State v. McDonald

838 So. 2d 128, 2002 La.App. 3 Cir. 909, 2003 La. App. LEXIS 221, 2003 WL 252715
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedFebruary 5, 2003
DocketNo. 02-909
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 838 So. 2d 128 (State v. McDonald) 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. McDonald, 838 So. 2d 128, 2002 La.App. 3 Cir. 909, 2003 La. App. LEXIS 221, 2003 WL 252715 (La. Ct. App. 2003).

Opinion

hEZELL, J.

On December 3, 1998, a Calcasieu Parish grand jury indicted Defendant, Randy McDonald, and four other men for aggravated rape and armed robbery, violations of La.R.S. 14:42 and 14:64, respectively. On September 13, 1999, the State amended the indictment to clarify that each co-defendant was charged with a single count of aggravated rape and that Defendant was not charged with armed robbery. Defendant stood trial on October 17, 2000, but the jury deadlocked, and the court declared a mistrial.

After further motions, a second jury trial began on April 1, 2002. On April 4, the jury found Defendant guilty as charged. On April 5, the court denied Defendant’s motion for post-verdict judgment of acquittal. Defendant stated he was ready to proceed, and the court sentenced him to the mandatory term of life imprisonment at hard labor without benefit of parole, probation, or suspension of sentence.

Defendant now appeals his conviction.

[130]*130FACTS

On September 28, 1998, S.V.1 was ejected from a drug and alcohol treatment center in Lake Charles, Louisiana. She wanted to return to Opelousas, and a man named Michael Guillory offered to help her. The pair walked to the nearby home of Dewey Miller, a friend of Guillory’s, so that S.V. could use the telephone.

S.V. was unsuccessful in contacting anyone to give her a ride to Opelousas. Miller had to leave, so he asked S.V. and Guillory to leave, also. Upon leaving, the pair soon encountered Kristopher Schoening, a.k.a. Justin Schoening. The three smoked marijuana together, then proceeded to the nearby home of Defendant, Randy McDonald.

| ^Guillory and Schoening then left. Defendant began touching the victim, although she asked him not to do so. She then heard Forrest Bradford, a.k.a. “Red,” calling her into a back bedroom. Bradford offered to drive her back to Opelousas, in exchange for sex. She did not agree, but Bradford grabbed her, removed her clothing, put his penis in her mouth, then engaged in vaginal intercourse with her. After Bradford was finished, the Defendant had vaginal intercourse with S.V. At some point, Guillory and Schoening returned to the house, and they also had sex with her. Defendant also returned to the room and had anal sex with her. Michael Hoffpauir, who was also at the house, had sex with her. The victim did not consent to have sex with any of them.

At one point, the victim screamed and Schoening put a pillow over her head and pistol-whipped her. When the ordeal was over, S.V. got dressed2 and returned to the treatment center, seeking help. Guil-lory followed her halfway back to the center, claiming he had a gun. However, she finished the trip by herself, running the rest of the way to the center. Once there, she convinced someone to call the police. The subsequent investigation led to the arrest of Defendant and the other men.3

ERRORS PATENT

The Court has reviewed the record in accordance with La.Code Crim.P. art 920 and finds that there are no errors patent.

Although the Defendant was sentenced immediately after the trial court’s denial of his motion for post verdict judgment of acquittal, and La.Code Crim.P. art. 873 mandates a twenty-four-hour delay between the denial of such motions and the | ..¡imposition of sentence, the Defendant indicated at sentencing that he was prepared to go forward with sentencing. The court finds that this would be harmless since the Defendant received a mandatory life sentence. State v. Porter, 99-1722 (La.App. 3 Cir. 5/3/00), 761 So.2d 115; State v. Williams, 617 So.2d 557 (La.App. 3 Cir.), writ denied, 623 So.2d 1331 (La. 1993).

ASSIGNMENT OF ERROR NO. 1

In this assignment, Defendant argues the evidence adduced at trial was insufficient to support his conviction. The test for such sufficiency challenges is well-settled:

In reviewing the sufficiency of the evidence to support a conviction, an appellate court in Louisiana is gov[131]*131erned by the standard enunciated in Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979). Under this standard the appellate court must determine that the direct and circumstantial evidence, viewed in the light most favorable to the prosecution, was sufficient to convince a rational trier of fact that all of the elements of the crime had been proved beyond a reasonable doubt. State v. Captville, 448 So.2d 676 (La. 1984).

State v. Meyers, 620 So.2d 1160, 1162 (La. 1993).

Louisiana Revised Statutes 14:42 sets forth the elements of aggravated rape, stating, in pertinent part:4

A. Aggravated rape is a rape committed upon a person sixty-five years of age or older or where the anal, oral, or vaginal sexual intercourse is deemed to be without lawful consent of the victim because it is committed under any one or more of the following circumstances:
(1) When the victim resists the act to the utmost, but whose resistance is overcome by force.
(2) When the victim is prevented from resisting the act by threats of great and immediate bodily harm, accompanied by apparent power of execution.
(3) When the victim is prevented from resisting the act because the offender is armed with a dangerous weapon.
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(5) When two or more offenders participated in the act.
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|4For purposes of Paragraph (5), “participate” shall mean:

(1) Commit the act of rape.
(2) Physically assist in the commission of such act.

At trial, the victim testified Defendant had sexual intercourse with her twice, once vaginally and once anally. Further, she testified she did not consent to have sex with him. Essentially, the Defendant and four other men gang-raped her.

The victim’s testimony was corroborated by the DNA evidence. Forensic DNA analyst Gina Pineda of Reliagene Technologies testified regarding the genetic evidence in this case. Pineda explained that Reliagene analyzed samples from a vaginal swab. The swab contained female and male genetic material. Testing of the female genetic material did not exclude the victim as being the donor. Pineda stated male genetic material was supplied by more than one man, but the DNA analysis excluded 99.9 percent of the population. The analysis did not exclude Defendant as a donor of the genetic material. Thus, Defendant was a member of the .01 percent of the population that could have contributed to the male genetic material.

The victim’s testimony was also corroborated by the testimony of the other males who were in the house during the offense. Scott Burnett, deceased at the time of the present trial, was sleeping on a couch during the offense. His testimony from Defendant’s previous trial was read before the jury. He testified that he lived at the house where the offense occurred, as did Defendant and Michael Hoffpauir.

Burnett recalled that Defendant, Hoff-pauir, “Justin,” “another Michael,” Forrest Bradford, and the victim were in the house on the afternoon of September 28, 1998.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
838 So. 2d 128, 2002 La.App. 3 Cir. 909, 2003 La. App. LEXIS 221, 2003 WL 252715, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-mcdonald-lactapp-2003.