State v. Qualls

353 So. 2d 978
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedDecember 19, 1977
Docket59994
StatusPublished
Cited by53 cases

This text of 353 So. 2d 978 (State v. Qualls) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Qualls, 353 So. 2d 978 (La. 1977).

Opinion

353 So.2d 978 (1977)

STATE of Louisiana
v.
Louis QUALLS, Jr.

No. 59994.

Supreme Court of Louisiana.

December 19, 1977.
Rehearing Denied January 27, 1978.

*981 Bobby L. Culpepper, Baker, Culpepper & Brunson, Jonesboro, for defendant-appellant.

William J. Guste, Jr., Atty. Gen., Barbara Rutledge, Asst. Atty. Gen., Leon H. Whitten, Dist. Atty., for plaintiff-appellee.

DIXON, Justice.

Louis Qualls, Jr. was charged by bill of information with attempted first degree murder of Marjorie Walker in violation of R.S. 14:30 and R.S. 14:27. After a trial by jury, he was found guilty of attempted manslaughter and was sentenced to three years at hard labor. Defendant appeals his conviction and sentence based upon seventeen assignments of error. Finding no error, we affirm.

Between the late evening hours of September 3, 1976 and the early morning hours of September 4, 1976 the following events took place. Before leaving home to join William Ray Tilley, Mrs. Marjorie Walker received a phone call from the defendant, whom she had been seeing over an eighteen month period. When she refused to meet him, he hung up in anger. Mrs. Walker then spent approximately three hours with Mr. Tilley driving around town and drinking. Mr. Tilley dropped Mrs. Walker off around eleven o'clock and joined his friends Ronnie Potts and Vernon Vines. Later Mrs. Walker was seen with the defendant at a local bar.

At approximately one-thirty a. m. Tilley, Potts and Vines came upon Mrs. Walker, apparently in a drunken state, driving erratically. They pulled her over and Mr. Tilley offered to drive her home while Potts and Vines followed. Both vehicles stopped for a short while at a filling station. Defendant pulled in, got out of his car, and fired three shots in the direction of the Walker vehicle. Tilley immediately drove off at the sound of the gun fire, and, speeding over a rain slicked road, drove off the road and hit a tree. Mrs. Walker sustained serious injuries in the accident. A police officer at the scene of the accident retrieved a bullet from inside the car and noticed a bullet hole above the rear window.

Assignment of Error No. 1

Defendant contends the trial court erred in ruling that the State's answer to his motion for bill of particular was adequate. The trial judge's per curiam reveals that defendant failed to note any objection to the answers or to the court's ruling finding them sufficient. C.Cr.P. 841. The basis for an objection cannot be raised for the first time on appeal.

This assignment is without merit.

Assignment of Error No. 2

Defendant argues that a motion to quash the bill of information should have been granted. Among the various complaints, he argues that he should have been charged by grand jury indictment. Attempted first degree murder carries a maximum possible punishment of fifty years at hard labor. Only when a crime is capital or punishable by life imprisonment is a grand jury indictment mandated. Louisiana Constitution of 1974, Art. 1, § 15; C.Cr.P. 382. That fifty years might equal life imprisonment is not controlling, because of the system of classification of crimes employed in Louisiana. The other allegations raised in the motion to quash have no arguable merit.

*982 Assignment of Error No. 3

Defendant contends the trial court erred in determining at a preliminary examination that there was probable cause to hold defendant for trial. We have consistently held that the question of probable cause is moot once a defendant has been tried and convicted by a jury. See, e. g., State v. Walker, 344 So.2d 990 (La.1977).

Assignment of Error No. 4

Defendant asserts as error the trial judge's refusal to excuse a juror for cause. The juror was excused by defendant's peremptory challenge and thus did not serve, but defendant is nevertheless allowed to raise the issue on appeal since he later exhausted his peremptory challenges. State v. Ballard, 337 So.2d 481 (La.1976).

On voir dire defense counsel asked the juror if she could assume the defendant was just as innocent as she. She responded yes but, sensing the trouble she had answering the question, the prosecutor pursued the inquiry. She then explained her feeling that if defendant were as innocent as she, he would not be on trial. The juror also revealed she would be more inclined to believe a law enforcement officer than other witnesses (her husband is a law enforcement officer). On further questioning by the trial judge, she indicated she could believe certain witness testimony over contradictory testimony by a police officer, and also accepted the proposition that the defendant was innocent until proven guilty.

The trial judge was satisfied the juror could serve impartially and would not be influenced by her husband's employment. We cannot say that his failure to excuse her was an abuse of his discretion. C.Cr.P. 797(2) and (3); State v. Wilkerson, 326 So.2d 353 (La.1976); State v. Dupuy, 319 So.2d 294 (La.1975); State v. Blanton, 312 So.2d 329 (La.1975).

This assignment has no merit.

Assignments of Error Nos. 5, 10 and 11

Defendant argues in Assignments of Error Nos. 5 and 11 that the notice required by C.Cr.P. 768 of the State's intention to use inculpatory statements or confessions of defendant was inadequate under State v. Sneed, 316 So.2d 372 (La.1975). Therefore, he contends, the trial court erred in admitting in testimony regarding two statements made by defendant when he arrived at the scene of the accident.

State v. Sneed, supra, held that C.Cr.P. 768 notice must specify the date or occasion of the statement and the persons to whom it was given in order to sufficiently notify defendant to be able to meet the issue. The notice provided by the State in the instant case was the same "bare bones" notice found objectionable in Sneed—". . . the State . . . intends to introduce inculpatory statements, exculpatory statements, and/or confessions made by the defendant. . ."

In Assignment of Error No. 10, defendant asserts that a statement he made to Potts and Vines immediately after the shooting was immaterial, irrelevant and highly prejudicial to him, and therefore should not have been admitted.

The State argues, in response to all these assignments, that the statements were res gestae, and that, in regard to Assignments Nos. 5 and 11, 768 notice does not apply. See, e. g., State v. Davis, 336 So.2d 805 (La.1976); State v. Fink, 255 La. 385, 231 So.2d 360 (1970). Regarding Assignment No. 10, the State contends that the statements would be independently admissible as an exception to the hearsay rule. R.S. 15:447, 448.

The subject of these assignments is testimony regarding the following statements by the defendant. Mr. Vines testified that immediately after the shooting and after Mr. Tilley sped off with Mrs. Walker, defendant opened the door to the truck where Vines and Potts were sitting, asked what they were doing, held a gun at them, and told them they "had better get to moving." Vines also testified that at the scene of the accident defendant drove up still holding a gun, and upon seeing Potts and Vines said "I told you to get out . . . get to moving a while ago, boy." Vines then overheard *983 defendant responding to Mrs. Walker's complaints of pain by stating, "Well, that's good for you . . . I ought to have went ahead and killed you."

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Bluebook (online)
353 So. 2d 978, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-qualls-la-1977.