State v. McFarland

960 So. 2d 1142, 2007 WL 1545837
Louisiana Court of Appeal·Decided May 29, 2007·No. 07-KA-26·Published·Cited by 13 cases

Opinion

960 So.2d 1142 (2007)

STATE of Louisiana
v.
Morris D. McFARLAND.

No. 07-KA-26.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Fifth Circuit.

May 29, 2007.

*1143 Paul D. Connick, Jr., District Attorney, Twenty-Fourth Judicial District, Parish of *1144 Jefferson, Terry M. Boudreaux, Anne Wallis, Donald Rowan, Assistant District Attorneys, Gretna, Louisiana, for Plaintiff/Appellee.

Holli A. Herrle-Castillo, Louisiana Appellate Project, Marrero, Louisiana, for Defendant/Appellant.

Panel composed of Judges EDWARD A. DUFRESNE, JR., THOMAS F. DALEY, and WALTER J. ROTHSCHILD.

WALTER J. ROTHSCHILD, Judge.

Defendant, Morris McFarland, was indicted by a grand jury charging him with second degree murder in violation of LSA-R.S. 14:30.1.[1] Brian Fullilove, Luther McFarland, Yarnell McFarland, and Derrick Williams were also indicted.[2]

Morris McFarland pled not guilty at arraignment. On January 20, 2005, the co-defendants were severed. On this same date, after a hearing, the trial judge denied the Morris McFarland's motion to suppress his statement and identification. The trial judge also denied a motion to quash the arrest warrant, which was filed by Fullilove and adopted by Morris McFarland.

On June 6, 2005, the defendant proceeded to trial before a twelve-person jury, which found him guilty as charged the next day. The defendant filed a motion for a new trial, which the trial judge denied prior to sentencing the defendant on June 13, 2005. The trial judge sentenced the defendant to life imprisonment at hard labor without benefit of probation, parole, or suspension of sentence. This timely appeal follows.

FACTS

On May 10, 2004, Arthur Buras was living in one side of a double located at 2819 Tugie Drive in Metairie. Sometime after midnight, he heard loud noises coming from the other side of the double, 2817 Tugie Drive, where the victim, 23-year-old Coulton Lyell, Jr., lived.[3] Mr. Buras looked out of his bedroom window and saw three black males trying to break through the victim's front door. After the fourth man entered the door, Mr. Buras heard a lot of muffled yelling and then heard what he believed was a gunshot.[4] When he looked outside of the front window, he saw three black males running down Tugie Drive toward Park Manor. When they reached the stop sign, they started walking toward Lafreniere Drive. Mr. Buras never got a good look at any of their faces. Mr. Buras called 911 at 12:46 a.m. to report what he had seen.

Sergeant Donald Meunier, Lieutenant Dennis Thronton, and other officers of the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office responded and found the victim on the floor in a bedroom with a gunshot wound to the neck. The State's forensic expert, Dr. Ross, testified the victim sustained a gunshot wound to the left side of his neck, which resulted in injury to the left lung. The victim also had patterned abrasions on his left forehead and a separate abrasion just above the left side of his eyebrow. Based on the gunpowder marks, or stippling, near the wound, Dr. Ross concluded that the gun was fired between one and three feet from the victim. The victim's toxicology test revealed the presence of marijuana, MDMA, also known as, "Ecstacy", *1145 cocaine, methadone, benzodiazepine, and opiate.

Based on the crime scene, the police concluded the victim was in the bed at the time of the shooting. They found his wallet, containing over $200 in cash on the bedroom floor. Police found a dresser drawer opened in the bedroom. A .40 caliber casing was recovered from the scene. The police found the front door opened, with shoe prints on it. The deadbolt and door frame were damaged. The back door, which was a partial-glass paned door, showed signs of forced entry.

During the course of a lengthy investigation, the police learned information that led them to target a residence in the 6500 block of Park Manor that was associated with the victim's girlfriend, Kelly Cochran. The police ultimately honed in on, Brian Fullilove, Luther McFarland, Yarnell McFarland, and Derek Williams as suspects. A warrant for the defendant's arrest was issued on August 6, 2004, and the defendant was arrested the same day.

Later that day, the defendant made a tape-recorded statement, which was admitted in evidence and was played for the jury at trial. The defendant said he had previously obtained methadone wafers from the victim in the past months. On May 9, 2004, the defendant's sister, Yarnell, telephoned him to say that she had obtained some cocaine from the victim. The defendant went to Yarnell's residence, where she had the cocaine on the scale. By tasting the cocaine, the defendant determined that it was not good. He brought Yarnell to the victim's house and told the victim to return her money.

Defendant stated he then went to a barbeque at his sister's home, where she gave the defendant and Brian Fullilove some cocaine. After Yarnell told the defendant and Brian that she had seen one-half kilo of cocaine in the victim's house, they began discussing taking the cocaine if no one was home. The plan was that Yarnell and Danny Jackson, who was her boyfriend, would go out with the victim and his girlfriend, Kelly Cochran, so that no one would be home when the defendant, Brian, Luther McFarland, and Derrick Williams took the cocaine from the victim's house. Initially, Luther said he did not want to go. So, the defendant and Brian went to Derrick's house to discuss the plan. After they left Derrick's, Luther called and said that he wanted to go. The defendant, Brian, and Derrick then went to pick up Luther.

When the defendant reached Tugie Drive, he had planned to park and the four of them were going to walk to the victim's house. However, Brian told the defendant that he did not want the defendant to go with them. After dropping off Brian, Derrick and Luther, the defendant drove to Yarnell's house on Park Manor. He first called Kelly, but when she did not answer, he called Yarnell. When he told Yarnell that the plan was underway, she told the defendant that the victim was still in the house. Fearing something had gone wrong, the defendant walked toward the victim's house. He saw Brian, Derrick and Luther walking towards him. The defendant learned that Luther shot the victim in the neck. When the defendant asked if the victim was dead, they replied that the victim was holding his neck and moaning. The defendant surmised Luther was trying to awaken the victim to find out the location of the drugs.

The defendant said that they told him that they could not get in the back door, so they broke through the front door. The defendant said that they told him that Luther cocked the gun as soon as he walked in. The victim was sleeping and the gun went off when Luther hit him across the head to wake him up. They searched the house, but left empty-handed. The defendant said he had seen Luther *1146 with a black "Glock 40" on prior occasions, since Luther was staying with the defendant at the time. The defendant regretted that the victim had been killed. The defendant acknowledged that he told Danny Jackson about the shooting a few days later.

At trial, the defendant testified largely consistent with his statement. However, the defendant added that the reason he did not enter the house with the others was because he did not believe they should break into someone's house. In addition, the defendant clarified that Luther was at the barbeque earlier in the day when Yarnell said that the victim had cocaine in the house.

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State v. McFarland, 960 So. 2d 1142, 2007 WL 1545837 (La. Ct. App. 2007).

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