State v. Jacobs

493 So. 2d 766
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedAugust 20, 1986
Docket17920-KA
StatusPublished
Cited by54 cases

This text of 493 So. 2d 766 (State v. Jacobs) 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. Jacobs, 493 So. 2d 766 (La. Ct. App. 1986).

Opinion

493 So.2d 766 (1986)

STATE of Louisiana, Appellee,
v.
Billy Ray JACOBS, Appellant.

No. 17920-KA.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Second Circuit.

August 20, 1986.

*767 Hunter, Scott, Blue, Johnson & Ross by Louis G. Scott, Monroe, for appellant.

William J. Guste, Jr., Atty. Gen., Barbara B. Rutledge, Asst. Atty. Gen., James Allan Norris, Jr., Dist. Atty., and Theodore J. Johnson, Asst. Dist. Atty., Monroe, for appellee.

Before HALL, C.J., and SEXTON and LINDSAY, JJ.

HALL, Chief Judge.

The defendant, Billy Ray Jacobs, was charged by bill of information with the crimes of aggravated burglary, LSA-R.S. 14:60, and armed robbery, LSA-R.S. 14:64. A jury found the defendant guilty as charged and the trial court later sentenced the defendant to serve ten years at hard labor for the aggravated burglary conviction and twenty-five years at hard labor for the armed robbery conviction, the sentences to run consecutively. Finding no merit to defendant's assignments of error on appeal, we affirm.

FACTS

During the night of April 4, 1985, two black males, one of whom was armed with a knife, broke into the home of 79 year old Mack Richmond in Monroe, pulled him out of bed, struck him, and threatened him with a knife, while stealing money found in his pants on a nearby chair. Mr. Richmond was acquainted with the two assailants and identified both the defendant and William Menyweather to the police. Officer Brown of the Monroe Police Department testified that the home was apparently entered through the front door of the home where the officer found that the screen had been cut with what looked like a knife.

Mr. Richmond testified that he was awakened during the night by Menyweather who was holding a knife on him and who told him not to get up. As Richmond tried to get out of bed, Menyweather struck him on the head causing him to stumble onto the floor into the adjoining room. The light was on in the room allowing Richmond to see both men. While Menyweather struck Richmond again and threatened him with the knife, Richmond observed the defendant take his wallet from his pants which were lying on a nearby chair. The wallet contained cash from a social security check and a pension check the victim had cashed. Richmond was afraid to leave the house in the dark and waited until morning to notify the Monroe Police Department. Later that same morning, Monroe Police Officers arrested both Menyweather and the defendant, both of whom confessed involvement in the crime.

ASSIGNMENTS OF ERROR

The defendant filed the following assignments of error:

1. The trial court erred in failing to grant defendant's motion to quash.
2. The trial court erred in excusing juror Hugh Branlette, Jr.
3. The trial court erred in admitting into evidence statements allegedly made by the defendant to law enforcement officials.
4. The trial court erred in denying defendant's post verdict motion for a judgment of acquittal.
5. The trial court erred in denying defendant's motion for arrest of judgment.
6. The trial court erred in sentencing defendant to an excessive amount of time at hard labor.

ASSIGNMENTS OF ERROR NUMBERS 1 AND 5

By these assignments, defendant contends that the trial court erred in failing to grant defendant's motion to quash and motion in arrest of judgment on the basis that his conviction of both aggravated burglary and armed robbery subjected him to double jeopardy in violation of the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article 1, Section 15 of the Louisiana Constitution of 1974.

This court set forth the applicable jurisprudence in State v. Lockhart, 457 So.2d 176 (La.App. 2d Cir.1984), as follows:

*768 The double jeopardy clause of the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution, made applicable to the state through the Fourteenth Amendment, provides that no person shall be "subject for the same offenses to be twice put into jeopardy of life or limb." Article 1, Section 15 of the 1974 Louisiana Constitution contains a similar guarantee.
In State v. Knowles, 392 So.2d [651] 652 (La.1980), the Louisiana Supreme Court citing Blockburger v. United States, 284 U.S. 299, 52 S.Ct. 180, 76 L.Ed. 306 (1932), outlined the following criteria for examining violations of double jeopardy:
... The applicable rule is that where the same act or transaction constitutes a violation of two distinct statutory provisions, the test to be applied to determine whether there are two offenses or only one, is whether each provision requires proof of an additional fact which the other does not....
This test was held constitutionally required by the U.S. Supreme Court in Brown v. Ohio, 432 U.S. 161, 97 S.Ct. 2221, 53 L.Ed.2d 187 (1977), and is embodied in Louisiana Code of Criminal Procedure Article 596:
Double jeopardy exists in a second trial only when the charge in that trial is: (1) identical with or a different grade of the same offense for which the defendant was in jeopardy in the first trial, whether or not a responsive verdict could have been rendered in the first trial as to the charge in the second trial; or (2) based on a part of a continuous offense for which the offense the defendant was in jeopardy in the first trial.
Louisiana uses both the "Blockburger test" and the "same evidence test." State v. Vaughn, 431 So.2d 763 (La. 1983); State v. Steele, 387 So.2d 1175 (La.1980). When a defendant is charged with separate statutory crimes they need not be identical in elements or in actual proof to be the same within the meaning of the constitutional prohibition. Brown v. Ohio, supra; State v. Hayes, 412 So.2d 1323 (La.1982).
The Louisiana Supreme Court explains the "same evidence test" in State v. Steele, supra, as follows:
If the evidence required to support a finding of guilt of one crime would also have supported the conviction of the other, the two are the same offense under a plea of double jeopardy, and a defendant can be placed in jeopardy for only one. The test depends on the evidence necessary for conviction, not all the evidence introduced at trial....
The "same evidence test" is somewhat broader in concept than Blockburger the central idea being that one should not be punished (or put in jeopardy) twice for the same course of conduct.

Aggravated burglary is defined in LSA-R.S. 14:60 as follows:

Aggravated burglary is the unauthorized entering of any inhabited dwelling, or of any structure, water craft, or movable where a person is present, with intent to commit a felony or any theft therein, if the offender,
(1) Is armed with a dangerous weapon; or
(2) After entering arms himself with a dangerous weapon; or
(3) Commits a battery upon any person while in such place, or in entering or leaving such place.

In order to prove the crime of aggravated burglary, the state must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant made an unauthorized entry of a structure with the intent to commit a theft or a felony.

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Bluebook (online)
493 So. 2d 766, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-jacobs-lactapp-1986.