State v. Jackson

193 So. 3d 425, 2015 La.App. 4 Cir. 0809, 2016 WL 3013976, 2016 La. App. LEXIS 1016
Louisiana Court of Appeal·Decided May 25, 2016·No. No. 2015-KA-0809·Published·Cited by 10 cases

Opinion

ROSEMARY LEDET, Judge.

hln this criminal appeal, Jeffrey Washington and Myron Jackson appeal their convictions for second degree murder and attempted second degree murder. For the reasons that follow, we affirm.1

STATEMENT OF THE CASE

On January 17, 2013, Mr. Washington and Mr. Jackson were jointly charged by a grand jury indictment with second degree murder, a violation of La. R.S. 14:30.1, and attempted second degree murder, a violation of La. R.S. 14:27,14:30.1. On January 24, 2013, Mr. Washington and Mr. Jackson were arraigned and both pleaded not guilty.

In January 2015, a five-day jury trial was held in this matter. The jury found Mr. Washington and Mr. Jackson guilty as charged.

On February 27, 2015, the district court denied Mr. Washington’s motion for new trial. The district court sentenced him on the second degree murder count to life imprisonment without benefit of parole, probation, or suspension of sentence; |2and on the attempted second degree murder count to fifty years without benefit of parole, probation, or suspension of sentence. On March 13, 2015, the district court imposed on Mr. Jackson the same sentences it imposed on Mr. Washington.

STATEMENT OF FACTS

For ease of discussion, we divide our analysis of the facts into the following two sections: the investigation and the witnesses.

The investigation

On October 1, 2012, Sergeant Karla Baker of the New Orleans Police Department (“NOPD”) was one of the first officers to arrive at the scene of the shootings at 7730 Branch Drive in the Little Woods area in New Orleans East. She noticed that a front window of the residence had been shot out. Sergeant Baker testified [429] that she found a female victim, later identified as Marguerite Washington, unresponsive on the bed in one of the bedrooms. After following the trail of blood down the hallway, she found a male victim, Justin Alexander, in his mother’s bedroom. .At trial, Sergeant Baker testified that although Mr. Alexander was- panicked, he was speaking very clearly and told his mother, Yolanda Muse, he was going to die. Sergeant Baker testified that she asked Mr. Alexander who shot him and he responded “Jeffery Washington shot me.” Sergeant Baker later relayed the victim’s identification of the shooter to Detective Gregory Hamilton, the lead investigator, and Sergeant Galvin Brazley.

Detective Hamilton, the lead investigator, testified that when’ he was notified of the shooting, he relocated to the hospital to speak with thé surviving victim, Mr. | a Alexander. After learning that Mr. Alexander was in critical condition and unable to speak, Detective Hamilton relocated to the crime scene where he met with Detective Elizabeth Garcia and Sergeant Brazely. Detective Hamilton learned that Mr. Alexander identified “Jeff’ as the shooter.' Thereafter, Detective Hamilton transports ed Ms. Muse to the homicide office to record her statement. Ms. Muse identified Mr. Washington as “Jeff’ from a photo lineup and confirmed that he was a friend of Mr. Alexander. On the day after the shooting, Mr. Washington was arrested pursuant to an arrest warrant.

On November 20, 2012, Detective Hamilton met with Mr. Alexander, who "then had been released from the hospital,' regarding the shooting. During the interview, Mr. Alexander identified Mr. Jackson as a second shooter. Mr. Alexander drew a sketch of Mr. Jackson, depicting several of his facial tattoos; and he identified Mr. Jackson from a photo lineup. Detective Hamilton obtained search warrants for Mr. Washington and Mr. Jackson’s cell phone records; and he discovered that they were both in Little Woods area at the time the shooting occurred. Detective Hamilton obtained an arrest warrant for Mr. Jackson. After videotaping Mr. Jackson’s statement, Detective Hamilton arrested ■him.

Detective Garcia testified that after she arrived at the Branch Drive residence, she contained the crime scene; contacted the crime lab; and documented evidence. Detective Garcia testified that Ms. Washington’s body was laying on the |4bed in the room with the broken window.2 She also testified that a Bryco .9-millimeter handgun was retrieved from Ms. Muse’s bedroom. At the direction of Detective Hamilton, Detective ' Garcia presented Ms. Muse a photo lineup in a double blind procedure at headquarters. Ms. Muse chose the picture of Mr. Washington from the photo lineup.

Homicide Detective Andrew Waldron testified that he assisted Detective Hamilton in the investigation of this case. He conducted a, blind lineup process with Mr. Alexander, who identified Mr. Jackson as one of the two men who shot him and Ms. Washington.

NOPD crime scene technicians, Veronica Manuel and Erin Cunningham,- collected evidence, photographed the crime scene, and drafted' reports regarding their findings. At trial, Ms. Manuel identified the seven spent casings — three CCI .45 millimeter auto casings, four Win .9 millimeter Logan casings, and two NOCI R .9 millimeter Logan casings — that she col[430] lected at the crime scene. Ms. Cunningham testified that she collected a firearm and magazine containing twelve- live rounds from Mr. Alexander’s bedroom. She also identified spent casings and bullet fragments that she collected from outside window where the shooting occurred.3

I ^Sergeant Marc Boudreaux, NOPD forensic firearms examiner, performed ballistics testing on the nine casings retrieved from the crime scene and the weapon found in the victim’s residence. He testified that the results indicated that more than one weapon was used in the shooting — four .45 caliber cartridge casings were fired by the same weapon and two of the .9 millimeter cartridge casings retrieved were fired from a different weapon, although neither of the two weapons used were retrieved. He further testified that a .38 caliber class bullet, which is consistent with a .9 ..millimeter, was retrieved from Ms. Washington’s body. Sergeant Boudreaux determined that only one of the .9 millimeter casings, which was found in the rear of the victim’s residence “near [the] pool,” was fired from the .38 caliber class weapon retrieved from the victim’s residence.4

Di\ 'Samantha Huber, Chief Forensic Pathologist in the' Orleans Parish Coroner’s Office, performed the autopsy on Ms. Washington’s body. She testified that Ms. Washington sustained four gunshot wounds to her torso. Dr. Huber further testified that the fatal wound was inflicted by the bullet that entered her upper left chest, passed through both lungs and the top of the heart, and lacerated the liver.

The witnesses

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

State v. Jackson, 193 So. 3d 425, 2015 La.App. 4 Cir. 0809, 2016 WL 3013976, 2016 La. App. LEXIS 1016 (La. Ct. App. 2016).

193 So. 3d 425 (State v. Jackson) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

State of Louisiana v. Jermaine Brisco
Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2026
State of Louisiana v. Garrett J. Ward
Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2025
State of Louisiana v. Tyrone A. Stewart
Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2025
State of Louisiana v. Troy Varnado
Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2020
Starks v. Starks
250 So. 3d 1025 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2018)
State v. Handy
226 So. 3d 1182 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2017)
State v. Hawkins
219 So. 3d 1133 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2017)