State v. Letell

103 So. 3d 1129, 2012 La.App. 1 Cir. 0180, 2012 La. App. LEXIS 1327, 2012 WL 5269623
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedOctober 25, 2012
DocketNo. 2012 KA 0180
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 103 So. 3d 1129 (State v. Letell) 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. Letell, 103 So. 3d 1129, 2012 La.App. 1 Cir. 0180, 2012 La. App. LEXIS 1327, 2012 WL 5269623 (La. Ct. App. 2012).

Opinion

WELCH, J.

|2The defendant, Robert Letell, was charged by bill of information with one count of fourth-offense operating a vehicle [1134]*1134while intoxicated1 (DWI) (count I), a violation of La. R.S. 14:98; one count of vehicular homicide (count II), a violation of La. R.S. 14:32.1; and three counts of first degree vehicular negligent injuring (counts III-V), violations of La. R.S. 14:39.2, and pled not guilty. Prior to trial, the State elected to nol-pros counts III-V. Following a jury trial on counts I and II, the defendant was found guilty as charged on both counts.2 On count I, he was sentenced to thirty years at hard labor without benefit of probation, parole, or suspension of sentence and was fined $5,000. The court ordered the sentence would be served consecutively to the defendant’s sentence on a previous fourth-offense DWI. On count II, he was sentenced to thirty years at hard labor and was fined $5,000. The court ordered that the first five years of the sentence were to be served without benefit of probation, parole, or suspension of sentence. The court also ordered that the sentence was to be served consecutively to the sentence imposed on count I.

The defendant now appeals, filing a counseled and a pro se brief. In his counseled brief, he contends the trial court erred in denying a motion to withdraw filed by trial defense counsel and erred in imposing sentences which were unconstitutionally excessive because they constituted multiple punishment. In his pro se brief, he contends the trial court: erred in denying the defendant’s constitutional right to self-representation; erred in refusing to allow the defendant |ato testify; erred in admitting the results of the blood-alcohol test into evidence without certificates of maintenance technicians; erred in admitting evidence in violation of the defendant’s due process rights; and erred in denying the motion to suppress evidence. For the following reasons, we affirm the convictions and sentences on counts I and II.

FACTS

On February 18, 2010, at approximately 4:00 p.m., the victim, Willie Joseph Galli-ano, Sr., was killed after his vehicle was struck by the defendant’s white Ford F250 truck on Louisiana Highway 308 in La-fourche Parish. The victim was thirty-eight years old at the time of his death. He had four children, and his wife was pregnant with their first son.

A vehicle driven by Frances Louise Addison was also struck by the defendant’s vehicle during the incident. As she was driving through a curve headed southbound on Louisiana Highway 308 with her two children, she saw a large white Ford truck headed northbound. The truck was going approximately seventy-five or eighty miles an hour, was not under the driver’s control, and hit Addison’s vehicle “broadside.” Addison’s vehicle “flipped,” and landed on its wheels. Addison was sure a white male was driving the vehicle. She did not see anyone else in the vehicle.

Trisha Bourque Lombas was driving northbound on Louisiana Highway 308 [1135]*1135with her four children shortly before the incident. The speed limit was fifty-five miles an hour, but Lombas was in the habit of driving approximately five miles faster than the speed limit. A white pickup truck approached her from the rear, traveling at “a crazy speed,” and was about to ram the rear of her vehicle, so she increased her speed. The truck attempted to pass Lombas’s vehicle, but another vehicle was in the southbound lane, which forced the truck to pull back behind Lom-bas’s vehicle to avoid a head-on collision. The truck again drove to the rear of LLombas’s vehicle, and she again drove faster to avoid being hit. The truck then passed Lombas’s vehicle, but went into a curve, forcing a vehicle headed southbound to go into the grass to avoid a head-on collision. Lombas “got a very good glimpse” of the driver of the truck in her rearview mirror on the side of her vehicle. She identified the defendant in court as the driver. She had no doubt in her identification. She also saw the defendant at the accident scene after she stopped to help a woman and child whose vehicle had been struck by the truck. The defendant was by the open door of the white truck. He was on the ground, holding his stomach and crying.

Tommy Mayet was driving southbound on Louisiana Highway 308 shortly before the incident. He believed the speed limit lowered to forty miles per hour in the curves in the area. While Mayet was in a curve, he saw a light-colored Ford F250 pickup truck traveling in the opposite lane at “a very, very high rate of speed.” The truck went off the road, and Mayet anticipated the truck would overcorrect and possibly hit him. The truck did exactly as Mayet predicted and “barely missed” striking Mayet’s vehicle. Following the collision with the victim’s vehicle, Mayet saw the defendant lying by the white truck. At trial, Mayet indicated the driver of the truck “looked very similar” to the defendant in court.

Louisiana State Troopers Keith Gros, Jr., and Dawn Celestine investigated the crash scene following the incident. Trooper Gros found yaw marks left by the defendant’s truck, consistent with the vehicle spinning out of control. Trooper Celestine found tire marks from the defendant’s lane of travel indicating his vehicle had driven off the roadway. The point of impact was in the southbound lane.

Trooper Celestine also spoke to the defendant in the hospital on the day of the incident. He had a strong odor of alcohol on his breath. He initially claimed that, at approximately noon on the day of the incident, he stopped at an unknown | Sgas station and was carjacked by a black male, who took control of his vehicle. The defendant stated he drank a pint of vodka to calm his nerves and could not remember what happened thereafter. After Trooper Celestine confronted the defendant with the accounts of the witnesses, the defendant stated he must have been driving “if that is what the witness said.” He also stated he had killed a man and should “receive the same punishment the man I killed got.”

Louisiana State Trooper Michael Lynn Satcher also visited the defendant at the hospital on the day of the incident. He too detected an odor of alcohol on the defendant’s breath. Trooper Satcher performed a horizontal gaze nystagmus test on the defendant. The defendant failed the sobriety test. Because the defendant had been involved in an accident involving a fatality, he was required to submit to blood-alcohol testing. Additionally, Trooper Satcher indicated he twice advised the defendant of [1136]*1136his Miranda3 rights: once when he initially met the defendant and again when he read him the rights relating to the chemical test for intoxication form. The defendant refused to sign the form. Thereafter, his blood was drawn at 7:04 p.m. His blood-alcohol content was .22 grams percent. He was on parole from an earlier conviction for fourth-offense DWI.

EXCESSIVE SENTENCE; DOUBLE JEOPARDY

In counseled assignment of error number 2, the defendant argues sentencing him for vehicular homicide and for fourth-offense DWI was excessive and placed him in double jeopardy, due to the use of his blood-alcohol level to support both convictions.

DOUBLE JEOPARDY

The federal and state constitutions both provide that no person shall twice be put in jeopardy of life or liberty for the same offense. U.S. Const, amend. V; La. | fiConst. art. I, § 15.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
103 So. 3d 1129, 2012 La.App. 1 Cir. 0180, 2012 La. App. LEXIS 1327, 2012 WL 5269623, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-letell-lactapp-2012.