State v. Page

587 So. 2d 170, 1991 La. App. LEXIS 2467, 1991 WL 189597
Louisiana Court of Appeal·Decided September 26, 1991·No. No. 90-KA-1556·Published·Cited by 2 cases

Opinion

ARMSTRONG, Judge.

The defendant, Noel Page, was charged with the offense of manslaughter. After a trial, a twelve-member jury found him guilty as charged. He was sentenced to serve twenty-one years at hard labor.

The record reflects that on November 22, 1989, the defendant was living with the family of Tiffany Edgarson, his ex-girlfriend. On that day, he and Tiffany’s brother Chris had gone job hunting and had returned to the Edgarson’s house at 1427 Arts Street. Tiffany, her new boyfriend Irwin LeGarde, and a baby were at the house. Soon after Chris and defendant arrived, Chris, Tiffany, and LeGarde left the house to get some food. When they returned, defendant was talking on the telephone. Tiffany indicated she wanted to use the telephone, and there was some conflicting testimony as to whether she guessed defendant had been talking with another girl. In any event, she hung up the telephone, cutting off defendant’s call. Tiffany testified that Page became mad and hit her. Defendant testified that Tiffany screamed at him for calling another girl from her house. Defendant testified that Tiffany then began hitting him, and he grabbed her arms and pinned her down on the bed to keep her from hitting him.

While defendant and Tiffany were engaged in this conflict, LeGarde emerged from another room and told defendant to leave Tiffany alone. Defendant in essence told him to mind his own business, and LeGarde suggested that they take the matter outside. Tiffany testified that the two boys, (both were seventeen), then went outside and began fighting. Defendant testified that LeGarde hit him on the way out the door and he fell down the stairs. This statement was confirmed by Brian Bell, [172]*172who also happened to be at the house. Tiffany denied that this happened and stated that defendant threw the first punch. In any event, defendant and LeGarde then fought outside. Bell and defendant testified that LeGarde picked up a bottle and tried to hit defendant with it, but he missed and the bottle fell to the ground and broke. Tiffany denied that this happened. The fight continued out into the street, where defendant ended up on his back, with Le-Garde standing over him, punching and kicking him, and threatening to kill him.

LeGarde finally went back inside the house after being called inside by Tiffany and her brother Chris. Tiffany and Chris testified that LeGarde was just coming out of tbe bathroom, where he had gone to clean up some blood from injuries caused by the fight. They testified that as Le-Garde walked into the kitchen with his face still in the towel and his head down, defendant burst through the back door and stabbed him with a piece of broken glass. LeGarde fell, and help was summoned. Defendant tried to help LeGarde, but he fled the scene when Chris went next door to get a neighbor who worked at a hospital. Tiffany and Chris denied that LeGarde was armed or had even walked toward defendant when he was stabbed.

Defendant testified that when LeGarde reentered the house, he was afraid that LeGarde was going to arm himself. He testified that Bell had told him that Le-Garde was a member of the Bally Boys, a gang known for violence. Bell testified that LeGarde had admitted to him that he was a Bally Boy. Defendant testified that he did not simply run away because he was living there and his possessions were in the house. He testified he armed himself with the broken piece of wine bottle for his own protection and went around the back of the house. He testified that when he entered the kitchen through the back door, he saw LeGarde emerging from the bathroom. He testified that when LeGarde took a few steps toward him, he closed his eyes and swung the piece of glass. LeGarde then stopped, said he was sorry, took a few steps backward, and fell to the floor. Defendant testified he tried to help LeGarde by holding towels against the wound, but he became scared and he fled the scene.

LeGarde received two stab wounds to the neck near his shoulder, the fatal one passing through the jugular vein and almost severing an artery. No weapon was found near LeGarde's body. Pieces of glass were found outside near the front steps and on the back steps. Defendant turned himself in the next day and gave a statement to the police which was read at trial but not included in the transcript or in the record.

The State presented two rebuttal witnesses, one LeGarde’s friend and the other the disciplinarian at LeGarde’s school, who both testified that they knew nothing about LeGarde being a Bally Boy. Neither witness knew anything about LeGarde getting into fights.

A review of the record for errors patent reveals there are none.

By his first assignment of error, the defendant contends that the trial court erred by admitting unduly prejudicial photographs of the victim. The defendant contends that their highly inflammatory nature more than outweighed any value they had to the prosecution of the case.

Louisiana jurisprudence has long held that in order to be admissible, “gruesome” photographs must have a probative value which outweighs their prejudicial effect. State v. Comeaux, 514 So.2d 84 (La.1987); State v. Germain, 433 So.2d 110 (La.1983). In State v. Eaton, 524 So.2d 1194 (La.1988), cert. den. Eaton v. Louisiana, 488 U.S. 1019, 109 S.Ct. 818, 102 L.Ed.2d 807 (1989), the Court noted:

This court has established a number of well settled guidelines regarding the introduction of photographs. The mere fact a photograph is gruesome does not in and of itself render a photograph inadmissible. The test of admissibility is whether the probative value outweighs any prejudicial effect which may result from the display to the jury. State v. Comeaux, 514 So.2d 84 (La.1987); State v. Beach, 320 So.2d 142 (La.1975); State v. Morris, 245 La. 175, 157 So.2d 728 (1963). Generally, photographs of a vie-[173]*173tim’s body which depict the fatal wounds are relevant to prove the corpus delecti, to establish the identity of the victim, the location, severity and number of wounds, and to corroborate other evidence of the manner in which the death occurred. Comeaux, 514 So.2d at 96. The trial court’s admission of an allegedly gruesome photograph will be overturned on appeal only if the prejudicial effect clearly outweighs the probative value. No error will be found unless the photographs are so gruesome so as to overwhelm the jurors’ reason and lead them to convict the defendant without sufficient other evidence. State v. Perry, 502 So.2d 543 (La.1986).

Eaton, at 1201. See also State v. Lindsey, 543 So.2d 886 (La.1989), cert. den. Lindsey v. Louisiana, — U.S. —, 110 S.Ct. 1796, 108 L.Ed.2d 798 (1990).

Here, the defendant argues that the photographs of the deceased were not necessary to the case because they really had no probative value in that the only issue was whether the killing occurred in self-defense. He argues that the photographs which show the body and the surrounding area are misleading because the blood was smeared when Chris Edgarson tried to wipe up some of it. However we find that their probative value in proving the corpus delecti, establishing the identity of the victim, the location, severity and number of wounds and in corroborating other evidence of the manner in which the death occurred outweighs any possible prejudicial effect.

In any event, the photographs, while not pleasant do not appear to be so gruesome as to have robbed the jury of its reason.

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State v. Page, 587 So. 2d 170, 1991 La. App. LEXIS 2467, 1991 WL 189597 (La. Ct. App. 1991).

587 So. 2d 170 (State v. Page) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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