State v. McLeland

456 So. 2d 633
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedAugust 22, 1984
Docket16300-KA
StatusPublished
Cited by23 cases

This text of 456 So. 2d 633 (State v. McLeland) 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. McLeland, 456 So. 2d 633 (La. Ct. App. 1984).

Opinion

456 So.2d 633 (1984)

STATE of Louisiana, Appellee,
v.
Donald R. McLELAND, Appellant.

No. 16300-KA.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Second Circuit.

August 22, 1984.
Rehearing Denied September 21, 1984.
Writ Denied December 7, 1984.

*636 Indigent Defender Office by Richard C. Goorley and Richard E. Hiller, Shreveport, for appellant.

William J. Guste, Jr., Atty. Gen., Barbara Rutledge, Asst. Atty. Gen., Baton Rouge, Paul J. Carmouche, Dist. Atty., James Stewart, John A. Broadwell, Asst. Dist. Attys., Shreveport, for appellee.

Before PRICE, JASPER E. JONES and SEXTON, JJ.

SEXTON, Judge.

Donald Ray McLeland appeals his conviction and sentence for Armed Robbery, a violation of LSA-R.S. 14:64. He argues for reversal of his conviction and sentence on the basis of three assigned errors. We affirm.

In the early morning hours of November 30, 1982, the Palomar Hotel in Shreveport, Louisiana was robbed. The night clerk, J.B. Fincher, testified that a red Volkswagen pulled up to the drive-thru window at the hotel. The person in the passenger side of the car pointed a sawed-off shotgun at Fincher and demanded money in large denominations. Mr. Fincher gave the gunman between three and four hundred dollars from the motel cash register and $152 of his own money. After receiving the money, the gunman asked for the telephone, jerked the receiver from the phone, and threw it into the street. The car then left, heading in the direction of Monkhouse Drive.

Immediately after the armed robbery call went out on the police frequency, an officer spotted a car on Monkhouse Drive which met the description given on the police radio. The officer pursued the vehicle which eventually crashed into a ditch. Four white males got out of the car. One of the boys, a juvenile, was captured at the scene. The others ran north through a muddy construction site into a wooded area. A description of the others suspected of involvement in the robbery was circulated. At about 7:30 that morning, the defendant and Eddie Dye were located coming from behind a house about one mile west of the site where the car had been abandoned. Their clothing was muddy and wet. They were subsequently placed under arrest and transferred to the police station. The fourth suspect, Barry Tripp, was located about five hours after the defendant's arrest. He was found in the vicinity of the Industrial Loop and I-20, about three to four miles west of the scene where the car was wrecked. His clothing was also muddy and wet, and he was barefooted.

Barry Tripp and Eddie Dye pled guilty to accessory after the fact to armed robbery and each received sentences of four and one-half years imprisonment. The juvenile was surrendered to the juvenile authorities and adjudicated a delinquent for his participation in the crime. Donald Ray McLeland was charged by bill of information with armed robbery and was convicted after a jury trial in which all three of his accomplices testified for the State. For his involvement in the armed robbery, McLeland was sentenced to twenty-five years at hard *637 labor, without benefit of parole, probation, or suspension of sentence.

ASSIGNMENT OF ERROR NO. 3

Defendant asserts that the trial court erred in denying his motion for mistrial based on the failure of the prosecution to reveal favorable evidence prior to trial which he claims to be discoverable under Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963).

At trial, the victim was asked by the prosecutor to describe the person who held the gun. He answered that "he was about as skinny as him, and had, you know—in other words, that is him over there." During cross-examination of this witness, it was established that approximately ten months after the crime, and one month before trial, the prosecutor showed Fincher a photograph of the defendant and a group of photographs depicting the crime scene. Other than this one instance, the victim was not shown any other photographic display, nor was he asked to view a live line-up. Upon eliciting this information, the defense attorney asked for removal of the jury, and out of their presence, made a motion for mistrial on the basis of the prosecution's non-disclosure of these facts. The defendant asserted at the trial court level and reurges on appeal that the failure of the prosecution to reveal this information precluded the opportunity to suppress an in-court identification by the victim on the basis of the impermissibly suggestive pretrial identification procedure.

Due process prohibits the conducting of an identification procedure in a manner which is unnecessarily suggestive and conducive to irreparable mistaken identity. Neil v. Biggers, 409 U.S. 188, 93 S.Ct. 375, 34 L.Ed.2d 401 (1972). In testing the constitutionality of an out-of-court identification, the suggestiveness of the identification procedure itself must first be examined. State v. Guillot, 353 So.2d 1005 (La. 1977); State v. Clark, 437 So.2d 879 (La. App. 2d Cir.1983), writ denied, 442 So.2d 460 (La.1983).

One-on-one lineup procedures are not favored. State v. Newman, 283 So.2d 756 (La.1973). However, whether or not a suggestive identification occurred depends on all the circumstances. State v. Johnson, 333 So.2d 223 (La.1976). In State v. Johnson, supra, the Supreme Court stated that the presentation to the victim of two photographs, one of each defendant, after defendants had been taken into custody, was a practice not to be lightly condoned considering the strong potential for misidentification. In U.S. v. Williams, 616 F.2d 759 (5th Cir.1980), the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court found that the display of a single photograph of the defendant rather than an array of photographs depicting different individuals was impermissibly suggestive.

Considering the totality of the circumstances surrounding the victim's out-of-court viewing of the defendant's photograph in the instant case, we have little difficulty in concluding that this identification procedure was impermissibly suggestive. We are particularly swayed by the fact that the victim was never asked to view either a live lineup or an array of photographs, but was only shown a single photograph of the defendant one month before trial, ostensibly in preparation for trial. Explaining the failure of the police to conduct a live lineup, the detective who investigated the case testified that after he talked with Mr. Fincher, he determined that a lineup was not warranted as he believed that the victim could not make an identification.

Although we specifically find that the identification procedure under the facts of this case was impermissibly suggestive, this alone does not indicate a violation of due process rights. It is the likelihood of misidentification which creates a due process violation, not merely the suggestive identification procedure. State v. Guillot, supra; Manson v. Brathwaite, 432 U.S. 98, 97 S.Ct. 2243, 53 L.Ed.2d 140 (1977). Exclusion of the in-court identification is not required, therefore, unless the impermissibly suggestive display created a substantial *638 likelihood of misidentification. Manson, supra.

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Bluebook (online)
456 So. 2d 633, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-mcleland-lactapp-1984.