State v. Johnson

619 So. 2d 1102, 1993 WL 153812
Louisiana Court of Appeal·Decided May 13, 1993·No. 92-KA-0731·Published·Cited by 42 cases

Opinion

619 So.2d 1102 (1993)

STATE of Louisiana
v.
Leroy JOHNSON.

No. 92-KA-0731.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Fourth Circuit.

May 13, 1993.
Rehearing Denied June 28, 1993.

*1104 Harry F. Connick, Dist. Atty. of Orleans Parish, David L. Arena, Asst. Dist. Atty. of Orleans Parish, New Orleans, for plaintiff/appellee.

Dwight Doskey, Orleans Indigent Defender Program, New Orleans, for defendant/appellant.

Before KLEES, BYRNES and WALTZER, JJ.

WALTZER, Judge.

The defendant was charged by bill of indictment with aggravated rape and aggravated burglary on October 19, 1989. Motions to suppress identification and evidence were denied on January 31, 1990. The defendant was released by the sheriff's office prior to trial. When the defendant failed to appear on his trial date of May 16, 1990, a capias was issued for his arrest. Subsequent to the defendant's rearrest on July 17, 1991, the defendant filed a motion to quash the indictment, alleging that the time limitation for prosecution of the offense had run. That motion was denied after hearing on November 7, 1991. A jury trial was held January 21-23, 1992. The jury found the defendant guilty as charged on both counts. The trial court sentenced the defendant to life imprisonment without parole as to the aggravated rape and twenty-five years at hard labor as to the aggravated burglary, to run concurrently. Defendant appeals.

*1105 THE FACTS AT TRIAL

On September 22, 1989, at about 2:31 a.m., Lieutenant Alvin Dufrene of the New Orleans Police Department was called in to investigate a rape charge. He responded to the 1800 block of Whitney Court where he spoke with the victim, who gave a description of the perpetrator as a black male in his thirties, approximately 5'7", muscular build, a nappy Afro bush, with a mustache and goatee, wearing a pink sleeveless muscle shirt and tan bell-bottom trousers, dark-skinned, and armed with a small silver-colored handgun. Lt. Dufrene broadcast the description over the police radio.

At about 2:35 a.m. that same evening, Police Officers Bass, Heindel and Thompson had placed a roadblock in the 1800 block of Thayer Street, two blocks behind the victim's apartment, in connection with an unrelated narcotics traffic stop. When the defendant was told he had to wait at the roadblock, he jumped out of his car and pointed a .25 caliber automatic handgun at the officers. The officers, who at that time knew nothing about the rape, arrested the defendant for the aggravated assault committed upon them.

Within minutes of Lt. Dufrene's dispatch with the rape perpetrator's description, there was a call from the officers involved in the aggravated assault reporting that they believed they had the perpetrator. The officers then transported the defendant to the Fourth District Station. Detective Puigh, the rape detective assigned to the case, brought the victim to the station where she immediately and positively identified the defendant as the perpetrator.

The victim testified that she awoke in the middle of the night when the defendant jumped on top of her. It was dark when she awoke, although she leaves her kitchen and bathroom lights on overnight for her children. The victim struggled with the defendant, even after he told her he had a gun, and managed to push the defendant off and get out of her bedroom. However, because of the darkness, she ran into a chest in the hallway and hurt her shoulder, which prevented her escape. The defendant then grabbed the victim around the throat and put a gun to her head. She convinced the defendant to let her check on her children. She put the light on in her children's room and looked into the defendant's face. The defendant realized that the victim was looking at him and turned the light off. He then dragged her to the sofa in the living room, where he pulled up her nightgown and raped her.

The victim called 911 and Lt. Dufrene and Det. Puigh responded. She mentioned to Det. Puigh that the defendant called her by name, although she had never met him. Det. Puigh suggested that the defendant might have seen her driver's license and asked the victim where her purse was. The victim then noticed that her purse was not where she left it. She testified that she carries a lot of change because she is a special education teacher and she travels with her students on the bus to teach them how to catch a bus and how to make change. She checked the contents of her purse and saw that all her change was gone. Det. Puigh then brought the victim to the Fourth District Police Station where she identified the defendant.

At the trial, Dr. Kenneth Lum testified that he performed the medical examination on the victim. He found no particular trauma to the vaginal area; but did find a significant amount of motile sperm indicating intercourse within six (6) to eight (8) hours of the exam, and contusions of the left shoulder and right leg.

Medical technologist Patricia Daniels and criminalist Charles Krone both testified that the evidence from the rape kit did not single out the defendant as the perpetrator of the rape. They also testified that no DNA or other testing was ordered which would have narrowed the possible suspects or eliminated the defendant as one of them.

The defendant's brother, Emmanuel Johnson, testified that the defendant did construction work for him that day and was given an advance in pay before he left at about 7:00 p.m. Cynthia Peterson, a former girlfriend of the defendant, testified that on the night in question the defendant came to her sister's house on Bouny Street near the Canal Street ferry where they *1106 watched TV and then had sex for about two hours. Ms. Peterson's sister arrived home earlier than expected, around 2:00 a.m. The defendant then dressed, washed up and left at about 2:05 a.m. Ms. Peterson testified that the defendant was wearing an unbuttoned yellow shirt with a sleeveless pink undershirt and brown pants when he left.

Det. Heindel testified that the distance from the Canal Street ferry and Bouny area was 1.8 miles from the Whitney and Thayer area and can be travelled at a normal rate of speed in five minutes.

ERRORS PATENT REVIEW

A review of the record for errors patent review reveals that there were none.

MOTION TO SUPPRESS THE IDENTIFICATION

The defendant avers that the identification procedure by which the victim identified him was unduly suggestive and denied him due process. Manson v. Braithwaite, 432 U.S. 98, 97 S.Ct. 2243, 53 L.Ed.2d 140 (1977); State v. West, 582 So.2d 889 (La. App. 4th Cir.1991).

The defendant in the present case was identified by the victim in a "one-on-one" encounter which occurred only a short time after the crime. This type of confrontation between a suspect and the victim is generally not favored but is permissible when justified by the overall circumstances, particularly when the accused is apprehended within a relatively short period of time after the occurrence of the crime and has been returned to the crime scene. State v. Walters, 582 So.2d 317 (La.App. 4th Cir.1991), writ den., 584 So.2d 1171 (La.1991); State v. Peters, 553 So.2d 1026 (La.App. 4th Cir.1989). These identifications have been upheld because prompt confrontation between the defendant and the victim promotes fairness by assuring the reliability of the identification (while the victim's memory is fresh) and the expeditious release of innocent suspe

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

State v. Johnson, 619 So. 2d 1102, 1993 WL 153812 (La. Ct. App. 1993).

619 So. 2d 1102 (State v. Johnson) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

State of Louisiana v. John Duncan
Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2025
State of Louisiana v. Christopher White
Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2025
State of Louisiana v. Jkari Campbell
Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2025
State of Louisiana v. Chad M. Vidrine
Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2020
State v. Johnson
266 So. 3d 969 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2019)
State v. Reeves
254 So. 3d 665 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 2018)
State v. Alridge
249 So. 3d 260 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2018)
State v. Hutsell
241 So. 3d 542 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2018)
State v. Harrison
239 So. 3d 406 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2018)
State v. Cretian
238 So. 3d 473 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2018)
State v. De Gruy
215 So. 3d 723 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2017)
State v. Jones
203 So. 3d 344 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2016)
State v. Scott
197 So. 3d 298 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2016)
State v. Hickman
194 So. 3d 1160 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2016)
State v. Rainey
189 So. 3d 439 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2016)
State v. Quinn
123 So. 3d 320 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2013)
State v. Davis
147 So. 3d 712 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2013)
State v. Guity
97 So. 3d 1113 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2012)
State v. Williams
97 So. 3d 428 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2012)
State v. Pittman
85 So. 3d 782 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2012)