State v. Robertson

135 So. 3d 1275, 13 La.App. 3 Cir. 1234, 2014 WL 1305036, 2014 La. App. LEXIS 854
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedApril 2, 2014
DocketNo. KA 13-1234
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 135 So. 3d 1275 (State v. Robertson) 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. Robertson, 135 So. 3d 1275, 13 La.App. 3 Cir. 1234, 2014 WL 1305036, 2014 La. App. LEXIS 854 (La. Ct. App. 2014).

Opinion

EZELL, Judge.

| defendant, Willie James Robertson, was indicted in 2012 for the October 6, 1999, second degree murder of Irene Schoops. A jury trial commenced on May 29, 2013, and on May 30, the jury found Defendant guilty of manslaughter, a violation of La.R.S. 14:31. Defendant was then sentenced on September 26, 2013, to forty years imprisonment without the benefit of parole, probation, or suspension of sentence but with credit for time served.

Defendant has perfected a timely appeal wherein he alleges the evidence failed to support a conviction for manslaughter or second degree murder. For the following reasons, we reverse Defendant’s conviction, vacate his sentence, and enter an order of acquittal.

FACTS

Prior to the start of testimony, the State submitted into evidence the victim’s death certificate and the autopsy report. According to the autopsy report, the apparent cause of death was “sudden cardiac arrest,” at approximately 4:30 p.m. on October 6,1999.

Denise Breaux, the victim’s granddaughter, testified first at trial. She explained that the victim worked with her mother, Karen Cordova, in a law office. On October 6,1999, the victim left work about 4:00 p.m. She was driven home by one of the office workers. She went to the grocery store close to her house and picked up some groceries.1 Ms. Breaux testified she saw the victim the day before, on October 5, 1999, and on the morning of October 7, 1999. She called the victim, but she did not answer the phone. Ms. Breaux called several times throughout the | ¿morning, and then called her mother at work to see if she knew the whereabouts of the victim. They decided to check on her at the house.

Ms. Breaux testified that her mother arrived first. Ms. Breaux subsequently let herself in with a key at the side door. She saw the victim lying on the floor in the kitchen with the plastic grocery bags by her outstretched hand. She stated that the back sliding double door was pushed in. After the police arrived, she and her mother found that the house had been burglarized. The VCR and the victim’s silverware were missing. She also noticed that the victim’s wedding ring was not on her hand as it always was. She stated that the curtains in the living room were pulled shut, which was not customary. It was also noted that some of the groceries Ms. Schoops had purchased were missing from the plastic bags.

Chris Cogburn, a detective with the Lafayette Parish Sheriffs Office, was one of [1277]*1277the original officers to process the crime scene. He took the photographs. He noted that on the back porch close to the pushed-in double door was a collection of gardening tools, including a screw driver. He also collected fingerprints. He testified that he located a blue metal security box in the living room from which he was able to lift a latent print. There was testimony that seventy-nine latent fingerprints were collected altogether. There were no prints found on any of the gardening tools located outside the pushed-in sliding door or the screw driver. He testified that he made comparisons and none of the prints matched Defendant’s.2

Detective Philip Buris, an officer with the Lafayette Police Department, testified that the investigation was suspended in 2002. However, in 2011, he asked Ra crime scene technician to reprocess the fingerprints through the Automated Fingerprint Identification System [AFIS], and' among other prints, Defendant’s prints were highlighted. After he inquired and learned that no one in the victim’s family knew Defendant, he obtained an arrest warrant.

Detective Scott Broussard, a crime scene investigator with the Lafayette Police Department, and Detective Dwayne Angelle, an officer with the Lafayette Parish Sheriffs Office assigned to the Metro Crime Scene Unit, were both qualified at trial as experts in fingerprint analysis. They both examined the latent print discovered on the blue security box and compared the fingerprint to Defendant’s prints and determined that the print on the box indeed was Defendant’s. Detective Brous-sard testified that two of the prints found on the “point of entry” were also Defendant’s prints.

Defendant was subsequently charged with second degree murder.

ASSIGNMENT OF ERROR

Defendant argues that there was no evidence connecting him with the victim’s death. The only evidence submitted were Defendant’s alleged fingerprints, found in the house along with seventy-nine other fingerprints. The victim was not found until the next day, more than eighteen hours after the estimated time of death. There was no DNA processed. Defendant submits the evidence was insufficient pursuant to Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979), and that all reasonable hypotheses of innocence were not eliminated beyond a reasonable doubt as required when the conviction was based primarily on circumstantial evidence.

In State v. Dotson, 04-1414, pp. 1-2 (La.App. 3 Cir. 3/2/05), 896 So.2d 310, 312, this court has explained the insufficiency analysis as follows:

l4In considering questions of sufficiency of the evidence, a reviewing court must consider the evidence presented in the light most favorable to the prosecution and consider whether a rational trier of fact could have concluded that the essential elements of the offense were proven beyond a reasonable doubt. See Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979). The reviewing court defers to rational credibility and evidentiary determinations of the trier of fact. State v. Marcantel, 00-1629 (La.4/3/02), 815 So.2d 50.

[1278]*1278State v. Chesson, 03-606, p. 5 (La.App. 3 Cir. 10/1/03), 856 So.2d 166, 172, writ denied, 03-2913 (La.2/13/04), 867 So.2d 686.

Further, when the conviction is based upon circumstantial evidence, La.R.S. 15:438 provides that such evidence must exclude every reasonable hypothesis of innocence. State v. Camp, 446 So.2d 1207 (La.1984); State v. Wright, 445 So.2d 1198 (La.1984). However, La.R.S. 15:438 does not establish a stricter standard of review on appeal than the rational juror’s reasonable doubt standard. The statute serves as a guide for the jury when considering circumstantial evidence. On appeal, the issue is whether a rational trier of fact, when viewing the evidence in a light most favorable to the prosecution, could find that all reasonable hypotheses of innocence were excluded.

Defendant was initially charged with second degree murder. Second degree murder at the time of the offense was defined, in pertinent part, as follows:

A. Second degree murder is the killing of a human being:
(1) When the offender has a specific intent to kill or to inflict great bodily harm; or
(2)(a) When the offender is engaged in the perpetration or attempted perpetration of aggravated rape, forcible rape, aggravated arson, aggravated burglary, aggravated kidnapping, second degree kidnapping, aggravated escape, drive-by shooting, armed robbery, first degree robbery, or simple robbery, even though he has no intent to kill or to inflict great bodily harm.

La.R.S. 14:30.1.

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Related

State of Louisiana v. Willie James Robertson
172 So. 3d 616 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 2015)

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Bluebook (online)
135 So. 3d 1275, 13 La.App. 3 Cir. 1234, 2014 WL 1305036, 2014 La. App. LEXIS 854, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-robertson-lactapp-2014.