State v. Jacobs

904 So. 2d 82, 2005 WL 1278031
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMay 31, 2005
Docket04-KA-1219
StatusPublished
Cited by28 cases

This text of 904 So. 2d 82 (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, 904 So. 2d 82, 2005 WL 1278031 (La. Ct. App. 2005).

Opinion

904 So.2d 82 (2005)

STATE of Louisiana
v.
Lawrence JACOBS.

No. 04-KA-1219.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Fifth Circuit.

May 31, 2005.
Rehearing Denied July 8, 2005.

*85 Paul D. Connick, Jr., District Attorney, Terry M. Boudreaux, Donnie Rowan, Assistant District Attorneys, Gretna, Louisiana, for Plaintiff/Appellee.

G. Ben Cohen, Christine Lehmann, New Orleans, Louisiana, for Defendant/Appellant.

Panel composed of Judges EDWARD A. DUFRESNE, JR., JAMES L. CANNELLA, and WALTER J. ROTHSCHILD.

EDWARD A. DUFRESNE, JR., Chief Judge.

On August 15, 2002, the Jefferson Parish Grand Jury returned an indictment charging defendant, Lawrence Jacobs, with three counts of armed robbery, in violation of LSA-R.S. 14:64. Count one alleged that defendant robbed Mr. Ghebreab Ghebreziabher on October 25, 1996; count two alleged that defendant robbed Mrs. Aseghed Ghebreziabher on October 25, 1996; and count three alleged that defendant robbed Mr. Kenneth Stage on October 30, 1996. At the arraignment, defendant pled not guilty. Thereafter, numerous pretrial motions were heard and denied by the trial judge.

Following these denials, defendant withdrew his former pleas of not guilty and pled guilty to all three charges. Defendant entered his guilty pleas pursuant to State v. Crosby, 338 So.2d 584 (La.1976), thereby reserving his appeal rights. The trial judge sentenced defendant to twenty-five years on each count to be served concurrently. Defendant now appeals.[1]

MOTION TO SUPPRESS IDENTIFICATION

In his first assigned error, defendant challenges the trial court's denial of his motion to suppress identification. Defendant specifically complains that Mr. Ghebreziabher's out-of-court identification of him from a photograph in a newspaper was tainted and unreliable, and that the trial court erred in failing to suppress it. Defendant further argues that Mr. Ghebreziabher's in-court identification was suggestive, in that defendant was the only African-American man in the courtroom dressed in prison garb.

A defendant who seeks to suppress an identification has the burden of *86 proving that the identification itself was suggestive. Even when the suggestiveness of the identification process is proved by the defendant or presumed by the court, the defendant must also show that there was a substantial likelihood of misidentification as a result of the procedure. State v. Broadway, 96-2659 (La.10/19/99), 753 So.2d 801, 812, cert. denied, 529 U.S. 1056, 120 S.Ct. 1562, 146 L.Ed.2d 466 (2000); State v. Peden, 04-71 (La.App. 5 Cir. 5/26/04), 875 So.2d 934, 942.

Fairness is the standard of review for identification procedures, and reliability is the linchpin in determining the admissibility of identification testimony. Manson v. Brathwaite, 432 U.S. 98, 97 S.Ct. 2243, 53 L.Ed.2d 140 (1977); State v. Evans, 03-0752 (La.App. 5 Cir. 12/9/03), 864 So.2d 682, 695, writ denied, 04-0080 (La.5/7/04), 872 So.2d 1079.

At the suppression hearing, Lieutenant Grey Thurman, a homicide detective, testified that Mr. Ghebreziabher arrived at the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office on November 4, 1996, and asked to speak with someone in the Homicide Division. Mr. Ghebreziabher showed Thurman that day's issue of The Times-Picayune newspaper. A front page article included photographs of defendant and Roy Bridgewater, labeled with their names. The article bore the headline, "Teens shift blame for killings." It referred to a double murder, unrelated to the instant case, in which defendant and Bridgewater were suspects. Mr. Ghebreziabher told Thurman that the two men pictured in the article had robbed him and his wife. Thurman testified that he conducted a tape recorded interview with Mr. Ghebreziabher that day, but did not ask the victim to view a lineup.

Mr. Ghebreziabher testified at the suppression hearing that he reported the robbery to police at the time it occurred. Officers instructed him to contact them in the future with any new information he had for them. Sometime between November 2 and November 4, 1996, Mr. Ghebreziabher saw a television news report regarding the two men who had robbed him.[2] He testified that when he saw them on television, he immediately recognized them, and he began to cry. The following morning, he saw the photographs in the newspaper, and again recognized the men as the two who had robbed him.

Mr. Ghebreziabher testified that no one told him to identify the two men in the newspaper as the robbers; that he went to the sheriff's department of his own volition. He said, "I can never forget the face, still every day, like mirror I see face." Defendant averted his face during most of Mr. Ghebreziabher's testimony, so that the victim could not see him. When the court ordered defendant to show his face, Mr. Ghebreziabher began to cry, and identified defendant as one of the two men who had robbed him. After listening to the testimony presented at the suppression hearing, the trial judge denied defendant's motion to suppress identification. Defendant now challenges this denial on several grounds.

Defendant first contends that Mr. Ghebreziabher's sighting of the defendant in the newspaper constituted a suggestive *87 one-on-one identification. Defendant also contends that Mr. Ghebreziabher's identification of him using the newspaper photograph was tainted because the victim saw him the night before in the television news story. We find no merit to these arguments.

We first note that the viewing of television news coverage of a defendant's arrest or seeing his picture in a newspaper is not an element of an identification procedure. State v. Daughtery, 563 So.2d 1171, 1174 (La.App. 1 Cir.1990), writ denied, 569 So.2d 980 (La.1990). Moreover, Mr. Ghebreziabher's identification was not initiated by any agency of the state. The victim's sighting of the newspaper article was inadvertent, and he went to the sheriff's office of his own volition. Lieutenant Thurman testified that he did not do anything to influence or coerce the identification. He stated that, "the first moment I saw [Mr. Ghebreziabher] until the conclusion of the interview, he clearly indicated that these two defendants had, in fact, robbed him."

Defendant further complains that the trial court erred in allowing Mr. Ghebreziabher to make an in-court identification. He argues that the procedure was inherently prejudicial, since the victim was robbed by two African-American men, and he was the only African-American man in the courtroom. Defendant also points out that he was dressed in prison attire, and was sitting next to defense counsel.

In State v. Johnson, 343 So.2d 155 (La. 1977), the Louisiana Supreme Court found an in-court identification similar to the one in defendant's case was not unduly suggestive. The Johnson court stated that the mere fact that the defendant was conspicuously seated at the defense table at trial at the time the witness identified him did not suggest that he was guilty of the crime, only that he was charged with its commission. The court further found that an ample opportunity to cross-examine the witness was sufficient to remedy any suggestiveness inherent in the in-court identification process. See also State v. Drew, 360 So.2d 500 (La.1978), cert. denied, 439 U.S. 1059, 99 S.Ct. 820; 59 L.Ed.2d 25 (1979).

In the instant case, defense counsel thoroughly cross-examined Mr.

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904 So. 2d 82, 2005 WL 1278031, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-jacobs-lactapp-2005.