State v. Leday

97 So. 3d 501, 11 La.App. 5 Cir. 1022, 2012 La. App. LEXIS 922, 2012 WL 2476651
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJune 28, 2012
DocketNos. 11-KA-1022, 12-KA-54
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 97 So. 3d 501 (State v. Leday) 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. Leday, 97 So. 3d 501, 11 La.App. 5 Cir. 1022, 2012 La. App. LEXIS 922, 2012 WL 2476651 (La. Ct. App. 2012).

Opinion

CLARENCE E. McMANUS, Judge.

l2Pefendant, Frederick Leday, was convicted of armed robbery in violation of LSA-R.S. 14:64, and sentenced as a second felony offender to 100 years at hard labor. Defendant appeals from his conviction and from his multiple offender adjudication and sentence.

The following was adduced at trial. At approximately 8:00 p.m. on December 22, 2009, Mr. Henry Courteaux,1 the manager of the Evergreen Plaza Inn on Veterans Highway in Metairie, was watching television behind the front desk. An individual walked in and requested the rate of the rooms and Mr. Courteaux recognized the man as a frequent visitor of the inn. He had been told by one of his employees that the individual had stayed there recently and now wanted a discounted rate, which Mr. Courteaux offered him. After receiving the offer, the individual then appeared to proceed toward the exit, saying he was going to talk with a companion outside. Mr. Courteaux thought the man had exited, but seconds later he observed him pass behind a fish tank in the lobby and come through a side door that accessed the area behind the front desk. The man then put something “sharp and cold” against the manager’s neck, demanded he open the cash register, and give him all the cash.2 Mr. Courteaux complied, giving the robber $170.00. The robber then ordered Mr. Courteaux to lie face down on the floor, which he Robeyed; and when he stood up moments later, the robber was gone. Mr. Courteaux then called 911.

Deputy Ernest Pierre of the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Department responded to the call and arrived on the scene within five minutes. Upon his arrival, Mr. Cour-teaux informed the deputy that he had been robbed at knifepoint.

Ms. Patricia Hills, an employee of the inn, testified that defendant, who was employed across the street at a car wash, often came to the inn to get breakfast, and that she had seen defendant with a knife a few days before the robbery. Ms. Gladiola Williams, also an employee of the inn, was an acquaintance of defendant as a result of his frequenting the inn. She testified that she rented a room to defendant two days before the robbery, on December 19, 2009.

The inn is equipped with seven surveillance cameras, some of which captured the robbery of Mr. Courteaux. Both Ms. Hills and Ms. Williams reviewed the surveil[504]*504lance footage. Ms. Hills testified that she saw defendant put a knife to Mr. Cour-teaux’s neck. Ms. Williams testified that the footage showed defendant coming into the inn on the morning of the robbery and that although the footage of the robbery was dark, making it difficult to make out the robber’s face, she determined that the robber possessed defendant’s features.

On December 23, 2009, the day after the robbery, both Ms. Hills and Ms. Williams identified defendant from photographic lineups. Ms. Hills identified defendant from the lineup as the robber in the video. Ms. Williams identified defendant from the lineup as the person she rented the room to on December 19 and as the person in the surveillance footage entering the inn on the morning of the robbery. In addition, at trial, Mr. Courteaux testified that he was sure that it was defendant who had robbed him.

|4Pefendant was arrested on December 26, 2009. He was advised of his rights, indicated he understood them, and executed a waiver thereof. He then gave a statement. Defendant admitted that he approached Mr. Courteaux from behind, placed his arm around his neck, demanded he open the cash register drawer and remove the money. However, defendant stressed that he did not use a weapon during the robbery.

In his first assignment of error, defendant argues that the trial court erred in admitting evidence of other crimes. Specifically, defendant contends that evidence of a prior first degree robbery conviction should have been excluded as inadmissible other crimes evidence since the evidence was more prejudicial than probative. According to the State’s “Notice of Intent to Use Evidence of Other Crimes,” in August 2005, defendant pled guilty to first degree robbery in violation of LSA-R.S. 14:64.1 for committing theft of U.S. currency belonging to a bank by use of force or intimidation and by leading the victim to reasonably believe he was armed with a dangerous weapon. In its notice of intent, the State asserted that the purpose of introducing the evidence was to show defendant’s knowledge, intent, guilty knowledge, system, and motive.

The trial court found that the evidence of Defendant’s prior conviction was admissible, noting that “first degree robbery is a lesser and includeable [sic] offense within armed robbery, the elements being similar if not identical, certainly not identical.

At trial, evidence of defendant’s prior conviction was admitted. In rebuttal closing argument, the prosecutor argued the relevance of this evidence:

[Defendant] talks a lot about the evidence of other crimes, the, what we call 404(B), evidence of other crimes, his pri- or conviction. He says that he doesn’t want you to consider it at all and that we’re just showing it to you to make him a bad man.
[^That’s not why we put that evidence in. You heard Mr. Leday’s statement, you heard him over and over again say that he didn’t have a knife and he didn’t make them think he had a knife, you heard it numerous times, I didn’t have a knife and I never made anybody think I had a knife.
Why do you think he did that, he’s been there before, he’s had a prior robbery, he knows what he needs to say to the police to mitigate what he did.

The fundamental rule in Louisiana governing the use of evidence of other crimes, wrongs, or acts is that such evidence is not admissible to prove that the accused committed the charged crime because he has committed other such crimes in the past. State v. Williams, 09-48, p. 9 (La.App. 5 Cir. 10/27/09), 28 So.3d 357, [505]*505363, writ denied, 09-2565 (La.5/7/10), 34 So.3d 860. However, such evidence may be admitted by certain statutory and jurisprudential exceptions to the exclusionary rule when it tends to prove a material issue and has independent relevance other than showing that the defendant is of bad character. State v. Dauzart, 02-1187 (La.App. 5 Cir. 3/25/03), 844 So.2d 159, 165.

The statutory exceptions, as provided in LSA-C.E. art. 404(B)(1), are “proof of motive, opportunity, intent, preparation, plan, knowledge, identity, absence of mistake or accident.” In order for other crimes evidence to be admitted under LSA-C.E. art. 404(B)(1), one of the factors enumerated in the article must be at issue, have some independent relevance, or be an element of the crime charged. State v. Cotton, 07-782, p. 12 (La.App. 5 Cir. 2/19/08), 980 So.2d 34, 42, writ denied, 08-0603 (La.10/3/08), 992 So.2d 1010. Further, the probative value of the extraneous evidence must outweigh its prejudicial effect. Id. The defendant bears the burden to show that he was prejudiced by the admission of the other crimes evidence. Id.

Clearly, evidence of other crimes or bad acts is prejudicial since all evidence that tends to make it more probable than not that an individual committed a | (¡criminal offense is necessarily prejudicial. Cotton, 07-782 at 12-13, 980 So.2d at 42.

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Bluebook (online)
97 So. 3d 501, 11 La.App. 5 Cir. 1022, 2012 La. App. LEXIS 922, 2012 WL 2476651, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-leday-lactapp-2012.