State v. Lattin

219 So. 3d 511, 2017 WL 1653558, 2017 La. App. LEXIS 773
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMay 2, 2017
DocketNo. 51,372-KA
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 219 So. 3d 511 (State v. Lattin) 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. Lattin, 219 So. 3d 511, 2017 WL 1653558, 2017 La. App. LEXIS 773 (La. Ct. App. 2017).

Opinion

WILLIAMS, J.

pThe defendant, Annternette Denise Lattin, was charged by bill of information with home invasion, in violation of La. R.S. 14:62.8. Following a jury trial, she was found guilty of the responsive verdict of unauthorized entry of an inhabited dwelling, a violation of La. R.S. 14:62.3. The trial court sentenced the defendant to serve one year in prison at hard labor. The sentence was suspended, and she was placed on supervised probation for a period of one year. Additionally, the court ordered the defendant to pay court costs or serve 30 days in the parish jail in lieu of payment. For the following reasons, we affirm the defendant’s conviction. We vacate the defendant’s sentence and remand this matter to the trial court with instructions.

FACTS

The'defendant, Annternette Lattin, and James Leachman were involved in a relationship, which resulted in the birth of “Frank.”1 The defendant and Leachman ended their relationship soon after Frank was born.

The events thereafter became a matter of dispute during the trial. It is undisputed that neither Leachman nor the defendant had a court order with regard to the custody of Frank. Leachman testified that the defendant relinquished custody of Frank to him when Frank was two months old and the child has lived with him since that time.2 Conversely, the defendant 12testified that she has lived “back and forth” between Shreveport and Memphis, Tennessee, for most of her life. She maintained that despite her living arrangement, she never relinquished custody of Frank. She stated that she and Leachman entered into an informal custody agreement, whereby she would have physical custody of Frank during the school year, and Leachman would have physical custody of the child during the summer months. The defendant testified that Frank visited Leachman during the summer of “2013 or 2014”; there[513]*513after, Leachman refused to return him to her custody.

On November 26, 2014, the defendant and her sister, Kenya Houston, went to Leachman’s apartment and asked to visit Frank. Leachman shared the apartment with his girlfriend, Miriam Victoria Ochoa, Frank, and the three-year-old daughter Leachman shared with Ochoa.

When the defendant and Houston arrived at the apartment, Leachman answered the door and allowed Frank to visit with them on the “porch” of the apartment. Meanwhile, Ochoa took her daughter to a bedroom located in the rear of the apartment.

Leachman testified as follows: when the defendant arrived, Frank appeared nervous and stated to him, “[D]on’t leave me[;] just watch”; the defendant knelt down to hug Frank; he heard the defendant say, “I should just take him”; the defendant picked Frank up and attempted to “break and run with him”; he “grabbed” Frank to prevent the defendant from fleeing with him; Houston “jumped in” and a struggle ensued between Leach-man, the defendant and Houston; he managed to pull Frank from the defendant’s lagrasp; he pushed Frank into the apartment; the defendant called an unidentified man for assistance; before the man reached the front porch, he (Leachman) hurried inside the apartment and shut the door; the defendant, Houston and the unidentified man forcibly opened the door and entered the apartment; Frank retreated to a back bedroom where Ochoa and her daughter were located; an altercation ensued between him, the defendant, Houston and the unidentified man; the defendant, Houston and the unidentified man attempted to walk toward the back bedroom where Frank had gone; he attempted to block their path; the defendant, Houston and the man began “punching and scratching” him; the defendant, Houston and the man reached the back bedroom where Ochoa and the children were located; he “tried to fight them off’; the defendant, Houston and the man opened the bedroom door, grabbed Ochoa by her hair and “started yanking on her head” in an attempt to pull her out of the bedroom; “an all-out battle royal” ensued; “everybody” began to “tussle”; Ochoa fled the bedroom with her daughter; the defendant, Houston and the man attacked him as he held Frank; he managed to shield Frank from most of the blows; during the struggle, the defendant grabbled his testicles and pulled them; the defendant also grabbed Frank’s neck and began “twisting it”; the defendant stopped twisting Frank’s neck after he (Leachman) warned her that she could “break it”; the male accomplice told him “Just let [Frank] go, man. Just let him go”; he refused to let go of Frank; the altercation continued until police officers arrived;3 by the time the police officers arrived, his apartment looked “like a tornado |4came through it”; he did not give the defendant, Houston or the man consent to enter the apartment; and he, Ochoa and Frank sustained several injuries during the incident.

During his direct testimony, Leachman identified photographs taken on the night of the incident. The photographs were admitted into evidence and shown to the jury.4 On cross-examination, Leachman admitted that although Frank lived with him, [514]*514he did not have a court order granting him full custody of. the child. He testified that he filed a petition for sole custody of the child after the incident in question;, the petition was pending at the time of trial.

Miriam Ochoa testified as follows: she and -Leachman were in their apartment when they heard a knock at the door; when she saw that the defendant was at the door, she took her daughter into the bedroom; soon thereafter, she heard “a lot of yelling and screaming”; she left the bedroom and walked toward the front door; she- saw the defendant “and two other people” trying to force their way through the door; Leachman tried to push Prank inside the apartment; she attempted to “hold the door” to. prevent the defendant and the others from entering the apartment; the defendant and the others forced their way inside the apartment; she “grabbed the two kids and ran to the bedroom”; the bedroom door did not have a lock, so she attempted to hold the door to prevent the defendant and the others from entering the bedroom; “someone” reached inside a crack in the bedroom door, grabbed her by her hair and, began pulling her .hair; the group gained entry into the |fibedroom and the altercation between Leachman, the defendant, Houston and the man continued; she took her daughter and escaped from the apartment; she “started calling the police”; the apartment manager had already called the police department; and when the police officer arrived, she directed him to the apartment.

Corporal Phillip Tucker was on patrol that night for the Shreveport Police Department. Cpl. Tucker testified as follows: on November 26, 2014, he was dispatched to Leachman’s apartment in response to a 911 call; he arrived at the apartment complex and observed Ochoa flagging down his patrol car; he went inside the apartment and. saw Houston standing in the hallway leading to the bedroom, the defendant sitting on the bedroom floor and Leachman sitting on the edge of the bed; the unidentified man was not in the apartment when he. arrived; he observed that Leachman and the defendant appeared to be “physically exhausted” and “appeared to have been in a physical altercation”; he followed police protocol by' separating the individuals and interviewing them separately; when he completed his questioning, he took photographs of the apartment, Leachman, Ochoa and Frank; and he arrested the defendant and Houston.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
219 So. 3d 511, 2017 WL 1653558, 2017 La. App. LEXIS 773, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-lattin-lactapp-2017.