State v. J.F.

927 So. 2d 614, 2006 WL 862928
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedApril 5, 2006
DocketNo. 05-1410
StatusPublished

This text of 927 So. 2d 614 (State v. J.F.) 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. J.F., 927 So. 2d 614, 2006 WL 862928 (La. Ct. App. 2006).

Opinion

AMY, Judge.

|,The defendant was charged with three counts of aggravated rape in violation of La.R.S. 14:42. Following a bench trial, the defendant was found guilty as charged. The defendant filed a motion for new trial, which the trial court denied before imposing sentence. The defendant was sentenced to life imprisonment at hard labor on each count, to be served without benefit of parole, probation or suspension of sentence. The sentences were ordered to run concurrently. The defendant subsequently filed a motion for new trial based on newly discovered evidence. The trial' court denied this motion. The defendant now appeals, arguing that there is insufficient evidence to prove the crime of aggravated rape beyond a reasonable doubt. For the following reasons, we affirm and remand with instructions.

Factual and Procedural Background

The record indicates that O.F.1 was born on September 28, 1990 and is the son of F.B. and the defendant. When the couple divorced in 1998, O.F. went to live with his mother. The defendant shared joint custody of O.F. and had visitation every other weekend. The defendant testified that in April 2003, O.F. begged the defendant to “take him in,” which he did. He further testified that O.F. told him that his stepfather was physically abusing him and on one occasion, slapped him so hard that he wet his pants. The defendant immediately sought custody of O.F., and a hearing on the matter was held on May 30, 2003. The trial court granted joint custody to both parents with the defendant designated as the domiciliary parent.

| ¡.O.F. moved in with the defendant, his wife, C.F.2, and their three children. O.F. testified that they resided in a two bedroom house and that he occupied one room and the defendant and C.F. occupied the other. He further testified that during the last months of his stay at the defendant’s house, the defendant’s stepchild from a previous marriage came to live with them as well as C.F.’s oldest son. According to O.F., when he first moved in, “everything was all nice[.]” Nevertheless, he stated that the defendant and C.F argued frequently and that these arguments would sometimes turn violent. O.F. also alleged that the defendant sexually abused him on three different occasions.

O.F. described the first incident that happened in May 2004. O.F. testified that when the defendant and C.F. began to argue, he went into his bedroom and played video games. The defendant entered his bedroom and closed the door, although O.F. was unsure if it was locked. O.F. testified that the defendant asked him if he wanted to do something, to which [616]*616O.F. replied: “Wbat?” According to O.F., the defendant grabbed hiña and threw him down on the bed. O.F. was lying on his stomach, and the defendant was on top of him. He remembered the defendant yelling and asking him “what yon gonna do now and stuff like that.”3 O.F. stated: “I thought I’d done something wrong because he [was] all fussing and hollering.” O.F. testified that the defendant pulled his shorts off and “stuck his private in [him,]” moving it back and forth. The defendant did not say anything. O.F. also testified that he knew that the defendant had ejaculated because he “felt something go inside of [him,]” and he saw some “white looking gunk” draining out of him and on his bed.

| aAccording to O.F., the defendant left the room without saying anything, locked the door, and “took a shower and went to bed like nothing had happened.” O.F. explained that he did not bleed that night, but he was hurting and that the next morning, his “butt was sore raw and [he] was bleeding real bad.” O.F. testified that he did not tell anyone about the incident because he did not know what happened and “every time [he] would try to say something[, the defendant] was like I got full custody of you[. Y]ou’re mine now.”

According to O.F, the second incident occurred in July 2004. The defendant and C.F. were arguing, and O.F. retreated to his bedroom. O.F. stated that the defendant walked into his room with a tube of what he described as “lube” or jelly in his pocket. Without saying anything, the defendant pulled the covers off of O.F., grabbed him by his neck, and “stuck his worm” in his “butt.” O.F. testified that the defendant ejaculated because he noticed that the “same white, dripping gunk was there[.]” He also testified that he was bleeding and was not allowed to go to the bathroom.

The third and final incident occurred around August 2004. The defendant and C.F. were arguing. According to O.F.’s testimony, he was in his bed going to sleep when the defendant walked in and closed the door. O.F. remembered that the defendant did not have any lube with him. He testified that the defendant grabbed him by his neck, and his face was down in the pillow. He heard the defendant’s jeans unzip, and the defendant stuck “it” inside of him. O.F. believed that the defendant was moving faster because “he was trying to hurry up and get out and go back and act like nothing was happening.” According to O.F., the defendant ejaculated because |4he saw the same substance that he had seen after the first two incidents. He testified that he bled from his butt.

On cross-examination, O.F. admitted that the defendant did not threaten him during any of these encounters. However, he explained that he felt threatened because of “the violence in the house,” the presence of a gun in the house, and because on “one occasion [C.F.] came at [the defendant] with a knife and [he] took her and swung her across the house.” O.F. also explained why he did not tell anyone about the incidents. According to O.F., the defendant made various threats to him the day after the incidents occurred. The defendant threatened to beat him, kill him and his mother, and kill his brothers if he told anyone. He also stated that the defendant would prevent him from telling of the sexual abuse by stating that “they won’t believe you. You live under my house, I have full custody and you wanted [617]*617to live over here.” O.F. was also concerned about how his mother would handle his disclosure. He commented: “[I]t’s hard enough having to tell a complete stranger, someone that you just met much less telling someone you’ve known your whole life. I mean no parent should have to hear this.” He also stated that his mother has “a bad heart,” and he was worried about her health.

O.F. stated that his mother was- concerned about him because he was depressed, he would not talk to her, and his grades dropped. F.B. began taking O.F. to see Ms. Jane Hyde, a licensed clinical social worker, to help O.F. with his troubles. O.F. first met with Ms. Hyde on October 12, 2004. O.F. testified that some time after this visit, he began bleeding from his butt and that he and F.B. did not know why. Upon the advice of Ms. Hyde, F.B. brought O.F. to the doctor where he was examined by Ms. Clara Coutee, a nurse practitioner. According to the record, Ms. Coutee found that fiO.F.’s “rectum was dilated like that of a 70 [year] old person.” In her report, Ms. Coutee noted “under the rectal exam loose, dilated, anal sphincter, able to emit two fingers, large amount of hard stool in ampulum, or the base of the rectum, hemorrhoids[.]” Ms. Coutee referred O.F. to a pediatric gas-troenterologist for evaluation of rectal bleeding and a dialated rectal sphincter. Because Ms. Coutee opined that the rectal bleeding may have been caused by sexual abuse, she spoke with someone at the Office of Child Support about the matter. The district attorney’s office was also notified.

On October 29, 2004, O.F.

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927 So. 2d 614, 2006 WL 862928, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-jf-lactapp-2006.