State v. Rodriguez

635 So. 2d 391, 1994 WL 102796
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMarch 29, 1994
Docket93-KA-0461
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 635 So. 2d 391 (State v. Rodriguez) 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. Rodriguez, 635 So. 2d 391, 1994 WL 102796 (La. Ct. App. 1994).

Opinion

635 So.2d 391 (1994)

STATE of Louisiana
v.
Jorge RODRIGUEZ.

No. 93-KA-0461.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Fourth Circuit.

March 29, 1994.

*393 Harry F. Connick, Dist. Atty., Jack Peebles, Asst. Dist. Atty., New Orleans, for plaintiff-appellee State of Louisiana.

Robert T. Myers, Young, Richaud, Theard & Myers, New Orleans, for defendant-appellant Jorge Rodriguez.

Before BARRY, KLEES and WARD, JJ.

KLEES, Judge.

On January 28, 1982 the appellant, Jorge Rodriguez was charged by bill of indictment with the second degree murder of Alberto Gonzales. He was tried by a jury on June 30, 1982 and found guilty as charged. On August 17, 1982 he was sentenced to life imprisonment at hard labor without benefit of probation, parole or suspension of sentence. The conviction and sentence were affirmed in an errors patent appeal. State v. Jorge Rodriguez, KA-0844, unpub. (La.App. 4th Cir., November 14, 1983).

Following the denial of several applications for post conviction relief, at 92-K-1301 this court ordered the trial court to grant the appellant an out-of-time appeal, pursuant to the holding in Lofton v. Whitley, 905 F.2d 885 (5th Cir.1990). The appeal was granted on August 3, 1992.

FACTS

Maria Gonzales and her husband, Alberto, were acquainted with the defendant because he used to live with Alberto's cousin, Dolores Soto. On December 29, 1991, at about 3:30 p.m., Maria was watching television in the bedroom of her shotgun house at 2470 Verbena Street when the doorbell rang. Alberto answered the doorbell. Maria heard the defendant cursing and heard Alberto tell the defendant to respect his house. Alberto told the defendant if he had a problem to settle it outside. Maria then heard a shot. She went to the hall and saw the defendant, who shot her in the hand and ran out. Maria also saw another man in the hall. She only saw the other man from the back as he was going towards the door. She described him as short with short black hair.

After Maria was shot, she ran back to the bedroom because she was afraid they would come back and kill her. She then hid in a shelter in the backyard. Eventually she went back to the house and asked her neighbor to call the police.

Officer Norman McCord was called to the scene around 4:00 p.m. and found Alberto lying dead, face down in the hall, having been shot in the back of the head, and found Maria bleeding from the hand. Maria told McCord what had happened. He then called the crime lab and left to find the defendant. Three revolvers and $18,000.00 were found in the victim's home. The victim did not work, but received checks in connection with an accident and back injury.

McCord with Officer Paul Mattio found the defendant at his apartment on Chef Menteur Drive. Also at the apartment were Raphielle Rosales, known as "Peaches," and a third person. When the officers found out which one was the defendant, they handcuffed and arrested him for the murder of Alberto Gonzales. They checked the cushion of a chair, so that the defendant could sit down, and found a 380 caliber Beretta automatic weapon under the seat cushion. The defendant was taken into custody and the others were taken in for investigation. Rosales was subsequently arrested, although it is not apparent what became of that charge. Over two weeks later, on January 16, 1991, Mr. Frank Culotta called the N.O.P.D. relative to a weapon found in the defendant's apartment. Mr. Culotta lived in the apartment below the *394 defendant. He observed a leak coming from his ceiling and went upstairs to find its source. He found the door had been kicked in and the apartment in disarray. Culotta called the police to report it and was told that the incident had already been checked out. He then called the maintenance man to go back upstairs with him. They found that the leak was coming from the roof. They then took a bag of garbage out of the garbage pail so that the pail could be used to catch the water leaking from the roof. In the bottom of the pail underneath the bag they found a .38 caliber Taurus revolver. The weapon found in the apartment that date was determined from ballistics tests to be the murder weapon.

Radeem Machado, the murder victim's brother, testified that he recognized the Taurus as belonging to the defendant. Machado testified that the defendant carried it with him all the time. He further testified that he saw the defendant and "Peaches" on the day of the murder. They asked him to go with them to Alberto's house, but he refused. Machado identified the murder weapon as the one he saw next to the defendant in the car on the day of the murder. He also identified the Beretta automatic as Peaches's gun.

Odalis and Miguel Abraham, sister and brother-in-law of Alberto, testified that the defendant and Peaches came to their house two nights before the murder. Odalis testified that her husband opened the door and the defendant and Peaches came into the kitchen. Miguel told the defendant he did not want Peaches in his apartment. Odalis further testified that the defendant came into the bedroom where she was. She identified the murder weapon as the one that the defendant had tucked in the back of his pants that night, and the long gun as the one which Peaches had in the kitchen.

The victim's family all testified as to not wanting to associate with Peaches. They further testified to a rumor relative to a threat on Maria's life from Peaches's father. The particulars of the alleged phone call varied from witness to witness. However, the witnesses all denied that it affected their testimony.

The defendant testified that, on the day of the murder, Raphielle insisted that he drive him to Alberto's house to collect some money. The defendant noticed that Raphielle had a gun in his vest, but did not know he would use it. The defendant denied ever carrying or owning a gun. The defendant further testified that he went in and told Alberto that Raphielle needed to speak with him. Raphielle then went into the next room with Alberto, while the defendant waited in the front room. According to the defendant, he heard a shot and started for the door. He then heard another shot and a woman screaming. He ran three blocks and caught a bus to his apartment. The defendant testified that he could not call the police because he did not speak English. Raphielle arrived a short time later and threatened him with a gun. Angela Perdoma arrived shortly after that. The defendant further testified that he was relieved when the police arrived because he thought Peaches was going to kill him next because he was a witness to the other shooting.

PATENT ERROR REVIEW

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

ASSIGNMENT ONE

The appellant avers that trial court counsel was ineffective. This assignment is assessed by the two part test of Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984); State v. Fuller, 454 So.2d 119 (La.1984). The defendant must show that counsel's performance was deficient and that the deficiency prejudiced him. Counsel's performance is ineffective when it can be shown that he made errors so serious that counsel was not functioning as the "counsel" guaranteed the defendant by the Sixth Amendment. Strickland, 466 U.S. at 686-88, 104 S.Ct. at 2064.

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Bluebook (online)
635 So. 2d 391, 1994 WL 102796, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-rodriguez-lactapp-1994.