State v. Martin

913 So. 2d 863, 2005 WL 2428536
Louisiana Court of Appeal·Decided August 17, 2005·No. 39,846-KA, 39,847-KA·Published·Cited by 6 cases

Opinion

913 So.2d 863 (2005)

STATE of Louisiana, Appellee
v.
Jessie MARTIN, Appellant.

Nos. 39,846-KA, 39,847-KA.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Second Circuit.

August 17, 2005.

*865 Carl E. Cooper, Louisiana Appellate Project, by Paula C. Marx, Lafayette, Peggy J. Sullivan, Monroe, for Appellant.

Jerry L. Jones, District Attorney, Charles Brumfield, E. Dion Young, Assistant District Attorneys, for Appellee.

Before WILLIAMS, GASKINS and MOORE, JJ.

MOORE, J.

The defendant, Jessie Martin, was convicted of the attempted manslaughter of Claudia Evans, who was his girlfriend. The state filed a multiple offender bill. At the hearing, Martin admitted to being a second felony offender without first being advised of his rights. The court sentenced him to 12 years at hard labor without benefits of probation or suspension of sentence. *866 For the reasons that follow, we affirm the defendant's conviction, but vacate and set aside the habitual offender adjudication and sentence, and remand the case to the trial court for further proceedings.

FACTS

On May 8, 2003, the defendant stabbed the victim once in the chest and six times in the back. Ms. Evans walked from the driveway into her mother's house and called 9-1-1. Catherine Johnson, the victim's mother, testified that the victim said the defendant had stabbed her. Officer Joe Reynolds testified that he arrived on the scene before the ambulance and used his fingers "in some of the holes [stab wounds] to control the bleeding." Dr. George Waterfallen testified that the stab wounds were "a little bit less than an inch" and "almost identical in size." He stated the wounds were probably made with "a straight-in type jabbing type motion."

Officer Reynolds testified that he asked the victim who had stabbed her, and she named the defendant as the culprit. Defense counsel objected based on hearsay. The state argued that the statement should be admitted under the excited utterance exception. The trial court overruled the objection after noting that "the call was close."

Officer Alan Campbell also testified that the victim said the defendant had stabbed her. No objection was made. He had assisted Detective Chuck Wilson and Corporal Chris Releford in arresting the defendant. Campbell testified that the officers pulled the defendant from a closet in which he was hiding.

Detective Wilson stated that the defendant was not wearing a shirt, was carrying a pocket knife and scabbard, and had possible bloodstains on his hands. He testified that he read the defendant his rights but did not attempt an interview that night because he "appeared very intoxicated." Wilson stated that the defendant had "a scratch on his neck."

In the defendant's taped statement, he claimed that he and the victim were approached by some people who asked the victim about drugs. He said the victim asked him for money, and he refused. They began to "tussle," and she cut his neck with "a razor." He said she took his wallet, and the other people ran. The victim continued to attack him, and he hit her with his knife. He told the police he cut her while trying to protect himself and "get her back." He did not know how many times he "hit" the victim with his knife or how badly she was hurt. The defendant told police that he used a smaller knife than the one found on him and that he threw that knife "in the woods" beside the victim's house. No other knife was found, however, nor were the box cutter that the defendant said that the victim used to cut him and the wallet he claimed she took from him. The fact that defendant stabbed the victim and the fact that the victim made a call earlier that day to say the defendant "had gotten into a fight" on King Street with someone were the only pieces of evidence to corroborate the defendant's statement.

The trial court held a hearing before allowing the state to introduce the taped 9-1-1 call. It ruled that there was "sufficient indicia of the reliability of the tape for it to be admitted." Barbara Watson, a dispatcher for the Bastrop Police Department, identified her voice on the tape as the person who received the call. After questioning the witness, defense counsel objected to the tape's admission into evidence. The trial court overruled the objection.

*867 The defense presented evidence that the defendant was unable to intentionally stab the victim because he is legally blind. To rebut this evidence, the state called two officers who responded to a "peeping tom" incident involving the defendant. Defense counsel objected, stating that the testimony was prejudicial. The trial court limited the scope of questioning to exclude the nature of the complaint the officers had responded to. In addition, the trial court gave a "cautionary instruction" to the jury. The trial court also specified that "no evidence that the defendant specifically recognized Campbell and called him Sergeant Campbell, called him by name" was admissible. Campbell and Reynolds testified that they responded to a call in August of 2002, saw the defendant, ordered him to halt, and chased him approximately 50 feet after he fled. Campbell stated that the defendant did not run into anything in his path. He said that the defendant "kept telling us that he was blind" as he was handcuffed. Reynolds stated that the defendant told them he was blind after he was handcuffed. He testified that the defendant did not "appear" blind when he was running.

Although he was charged with attempted second degree murder, the defendant was convicted of the responsive verdict of attempted manslaughter. His motions for new trial and post-judgment verdict of acquittal were both denied. He was initially sentenced to 18 years at hard labor with the last 10 years to be suspended. After the state filed an habitual offender bill of information,[1] defendant's previously imposed sentence was vacated. Without first being advised of his rights, the defendant admitted to being a second felony offender and was sentenced to serve 12 years at hard labor with credit for time served.

DISCUSSION

By his first assignment, defendant argues that the evidence at trial was not sufficient to support the conviction for attempted manslaughter in this matter. He states that no witness to the stabbing testified and that he could not have had the requisite specific intent because he was intoxicated at the time of the offense. He claims that intent to kill was never shown because "all of the wounds were superficial." The state argues that it proved the defendant "committed this act ... through ample physical evidence." Although it offered no substantiating proof, the state claims in brief that the victim did not testify because she "is deathly afraid of the defendant." It states that while the defendant may have been intoxicated, he had the presence of mind to dispose of the knife he claimed to have used and then hide immediately after the crime. The state argues that the defendant offered no proof of intoxication other than the testimony of state witnesses.

Manslaughter is a homicide which would be murder under either Article 30 (first degree murder) or Article 30.1 (second degree murder), but the offense is committed in sudden passion or heat of blood immediately caused by provocation sufficient to deprive an average person of his self-control and cool reflection. Provocation shall not reduce a homicide to manslaughter if the jury finds that the offender's blood had actually cooled, or that an average person's blood would have cooled, at the time the offense was committed. La. R.S. 14:31.

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State v. Martin, 913 So. 2d 863, 2005 WL 2428536 (La. Ct. App. 2005).

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