State v. Jackson

919 So. 2d 779, 2005 WL 3577516
Louisiana Court of Appeal·Decided December 27, 2005·No. 05-KA-527·Published·Cited by 3 cases

Opinion

919 So.2d 779 (2005)

STATE of Louisiana
v.
Ronald JACKSON.

No. 05-KA-527.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Fifth Circuit.

December 27, 2005.

*781 Paul D. Connick, Jr., District Attorney, Twenty-Fourth Judicial District, Parish of Jefferson, Terry M. Boudreaux, Anne Wallis, Vincent Paciera, Jr., Assistant District Attorneys, Gretna, Louisiana, for Plaintiff/Appellee.

Margaret S. Sollars, Attorney at Law, Louisiana Appellate Project, Thibodaux, Louisiana, for Defendant/Appellant.

Panel composed of Judges SUSAN M. CHEHARDY, CLARENCE E. McMANUS and WALTER J. ROTHSCHILD.

CLARENCE E. McMANUS Judge.

The defendant, Ronald Jackson, was charged by bill of information with ten counts of armed robbery, a violation of LSA-R.S. 14:64. After the trial court denied *782 his joint motion to suppress statements and identification, and pursuant to a plea agreement, the defendant withdrew his not guilty pleas on six counts of the indictment, and entered Crosby[1] pleas on those counts. In addition, pursuant to the plea agreement, the state nolle prossed the remaining four counts, and agreed not to multiple bill the defendant as long as he testified against two co-defendants. On the same day, the defendant was sentenced to 35 years at hard labor without benefit of probation, parole, or suspension of sentence on each count, to be served concurrently with each other and with credit for time served. In addition, the trial court ordered that the defendant's concurrent sentences, in this case, run concurrently with his sentence in Plaquemines Parish.

Thereafter, the defendant filed a timely application for post conviction relief on his Crosby plea, and the trial court granted the defendant an out-of-time appeal pursuant to State v. Counterman, 475 So.2d 336 (La.1985). See, State v. Gassenberger, 02-658, p. 3 (La.App. 5 Cir. 12/11/02), 836 So.2d 271, 273. The Crosby plea, however, served as a timely appeal. State v. Cambre, 04-1317 (La.App.5.4/26/05), 902 So.2d 473, 479, n. 7 (citation omitted).

The following was adduced at the motion to suppress hearing. Detective David Mascaro of the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office testified that after he Mirandized and completed the rights of arrestee form with the defendant, he took three taped statements from the defendant. During the first statement, the defendant asked to stop, because he was nervous. The second statement began five minutes after the first statement ended. The defendant never asked for an attorney. Detective Mascaro testified that he became aware that the defendant was addicted to heroin, at the end of the second statement, when he explained it was why he did the things he did. The defendant did not advise Detective Mascaro that he was on heroin at the time he gave the statement, nor did the defendant appear to be under the influence to the detective. The defendant did not slur his words, nor did he appear to be sleepy. Detective Mascaro testified that he did not check the defendant's arms to see if he shot up or had track marks. When asked if he had "any reason to believe that [the defendant] didn't understand anything about the procedures that were taking place, the rights that he waived, the information that he was giving you?," Detective Mascaro replied no and described the defendant as very intelligent and very cooperative.

Detective Roger Gorumba of the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office identified the photographic line-up shown to the Walgreen's employees, Dana Frazier and Mark Siegler. Detective Gorumba testified that both Walgreen's employees positively identified the defendant in the photographic lineup. He personally prepared the photographic lineup, and presented it to the two Walgreen's employees, on different occasions. He asked them to look at the lineup and tell him if they recognized anybody. He testified that he did not force, coerce, intimidate or make promises to get the Walgreen's employees to make the identifications. In addition, he did not lead them to believe that they should identify somebody in the array, nor make them believe that the perpetrator's photograph was in the photographic lineup. Detective Gorumba testified that he inadvertently made the ink mark on the photographic lineup after the identifications. He did not know how the mark was made on the photographic lineup. Detective *783 Gorumba was asked about a scratch mark on the photographic lineup. He testified that he did not know about a scratch, and did not see it when asked to look at the lineup. After defense counsel told him that he had to hold it up to the light in a certain way, Detective Gorumba testified that he could barely see the scratch mark and had no idea when it occurred, since it was the first time he saw it.

In his only allegation of error, defendant argues that the trial court erred by failing to suppress the defendant's statements and one identification gathered as the result of illegal procedures.

The state argues that the defendant has waived his rights to appeal the assigned errors on the motions to suppress, because he did not specify, in his Crosby plea, which pre-trial rulings he wanted to preserve for appellate review. The state contends that neither the defendant's motion for appeal, the transcript of the plea hearing, nor the plea form specify the rulings that the defendant wanted to preserve, which is required by Crosby.

In State v. Joseph, 03-315 (La.5/16/03), 847 So.2d 1196, the Louisiana Supreme Court discussed the appellate review available to a defendant that pleads guilty under Crosby, but does not specify which pre-trial rulings he desires to reserve for appeal.

A defendant's failure to specify which pre-trial rulings he desires to reserve for appeal as part of a guilty plea entered pursuant to State v. Crosby, 338 So.2d 584 (La.1976), may limit the scope of appellate review but should not preclude review altogether. See Crosby, 338 So.2d at 586 ("If we are not able to afford the accused their bargained-for appellate review, we must set aside the guilty pleas .... because of the non-performance of the plea bargain (or the impossibility of the state to perform it) by virtue of which the plea was obtained."); see also State v. Singleton, 614 So.2d 1242, 1243 (La.1993) ("To the extent that counsel also reserved appellate review of sentence as part of the guilty plea, denial of that review ... would jeopardize the voluntariness of those pleas."). Absent a detailed specification of which adverse pre-trial rulings the defendant reserved for appellate review as part of his guilty plea, an appellate court should presume that the trial court permitted a Crosby reservation no broader than necessary to effectuate the underlying purpose of conditional guilty pleas, i.e., to preserve review of evidentiary rulings which "go to the heart of the prosecution's case" that a defendant would otherwise waive by entering an unqualified guilty plea. Crosby, 338 So.2d at 591. Such rulings typically include denial of a motion to suppress evidence or a confession and exclude rulings which may affect the conduct of trial but "which do not substantially relate to guilt, such as the denial of a continuance or severance." Id.

State v. Joseph, 847 So.2d at 1196-1197.

We recognize that the transcript and the Wavier of Constitutional Rights form both indicate that the defendant pled guilty pursuant to Crosby

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State v. Jackson, 919 So. 2d 779, 2005 WL 3577516 (La. Ct. App. 2005).

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