State v. Jackson

87 So. 3d 174, 2012 WL 638030, 2012 La. App. LEXIS 216
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedFebruary 29, 2012
DocketNo. 46,963-KA
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 87 So. 3d 174 (State v. Jackson) 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. Jackson, 87 So. 3d 174, 2012 WL 638030, 2012 La. App. LEXIS 216 (La. Ct. App. 2012).

Opinion

MOORE, J.

|,The defendant, Kattie Rosettia Jackson, was convicted of aggravated battery in violation of La. R.S. 14:34, for slashing the arm of the victim with a box cutter during a scuffle. The trial court sentenced Jackson to five years imprisonment at hard labor. The defendant now appeals her conviction and sentence. For the following reasons, we affirm.

Facts

Around 2:00 a.m. on August 16, 2010, Mikaylia Taylor was at her Shreveport home celebrating the birthday of Bianca Darby, the girlfriend of her brother Sank-eyno. Several other guests were present, including her half-brother and half-sister, Jemario Calais and Keyera Calais, and a friend of Bianca’s, Lasheonia Wilson. The defendant was not invited to the party even though she was involved in a relationship with Jemario Calais at the time. Jemario was the father of the defendant’s one-year-old baby and an unborn child that the defendant was carrying.

Although the defendant was not at the party, two of her cousins were seen driving past the house twice. A short time later the defendant suddenly appeared at the front door and angrily demanded to know who Jemario was “hugged up with.” Mi-kaylia and the others told the defendant several times to leave the premises. Tensions escalated and guests began to congregate outside the front of the house as Jemario forcefully led the defendant out to her car. Near her car the defendant began arguing with Lasheonia Wilson, whom she accused of being the woman “hugged up with” with Jemario. She retrieved an object from her car and began chasing Wilson in the front yard. Some of the witnesses realized that the defendant 1 ahad a blade in her hand.

The defendant fell down as she crossed a ditch while chasing Lasheonia, who ran to the side of the house and entered through a side door. When the defendant got up, she charged Mikaylia Taylor, who had walked into the front yard and was unaware that the defendant was armed. The two women began fighting. Shortly after the scuffle began, Mikaylia noticed that her arm was numb, and she was bleeding. She retreated to her house, and the defendant fled the scene.

Police were summoned to the disturbance. They spoke with the injured Mi-kaylia Taylor regarding the incident. They found the box cutter on the lawn and interviewed Jemario Calais, Keyera Calais and Bianca Darby, each of whom corroborated the victim’s account.

The defendant was arrested on August 17, 2010, for her part in the incident. Detective Shaunda Holmes of the Shreveport Police Department interviewed the defendant. She was later charged by bill of information with aggravated battery in violation of La. R.S. 14:34. Defendant came for trial before a jury on April 12, 2011.

After a one-day trial, the jury returned a verdict of guilty as charged. The defendant filed post-trial motions for new trial and for a post verdict judgment of acquittal, both of which were denied. The defendant was sentenced on April 18, 2011, to five years’ imprisonment at hard labor. After sentencing, the defendant filed a written motion to reconsider sentence [177]*177which the record does not indicate was ever ruled upon.

|sThe defendant now appeals her conviction and sentence, raising two assignments of error and two errors patent related to her sentence. Because the errors patent concern the defendant’s sentence, we shall first consider the defendant’s sufficiency of evidence claim regarding her conviction.

Discussion

By her first assignment of error, the defendant alleges that the evidence adduced at trial is insufficient to sustain her conviction. She argues that her arrest and subsequent conviction was obtained as a result of poor police work: the box cutter was not examined for fingerprint identification and the police simply accepted Mi-kaylia’s version of the events. The defendant maintains that she went to the house only because Jemario asked her to bring his son to him. After she arrived, she was attacked by Lasheonia Wilson and the victim, Mikaylia, who, defendant claims, wielded the box cutter and accidentally cut herself in the struggle that ensued. After she left but before the police came, Mikay-lia convinced Keyera Calais and Bianca Darby to tell Officer Gary Holmes that the defendant attacked her with the box cutter and even told Officer Holmes that Jemario Calais was her boyfriend, thereby inferring that the defendant attacked her out of jealousy.1

At oral argument, counsel argued that the state’s witnesses at trial were not credible because of inconsistencies in their testimony regarding possession of the box cutter. For example, Mikaylia said she did not see the box cutter, while Keyera and Bianca said they saw the defendant holding a |4blade. For these reasons, counsel urges in her brief that the appellate court should impinge on the jury’s discretion and role in determining the credibility of the witnesses to guarantee that fundamental due process requirements are met, citing State v. Mussall, 523 So.2d 1305 (La.1988). (Emphasis ours).

In reviewing the sufficiency of the evidence to support a conviction, the reviewing court must determine if the evidence, viewed in the light most favorable to the prosecution, was sufficient to convince a rational trier of fact that all the elements of the crime had been proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 2789, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979); State v. Tate, 2001-1658 (La.5/20/03), 851 So.2d 921, cert. denied, 541 U.S. 905, 124 S.Ct. 1604, 158 L.Ed.2d 248 (2004); State v. Carter, 42,894 (La.App. 2 Cir. 1/9/08), 974 So.2d 181, writ denied, 2008-0499 (La.11/14/08), 996 So.2d 1086.

The Jackson v. Virginia doctrine, which is now legislatively embodied in La. C. Cr. P. art. 821, does not provide the appellate court with a vehicle to substitute its own appreciation of the evidence for that of the fact finder. State v. Pigford, 2005-0477 (La.2/22/06), 922 So.2d 517; State v. Dotie, 43,819 (La.App. 2 Cir. 1/14/09), 1 So.3d 833. The appellate court does not assess the credibility of witnesses or reweigh evidence. State v. Smith, 94-3116 (La.10/16/95), 661 So.2d 442. A reviewing court accords great deference to a jury’s decision to accept or reject the testimony of a witness in whole or in part. State v. Eason, 43,788 (La.App. 2 Cir. 2/25/09), 3 So.3d 685; State v. Hill, 42,025 (La.App. 2 Cir. 5/9/07), 956 5So.2d 758, writ denied, 2007-1209 (La.12/14/07), 970 So.2d 529. See also, State v. Shivers, 43,731 (La.App. 2 Cir. 12/3/08), 998 So.2d 877, 883 (same deference applies to bench trial).

[178]*178“The principal criterion of a Jackson v. Virginia review is rationality.” State v. Mussall, supra at 1310. Due process demands that a criminal conviction cannot constitutionally stand if it is based on a record from which no rational trier of fact could find guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. This is why, under Jackson, the reviewing court views the evidence “from the perspective of a hypothetical rational trier of fact” to determine if an unconstitutional conviction has occurred. Id. As the Louisiana Supreme Court stated:

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Bluebook (online)
87 So. 3d 174, 2012 WL 638030, 2012 La. App. LEXIS 216, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-jackson-lactapp-2012.