State v. Law

189 So. 3d 1164, 2015 La.App. 1 Cir. 0210, 2016 La. App. LEXIS 367, 2016 WL 743250
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedFebruary 24, 2016
DocketNo. 2015 KA 0210
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 189 So. 3d 1164 (State v. Law) 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. Law, 189 So. 3d 1164, 2015 La.App. 1 Cir. 0210, 2016 La. App. LEXIS 367, 2016 WL 743250 (La. Ct. App. 2016).

Opinion

McClendon, j.

| ¡Defendant, Donald Law, was charged by grand jury indictment on counts one and two with indecent behavior with juveniles, in violation of LSA-R.S. 14:81A(1), and pled not guilty as charged. After a trial by jury, defendant was found guilty as charged on both counts. The trial court denied defendant’s motion for post-verdict judgment of acquittal and motion for new trial. Defendant was sentenced to seven years imprisonment at hard labor on both counts, to be served concurrently. The trial court suspended five years of the sentences and imposed five years of supervised probation with special conditions, including registration as a sex offender, and payment of a fine of three thousand dollars. Defendant now appeals, challenging the sufficiency of the evidence, the admission of testimony about particular acts by defendant, the denial of the motion for mistrial, the treatment of one of the victims as a hostile witness, the denial of the [1167]*1167motion for post-verdict, judgment of acquittal and the motion for new trial, and the imposed sentences. For the following reasons, we affirm the convictions and sentences.

STATEMENT- OF FACTS

In the summer of 2012, a group of children, including best friends C.G. ■ and M.W.1 (the victims)) made plans to stay at the home of defendant and his wife Tulon-na Law before the group would attend a church camp in Florida. The victims lived in North Louisiana (in Caddo Parish) and during summer seasons, along with other children, often visited the Laws, who lived in West Baton Rouge Parish. The Laws did not have children of their own and defendant and C.G. are cousins.2 On July 16, 2012, during the visit at issue, the victims were making cupcakes when defendant asked them to go with him to an upstairs bedroom. Once all three of them were in the bedroom defendant instructed the victims to turn off their cell phones and put them away.

| .¡Defendant then began a purported lecture with the girls on how to physically defend themselves if someone tried to'rape them, complete with physical demonstrations of attacks with each of the victims. During the purported demonstrations with M.W., defendant placed her in different positions, at one point asking her if she could feel his “stuff’ (further described by M.W. as his “private parts”). M.W. confirmed that she felt defendant’s, private parts against her during some of the demonstrations and that it made her uncomfortable. Defendant also informed the girls about sex, including instructing them on how. to perform a “hand job” and showing them a .book that portrayed sexual posh-tions with pictures of adults. After the victims told the church pastor about the incident, he reported it to the victims’ parents and the police. .

ASSIGNMENTS OF ERROR NUMBERS ONE, TWO, . SIX, AND SEVEN

In the first, second, sixth, and, in part, the seventh assignment of error, defendant argues that the evidence is insufficient to support the verdicts because there was no proof beyond a reasonable doubt that he intended to arouse or gratify his or the victims’ sexual desires. Thus, in assignments of error numbers one and two, the defendant contends that the jury erred in finding him guilty of indecent behavior with C.G. (assignment of error number one) and M.W. (assignment of error number two). Based on the same argument, defendant argues in assignment of error number six that the trial court erred in denying his motion for post-verdict judgment of acquittal. Likewise, in assignment of error number seven, defendant argues‘that the verdicts are contrary to the law and evidence and that the trial court erred in denying the motion for new trial (in part) on this basis.

A conviction based on insufficient evidence cannot stand as it violates Due Process. See U.S. Const, amend. XIV;, LSA-Const. art, I, § 2. The. standard of review for the sufficiency , of the evidence to uphold a conviction is whether or not, viewing the evidence in the light most, favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential , ele[1168]*1168ments of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 2789, 461 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979). See also LSA-C.Cr.P. art. 821B; State v. Ordodi, 06-0207 (La.11/29/06), 946 So.2d 654, 660. The Jackson standard of review, incorporated in Article 821B, is an objective standard for testing the overall evidence, both direct' and circumstantial, for reasonable doubt. When analyzing circumstantial evidence, LSA-R.S. 15:438 provides that the fact finder must be satisfied that the overall evidence excludes every reasonable hypothesis of innocence. See State v. Paterno, 01-2585 (Lal.App. 1 Cir. 6/21/02), 822 So.2d 141, 144.

Indecent behavior with juveniles is, in pertinent part, the commission of any lewd or lascivious act upon the person or in the presence of any child under the age of seventeen, where there is an age difference of greater than two years between the two persons, with the intention of arousing or gratifying the sexual desires of either person.3 Lack of knowledge of the child’s age shall not be a defense. LSA-R.S. 14:81A(1). Whether defendant committed a lewd or lascivious act upon the person or in the presence of C.G. and M.W., or whether any act committed was with the intention of arousing or gratifying his or the children’s sexual desires are the primary elements at issue on appeal. The supreme court in State v. Prejean, 216 La. 1072, 1078, 45 So.2d 627, 629 (1950) provided guidance on how to determine what constitutes lewd arid lascivious activity:

The word ‘lewd’ means lustful, indecent) lascivious, and signifies that form of immorality which has relation to sexual impurity or incontinence carried on in a wanton manner. The word ‘lascivious’ means tending to excite lust, lewd, indecent, obscene, relating to sexual impurity, tending to deprave the morals in respect to sexual relations.

Louisiana Code of Criminal Procedure article 821 provides that a motion for post-verdict judgment of acquittal shall be granted only if the court finds that the evidence, viewed in a light most favorable to the state, does not reasonably permit a finding of guilty. This is- a question of legal sufficiency. State v. Combs, 600 So.2d 751, 754 (La.App. 2 Cir.1992), writ denied, 604 So.2d 973 (La.1992). | (¡Louisiana Code of Criminal Procedure article 851(1) provides that the court shall grant a motion for new trial whenever the verdict is contrary to the law and the evidence. In ruling on a motion for new trial pursuant to LSA-C.Cr.P. art. 851(1), the trial court can only consider the weight of the evidence, and the trial court makes a factual review of the evidence as a thirteenth juror. State v. Steward, 95-1693 (La.App. 1 Cir. 9/27/96), 681 So.2d 1007, 1014. In contrast, an appellate court is constitutionally precluded from acting as a “thirteenth juror” in assessing what weight to give evidence in criminal cases, since, that determination rests solely within the discretion of the trier of fact. Steward, 681 So.2d at 1014. Appellate courts may review the grant or denial of a motion for new trial only for errors of law. See LSA-C.Cr.P. art. 858. ,

M.W. testified that once she,'C.G.,'and defendant entered the upstairs bedroom defendant closed the bedroom door though she was unsure as to whether or not it was locked.

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

Related

State Of Louisiana v. Torrance Verdin
Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2023
State of Louisiana in the Interest of R.R. B.
Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2022
State Of Louisiana v. Ronald St. Cyre
Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2019
State v. Davis
273 So. 3d 670 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2019)
State v. Barr
275 So. 3d 9 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2019)
State v. Kitts
250 So. 3d 939 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2018)
State ex rel. J.S.
238 So. 3d 600 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2018)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
189 So. 3d 1164, 2015 La.App. 1 Cir. 0210, 2016 La. App. LEXIS 367, 2016 WL 743250, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-law-lactapp-2016.