State v. Molere

99 So. 3d 1050, 2011 La.App. 4 Cir. 1657, 2012 WL 3854986, 2012 La. App. LEXIS 1108
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedSeptember 5, 2012
DocketNo. 2011-KA-1657
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 99 So. 3d 1050 (State v. Molere) 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. Molere, 99 So. 3d 1050, 2011 La.App. 4 Cir. 1657, 2012 WL 3854986, 2012 La. App. LEXIS 1108 (La. Ct. App. 2012).

Opinion

MAX N. TOBIAS, JR., Judge.

LOn 14 July 2010, the state charged Percy Molere (“Molere”) with one count of simple burglary and one count of illegal possession of stolen things, violations respectively of La. R.S. 14:62 and La. R.S. 14:69 A. At his 20 July 2010 arraignment, Molere entered a plea of not guilty to the charges. On 28 February 2011, a preliminary hearing was held, and the court heard Molere’s motions to suppress the evidence and identification. At the conclusion of the hearing, the court found that sufficient probable cause existed to hold Molere for the charges and denied his motions.

On 28 March 2011, a six-person jury was hung and unable to return a verdict as to count one, simple burglary. As to count two, illegal possession of stolen things over five hundred dollars, the jury found Mol-ere guilty. After the jury could not reach a verdict as to count one, the court dismissed the jury and declared a mistrial as to that count. On 2 May 2011, Molere filed a motion for a post-verdict judgment of acquittal and a motion for new trial which the court denied. He also pled guilty as charged to count one. On that same date, the court sentenced Molere to serve eight years at hard labor with credit for time served as to each count, to be served concurrently. However, a multiple offender bill was filed by the state, and | gMolere enter a plea of guilty to the bill. The trial court then vacated the eight-year sentence on the simple burglary count and resentenced Mr. Molere to eight years at hard labor with credit for time served as a third felony offender. This timely appeal followed.

I.

At trial, Officer Naja Davis testified that she became involved with the investigation of this crime when she was dispatched to a call regarding an auto burglary that occurred at the intersection of Magazine and Notre Dame Streets. After arriving on the scene, Officer Davis canvassed the area looking for a subject who fit the description that was provided to her, to-wit, for a “black male wearing an orange shirt and black pants.” After proceeding five to eight blocks to the intersection of Howard Avenue and Baronne Street, the officer observed a subject fitting the description. The officer stated that she made eye contact with the subject, and at this point she began to follow him in her vehicle. At some point, the subject lay on the ground and hid in some bushes at 1139 Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard, where he was eventually apprehended. When the officer found the subject, she also found a plastic bag containing property lying on the ground approximately two to three inches next to him. At that point the subject was asked to stand up and he was advised that he was being investigated for automobile burglary. The officer confiscated the evidence and the subject’s clothing (which fit the description that had been provided to her) and placed the items on the books as evidence. Also, the suspect was eventually positively identified by the witness and the victim also identified her [1052]*1052property. At trial, the evidence (the perpetrator’s clothing and stolen property) was presented to the officer for identification. The stolen property included a digital camera, camera charger, iPod, and iPod charger. [sThe officer also identified the clothing as that worn by the perpetrator at the time of arrest, the electronics property that were stolen, and the clear plastic bag that contained the stolen property.

On cross examination, Officer Davis testified that she heard about the burglary on the radio and did not see the person who had actually broken into the car. However, she testified that the incident occurred around 9:30 a.m. She stated that the description of the perpetrator was “black male, orange shirt, black pants;” however, the description did not contain details of the person’s physical appearance. She also testified that the dispatcher provided her with a flight direction that led her to a certain area to start canvassing. The officer testified that she did not recall observing the subject with a white bag when he was at the corner of Howard and Baronne.

Ms. Rita Gokturk (“Gokturk”) testified that on 11 July 2010 she was at her home at 760 Magazine Street doing paperwork, when she heard a crashing sound. She went to her window and noticed that the window of a car parked underneath her apartment was cracked (appeared like a spider’s web) but not completely broken. She decided to watch the area, and a couple of minutes later she observed an African American male with an orange shirt with white writing on it, black pants, and “funky shoes” crossing the street. Gok-turk testified that she lost sight of the subject and watched for a couple more minutes, got bored, and went to her desk and sat down. She then heard a second cracking sound, heard glass falling to the ground, and looked out of the window. At this point, she observed the back of a man with black pants and an orange shirt trying to reach for something inside a car. She testified that she did not see the man’s face, but she became angry and so she knocked on the window.

14Gokturk testified that she then ran outside; at this time the subject was walking toward Magazine Street. She testified that the subject was walking with his hands in front of him rather than along his sides. She yelled at the subject and told him “I saw you steal something,” but he did not turn around. She then called 911. When the police arrived, they took her to their precinct and asked her if she recognized the person sitting in a police car. She testified that the person was the African American male with the orange shirt with white writing. Gokturk testified that she did not know his face because she had focused on the orange shirt; however, she did recall that she had observed facial hair.

Gokturk testified that she could not state whether or not he was the same person, but questioned the number of people who would have been wearing black pants and a bright orange shirt with big white writing walking in the direction that she had pointed out to the police. She identified the orange shirt in court as the one she saw that day. When questioned about the jeans, she noted that the pants presented in court were navy colored. However, she testified that they were similar enough. She also testified that navy blue could have been the color, but noted that the pants did not have any cuffs. When questioned again about the pants, Gokturk testified that she was one hundred percent sure that the pants that were presented were not the pants from that day. However, she did identify the shoes. She also testified that she wrote a statement, signed it, and provided it to police on that day.

[1053]*1053When cross examined, Gokturk testified that she gave her handwritten statement to the “female officer.”1 She also stated that a male African American officer was also present when she gave the statement to the female officer. She |finoted that she physically handed the statement to one of the officers. Gokturk also testified that someone affiliated with Molere’s defense visited her apartment, and she gave a statement to them. She clarified that she did not see anyone after she heard the first crash on the car window because after she climbed on the couch to look out of the window the person was no longer there. She also testified that the man with the orange shirt wore black short pants that were not cuffed. She testified that when she saw him walking after the incident, the subject made a left turn on Magazine from Notre Dame Street.

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State v. Ramirez
154 So. 3d 636 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2014)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
99 So. 3d 1050, 2011 La.App. 4 Cir. 1657, 2012 WL 3854986, 2012 La. App. LEXIS 1108, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-molere-lactapp-2012.