State v. Jackson

527 So. 2d 1039, 1988 WL 60134
Louisiana Court of Appeal·Decided June 7, 1988·No. 88-KA-80·Published·Cited by 14 cases

Opinion

527 So.2d 1039 (1988)

STATE of Louisiana
v.
Randolph JACKSON.

No. 88-KA-80.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Fifth Circuit.

June 7, 1988.

*1040 Gaynell Williams, Asst. Dist. Atty., Gretna, for plaintiff/appellee.

Martha E. Sassone, Gretna, for defendant/appellant.

Before GRISBAUM, DUFRESNE and GOTHARD, JJ.

*1041 GOTHARD, Judge.

Randolph Jackson appeals his conviction and sentence for violation of LSA-R.S. 14:64, armed robbery. Jackson was charged by bill of information on April 22, 1985 with two counts of armed robbery which he allegedly perpetrated on November 29, 1984. He pled not guilty, and a jury trial was held on October 28 and 30, 1985, at the opening of which one count was dismissed. On a vote of ten to two the jury found the defendant guilty as charged on the remaining count.

On November 21, the defendant's motion for post-judgment verdict of acquittal and alternate motion for new trial were denied. On December 5, 1985, pursuant to R.S. 15:529.1, Jackson was sentenced as a second offender to thirty-three years at hard labor without benefit of parole, probation, or suspension of sentence. On October 14, 1987, the defendant's motion for out-of-time appeal was granted.

Assignments of Error:

1. The trial court erred in denying defendant's Motion for Post Verdict Judgment of Acquittal which motion was based on the grounds that the evidence was insufficient to justify the verdict.

2. The trial court erred in denying defendant's Motion for a New Trial, which motion was based on the grounds that the Court erred in not granting defendant's request for a mistrial when the State used photographs, not in evidence, in its closing arguments.

3. The trial court erred in denying defendant's Motion for a Special Charge to the jury.

4. The trial court erred in not properly advising the defendant of his rights prior to his being sentenced under the multiple offender statute.

5. The trial court erred in sentencing appellant to an excessive sentence.

6. Any and all errors patent on the face of the record.

Facts:

On November 29, 1984, Jim Wilson was working as night clerk in a Time Saver store in Jefferson Parish. His account of the robbery for which the defendant was convicted is as follows. At around midnight Wilson and the assistant manager, referred to only as "Joe", were behind the counter counting petty cash and making up a bank deposit in preparation for exchanging shifts. Three black people[1] entered the store and began going around in the store. Wilson felt something was wrong, left Joe behind the counter, and walked out into the aisle. The persons then left, but returned fifteen minutes later, two of them holding guns. One screamed, "Don't touch anything, this is a robbery." "They" told Wilson if he moved they would kill him. When they saw Joe they told him to get on the floor and cover his eyes. Wilson recounted that:

They told me to open up the cash register and another one was saying get on the floor, and I was confused and I didn't know what to do, I was afraid for my own life. So, I finally hit the cash button and then I immediately got to the floor.
. . . . .
At that point, one of them, I don't know which one put a gun to my head and told me if I moved, he told me, I remember quite well, he said, "If you move m ... f ..., I will blow your brains out."

He did not close his eyes entirely and watched one of the robbers take the money from the safe and cash register. Wilson identified Randolph Jackson in a photographic lineup and again at trial.

The defendant's alibi is that he spent the entire evening with his niece, Lillian Stevenson, and her boyfriend, Stephen Lewis, in a New Orleans lounge. Both persons testified that the defendant did not leave the lounge from 10:00 p.m. until 4:00 a.m.

*1042 Assignment of Error Number 1

The defendant asserts that the evidence was insufficient to justify the jury verdict, and the judge erred in denying the defendant's motion for post-verdict judgment of acquittal.

In assessing the sufficiency of evidence, the due process standard as stated in Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979) requires that the reviewing court determine whether, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact could have found the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. State v. Rosiere, 488 So.2d 965 (La.1986). The Jackson v. Virginia standard has been codified in Louisiana by C.Cr.P. art. 821. Jackson v. Virginia specifically requires the state to present evidence which negates the possibility of a misidentification. State v. Davis, 409 So.2d 268 (La.1982).

The crime of which Randolph Jackson was convicted is armed robbery, which is defined in LSA-R.S. 14:64 as, "the taking of anything of value belonging to another from the person of another or that is in the immediate control of another, by use of force or intimidation, while armed with a dangerous weapon."

The defendant attacks the identification by Wilson on several grounds. He asserts that it would have been impossible for Wilson to view the perpetrator long enough in the first exposure. Considering Wilson's testimony that he was suspicious of the three people as soon as they came in and moved closer to them to see whether they were shoplifting, we conclude that he got a good view of the defendant at that time. The fact that he could not see the persons' faces later when he was lying on the floor does not negate his having recognized them immediately when they reentered the store only fifteen minutes later. Nearly a year later at trial Wilson positively identified Jackson and testified that he had no doubt at all that the defendant was the same man.

The defendant asserts that the photographic line-up identification was invalid as being suggestive, because Wilson was aware that a suspect's picture was in it. Officer Danny LeBlanc testified that he told Wilson that he "needed him to view some photographs of the incident that had occurred, possibly the perpetrator." Such a statement does not, in itself, constitute suggestiveness, as it is assumed that when a person is asked to view a lineup, a suspect will be included. State v. Knight, 323 So.2d 765 (La.1975); State v. Boutte, 447 So.2d 1229 (La.App. 5th Cir.1984). There being no other complaint about the line-up and as the victim immediately picked out Jackson's picture, we find no problem with the identification.

The testimony of Lillian Stevenson and Stephen Louis as to Jackson's spending the evening with them on the night of the robbery was apparently not believed by the jury. A discrepancy between the accounts of the two witnesses casts doubt on the truth of the alibi. Ms. Stevenson stated that she did not go to work the morning after she had returned home at 4:00 a.m. with Louis and Jackson, because she had a day off, while Louis testified that they talked an hour and a half or two and then she went to work. We note further that Ms. Stevenson testified that the three had not gone out together since. As the credibility of witnesses falls within the discretion of the jury, its verdict will not be disturbed unless it is clearly contrary to the evidence. State v. Richardson, 425 So.2d 1228 (La.1983).

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State v. Jackson, 527 So. 2d 1039, 1988 WL 60134 (La. Ct. App. 1988).

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