State v. Howard

746 So. 2d 49, 1999 WL 624362
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedAugust 18, 1999
Docket31,807-KA
StatusPublished
Cited by35 cases

This text of 746 So. 2d 49 (State v. Howard) 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. Howard, 746 So. 2d 49, 1999 WL 624362 (La. Ct. App. 1999).

Opinion

746 So.2d 49 (1999)

STATE of Louisiana, Appellee,
v.
Darryl HOWARD, Appellant.

No. 31,807-KA.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Second Circuit.

August 18, 1999.
Rehearing Denied September 16, 1999.

*51 Wilson Rambo, Monroe, Counsel for Appellant.

Richard P. Ieyoub, Attorney General, Don M. Burkett, District Attorney, Counsel for Appellee.

Before NORRIS, WILLIAMS and STEWART, JJ.

WILLIAMS, Judge.

The defendant, Darryl Howard, was indicted by a grand jury for aggravated rape, a violation of LSA-R.S. 14:42, second degree kidnapping, a violation of LSA-R.S. *52 14:44.1 and aggravated burglary, a violation of LSA-R.S. 14:60. After a jury trial, the defendant was found guilty as charged. He was sentenced to serve life imprisonment at hard labor without benefit of parole, probation or suspension of sentence for aggravated rape, 40 years imprisonment at hard labor without benefit of parole, probation, or suspension of sentence for second degree kidnapping, and 20 years imprisonment at hard labor for aggravated burglary. The trial court ordered the sentences for aggravated rape and aggravated burglary to run concurrently and the sentence for second degree kidnapping to run consecutively to those sentences.

The defendant appeals the sentences and the aggravated rape conviction. For the following reasons, we affirm the defendant's convictions and sentences.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

On October 14, 1996, at approximately 10:00 a.m., the defendant, Darryl Howard, went to the residence of the victim, Brandy Marter, located in Mansfield, Louisiana, and inquired about a person unknown to the victim. According to Mrs. Marter, she advised him to inquire at her neighbor's house about the person and directed him to that residence. Shortly thereafter, the defendant returned to Mrs. Marter's residence and asked to use her telephone. She testified that she directed him to wait outside while she got the telephone for him. As she went to retrieve the cordless telephone, the defendant entered the residence and proceeded to hold her down, undress her and rape her. At the time of these offenses, the victim was seven months pregnant.

After the rape, the defendant demanded money from the victim and led her to her purse. After defendant determined that the victim did not have any money, he put her sweat pants on her and used duct tape to cover her mouth and to tape her hands behind her back. The defendant led the victim outside and put her into the trunk of his car clad only in her sweat pants. He then drove to a remote, wooded area located between Mansfield and Evelyn, Louisiana. The defendant took the victim from the trunk of the car and led her to a pile of logs where he placed logs across her stomach and used duct tape to tape her to legs to a log. The defendant then drove away.

After freeing herself, the victim covered her body with a piece of discarded carpet and walked to the roadway where she was discovered by two passersby. The victim was taken to her husband's place of employment and the police were summoned. The victim provided a physical description of the defendant, his clothing, the car he was driving and the contents of its trunk. Approximately one hour later, the defendant was apprehended about seven-tenths of a mile from the wooded area where he had left his victim. The car that he was driving at the time of his arrest, the contents of the trunk and his clothing matched the victim's description of the assailant and his vehicle.

On October 15, 1996, Brandy Marter went to the DeSoto Parish Sheriff's Office to examine photographs in order to identify her assailant. She examined a photographic lineup but failed to positively identify the defendant. However, she eliminated everyone in the lineup except the defendant as her assailant. The photographs used in the lineup were computer generated and the victim testified that, because of the quality of the photographs, she could not positively identify the defendant as her assailant. Afterwards, she viewed a live lineup where she also eliminated everyone except the defendant. However, she testified that "there was something different about one of his eyes," and therefore, she could not be sure that he was her assailant. Ultimately, the victim was shown a picture of the defendant in handcuffs that was taken shortly after he was arrested while he sat in the back of the police car. She then *53 positively identified the defendant as her assailant.

The defendant filed motions to suppress evidence and the photographic identification. The trial court granted the motion to suppress the single photograph of the defendant taken shortly after the rape. However, the court ruled that it would not suppress the identification of the defendant at trial if the victim could identify the defendant. The trial court denied the defendant's motion to suppress his confession.

After a jury trial, the defendant was found guilty of aggravated rape, second degree kidnaping, and aggravated burglary. The defendant appeals.

DISCUSSION

Assignment of Error No. 1

The defendant contends that there is insufficient evidence to support a conviction of aggravated rape. He argues that the evidence only supports a conviction of forcible rape because the state did not prove that the seven-months pregnant victim resisted to the utmost or was prevented from resisting the rape by threats of great bodily harm.

The question of sufficiency of evidence is properly raised by a motion for post-verdict judgment of acquittal. La. C.Cr.P. art. 821; State v. Edwards, 25,963 (La.App.2d Cir.5/4/94), 637 So.2d 600. The defendant failed to file such a motion; however, this court will review sufficiency of evidence when raised by formal assignment of error.

Under Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979), the proper standard of appellate review for a sufficiency of evidence claim is whether, after viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime proven beyond a reasonable doubt. State v. Bellamy, 599 So.2d 326 (La.App. 2d Cir.), writ denied, 605 So.2d 1089 (La.1992).

LSA-R.S. 14:42 provides, in pertinent part:

A. Aggravated rape is a rape committed... where anal or vaginal sexual intercourse is deemed to be without lawful consent ... because it is committed under any of the following circumstances:
1) When the victim resists the act to the utmost, but whose resistance is overcome by force.
2) When the victim is prevented from resisting the act by threats of great and immediate bodily harm, accompanied by apparent power of execution.
3) When the victim is prevented from resisting the act because the offender is armed with a dangerous weapon.
D. (1) Whoever commits the crime of aggravated rape shall be punished by life imprisonment at hard labor without benefit of parole, probation, or suspension of sentence.

LSA-R.S. 14:42.1 defines forcible rape as:

A. Forcible rape is a rape committed when the anal or vaginal sexual intercourse is deemed to be without the lawful consent of the victim because it is committed under any one or more of the following circumstances:

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Bluebook (online)
746 So. 2d 49, 1999 WL 624362, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-howard-lactapp-1999.