State v. Jackson

979 So. 2d 678, 2008 WL 786481
Louisiana Court of Appeal·Decided March 26, 2008·No. 43,139-KA·Published·Cited by 4 cases

Opinion

979 So.2d 678 (2008)

STATE of Louisiana, Appellee
v.
Michael JACKSON, Appellant.

No. 43,139-KA.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Second Circuit.

March 26, 2008.

*679 Louisiana Appellate Project, by Peggy J. Sullivan, Monroe, for Appellant.

Paul J. Carmouche, District Attorney, Jason Brown, Assistant District Attorney, for Appellee.

Before GASKINS, CARAWAY and MOORE, JJ.

MOORE, J.

Michael Jackson appeals his conviction, adjudication as a second felony offender, and concurrent 99-year sentences on two counts of armed robbery. For the reasons expressed, we affirm the conviction but reverse the second felony offender adjudication, vacate the sentences and remand for further proceedings.

Factual Background

On the evening of October 21, 2002, Steven Thompson was leaving his place of work on Marshall Street in downtown Shreveport. As he was getting in his 2001 *680 Kia Spectra, he heard a tap on the window; looking up, he saw it was a black man holding a pistol. The gunman ordered, "Get out and lay on the ground or you will be shot." As Thompson started down, a second black man, wearing a hooded sweatshirt, grabbed him from behind, roughly pushed him to the ground and searched his pockets. The second man took his car keys and wallet with about $40 cash. The assailants got into the Kia and started it; the gunman pointed the pistol at Thompson and warned him to stay back. The assailants then fled in the car.

Thompson walked to the city bus terminal and told a policeman that he had been carjacked. The assailants were not apprehended. However, using information from other arrests, Officer James Cromer assembled a photo lineup including Michael Jackson's picture. Thompson was unable to make a positive identification, but he testified that both men were probably under the age of 21 and the gunman had braided hair.

The Kia was found in Bossier City a few days later. Officer Amy Muller, an expert in fingerprint analysis, dusted it for prints. She found that two latent prints lifted from the outside of the passenger door matched file prints of Michael Jackson; other latents elsewhere on the car, however, did not match.

On November 3, about two weeks after the Kia was stolen, Melvin Nelson was driving his 1996 Mazda Protegé near the courthouse in downtown Shreveport between 10 and 11 pm. While he was waiting at a light, two black men wearing black hoodie sweaters and black pants walked up to his car. One was holding a gun, and the other told Nelson to get out of the car. The gunman entered the passenger door and held the weapon on Nelson; the other assailant ordered him to empty his pockets. Nelson had no cash, just an ID and an ATM card, but the gunman took these. Nelson then exited the car; the second assailant got into the driver's seat and drove east on Texas Street toward Bossier City. Nelson walked to a nearby pay phone to call the police.

Two nights later, Sgt. Mark Mahoney of the Bossier Sheriff's Office was investigating a complaint of an attempted carjacking at the Princeton Post Office. The victim described the suspect vehicle as a tan Mazda Protegé carrying four black males, which Sgt. Maloney saw speeding on 220. He engaged them in a high-speed chase into Caddo Parish, where the Mazda turned around on North Market Street, got back on the loop, and drove back into Bossier. The car exited at Benton Road and pulled into some grass near Northside Drive, where all suspects bolted and ran. The fleeing men discarded two weapons, a Bryco Arms 9 mm semi-automatic pistol and a Tech 9, along the road. All four men were soon apprehended; one of them was Jackson. The other suspects gave statements that Jackson had been driving the Protegé before the chase.

Detective Jeff Brown prepared photo lineups including Jackson and one of the occupants of the Protegé, Eddie Hamilton. Nelson positively identified Jackson and Hamilton as the men who carjacked him on November 3. The weapons did not yield any usable fingerprints, and the record does not state if any prints were recovered from the car.

The state charged Jackson by bill of information with three counts of armed robbery, including the October 21 taking of Thompson's Kia, the November 3 taking of Nelson's Protegé, and another incident involving a third victim, Christopher Criss. Jackson proceeded to jury trial in June 2007, at which the state dismissed the charge involving Criss.

*681 At trial, the victims and law enforcement officers established the facts summarized above. The only other witness to testify was Jackson's accomplice, Eddie Hamilton, who had been allowed to plead guilty to first degree robbery in exchange for a nine-year sentence and the promise to testify truthfully against Jackson. On the stand, Hamilton admitted that Jackson was his "homeboy," but then denied that they ever robbed anybody, and insisted that all his previous statements to police were lies. He admitted being arrested in Bossier, riding in a tan car, and that he ran away because somebody had committed a crime, but denied any knowledge of what had happened. The prosecutor impeached him with the transcript of his Boykin hearing, but Hamilton still insisted all prior statements were coerced and untrue. At Jackson's sentencing, the district court stated that Hamilton had been subsequently charged with perjury.

The jury unanimously found Jackson guilty as charged on both counts of armed robbery. The state then billed him as a second felony habitual offender, alleging that his first felony was a November 2004 conviction in Bossier Parish for attempted armed robbery with a firearm, and that after the first conviction, Jackson committed and was convicted of the instant armed robberies that occurred between October 21 and November 3, 2002. After the district court denied his motion to quash the second felony offender bill, Jackson pled guilty as charged, reserving his rights to appeal the conviction and sentence.

In July 2007, the district court sentenced Jackson to two concurrent terms of 99 years at hard labor without benefit of probation, parole or suspension of sentence. Jackson now appeals. Counsel has designated two assignments of error; by pro se brief, Jackson assigns four errors.

Discussion: Sufficiency of the Evidence

By his first assignment of error, Jackson urges the evidence was insufficient to prove he committed the armed robberies. The only evidence connecting him to the armed robbery of Stephen Thompson was the presence of his fingerprints on the exterior of Thompson's Kia. This proves only that he touched the car at some point in time, not that he robbed Thompson; there was no evidence to prove when or where the Kia was located; and Thompson could not identify him from the photo lineup. Jackson concedes that the other victim, Melvin Nelson, positively identified him, but in all other respects, Nelson's testimony was vague, and it was positively refuted by Hamilton's trial testimony. By his first pro se assignment, Jackson complains that police never arrested the driver of the Protegé, Jonathan Campbell.

The state responds that Jackson's fingerprints on the Kia, his apprehension in and flight from the Protegé, and Hamilton's post-arrest statement to police were more than sufficient to support both convictions.

The standard of appellate review 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 beyond a reasonable doubt." Jackson v. Virginia,

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

State v. Jackson, 979 So. 2d 678, 2008 WL 786481 (La. Ct. App. 2008).

979 So. 2d 678 (State v. Jackson) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

State of Louisiana Versus Eddie J Richards
Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2024
State v. Jones
178 So. 3d 1075 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2015)
State v. Davis
121 So. 3d 1207 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2013)
State v. Runnels
101 So. 3d 1046 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2012)
State of Louisiana v. Donald Runnels
Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2012