State v. O'Neal

665 So. 2d 61, 94 La.App. 1 Cir. 1902, 1995 La. App. LEXIS 3214, 1995 WL 669507
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedNovember 9, 1995
DocketNo. 94 KA 1902
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 665 So. 2d 61 (State v. O'Neal) 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. O'Neal, 665 So. 2d 61, 94 La.App. 1 Cir. 1902, 1995 La. App. LEXIS 3214, 1995 WL 669507 (La. Ct. App. 1995).

Opinion

|2LeBLANC, Judge.

Darrell O’Neal was charged by bill of information with four counts: attempted first degree murder, armed robbery, attempted armed robbery, and theft of property having a value over $1000. He pled not guilty, and the state proceeded to trial on the count of armed robbery only. Defendant was found guilty as charged and sentenced to serve a term of sixty years imprisonment at hard labor, without benefit of parole, probation, or suspension of sentence. Later, the state nol-prossed the remaining three counts.

Defendant appealed his conviction and sentence. In an unpublished opinion, this Court affirmed the conviction, amended the sentence to reflect that defendant be given credit for time served and remanded the case with an order to the district court to amend the commitment and minute entry of sentencing to reflect credit for time served. See State v. O’Neal, 612 So.2d 1071 (La.App. 1st Cir.1992). Defendant applied for supervisory writs to the Supreme Court. In granting the application in part and denying it in all other respects, the Supreme Court vacated the sentence and remanded the case to the trial court “for resentencing and further articulation of reasons for sentencing in accordance with laws.” State v. O’Neal, 614 So.2d 1249 (La.1993).

Thereafter, at a May 10, 1993, (first) re-sentencing hearing, the trial court resen-tenced defendant to sixty years at hard labor with credit for time served. Defendant appealed this sentence as constitutionally excessive. In an unpublished opinion, without making any determination on the issue of excessiveness, we vacated the sentence and remanded the matter to the trial court for resentencing in accordance with the order of the Supreme Court. See State v. O’Neal, 93-1247 (La.App. 1st Cir. 5/20/94); 637 So.2d 1324.1

| .^Subsequently, at a July 13,1994, (second) resentencing hearing, the trial court resen-tenced defendant to fifty-nine years imprisonment at hard labor without benefit of parole, probation or suspension of sentence. Two days later, defendant filed a motion to reconsider this sentence, which the court denied that same day. Defendant now appeals, urging in a single assignment of error that the trial court imposed an excessive sentence “after two previous illegal sentences were vacated; further, the trial court erroneously imposed harsher conditions by specifying [63]*63that the new sentence was to be served without benefit of parole, probation, or suspension of sentence and this was after the State did not appeal the previous sentences.”

The facts relating to the instant offense are derived from the record as revealed in our original opinion affirming the conviction and sentence as amended and are as follows. On December 28, 1990, John Lirette was washing his 1988 Toyota pickup truck at Harry’s Car Wash in Terrebonne Parish when defendant approached him. Lirette recognized defendant’s face from having gone to school with him. Lirette asked defendant how he was doing, but defendant did not reply. Lirette assumed defendant was going to do something like ask for a ride. However, when Lirette bent down to spray the bottom of the truck, defendant pulled out a .38 revolver and pointed it at Lirette’s head. When Lirette stood up, defendant pointed the gun at Lirette’s abdomen and asked for Lirette’s keys and wallet. Initially, Lirette refused. Defendant again demanded the keys and wallet, this time putting the gun to the victim’s face. When Lirette attempted to grab the gun, defendant pulled away and fired a shot into the ground on the side of the victim’s leg. Lirette then told defendant the keys were in the truck. Defendant again asked for the wallet. Fearing for his life, Lirette gave defendant the wallet. Defendant then got into the truck and drove away.

After receiving a description of the suspect and the stolen vehicle, deputies with the Ter-rebonne Parish Sheriffs Office located defendant. Deputy Frank Johnson observed defendant | traveling in an erratic manner in and out of traffic at speeds of about 110 mph. After turning onto Ferry Road, defendant struck a small tree and ran into the bayou. As the vehicle was submerging, defendant escaped through the back cab window. He swam to the shore and lay on the ground as directed by Deputy Johnson.

When the vehicle was pulled to the shore, law enforcement authorities found an old model Colt .38 special revolver, still cocked, laying on the floorboard. The gun was loaded with five live rounds and one spent round. A deputy also retrieved the victim’s wallet as it floated out of the truck.

Defendant was transported to the hospital. During questioning by a detective, defendant admitted committing the offense.

ASSIGNMENT OF ERROR:

In his sole assignment of error, defendant contends that the trial court erred by imposing an excessive sentence and by imposing harsher conditions of imprisonment, viz., that the sentence be served without benefit of parole, probation or suspension of sentence. Defendant asserts that he “probably falls within” either a Grid Cell E-1 or F-1 “depending on his prior felony conviction;” and he states that the “record appears incomplete with regard to this.” In any event, defendant further asserts that even assuming arguendo that the applicable Grid Cell is an A-l, the maximum sentence provided by that grid cell is thirty years,2 approximately one-half the sentence he received. Defendant submits that he probably should have been sentenced to no more than ten and one-half years imprisonment and that the sentence imposed is nothing more than a purposeless imposition of pain and suffering. Additionally, defendant argues that the trial court imposed sentence without making more than a cursory reference to the Guidelines promulgated by the Louisiana Sentencing Commission and without articulating a factual basis or reasons supported by the record for such an egregious deviation from the Guidelines.

Islnitially, we note that defendant incorrectly indicates in brief that the sentence imposed at the second resentencing hearing was not less than the sentence he originally received. As previously stated in this opinion, the sentence originally imposed was sixty years at hard labor, one year more than the fifty-nine year sentence imposed at the second resentencing hearing. Furthermore, notwithstanding defendant’s assertions to the contrary, both of these sentences were imposed without benefit of parole, probation, or suspension of sentence.

Although the sentence imposed at the first resentencing hearing was illegal due

[64]*64to the trial court’s failure to deny the benefit of parole, the trial court correctly denied parole eligibility in imposing defendant’s original sentence and the sentence imposed at the second resentencing hearing. While we as an appellate court could note the trial court’s error at the first resentencing in failing to deny parole eligibility, as we did in State v. O’Neal, 98-1247, p. 2, n. 1 (La.App. 1st Cir. 5/20/94); 637 So.2d 1324, we were precluded from correcting the error since the error was in defendant’s favor and the state had not appealed the illegal sentence. However, on remand of this matter for the second resentencing, those same constraints did not apply to the trial court, which had the authority to notice and correct the error, as the trial court did. See State v. Fraser, 484 So.2d 122, 124 (La.1986).

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

State v. Rogers
681 So. 2d 994 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1996)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
665 So. 2d 61, 94 La.App. 1 Cir. 1902, 1995 La. App. LEXIS 3214, 1995 WL 669507, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-oneal-lactapp-1995.