State v. James

761 So. 2d 125, 2000 WL 546417
Louisiana Court of Appeal·Decided May 3, 2000·No. 99-1858·Published·Cited by 11 cases

Opinion

761 So.2d 125 (2000)

STATE of Louisiana
v.
Leroy "June" JAMES.

No. 99-1858.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Third Circuit.

May 3, 2000.

*127 Mr. Van H. Kyzar, Jimmy D. Long, Jr., District Attorney's Office, Natchitoches, LA, Counsel for the State.

Vincent C. Cofield, Natchitoches, LA, Counsel for Defendant.

(Court composed of JOHN D. SAUNDERS, MARC T. AMY, and MICHAEL G. SULLIVAN, Judges.)

SULLIVAN, Judge.

On December 18, 1998, the State filed a bill of information charging Defendant, Leroy "June" James, with unauthorized entry of an inhabited dwelling, a violation of La.R.S. 14:62.3; second degree battery, a violation of La.R.S. 14:34.1; and attempted second degree murder, a violation of La. R.S. 14:30.1 and 14:27. On June 22, 1999, a six-person jury found Defendant guilty of unauthorized entry of an inhabited dwelling and second degree battery. The record does not reveal the disposition of the attempted second degree murder charge. After denying Defendant's motion for a new trial on July 14, 1999, the trial court sentenced Defendant to five years at hard labor on each charge, with the sentences to run concurrently. On appeal, Defendant assigns six errors.

Facts

The victim, Shirley Remo, testified that she was attacked in her home shortly after her family members, including her husband, had left a gathering that she hosted on Thanksgiving Day, November 26, 1998. According to the victim, she realized that an intruder was in her home when she heard someone "tiptoeing" in her hallway. She initially grabbed her cordless telephone to call for help, but when the footsteps stopped after the telephone "beeped," she decided to hide behind her bedroom door with a small camping knife for defense. She testified that through the crack in the doorway, she saw Defendant, whom she recognized as her neighbor's boyfriend. The victim then described a struggle in which Defendant pinned her down, choked her, and beat her in the face with the cordless telephone. During the attack, the victim noticed that a clock showed the time as 8:25 p.m. The victim was soon able to free herself, at which time Defendant expressed surprise and left. The victim then called her sister, Linda Robinson, who arrived at her home about twenty minutes later and convinced her to seek medical attention. While waiting for her sister, the victim remained on the telephone with her brother-in-law because she feared that Defendant would return. Later that evening, Deputy Brian Powell, of the Natchitoches Parish Sheriff's Office, met the victim at a local hospital, where he recorded her complaint and took photographs to document her injuries.

The victim testified that during the attack Defendant said that he intended to kill her because of what she had done to his girlfriend. The victim believed Defendant was referring to a complaint that she had made to the housing authorities about his girlfriend's Rottweiler dogs running loose. Rhonda Kay, an employee of the Natchitoches Parish Housing Authority, confirmed that Defendant's girlfriend lost her public housing assistance as a result of this complaint.

Defendant presented the testimony of two alibi witnesses. Leonard Maxim testified that Defendant was at his home from about 5:00 p.m. on Thanksgiving evening until 6:00 a.m. the following morning. David Charles Dixon testified that he dropped off Defendant at Maxim's home that evening then picked him up the following morning to go to work. Dixon also testified that he knew the victim and that he overheard a conversation in which the victim stated that she had to stay in her home for a week because of an argument with her husband.

*128 Sufficiency of the Evidence

In his second and third assignments of error. Defendant argues that the jury verdict was contrary to the evidence adduced at trial and that the evidence was insufficient to support the two convictions beyond a reasonable doubt. For the reasons expressed in State v. Hearold, 603 So.2d 731 (La.1992), we will address these assignments first, as they both concern the sufficiency of the evidence. On appeal, the standard of review is whether a reasonable trier of fact could have found that the State proved the elements of each offense beyond a reasonable doubt. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979).

Defendant was convicted of unauthorized entry of an inhabited dwelling, which is defined in La.R.S. 14:62.3(A) as follows:

Unauthorized entry of an inhabited dwelling is the intentional entry by a person without authorization into any inhabited dwelling or other structure belonging to another and used in whole or in part as a home or place of abode by a person.

Defendant was also convicted of second degree battery, which is defined in La.R.S. 14:34.1 as follows:

Second degree battery is a battery committed without the consent of the victim when the offender intentionally inflicts serious bodily injury.
For purposes of this article, serious bodily injury means bodily injury which involves unconsciousness, extreme physical pain or protracted and obvious disfigurement, or protracted loss or impairment of the function of a bodily member, organ, or mental faculty, or a substantial risk of death.

On appeal, Defendant does not argue that the State failed to prove any one element of these offenses. Rather, he contends that the jury unreasonably rejected the testimony of his alibi witnesses in light of several inconsistencies in the victim's testimony. For example, the victim testified that when she hid behind the door, she held a cordless telephone in her hand, but she also stated that Defendant found her behind the door by following a telephone cord. The victim claimed that her injuries included a fractured eye socket and a broken nose, but the medical report from the hospital stated that the victim did not sustain a fracture of the facial bones. Also, in her original statement to police, the victim said that when she heard "tiptoeing" in the house, she immediately realized it was not a family member. On the stand, however, she testified that she at first thought her husband had returned, but she soon realized that his cowboy boots would be inconsistent with "tiptoeing." Finally, Defendant argues that the victim's testimony that her brother called to check on her and that she spoke with her brother-in-law on the telephone after the attack is inconsistent with the testimony of her husband, Willis Remo, who stated that he left the Thanksgiving gathering with his brother and the victim's brother and did not return until the next morning.

We find that these inconsistencies do not seriously question the victim's credibility. In addition to noting that many "cordless" telephones have cords leading to their bases, we also point out that the victim could only assume that Defendant found her by following a telephone cord. From the victim's testimony, it appears that Defendant was also aided by the "beep" from the telephone. Although the victim mistakenly testified that her nose was broken, the photographs in evidence reveal several facial injuries, and the medical records document bruises to both eye sockets as well as a referral to the oral surgery clinic at LSU. The last notation is consistent with the victim's testimony that she was "sent" to Shreveport because of possible damage to her eye sockets.

Concerning the confusion about the whether the victim spoke on the telephone with her brother and/or her brother-in-law, we

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