. 1993).

Opinion

LeBLANC, Judge.

Defendant, Milton Holliday, Sr., was charged by grand jury indictment with two counts of first degree murder, in violation of La.R.S. 14:30. He pled not guilty and, after a jury trial, was found guilty as charged. Defendant was sentenced to a term of life imprisonment at hard labor, without benefit of parole, probation or suspension of sentence, on each count, the sentences to run concurrently. Defendant appeals, urging one assignment of error.

FACTS

On July 21,1991, defendant shot and killed two brothers, Kenner and Donald Johnson. The following facts were revealed at trial. Carolyn Taylor, defendant’s girlfriend, is a waitress at the Sip and Bite Grocery and Lounge in Baton Rouge. On the evening of July 21, 1991, Ms. Taylor had finished her shift and was dancing with her sister, Deborah Peterson, when she felt Kenner Johnson kick her. Ms. Taylor testified that Kenner Johnson kicked her twice; she ignored it the first time but, after the second time, she pushed him and he called her a bitch. Ms. Taylor stated that she did not serve the brothers drinks because she thought they were too drunk already. Leonard R. Douglas, owner of the Sip and Bite Grocery and Lounge, testified that when Ms. Taylor told him she had been kicked, he asked the brothers to leave, which they did. He testified that a few minutes later he heard shots and someone told him the brothers had been shot.

[129]*129Leangela January, Ms. Taylor’s niece, testified that she was at the lounge that night and danced with Donald Johnson. After the kicking incident, Leangela went to find defendant and told him that her aunt, his girlfriend, had been kicked. She and defendant walked outside where defendant asked her which one had kicked Ms. Taylor. Leangela replied that the one in the baseball suit had done it. Kenner Johnson was coaxing Donald home, telling everyone that he was drunk. Donald Johnson called Ms. Taylor a bitch, and defendant pulled out a gun and shot him. Kenner Johnson started to run; and defendant shot him, too. Defendant then emptied his gun into Donald Johnson, who was already shot, threw a beer bottle at him and said, “Now, who’s the bitch?” Defendant then walked away quickly.

ASSIGNMENT OF ERROR NUMBER ONE

In his only assignment of error, defendant contends that the verdicts were contrary to the law and the evidence. Specifically, in his brief, defendant alleges that the verdicts should have been manslaughter because the two victims abused his girlfriend, causing him to lose his self-control and cool reflection.

Although defendant does not label this assignment of error as such, his argument relates to insufficiency of the evidence. We note that, in order to challenge a conviction on the basis of insufficiency of the evidence, defendant should have proceeded by way of a motion for post-verdict judgment of acquittal. See, La.C.Cr.P. art. 821; State v. Ross, 572 So.2d 238, 242 (La.App. 1st Cir.1990). Nevertheless, we will consider a claim of insufficiency of the evidence which has been briefed pursuant to a formal assignment of error.

In reviewing the sufficiency of the evidence to support a conviction, an appellate court in Louisiana is controlled by the standard enunciated by the United States Supreme Court in Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979). That standard, adopted by the Legislature in enacting La.C.Cr.P. art. 821 (which pertains to post-verdict motions for acquittal based on insufficiency of evidence), is that the evidence, viewed in the light most favorable to the prosecution, was sufficient to convince a rational trier of fact that all of the elements of the crime had been proved beyond a reasonable doubt. State v. Price, 498 So.2d 244, 247 (La.App. 1st Cir.1986), writ denied, 503 So.2d 474 (1987).

First degree murder is the killing of a human being when the offender has a specific intent to kill or inflict great bodily harm upon more than one person. La.R.S. 14:30 A(3). Specific intent is defined as the state of mind which exists when the circumstances indicate that the offender actively desired the prescribed criminal consequences to follow his act or failure to act. La.R.S. 14:10(1). Specific intent is a legal conclusion to be resolved ultimately by the trier of fact. State v. Washington, 484 So.2d 946, 950-951 (La.App. 1st Cir.1986). Since specific intent is a state of mind, it need not be proved as a fact, but may be inferred from the circumstances present and the actions of the defendant. State v. Price, 498 So.2d at 247.

When circumstantial evidence is used to prove the commission of the offense, La.R.S. 15:438 mandates that, “assuming every fact to be proved that the evidence tends to prove, in order to convict, it must exclude every reasonable hypothesis of innocence.” This standard is not a purely separate one from the Jackson sufficiency standard to be applied instead of a sufficiency of the evidence test whenever circumstantial evidence forms the basis of the conviction. Ultimately, all evidence, both direct and circumstantial, must be sufficient under Jackson to satisfy a rational juror that the defendant is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

From the evidence presented at trial, we find that a rational juror could have inferred that defendant possessed the specific intent to kill. Both Leangela January and her sister, Crystal Lewis, testified that defendant pulled out a gun, shot Donald Johnson at close range, shot Kenner Johnson as he ran away, and then emptied the gun by again shooting Donald Johnson. Dr. Alfredo Suarez, Deputy Coroner for East Baton Rouge Parish, testified that Kenner Johnson [130]*130died from two gunshot wounds which caused him to bleed to death. Dr. Suarez further testified that Donald Johnson died from a gunshot wound to the head which caused a brain hemorrhage. Under these circumstances, it could reasonably be inferred from the fact that defendant shot both victims more than once that he actively desired their deaths to follow his acts. See, State v. Boyer, 406 So.2d 143, 150 (La.1981).

Defendant argues that he should not have been convicted of first degree murder but, rather, he should have been convicted of the lesser included offense of manslaughter. At trial, the crux of defendant’s testimony was that he shot the Johnson brothers in self-defense. In brief, defendant further argues that the verdicts should have been manslaughter because the attack on his girlfriend was provocation which deprived him of his self-control and cool reflection. La.R.S. 14:31 provides, in pertinent part:

Manslaughter is:

A homicide which would be murder under either Article 30 (first degree murder) or Article 30.1 (second degree murder), but the offense is committed in sudden passion or heat of blood immediately caused by provocation sufficient to deprive an average person of his self[-]control and cool reflection. Provocation shall not reduce a homicide to manslaughter if the jury finds that the offender’s blood had actually cooled, or that an average person’s blood would have cooled, at the time the offense was committed ...

Having found the elements of first degree murder, the jury then had to determine whether or not the circumstances indicated that the crime was actually manslaughter.

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Bluebook (online)
623 So. 2d 127, 1993 La. App. LEXIS 2555, 1993 WL 254375, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-holliday-lactapp-1993.