State v. Peterson

868 So. 2d 786, 2003 WL 23095562
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedDecember 31, 2003
Docket2003 KW 1806
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 868 So. 2d 786 (State v. Peterson) 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. Peterson, 868 So. 2d 786, 2003 WL 23095562 (La. Ct. App. 2003).

Opinion

868 So.2d 786 (2003)

STATE of Louisiana
v.
Robert PETERSON.

No. 2003 KW 1806.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, First Circuit.

December 31, 2003.

*788 Doug Moreau, District Attorney, Baton Rouge, by Aaron Brooks, Assistant District Attorney, Counsel for Plaintiff/Respondent State of Louisiana.

Kevin P. Monahan, Baton Rouge, Counsel for Defendant/Relator Robert Peterson.

Before: WHIPPLE, KUHN, and MCDONALD, JJ.

KUHN, J.

Relator has been indicted with second degree murder of Gary Butler. He filed various motions to suppress evidence in which he sought suppression of statements, test results, and physical evidence on the ground there was no probable cause to believe relator committed the offense, the affiant for the arrest and search warrants omitted material facts with intent to deceive, and, if the misstatements were made without intent to deceive, the remainder of the warrants were not sufficient to support a finding of probable cause. The trial court denied the motions to suppress, and relator filed an application for supervisory writs seeking review of that ruling. This court granted certiorari to determine if the court erred when it denied the motions to suppress.

On February 17, 2001 at about 3:35 a.m., Gary Butler was found dead at his residence. He had been cut and stabbed numerous times, and there was a large amount of blood on the floors, walls, and furniture. Detectives Lonnie Lockett and Madeline Brooks of the Baton Rouge Police Department investigated the murder. They talked to several people and secured fingerprint samples from those individuals. None of the samples matched to prints left at the scene.

During the investigation, the detectives interviewed Gerald Lane, a man who had known the victim for several years. He told the detectives that, at about midnight (prior to the victim's body being found), he saw the victim get into a dark green car. The victim was alone when Lane saw him. *789 About three months after the offense, Mark Williams called detectives to say he had been talking to a friend in the neighborhood when the two of them saw a car drive by. The friend told Mark it was the same vehicle he had seen the victim in on the night of the murder. The vehicle matched the description provided earlier by Gerald Lane. Mark gave the detectives the license number for the vehicle, and the detectives determined the car was registered to relator (Robert Peterson). Earlier, family members had told Lockett that the victim had been hanging out with someone named "Rob."

Lockett included relator's picture in a photographic display, and he showed that display to people who knew the victim. Lockett testified that those people said relator looked like the man the victim "had been seen with just prior to him getting killed." Upon further examination, Lockett admitted the witnesses who viewed the display were unsure if "Rob" was in the photographic lineup but they thought the person in position number 2 (relator's picture) was the man they knew as Rob.

The detectives then went to talk to relator. Lockett testified that "one of my objectives" was to get relator to give palm prints. Detective Brooks testified that getting the prints was the "main goal." The detectives located relator at home at about 9 a.m. Lockett knocked on relator's door, identified himself, and asked relator, "Do you mind coming downtown to answer some questions." Relator agreed to go to the police station. Lockett did not tell relator he had to come, and he did not give relator any information about the crime. The detectives were investigating relator for the murder, but they did not tell him he was under investigation for the murder.

On the way to the police station, relator rode in the back seat of Lockett's vehicle. He was not in handcuffs, and he was not under arrest. If he had wanted to open the door, he could have. According to Lockett's testimony, if relator had asked to follow them in a different vehicle, he probably would have allowed it. The detectives did not view the encounter as being a custodial situation, and they did not advise relator of his rights.

Upon arrival at the detective office, Lockett "asked" relator to provide fingerprints and relator "submitted." According to Lockett, relator submitted "voluntarily." Detective Brooks testified that when they asked relator to submit to giving palm prints, he said, "no problem." Lockett did not tell relator why they wanted the prints, and he did not tell relator he was not required to give the prints. The prints were taken before relator was advised of his rights or had signed a rights form.

After the detectives got the prints, they told relator they were investigating a homicide. They advised relator of his rights and secured a waiver. Relator then made a statement. He told the detectives he did not really know the victim. When the detectives told relator people had seen him with the victim, relator admitted he had gone to the victim's apartment to help the victim move. Relator said he did not go into the apartment, and he claimed he did not know exactly where the apartment was located. Lockett told relator he did not believe him, and he gave relator the opportunity to take a voice stress analysis test. Relator said he did not want to take the test until he talked to his wife and he did not want to answer any more questions. The officers then brought relator home. Lockett estimated relator was with the officers for about one and one-half hours.

The detectives submitted the prints to the crime lab. When the crime lab notified the detectives that relator's prints matched those left at the scene, Lockett *790 secured a warrant for relator's arrest and a warrant to search relator's residence and car. In the affidavit for the arrest warrant, Locked stated: "During the investigation detective interviewed friends of the victim and learned that the victim was last seen with the defendant prior to the stabbing." The affidavit submitted in connection with the state's request for the search warrant (prepared on the same date as the arrest warrant) contains somewhat different language: "During the investigation detective learned that the victim had been with the defendant (Robert W. Peterson W/M DOB 3/17/67) prior to the stabbing."

While executing the search warrant, the officers seized relator's car. Although it is not clear from the motions or the testimony exactly what physical evidence, other than the palm prints, relator sought to suppress, discovery responses contained in the record indicate the crime laboratory determined that bloodstains found inside relator's vehicle matched to the victim's DNA.

Relator testified at the hearings held on his motions to suppress. He said the officers arrived at his residence, asked if he was Robert Peterson, and asked if he would "come down to the shop with them." He had recently been fired from Wild's Car Care, and he thought the officers were investigating a recent theft at that business and were taking him to his former place of employment. Relator said only two officers came to his residence, and their guns were not drawn. He was not dressed when the officers arrived, and they came inside while he dressed. They did not follow him into his bedroom, and he did not object to them coming inside his residence. They did not frisk him. He had two cars at the residence, but he did not ask to drive himself. He explained that his license had been taken from him in a recent DWI arrest.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
868 So. 2d 786, 2003 WL 23095562, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-peterson-lactapp-2003.