State v. Moore

20 So. 3d 1137, 2009 La. App. LEXIS 1547, 2009 WL 2603114
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedAugust 26, 2009
Docket44,429-KA
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 20 So. 3d 1137 (State v. Moore) 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. Moore, 20 So. 3d 1137, 2009 La. App. LEXIS 1547, 2009 WL 2603114 (La. Ct. App. 2009).

Opinion

CARAWAY, J.

|! Roderick Moore was convicted of one count of distribution of cocaine and one count of distribution of hydrocodone. He was sentenced to concurrent sentences of 15 years at hard labor for the cocaine conviction, with 5 years of the sentence imposed without benefit of parole, probation, or suspension of sentence, and 5 years at hard labor for the hydrocodone conviction. Moore now appeals. We affirm the convictions on both counts. Moore’s sentence on the hydrocodone distribution conviction is affirmed and his sentence for the cocaine distribution conviction is affirmed as amended.

Facts

Roderick Moore, a 17-year veteran Shreveport police officer, was arrested for distributing cocaine and hydrocodone to a local club dancer on November 1, 2007. The Shreveport Police Department had received information from a number of different confidential sources that Moore was engaging in illegal drug activity throughout the City of Shreveport. On October 29, 2007, Mary Ann Johnson (“Johnson”), a dancer at a local club, informed Detective Jack Miller (“Miller”), of the Shreveport Police Department vice unit, that Moore had given her Xanax the day before which she claimed to have discarded. With the supervision of law enforcement, Johnson participated in a recorded telephone conversation with Moore who implicated himself in illegal drug activity both in the conversation and in subsequent messages left for Johnson on her cell phone. Police opened an investigation and ultimately decided to set up a controlled buy/bust ^operation between Moore and Johnson at *1140 her place of employment, Larry Flynt’s Hustler Club-Shreveport (“Deja Vu”), in Shreveport. Through video surveillance, police observed a hand-to-hand transaction take place between Johnson and Moore. Johnson claimed that Moore gave her illegal drugs and she transferred the substances, later determined by laboratory testing to be cocaine and hydrocodone, to police. Moore was arrested and charged with two counts of distribution of illegal drugs. He admitted that he talked to Johnson about drugs, but denied distributing anything to her. A jury convicted Moore of the charged offenses. The court denied Moore’s motion for a post verdict judgment of acquittal and he waived sentencing delays. After sentencing, this appeal followed.

Discussion

I.

Three of defendant’s assignments of error relate to the sufficiency of the evidence for conviction. 1 Moore argues that the circumstantial evidence was not sufficient to convict him because “no one could see what was allegedly passed to the informant,” by the defendant inside the club. In an environment ridden with drug activity which had not been comprehensively searched, Johnson was not kept under constant surveillance. Thus, Moore argues that the drugs Johnson produced to the officers cannot be linked to |3him. Moore also attacks Johnson’s credibility concerning her testimony of a previous drug incident, her inconsistent description of the drugs she allegedly received from Moore, her inconsistent statements about an argument with another employee, and her attempts to gain notoriety for personal ambitions with the Shreveport Police Department. Moore also seeks to discredit the testimony of Miller on the basis of his inconsistent description of incidents before, during and after the transaction.

Cocaine is classified as a Schedule II CDS, and it is unlawful for any person to knowingly or intentionally distribute or dispense .a Schedule II CDS. See, LSA-R.S. 40:964(A)(4) and 40:967(A)(1). Hy-drocodone is defined as a Schedule III CDS. La. R.S. 40:964(D)(l)(d). To present sufficient evidence of distribution of a CDS, the state must prove the following elements: (1) delivery or physical transfer of the CDS to its intended recipient; (2) guilty knowledge of the CDS at the time of the transfer; and (3) the exact identity of the CDS. State v. Braziel, 42,668 (La.App. 2 Cir. 10/24/07), 968 So.2d 853; State v. Kelley, 36,602 (La.App. 2d Cir.1/29/03), 836 So.2d 1243; State v. Manning, 30,809 (La.App. 2d Cir.6/24/98), 715 So.2d 668.

The proper test for determining a claim of insufficiency of evidence in a criminal case is whether, on the entire record, a rational trier of fact could find the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. On appeal, a reviewing court must view the evidence in the light most favorable to the state and must presume in support of the judgment the existence of every 14fact the trier could reasonably deduce from the *1141 evidence. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979).

This standard, now legislatively embodied in La.C.Cr.P. art. 821, does not provide the appellate court with a vehicle to substitute its own appreciation of the evidence for that of the fact finder. State v. Pigford, 05-0477 (La.2/22/06), 922 So.2d 517; State v. Dotie, 43,819 (La.App. 2d Cir.1/14/09), 1 So.3d 833. The appellate court does not assess the credibility of witnesses or reweigh evidence. State v. Smith, 94-3116 (La.10/16/95), 661 So.2d 442. A reviewing court accords great deference to a jury’s decision to accept or reject the testimony of a witness in whole or in part. State v. Eason, 43,788 (La. App. 2d Cir.2/25/09), 3 So.3d 685; State v. Hill, 42,025 (La.App. 2d Cir.5/9/07), 956 So.2d 758, unit denied, 07-1209 (La.12/14/07), 970 So.2d 529.

The Jackson standard is applicable in cases involving both direct and circumstantial evidence. An appellate court reviewing the sufficiency of evidence in such cases must resolve any conflict in the direct evidence by viewing that evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution. When the direct evidence is thus viewed, the facts established by the direct evidence and inferred from the circumstances established by that evidence must be sufficient for a rational trier of fact to conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that defendant was guilty of every essential element of the crime. State v. Sutton, 436 So.2d 471 (La.1983); State v. Speed, 43,786 (La.App. 2d Cir.1/14/09), 2 So.3d 582.

| -,Circumstantial evidence consists of proof of collateral facts and circumstances from which the existence of the main fact may be inferred according to reason and common experience. State v. Speed, supra; State v. Robbins, 43,129 (La.App. 2d Cir.3/19/08), 979 So.2d 630. For a case resting essentially upon circumstantial evidence, that evidence must exclude every reasonable hypothesis of innocence. La. R.S. 15:438.

Where there is conflicting testimony about factual matters, the resolution of which depends upon a determination of the credibility of the witnesses, the matter is one of the weight of the evidence, not its sufficiency. State v. Speed, supra; State v. Allen, 36,180 (La.App. 2d Cir.9/18/02), 828 So.2d 622, writs denied, 02-2595 (La.3/28/03), 840 So.2d 566, 02-2997 (La.6/27/03), 847 So.2d 1255, cert. denied, 540 U.S. 1185, 124 S.Ct. 1404, 158 L.Ed.2d 90 (2004).

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Bluebook (online)
20 So. 3d 1137, 2009 La. App. LEXIS 1547, 2009 WL 2603114, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-moore-lactapp-2009.