State v. Porter

151 So. 3d 871, 2013 La.App. 4 Cir. 0357, 2014 La. App. LEXIS 2430, 2014 WL 5088263
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedOctober 8, 2014
DocketNo. 2013-KA-0357
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 151 So. 3d 871 (State v. Porter) 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. Porter, 151 So. 3d 871, 2013 La.App. 4 Cir. 0357, 2014 La. App. LEXIS 2430, 2014 WL 5088263 (La. Ct. App. 2014).

Opinion

SANDRA CABRINA JENKINS, Judge.

^Defendant, Preston Porter, was charged by grand jury indictment with three counts of aggravated rape of a victim under the age of thirteen, violations of La. R.S. 14:42(A)(4), and one count of second degree kidnapping, a violation of La. R.S. 14:44.1. Defendant pled not guilty to all charges. Following a two-day trial, the jury returned the following verdicts: (count one) guilty of sexual battery;1 (counts two and three) guilty of aggravated rape; (count four) guilty of second degree kidnapping. Defendant filed motions for new trial and post-verdict judgment of acquittal. On the day of sentencing, the trial court denied defendant’s motions and sentenced defendant to fifty years for sexual battery, a life sentence on each count of aggravated rape, and twenty years for second degree kidnapping. The trial court imposed all sentences without benefit of parole, probation or suspension of sentence and ordered the sentences run concurrently-

Defendant timely appeals all four of his convictions and raises six assignments of error in this appeal. Upon our review of the record, we find no errors patent and, for the reasons that follow, we find no merit to any of ^defendant’s assignments of error. Accordingly, we affirm defendant’s convictions and sentences.

FACTUAL BACKGROUND

Defendant was charged by grand jury indictment with second degree kidnapping and three counts of aggravated rape of C.C., a victim under the age of thirteen, on January 3, 2012. The following witnesses testified at trial regarding the events of that date.

C.C.’s Testimony

The victim, C.C., testified that in 2011 she was living in Texas with her mother, N.M., her brother, P.P., and defendant.2 For the Christmas holidays, they drove to New Orleans to stay at her grandmother’s house. On the morning of January 3, 2012, she was sleeping on her grandmother’s couch when defendant woke her and told her to put on her shoes and jacket. Defendant then instructed her to come with him outside and get in the front seat of his car. Once in the car, defendant drove to the club that he owned in New Orleans East, he parked the car in the parking lot outside the club. She stated that he went into the club but soon came back to the car. At this point, C.C. had gotten into the back seat but defendant told her to come to the front seat. When C.C. got in the front seat, defendant pulled her pants and underwear down. She stated that defendant’s pants were unbuttoned and his penis was out of his pants. C.C. testified that defendant put his mouth on her chest and breasts, he told her to put [877]*877her mouth on his penis, |4and then he grabbed her and pulled her on top of him as he sat in the driver’s seat. C.C. stated that defendant’s penis touched her privates — her genital area — but he did not penetrate her. Then, C.C. stated, her mother was standing outside the window of the car, beating on the car door and telling the defendant to let C.C. out of the car. The defendant pushed her off of him, told her to put her clothes on, and he drove away with her in the car. C.C.’s mother followed them in another car. Eventually defendant pulled over, let C.C. out of the car, and she got into the car with her mother. Before she got out of defendant’s car, however, he told C.C. to tell her mother “this only happened one time.” When asked at trial whether that was the truth, C.C. testified that “it” happened several times before in Texas — “it started at the age of nine and didn’t end until this Christmas.”3

N.M.’s Testimony

N.M., C.C.’s mother, testified that she and defendant had a ten year relationship; and defendant is the father of her son, P.P., and stepfather to her daughter, C.C. N.M. and defendant started their relationship while living in New Orleans and they moved to Texas following Hurricane Katrina. In December 20H, defendant drove her, C.C., and P.P. to New Orleans to stay at her mother’s house. They stayed there for at least two weeks. On the morning of January 3, 2012, she was asleep when her mother woke her and told her that Preston was not in the house and she could not find C.C. in the house either. Because they had to 15drive back to Texas to get the kids back in school, N.M. got up and called defendant’s cell phone to find out where he had gone. When defendant did not answer his cell phone, N.M. decided to borrow her mother’s car and drive to the club to see if she could find defendant. Defendant had been doing work at the club while they were in New Orleans.

When she arrived at the club, N.M. saw defendant’s car and noticed it was running. As she walked up to defendant’s car, N.M. saw her daughter, C.C., on top of the defendant in the front seat of the car. She could see that C.C. did not have pants on because she saw her bare behind through the window. N.M. started to hit the glass and yell at defendant to give her her child. She said that defendant “looked like he saw a ghost,” pushed C.C. to the side and drove off in his car. N.M. immediately got into her mother’s car and followed defendant. At a red light, defendant pulled over and let C.C. out of the car.

N.M. testified that C.C. got into her car and started crying. N.M. started driving back to her mother’s house, but defendant was following her. She pulled over the car and she got out to talk to defendant, who had also pulled over. N.M. stated that she asked the defendant “why” and he stated “I’m sick.” N.M. got back into the car and asked C.C. what happened. N.M. recalled C.C. said it happened once.

N.M. called her mother and told her that she wanted her mother to bring C.C. to the hospital to be examined. N.M. did not explain to her mother what had happened, told her mother not to ask her any questions and just bring C.C. to the 1 fihospital for an exam. N.M. testified that she was not in the right frame of mind and thought her mother would be better to bring C.C. to the hospital.

[878]*878Dr. Jamie Jackson’s Testimony

Dr. Jamie Jackson testified that she works as a child abuse pediatrician at the Audrey Hepburn Care Center at Children’s Hospital where she evaluates and treats children involved in suspected cases of physical or sexual abuse or neglect.4 On January 3, 2012, Dr. Jackson was notified by the Emergency Room at Children’s Hospital that C.C. had been brought into the ER and presented as having experienced sexual abuse within the previous 24 hours. Dr. Jackson conducted a recorded forensic interview with C.C. in a monitoring room where the interview was viewed and heard by Detective Journay Ross of the New Orleans Police Department and a representative from the Child Advocacy Center. Dr. Jackson stated that C.C. gave a clear and detailed history of what had happened to her that day and on past occasions.

After the interview, Dr. Jackson performed a physical examination of C.C. and collected all of C.C.’s clothing for trace evidence. She also collected sterile swabs from C.C.’s breasts, mouth, fingernails, vagina, anus, and perianal area. In her medical exam report, Dr. Jackson wrote that there were no inconsistencies noted, meaning that the physical exam was not inconsistent with the history that |7C.C. had provided in the interview. Dr. Jackson collected the swabs for the sexual abuse kit and sent them to the Louisiana State Police Crime Lab for testing.

Detective Ross’s Testimony

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
151 So. 3d 871, 2013 La.App. 4 Cir. 0357, 2014 La. App. LEXIS 2430, 2014 WL 5088263, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-porter-lactapp-2014.