State v. Nellon

902 So. 2d 434, 2005 WL 954718
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedApril 26, 2005
Docket04-KA-1253
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 902 So. 2d 434 (State v. Nellon) 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. Nellon, 902 So. 2d 434, 2005 WL 954718 (La. Ct. App. 2005).

Opinion

902 So.2d 434 (2005)

STATE of Louisiana
v.
Derrick NELLON.

No. 04-KA-1253.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Fifth Circuit.

April 26, 2005.

*435 Paul D. Connick, Jr., District Attorney, Terry M. Boudreaux, Juliet Clark, Assistant District Attorneys, Gretna, LA, for Plaintiff/Appellee.

James A. Williams, Butch Wilson, Gretna, LA, for Defendant/Appellant.

Panel composed of Judges MARION F. EDWARDS, CLARENCE E. McMANUS, and WALTER J. ROTHSCHILD.

WALTER J. ROTHSCHILD, Judge.

On December 9, 1999, defendant, Derrick Nellon, along with co-defendant, Silas Antoine, was charged by bill of indictment with first degree murder, in violation of LSA-R.S. 14:30. Defendant pled not guilty to this charge on December 21, 1999. On June 1, 2000, the bill of indictment was amended to charge defendants with second degree murder, in violation of LSA-R.S. 14:30.1. Defendant pled not guilty to the amended charge and filed various pre-trial motions. On January 13, 2003, the co-defendants were severed for trial.

Defendant proceeded to trial on February 19, 2003, and on the following day, a jury found him guilty as charged of second degree murder. Thereafter, on April 14, 2003, defendant's motions for new trial and post verdict judgment of acquittal were denied, and he was sentenced to life imprisonment at hard labor, without benefit of parole, probation or suspension of sentence. This appeal follows.

FACTS

On September 27, 1999, at approximately 2:00 p.m., Chris Duplessis was at Ellious "Al" Carmouche's apartment playing a PlayStation game in the living room when three men kicked the door down and stated, "Get on the floor. Get down." At the *436 time, Carmouche was in the bathroom and his one-year old baby was in the bedroom. According to Duplessis, two of the men had revolvers. Believing his life was in danger, Duplessis got down. The perpetrators were asking, "Where it's at; where the s* *t at?" Duplessis witnessed one of the perpetrators, whom he identified in court as defendant, kick in the bathroom door. Thereafter, Carmouche was dragged into the living room and thrown on the floor. He was asked, "Where it's at? Where it's at?" After Carmouche reached for something, Duplessis heard three shots and then observed the perpetrators run out of the apartment. Carmouche told Duplessis to call the police because he was hit, and Duplessis called 911. After being transported to the hospital, Carmouche died from the gunshot wound to his buttock which transected his femoral artery, causing him to bleed to death.

Martha Barnett testified that she was in the parking lot of her apartment complex on the day of the incident, leaving to go to work in her security uniform. At the time, she was not carrying a weapon. While putting her belongings in the passenger side of her car, she heard three gunshots, and then observed three black males running from the direction of the gunshots toward her. She then went around to the driver's side to open her door and put the key in the ignition. However, she noticed that the men had slowed their pace, and she heard one of the men who was carrying a gun say, "the security guard." She then popped open her car's hood and pretended she did not see them. The three males got into a gray Toyota Corolla and pulled off. Martha Barnett was unable to identify the perpetrators.

In his first statement to the police, Duplessis lied and told them that the perpetrators were wearing rags and he could not identify them, because he was afraid for his life. However, the police conducted a follow-up interview and learned that Duplessis recognized two of the perpetrators as "Chuck," someone who had dated his sister, and "Dee," someone he knew from the neighborhood. Duplessis testified that defendant was the person he knew as Dee, and he was certain that he was one of the perpetrators.

Detective Donald Clogher of the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office testified that he investigated this shooting at the West Chase Apartment Complex and noted that the front door, which opened into the living room, was forced open and the bathroom door was forced from its hinges. He found a casing in the living room, one projectile in the wall and one projectile outside of the apartment. According to Detective Clogher, no readable fingerprints were found, and no weapons were located. Detective Clogher stated that the manner of the homicide and the evidence suggested the shooting may have been drug-related.

Although Duplessis told police he could recognize two of the perpetrators and knew their nicknames, i.e. Chuck and Dee, he looked at over a thousand photographs and could not identify anyone. However, the identities of the perpetrators were developed after Detective Clogher interviewed Steven Roy in connection with an unrelated armed robbery. Thereafter, a photographic line-up was created, and defendant and Antoine were identified by Duplessis. As a result, defendant and Antoine were arrested. The third perpetrator, however, has not been identified.

Defendant was advised of his rights and gave several taped statements in which he denied participating in the victim's murder and indicated that he had an alibi at the time. In defendant's second statement, he identified the victim and Antoine *437 in photographs, stating that the victim was someone he saw once coming to the house to see his sister-in-law and Antoine was someone he called "Chuck." He stated that he saw Antoine at Lolitha Loeb's apartment on the day of the shooting. He stated that Antoine had come to "holler" at him for three or four minutes at around "one something, two o'clock," and then left. However, he believed Antoine was at the apartment earlier that morning while he was sleeping.

Silas Antoine identified defendant in court and denied that he had ever met the victim. He also denied "really knowing" Steven Roy who was charged in the armed robbery case for which Antoine was serving a sixty-year sentence in Angola. He denied telling Roy about wanting to rip off a guy for some drugs on Manhattan, denied having discussions with Roy after the victim was killed, and denied having anything to do with committing this murder or telling anyone that he did. He asserted that he knew Duplessis by face and nickname as someone from the area where he used to hang out. He testified that he was not with defendant on the day of the shooting.

Arthrel White, a defense witness who was in jail pending charges, testified that on the date of the shooting, she was dating the victim. She also stated that she was living with her sister, Lolitha Loeb, in Lolitha's apartment, along with her mother Peggy Johnson, Renette Ingraham and defendant, who was her sister's boyfriend. She testified that she knows Duplessis and his sister Monica. She further stated that Monica was dating Antoine, and that they had a baby together; however, Monica was "messing with" the victim, too.

According to White, defendant was on heroin and was sick on the date of the shooting. She stated that defendant never left the house that day and that the only time she left the house was to go get candy for him. When she returned from the store, defendant was still in bed wearing his pajamas. She testified that Antoine came to the house, and her sister introduced him to another man named Derrick, who was known as "Baby Gangster," and they drove off together with another individual named "Nook."

The victim's brother, Jimmy Carmouche, testified that he had a conversation with Arthrel White a couple of months earlier, and she told him she knew that Derrick, her sister's boyfriend, had murdered his brother.

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Related

State v. McGinnis
917 So. 2d 471 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2005)

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Bluebook (online)
902 So. 2d 434, 2005 WL 954718, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-nellon-lactapp-2005.