State v. Kimble

546 So. 2d 834, 1989 WL 70394
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJune 20, 1989
DocketKA 88 1404
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 546 So. 2d 834 (State v. Kimble) 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. Kimble, 546 So. 2d 834, 1989 WL 70394 (La. Ct. App. 1989).

Opinion

546 So.2d 834 (1989)

STATE of Louisiana
v.
Charles Ray KIMBLE.

No. KA 88 1404.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, First Circuit.

June 20, 1989.

*835 Charles V. Genco, Asst. Dist. Atty., Amite, for plaintiff-appellee.

Kenneth Sarama, Hammond, Charles M. Reid, Amite, for defendant-appellant.

Before EDWARDS, SHORTESS and SAVOIE, JJ.

EDWARDS, Judge.

The defendant, Charles Ray Kimble, was charged by grand jury indictment with second degree murder, in violation of LSA-R.S. 14:30.1. He pled not guilty and, after trial by jury, was found guilty of the responsive verdict of manslaughter, a violation of LSA-R.S. 14:31. He received a sentence of fifteen years at hard labor, without benefit of probation, parole, or suspension of sentence.[1] The state filed a habitual offender bill and, after hearing, the defendant was adjudicated a habitual felony offender. The previous sentence was vacated and the trial court sentenced the defendant to thirty years at hard labor without benefit of probation, parole, or suspension of sentence.[2] The defendant has *836 appealed, alleging thirteen assignments of error,[3] as follows:

1. The trial court erred in refusing to grant the defendant's challenge for cause of a prospective juror.

2. The evidence was insufficient to support the defendant's conviction.

3. The trial court erred in allowing the introduction into evidence of photographs without the proper foundation being established.

4. The trial court erred in denying the defendant's motion to suppress a tape-recorded statement.

5. The trial court erred in allowing the introduction into evidence of the defendant's tape-recorded confession.

6. The trial court erred in denying the defendant's motion for a directed verdict.

7. The trial court erred in allowing the introduction into evidence of a tape-recorded statement by Edward McGary.

8. The trial court erred in denying defendant's motion to suppress the testimony of Lou Sherman, Jr.

9. The trial court erred in denying the defendant's motion for a mistrial.

10. The trial court erred in denying the defendant's motion for a mistrial.

11. The trial court erred in allowing the State to impeach its own witness.

12. The trial court erred in allowing the State to introduce into evidence the improper rebuttal testimony of Lou Sherman, Jr.

13. The defendant was denied a fair trial due to the cumulative impact of the errors noted above.

FACTS

At approximately 3:30 a.m. on August 31, 1985, a shooting occurred at the Touchdown Lounge in Tangipahoa Parish. The victim, Lionel Albritton, received a single gunshot wound to the chest and died in the emergency room of a local hospital. Detective Kerry Dangerfield of the Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff's Department began an investigation of the shooting. The investigation soon focused upon the defendant, who was arrested and charged with second degree murder.

At the trial, state witness Willie Ray Simmons testified that the defendant shot Lionel Albritton. A tape-recorded confession, in which the defendant admitted shooting the victim, was played to the jury. Another state witness, Allen Cook, testified that he did not know who shot the victim. However, after laying a foundation, the prosecutor was allowed to impeach Mr. Cook's trial testimony with a prior inconsistent tape-recorded statement wherein Mr. Cook stated that the defendant shot the victim.

After the state rested its case-in-chief, defense witness Edward McGary testified that it was he, not the defendant, who shot and killed the victim, Lionel Albritton. However, he admitted that he was presently serving a seventy-five year sentence for attempted second-degree murder at Hunt Correctional Center. Furthermore, the prosecutor impeached Mr. McGary's trial testimony by introducing a prior inconsistent tape-recorded statement wherein Mr. McGary identified the defendant as the person who shot the victim.

*837 The defendant testified that he was at the Touchdown Lounge on the night of the shooting. However, he testified that Mr. McGary fired the shot which killed Mr. Albritton. Defendant admitted making a prior tape-recorded confession to Detective Dangerfield but explained that he did so only to secure the release of his mother, Mrs. Nellie Kimble, who had been arrested and charged with obstruction of justice and accessory after the fact to second degree murder after she failed to surrender the suspected murder weapon to the authorities. The defendant testified that Detective Dangerfield promised to release his mother from jail if he confessed to the murder.

On rebuttal, Assistant District Attorney Lou Sherman, Jr., testified that, during negotiations with Mr. McGary on an unrelated criminal matter, Mr. McGary offered to make a deal. As part of the deal, Mr. McGary stated that the defendant had shot Mr. Albritton.

ASSIGNMENT OF ERROR NUMBER ONE

In this assignment of error, defendant contends that the trial court erred in denying his challenge for cause of prospective juror, Esther Savoie, who indicated on voir dire that she is currently represented in a civil suit by Assistant District Attorney Barbara Cole.

Prior to Louisiana Acts 1983, No. 181, in order to prove reversible error, a defendant needed to show two things: (1) that the trial court erred in refusing to sustain a challenge for cause made by him, and (2) that he exhausted all of his peremptory challenges. See State v. Glaze, 439 So.2d 605, 606 (La.App. 1st Cir.1983). However, Act 181, § 1, of the 1983 Regular Session amended LSA-C.Cr.P. art. 800 by removing the requirement that a defendant exhaust all of his peremptory challenges before complaining of a ruling refusing to sustain a challenge for cause. State v. Robertson, 518 So.2d 579, 583 (La.App. 1st Cir.1987), cert. denied, 523 So.2d 227 (La.1988).

LSA-C.Cr.P. art. 797 provides that a juror may be excused for cause on either of the following pertinent grounds:

(2) The juror is not impartial, whatever the cause of his partiality. An opinion or impression as to the guilt or innocence of the defendant shall not of itself be sufficient ground of challenge to a juror, if he declares, and the court is satisfied, that he can render an impartial verdict according to the law and the evidence;
(3) The relationship, whether by blood, marriage, employment, friendship, or enmity between the juror and the defendant, the person injured by the offense, the district attorney, or defense counsel, is such that it is reasonable to conclude that it would influence the juror in arriving at a verdict[.]

The trial court is vested with broad discretion in ruling on a challenge for cause, and that ruling will not be disturbed on appeal absent a showing of abuse of that discretion. Robertson, 518 So.2d at 583. Service on a criminal jury by one associated with law enforcement duties must be closely scrutinized and may justify a challenge for cause, although such association does not automatically disqualify a prospective juror. State v. Edwards, 459 So.2d 1291, 1293 (La.App. 1st Cir.1984). It is not the mere existence of a relationship between a prospective juror and a law enforcement officer or district attorney that will sustain a challenge for cause, instead, it is the prospective juror's ability or inability to remain fair and impartial which will determine whether or not a challenge for cause will be granted. See Robertson; Edwards; and State v. Sugar, 408 So.2d 1329 (La. 1982).

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
546 So. 2d 834, 1989 WL 70394, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-kimble-lactapp-1989.