State v. Nix

987 So. 2d 855, 2008 WL 2447889
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJune 18, 2008
DocketNo. 2007-KA-1431
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 987 So. 2d 855 (State v. Nix) 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. Nix, 987 So. 2d 855, 2008 WL 2447889 (La. Ct. App. 2008).

Opinion

DAVID S. GORBATY, Judge.

h Louis Nix appeals his convictions for manslaughter and attempted second degree murder and sentences of forty years and fifty years, respectively. For the following reasons, we affirm the convictions and sentences.

PROCEDURAL HISTORY:

On July 5, 2006, Louis Nix was indicted for the second degree murder of Gary McGlothen and the attempted second degree murder of Carl Jiminez. Nix filed a motion to sever counts, which was denied. At the close of a two-day trial, a twelve-person jury found Nix guilty of the responsive verdict of manslaughter and guilty as charged as to the attempted murder count. The court sentenced Nix on the manslaughter count to serve forty years at hard labor without benefit of probation or suspension of sentence, and on the attempted second degree murder count to serve fifty years at hard labor without benefit of parole, probation, or suspension of sentence, the sentences to run consecutively. The court also denied Nix’s motion to reconsider sentence, but granted the motion for appeal.

FACTS:

Louis Nix was charged with the murder of Gary McGlothen, which occurred on the night of March 29 or the morning of [857]*857March 30, 2006. Dr. Dana Troxclair, an expert in forensic pathology, conducted McGlothen’s autopsy. She testified that ^McGlothen died of a knife wound to his left eye that entered his brain. She testified that the knife was still in McGlothen’s eye when she started the autopsy, and it penetrated his brain, lodging against his skull just above his right ear. She stated that McGlothen also had a stab wound to his upper left chest. She stated that his blood tested positive for cocaine. She also viewed photographs taken of McGlothen at the murder scene that showed what she described as moderate rigor mortis. Dr. Troxclair estimated that rigor mortis usually peaks at twelve hours after death and disappears within twenty-four to thirty-six hours after death.

Giselle Bertrand testified that she was a 911 complaint operator for N.O.P.D. on March 30, 2006. She identified a printout of a call for assistance received at 5:58 a.m. from 3501 Garden Oaks Drive. She also identified the tape of the 911 call, which was played for the jury, but not transcribed for the record.

Nicole Gibson testified that on March 29, 2006 she lived in an apartment on Garden Oaks Drive in the Jackson Landing Apartments. She testified that sometime after 10:00 p.m., a friend called to say he was coming to visit. She stated that because her friend had not been to her apartment before, she went outside to wait for him, taking her cell phone with her. She waited outside about twenty minutes when her friend called around 10:35 p.m. to tell her that he was in the parking lot. A car was parked nearby, and she thought her friend might be in it, playing a trick on her. She walked up to the car, which had the passenger window down. She could see a man in the passenger seat, and later identified the man as the defendant Louis Nix. Another man was in the driver’s seat.

She testified that when she discovered that she had gone to the wrong vehicle, she quickly apologized and backed away because she was wearing her “night clothes.” She testified that the passenger told her it was all right.

|aMs. Gibson testified that she then saw her friend’s truck on the other side of the parking lot, and she walked over to meet him. She testified that the car containing Nix and the other man was not parked in a parking place, but was merely stopped in the parking lot, and it was partially blocking her car. She testified that as she and her friend began walking back to her apartment, she saw the brake lights of the car go on. Ms. Gibson testified that she said in a very loud voice as they passed the car that she would be late to work again in the morning because people were always blocking her car. She testified that she looked over at the car and noticed that the passenger window was now closed and that the passenger had departed. She and her friend went into her apartment. She stated that when her friend left sometime between 12:30 and 1:00 the next morning, the car was still there, but she did not go outside at that time. Later that morning, when she left her apartment to go to work, Ms. Gibson noticed that the car was still in the same place. She testified that she walked up to the car and yelled to the man sitting in the driver’s seat to move the car. She testified that she looked inside the car and found the victim sitting in the passenger seat with a knife in his eye. She ran back to her apartment and asked her roommate and her cousin to call 911.

Ms. Gibson testified that on April 6, 2006, she viewed a photographic lineup from which she chose Nix’s picture as being the man in the passenger seat of the car in the parking lot. She testified that she was able to see the passenger clearly because of lighting that shone on the car [858]*858from the apartment complex. Ms. Gibson also identified Nix in court as the man who she saw in the passenger side of the car. She testified that she did not know Nix prior to the incident.

Officer Frederick Carter testified that he was the first officer to arrive on the scene of the murder. He testified that he saw a small white vehicle parked in the 14driveway of 3501 Garden Oaks Drive. He walked up to the vehicle and looked inside, seeing what appeared to be a young man asleep. However, as he got closer to the car, he saw that the man had a knife sticking out of his eye. He testified that the driver’s window was down, but the passenger window was up. He testified that he saw no blood on the passenger side of the car. Officer Carter testified that he was on the scene when EMS personnel arrived, but they were unable to revive the victim. He testified that when the victim was removed from the car, the victim’s body was stiff.

Archie Kaiser testified that McGlothen was his roommate and his best friend. He stated that a few days before the murder he and McGlothen met Nix through mutual friends in New Iberia. He stated that he and McGlothen drove Nix back to New Orleans, and although Nix was supposed to stay with relatives, he asked if he could stay with Kaiser and McGlothen at their residence in Terrytown. Kaiser testified that Nix stayed with them a few days, and some sort of relationship developed between Nix and McGlothen. Kaiser stated that on March 29, the three men returned to New Iberia so that Nix could pick up a paycheck, and then they drove back to New Orleans, arriving at approximately 9:30 p.m. He testified that McGlothen asked to borrow his car, but the car was out of gas, so McGlothen and Nix left together in McGlothen’s car. McGlothen told Kaiser that he would return shortly.

Kaiser testified that he called McGlothen at approximately 10:10, and at that time he could hear Nix’s voice in the background. Kaiser testified that he tried to call McGlothen at approximately 10:45, but McGlothen did not answer his cell phone. McGlothen did not return home.

Kaiser testified that he spoke with detectives the next morning concerning McGlothen’s murder. Some time later, he viewed a photographic lineup from Dwhich he chose Nix’s photo. Kaiser testified that Edward Turner was also staying at his residence during part of the time that Nix was staying there, but he insisted that Turner left town a few days before the murder. He stated that Turner previously knew Nix. On cross-examination, Kaiser admitted that he and Turner had been lovers for several years in the past.

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Bluebook (online)
987 So. 2d 855, 2008 WL 2447889, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-nix-lactapp-2008.