State v. Lee

788 So. 2d 452, 2001 WL 137661
Louisiana Court of Appeal·Decided February 16, 2001·No. 2000 KA 0183·Published·Cited by 13 cases

Opinion

788 So.2d 452 (2001)

STATE of Louisiana
v.
Danny Ray LEE

No. 2000 KA 0183.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, First Circuit.

February 16, 2001.
Writ Denied March 30, 2001.

*453 Walter J. Senette, Jr., Assistant District Attorney, Franklin, for Appellee State of Louisiana.

James E. Boren, Baton Rouge, for Appellant Danny Ray Lee.

Before: CARTER, C.J., FOIL and WEIMER, JJ.

FOIL, Judge.

Defendant, Danny Ray Lee, was charged by indictment with second degree murder, a violation of La. R.S. 14:30.1. *454 After pleading not guilty, he was tried by jury and convicted as charged. He received the mandatory sentence of life in prison at hard labor without probation, parole or suspension of sentence. Defendant appealed, urging two assignments of error.

FACTS

In August, 1994, defendant and three other people, Davey Coslow, Sherry Coslow and Sheila Tibblas, left Oklahoma in a car rented by Tibblas, with the intention of visiting all of the states in the country. Davey and Sherry Coslow were husband and wife. Defendant and Sheila Tibblas were boyfriend and girlfriend.

While the group was in St. Mary Parish, they stopped at a sugarcane field. According to Davey Coslow, defendant murdered Tibblas while they were at the sugarcane field. Coslow said that defendant first choked her and then stabbed her in the throat. The victim's body was then covered with a piece of old tin and left in a trash pile in the field.

Defendant and the Coslows then continued on the trip, using the victim's checks, forged by Sherry Coslow, to finance their travels. Eventually they returned to Oklahoma where they were stopped for a traffic violation. At the time of the stop, they were still driving the victim's rental car. Police noted that the person to whom the car had been rented had been reported missing and was not in the car when it was stopped. Initially, defendant was arrested only for driving without a license, and Davey Coslow was arrested for possession of marijuana. Sherry Coslow and another woman who was in the car at the time of the stop were released.

Shortly after her release, Sherry Coslow contacted Oklahoma police and told them about the murder of Tibblas. Eventually, Davey Coslow cooperated with police in Oklahoma and told them that defendant had murdered Tibblas. He was taken to Louisiana where he assisted police in locating the victim's body.

ASSIGNMENT OF ERROR NO. 2

In this assignment of error, defendant claims that the trial court's instruction on second degree murder was erroneous in that it failed to include the element of specific intent. He further claims that trial counsel was ineffective for failure to object to the instruction.

La.Code Crim. P. art. 801 dictates that, "[a] party may not assign as error the giving or failure to give a jury charge or any portion thereof unless an objection thereto is made before the jury retires or within such time as the court may reasonably cure the alleged error." Here, the defendant argues that trial counsel's failure to object to the jury charge constitutes ineffective assistance of counsel.

We note initially that a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel is more properly raised by an application for post conviction relief in the district court where a full evidentiary hearing may be conducted. State v. Hicks, 554 So.2d 1298, 1306 (La.App. 1st Cir.1989), writs denied, 559 So.2d 1374 (La.1990) and 604 So.2d 1297 (La.1992). However, where the record discloses evidence sufficient to decide the issue of ineffective assistance of counsel and that issue is raised on appeal, the issue may be addressed in the interest of judicial economy. State v. Bourgeois, 451 So.2d 172, 174 (La.App. 1st Cir.), writ denied, 457 So.2d 18 (La.1984). Because defendant has alleged that trial counsel was ineffective for failing to object to the jury charge and the record is sufficient to review that claim, we will examine the issue of whether the charge was erroneous.

*455 The trial court's instruction defining the crime of second degree murder was as follows:

Second Degree Murder is the killing of a human being when the offender actively desired to kill or inflict great bodily harm. What Mr. Lee actively desired must be determined in light of ordinary circumstances. It is a question of fact which may be inferred from the circumstances.
So, in order to convict Mr. Lee of Second Degree Murder, you must find that: (1) Danny Lee killed Sheila Tibblas or was a principal in her killing; and (2) He actively desired to kill or inflict great bodily harm.

Defendant points out that the jury instruction regarding the definition of second degree murder did not indicate that the jury had to find that defendant acted with "specific intent" to kill or inflict serious bodily injury. He contends that this omission relieved the state of the burden of proving an element of the offense charged. Defendant asserts that the court's definition creates a crime of "strict liability murder" by effectively eliminating the requirement of specific intent from the definition of the crime.

We disagree. While the words "specific intent" were not used to describe that element of the crime, the definition of specific intent was included in the charge. La. R.S. 14:10(1) defines specific intent as "that state of mind which exists when the circumstances indicate that the offender actively desired the prescribed criminal consequences to follow his act or failure to act." The jury was instructed that, in order to find defendant guilty of the crime of second degree murder they must find that he "actively desired to kill or inflict great bodily harm."

Defendant contends that "state of mind" is subjective, while "actively desired" does not refer to state of mind and is objective, rendering the jury instructions defective. He further argues that the omission of the state of mind requirement is not harmless error because the crux of his defense was that he did not have specific intent to kill.

We conclude that the jury instruction complained of here was not erroneous in that it included the definition of specific intent, which is a required element of the crime of second degree murder. Therefore, trial counsel was not ineffective for failing to object to the jury instruction and this assignment of error is without merit.

ASSIGNMENT OF ERROR NO. 1

In this assignment of error, defendant contends that trial counsel was ineffective because of a conflict of interest between his representation of defendant at trial and his prior representation of Davey Coslow, who testified against defendant at trial.

Defendant was indicted for second degree murder. Davey Coslow was charged by bill of information with the crime of accessory after the fact to second degree murder. At all times, the two cases proceeded separately, except at the preliminary hearing when the cases were consolidated for purposes of that hearing only. At the preliminary hearing, both Coslow and defendant were represented by appointed counsel. Craig Colwart of the St. Mary Parish Indigent Defender Board represented Coslow, and Gary LeGros represented defendant. The minutes indicate that, at subsequent proceedings, defendant was represented by Susan E. Kutcher. At trial, defendant was represented by Craig Colwart and Coslow was represented by Gary LeGros.

Defendant filed a motion for an out-of-time appeal, which was granted by the trial court. He then filed a motion for

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