State v. Kent

489 So. 2d 1354
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMay 28, 1986
DocketKA 85 1371
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 489 So. 2d 1354 (State v. Kent) 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. Kent, 489 So. 2d 1354 (La. Ct. App. 1986).

Opinion

489 So.2d 1354 (1986)

STATE of Louisiana
v.
Darren KENT.

No. KA 85 1371.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, First Circuit.

May 28, 1986.

*1356 Bryan Bush, Dist. Atty., Baton Rouge by Bill Hecker, Asst. Dist. Atty., for plaintiff-appellee.

Public Defenders' Office, Baton Rouge, for defendant-appellant.

Before GROVER L. COVINGTON, C.J., and LOTTINGER and CRAIN, JJ.

GROVER L. COVINGTON, Chief Judge.

Darren Kent was originally charged by a single grand jury indictment with two counts of first degree murder. After entering a plea of not guilty, Kent filed a motion to suppress his confession. The trial court denied that motion. Prior to trial on the merits, the indictment was amended to reduce each charge to second degree murder, violations of La.R.S. 14:30.1. Kent again pled not guilty and, following trial by jury, was convicted as charged on each count. The trial court sentenced defendant to a term of life imprisonment without benefit of probation, parole or suspension of sentence on each count, to be served concurrently.

Defendant brings this appeal urging six assignments of error:

(1) The trial court erred when it denied defendant's motion to suppress his confession.

(2) The trial court erred when it denied defendant's motion for individual and sequestered voir dire.

(3) The trial court erred when it admitted into evidence State Exhibits 19, 20, 22, and 27.

(4) The trial court erred when it admitted into evidence State Exhibits 35, 38, 39 and 40.

(5) The trial court erred when it admitted into evidence State Exhibits 47 and 48.

(6) The trial court erred when it denied defense motion for a mistrial.

Assignment of error number two was not briefed and is thereby considered abandoned. Uniform Rules—Courts of Appeal, Rule 2-12.4.

On February 16, 1982, Cynthia Padgett and Patricia Canavan were robbed and murdered at the Supermat Washateria located in East Baton Rouge Parish. It was not until August of 1982 that suspicion focused on Darren Kent (defendant), Melvin Sterling, and Keffal Whittaker, as perpetrators of the instant offenses.[1] At that time, Eddie Stewart, an investigator for the East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney's Office, who had participated in the investigation of these crimes, received a tip from a confidential informant. After corroborating information provided by the informant, Melvin Sterling was questioned about the incident. In his first statement to law enforcement officers, Sterling implicated Kent and Whittaker. Based primarily on Sterling's statement, an arrest warrant was procured. Kent, who was already incarcerated on an unrelated charge, was arrested pursuant to that warrant and taken to the detective bureau offices for questioning.

After waiving his constitutional rights, Kent gave a taped statement detailing his involvement in the incident. Kent admitted that he, Sterling, and Whittaker planned the robbery of the Supermat Washateria. Although Kent maintained that only Sterling and Whittaker possessed firearms, all three men entered the washateria and participated *1357 in the robbery. The two women inside the washateria were made to lie on the floor and to surrender the cash box to the robbers. Thereafter, Sterling took car keys from Patricia Canavan, went outside and waited in her car while Whittaker and Kent forced the two women into a closet. As Kent stood next to Whittaker, Whittaker fired two shots striking each woman once. The three men fled by driving the victim's car near Whittaker's apartment and abandoning it. After dividing the proceeds of the robbery, Kent and Sterling stayed at Whittaker's apartment that night.

Deborah Beam, manager of the washateria where the armed robbery and murders occurred, testified at trial on the merits. Ms. Beam had hired one of the victims, Cynthia Padgett, as evening attendant of that facility. Ms. Padgett was often driven to and from the work site by her roommate, Patricia Canavan. Ms. Padgett was responsible for closing the washateria at night, and her duties included storing any money in a metal box and sliding the box behind a shelf underneath the counter.

When Ms. Beam arrived at the washateria on the morning of February 17, 1982, she first observed that the front door was unlocked and that Ms. Padgett's keys were in the key hole on the inside of the door. Ms. Beam also noted that Ms. Padgett had not completed her assigned cleaning duties and that the money box was missing.

A law enforcement officer, who was called to the scene, located the bodies of the two women in a utility closet at the washateria. Dr. Hypolite Landry, who performed autopsies on both victims, testified that Cynthia Padgett died of massive hemorrhaging and trauma to the brain occasioned by one large caliber gunshot wound. Patricia Canavan died from a single gunshot wound to her left shoulder, which resulted in massive hemorrhaging to her left chest and shock due to loss of blood.

Johnnie Duplessis, who lived across the street from the washateria, testified that she heard two shots fired about 11:00 p.m. on the night of February 16, 1982. In addition, Patricia Canavan's automobile was located in the vicinity of Keffal Whittaker's apartment on the morning of February 17, 1982.

ASSIGNMENTS OF ERROR NUMBERS ONE AND FIVE:

By means of assignment of error number one, defendant urges that the trial court erred by failing to suppress his taped confession. By assignment of error number five, defendant urges error from the trial court's admitting his taped statement into evidence at the trial on the merits. In brief, defendant argues that his taped statement was the result of promises and intimidation.

In this context, defendant argues that he was intimidated by law enforcement officers who advised him that seeking counsel prior to giving a statement would be of no avail. Defendant also contends that District Attorney Ossie Brown encouraged him to give a statement by promising that he would not be charged for his involvement in the incident if he cooperated.

Louisiana statutory law requires that, before a confession or inculpatory statement may be introduced in evidence, the state must prove affirmatively and beyond a reasonable doubt that the statement was free and voluntary and not made under the influence of fear, duress, intimidation, menaces, threats, inducements or promises. La.R.S. 15:451; La.Code Crim.P. art. 703(G); State v. Nathan, 444 So.2d 231 (La.App. 1st Cir.1983), writ denied, 445 So.2d 1232 (La.1984).

After a review of the record, we are convinced, as was the trial court, that the state satisfied its burden of affirmatively proving that defendant's confession was freely and voluntarily made after defendant had been advised of his Miranda rights and, thus, was admissible.

Once a defendant alleges specific instances of misconduct in reference to a statement, it is incumbent upon the state to specifically rebut each instance. State v. James, 459 So.2d 28 (La.App. 1st Cir.1984). The trial court's conclusions on credibility are entitled to the respect due those made by one who saw the witnesses and heard *1358 them testify. State v. Loyd, 425 So.2d 710 (La.1982). The decision of the trial court on the question of whether the confession was voluntarily given is entitled to great weight and will not be overturned on appeal unless it is not supported by the evidence. State v. Haynie, 395 So.2d 669 (La.1981).

At the hearing on the motion to suppress, defendant testified that he asked for a lawyer.

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Bluebook (online)
489 So. 2d 1354, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-kent-lactapp-1986.