State v. Mitchell

97 So. 3d 494, 11 La.App. 5 Cir. 1018, 2012 La. App. LEXIS 928, 2012 WL 2476413
Louisiana Court of Appeal·Decided June 28, 2012·No. No. 11-KA-1018·Published·Cited by 4 cases

Opinion

WALTER J. ROTHSCHILD, Judge.

12Pefendant, Calvin Mitchell, was charged by grand jury indictment with one count of second degree murder, in violation of LSA-R.S. 14:30.1, and one count of attempted second degree murder, in violation of LSA-R.S. 14:27 and R.S. 14:3o.!.1 He was arraigned and pled not guilty to the charges. The matter proceeded to trial on February 15, 2011. On February [496]*49618, 2011, the jury returned a verdict of guilty as charged.2

On April 18, 2011, the trial court imposed sentence. On the second degree murder conviction, the trial court sentenced defendant to life imprisonment at hard labor without benefit of parole, probation, or suspension of sentence. On the attempted second degree murder conviction, the trial court sentenced defendant to 25 years without benefit of parole, probation, or suspension of sentence. The sentences were ordered to run concurrently. Defendant appeals.

FACTS

On December 29, 2008, at approximately 11:00 a.m., defendant and Jules Robertson went to the house of their cousins, Craig and Kyron Cain, in LaPlace, |SL ouisiana. Also present was a friend of the Cain family, Lacohen Watson. The five men played basketball before heading to Rusty’s pool hall around 8:00 p.m. that night. A few hours later, around 10:30 or 11:00 p.m., the group left Rusty’s and proceeded to Jules’ house. When they arrived, defendant and Jules proceeded inside, while Craig, Kyron, and Lacohen waited in the vehicle.

Craig Cain testified that after defendant and Jules returned to the vehicle, the five men drove around Reserve and passed down 24th Street where they observed a green vehicle with a man in it.3 They turned off of 24th Street and made their way up a parallel street. According to Craig, defendant and Jules then told Craig, who was driving, to stop the vehicle and let them out so that they could get some marijuana. Defendant and Jules exited the vehicle and proceeded toward 24th Street. Craig parked the vehicle, turned off the lights and engine, and waited for defendant and Jules to return. Moments later Craig, Kyron, and Lacohen heard multiple gunshots. According to Craig, when defendant and Jules returned to the car, Jules said, “I think that was a girl,” and they told Craig to bring them home.

According to Craig, when they arrived at Jules’ house, everybody exited the vehicle and proceeded inside to his bedroom. Once inside, Jules put a .45 caliber handgun on the bed and defendant put a 9 mm handgun on the bed. Craig, Kyron, and Lacohen then went home.

Ron James testified that on the night of December 30, 2008, he was seated in the driver’s seat of his parked vehicle conversing with his friend, Nekeshia Joseph, in the passenger seat. While they talked, two hooded men walked by the vehicle and then turned around to come back to the vehicle. This prompted Ms. Joseph to ask Mr. James, “You know those guys? They coming back.” When Mr. James |4looked up, defendant was standing at his window with a gun and told Mr. James, “Give it up.” Mr. James testified that he recognized the gunman as defendant because he knew him “like family,” since defendant’s brother was Mr. James’ cousin. The other individual was on the passenger side and Mr. James was able to see that he had dreadlocks. Defendant then said, “Duty, that’s Chill.”4 At this moment, the gunman on the passenger side started shooting. This prompted Mr. James to attempt [497] to drive away. As he pulled away from the curb, the gunman followed the vehicle and continued to shoot. Once the vehicle was out in the middle of the street, defendant started shooting. As a result of the shooting, Mr. James sustained a gunshot wound to his leg and abrasions to his face from broken glass. Ms. Joseph sustained twelve gunshot wounds and died as a result.

Nearly a week later, on January 5, 2009, Mr. James identified defendant from a photographic lineup as the person who shot him from the driver’s side. He testified that when he was shown the lineup, he was able to immediately identify defendant and indicated, “Calvin’s the one that shot me.”

On August 12, 2009, defendant, who was incarcerated in Georgia on an unrelated armed robbery charge, met with St. John the Baptist parish detectives. According to Detective Walter Stevens, defendant was advised of his rights, indicated he understood them, executed a waiver thereof, and agreed to give a statement. At first he denied any involvement in the shooting, but he later admitted that Mr. James’ version of events was accurate. He stated that he used a 9 mm weapon and that he got off two shots before it jammed.

LAW AND DISCUSSION

In his first assignment of error, defendant argues that his convictions violate his right to due process of law because they were obtained by non-unanimous jury | ¿verdicts. He contends that LSA-C.Cr.P. art. 782, which permits non-unanimous jury verdicts, is unconstitutional. He acknowledges the precedent of Apodaca v. Oregon, 406 U.S. 404, 92 S.Ct. 1628, 32 L.Ed.2d 184 (1972), in which the United States Supreme Court held that non-unanimous jury verdicts in state felony trials are constitutional. However, he argues that subsequent developments in the Supreme Court’s jurisprudence calls that holding into serious question, citing Blakely v. Washington, 542 U.S. 296, 124 S.Ct. 2531, 159 L.Ed.2d 403 (2004) and McDonald v. City of Chicago, — U.S. —, 130 S.Ct. 3020, 177 L.Ed.2d 894 (2010). Defendant further acknowledges that the Louisiana Supreme Court has rejected the argument that a non-unanimous verdict violates the Fifth, Sixth or Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution. See State v. Bertrand, 08-2215 (La.3/17/09), 6 So.3d 738. However, he still maintains that the non-unanimous verdicts violated his right to due process of law.

LSA-C.Cr.P. art. 782(A) provides in pertinent part: “Cases in which punishment is necessarily confinement at hard labor shall be tried by a jury composed of twelve jurors, ten of whom must concur to render a verdict.”

The Louisiana Supreme Court has previously discussed and affirmed the constitutionality of LSA-C.Cr.P. art. 782. In State v. Jones, 381 So.2d 416, 418 (La.1980), the Court ruled that LSA-C.Cr.P. art. 782 did not violate the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments. Later, in State v. Simmons, 414 So.2d 705, 707 (La.1982), the Court found that LSA-C.Cr.P. art. 782 did not violate either the Fifth or Fourteenth Amendments. In Bertrand, OS-2215 at 5-8, 6 So.3d at 741-43, the Court again affirmed the statute’s constitutionality-

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State v. Mitchell, 97 So. 3d 494, 11 La.App. 5 Cir. 1018, 2012 La. App. LEXIS 928, 2012 WL 2476413 (La. Ct. App. 2012).

97 So. 3d 494 (State v. Mitchell) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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