State v. Morgan

119 So. 3d 817, 2012 La.App. 1 Cir. 2060, 2013 WL 2456251, 2013 La. App. LEXIS 1173
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJune 7, 2013
DocketNo. 2012 KA 2060
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 119 So. 3d 817 (State v. Morgan) 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. Morgan, 119 So. 3d 817, 2012 La.App. 1 Cir. 2060, 2013 WL 2456251, 2013 La. App. LEXIS 1173 (La. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

KUHN, J.

| ¡.The defendant, Josie Y. Morgan, was charged by grand jury indictment with second degree murder, a violation of La. R.S. 14:30.1. The defendant entered a plea of not guilty. (R. 1). Following a trial by jury, the defendant was found guilty as charged. (R. 13,1063). The trial court denied the defendant’s motion for postverdict judgment of acquittal and motion for new trial. The defendant was sentenced to life imprisonment at hard labor without the benefit of parole, probation, or suspension of sentence.1 The defendant now appeals, assigning error to the sufficiency of the evidence supporting her conviction, the admission of expert testimony, the violation of her right to present a defense, and prosecutorial misconduct. For the following reasons, we affirm the conviction and sentence.

STATEMENT OF FACTS

On Saturday, December 1, 2007, Jonova Walker, Charles Plain, Lionel Allen, and Andre Turner (the victim) had dinner at the defendant’s residence in Sweetbriar Trailer Park in Zachary. According to trial testimony, sometime after dinner, the defendant, Walker, Allen, and the victim left the defendant’s house while Plain (the defendant’s boyfriend at the time) stayed at the defendant’s trailer for the night. Walker and the defendant were riding in a Honda Accord, and the victim and Allen were riding in a black Geo Storm. After the group made a brief stop at a motel, Walker followed the others as they trav-elled in the Geo Storm on |aScenic Highway.2 When they turned off Scenic Highway onto Carney Road, the Geo Storm swerved and came to an abrupt stop. Al[821]*821len and the victim exited the vehicle and began fighting.

According to Walker’s testimony, she and the defendant stepped out of their vehicles, and the defendant grabbed a pipe wrench out of Walker’s vehicle and repeatedly hit the victim in the back of the head. Allen and the defendant continued to beat the victim as he attempted to get off the ground and begged for his life. The victim managed to get up and run from the defendant and Allen, who then got back into the Geo and pursued the victim, with the defendant driving. Walker got back in the Honda Accord and followed them a short distance as they approached the next corner. Walker testified that when she turned the corner behind the Geo, she saw the Geo stopped with its front tire resting on top of the victim’s back. The defendant then backed the vehicle off of the victim’s body, and she and Allen placed his body in the front passenger seat.

Walker followed in the other vehicle as they drove to a nearby wooded area. The defendant and Allen dragged the victim’s body into the woods and set it on fire. On December 3, 2007, the East Feliciana Parish Sheriffs Office received a call regarding the discovery of the victim’s body in a wooded area. According to the autopsy performed on December 5, 2007, the victim suffered multiple lethal blunt-force injuries to the head, fractured ribs, a broken sternum, lacerations on the back of his lungs and liver, internal bleeding, a fractured pelvis, and his entire body was badly burned, including charring from fourth-degree burns.

1 ¿ASSIGNMENTS OF ERROR NUMBERS ONE, TWO, AND THREE

In assignments of error numbers one, two, and three, the defendant challenges the evidence presented in support of the verdict. Specifically, she contends that the verdict is contrary to the law and evidence (assignment of error number one), that the verdict is not supported by sufficient and competent evidence (assignment of error number two), and that the trial court erred in not granting her postverdict judgment of acquittal (assignment of error number three). The defendant argues that the jury was unable to properly assess Walker and Plain’s credibility since they avoided being confronted with recordings of their prior inconsistent statements by immediately admitting that they previously lied to the police. She further contends that the jury would have, in all likelihood, found that Walker and Plain’s testimony was not credible if it had heard their audiotaped statements. The defendant asserts that the State presented false and untrue testimony that was “cosmetically re-constructed ... to fit the intents and purposes of a lying witness.” The defendant contends that the evidence presented during the trial indicates that Walker was more involved in the events than she revealed. Finally, the defendant asserts that the witness testimony in this case should have been subject to heightened scrutiny due to the history of lies.

The constitutional standard for testing the sufficiency of the evidence, as enunciated in Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979), requires that a conviction be based on proof sufficient for any rational trier-of-fact, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, to find the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. La.C.Cr.P. art. 821; State v. Ordodi, 06-0207 (La.11/29/06), 946 So.2d 654, 660. In conducting this review, [822]*822we also must be expressly mindful of Louisiana’s circumstantial evidence test, i.e., “assuming every fact to be proved that the | ¡¡evidence tends to prove, in order to convict, it must exclude every reasonable hypothesis of innocence.” La. R.S. 15:438; State v. Wright, 98-0601 (La.App. 1st Cir.2/19/99), 730 So.2d 485, 486, writs denied, 99-0802 (La.10/29/99), 748 So.2d 1157 & 00-0895 (La.11/17/00), 773 So.2d 732. When a case involves circumstantial evidence and the trier-of-fact reasonably rejects the hypothesis of innocence presented by the defense, that hypothesis falls, and the defendant is guilty unless there is another hypothesis that raises a reasonable doubt. State v. Moten, 510 So.2d 55, 61 (La.App. 1st Cir.), writ denied, 514 So.2d 126 (La.1987).

Second degree murder is defined, in pertinent part, as the killing of a human being when the offender has a specific intent to kill or to inflict great bodily harm. La. R.S. 14:30.1(A)(1). Specific criminal intent is that “state of mind which exists when the circumstances indicate that the offender actively desired the prescribed criminal consequences to follow his act or failure to act.” La. R.S. 14:10(1). Though intent is a question of fact, it need not be proven as a fact. It may be inferred from the circumstances of the transaction. Thus, specific intent may be proven by direct evidence, such as statements by a defendant, or by inference from circumstantial evidence, such as a defendant’s actions or facts depicting the circumstances. Specific intent is an ultimate legal conclusion to be resolved by the trier-of-fact. State v. Buchanon, 95-0625 (La.App. 1st Cir.5/10/96), 673 So.2d 663, 665, writ denied, 96-1411 (La.12/6/96), 684 So.2d 923.

Dr. Karen Ross, a forensic pathologist with the Jefferson Parish Coroner’s Office at the time of the offense, performed an autopsy on the victim two days after his body was found. She testified that the victim’s cause of death was multiple blunt-force injuries alone or in association with smoke inhalation and thermal injury because the body had been burned after blunt-force injuries were |fisustained. She noted that although the injuries were lethal, the victim could have still been alive at the time he was set on fire because there was a small amount of soot located in his airway indicating that he took in a few breaths, and there was aspiration of some of the gastric materials.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
119 So. 3d 817, 2012 La.App. 1 Cir. 2060, 2013 WL 2456251, 2013 La. App. LEXIS 1173, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-morgan-lactapp-2013.