State v. Rousell

501 So. 2d 834
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedDecember 22, 1986
DocketKA-5885
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 501 So. 2d 834 (State v. Rousell) 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. Rousell, 501 So. 2d 834 (La. Ct. App. 1986).

Opinion

501 So.2d 834 (1986)

STATE of Louisiana
v.
Joseph ROUSELL.

No. KA-5885.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Fourth Circuit.

December 22, 1986.
Writ Denied April 20, 1987.

*835 Bruce G. Whittaker, Courtenay, Forstall, Grace & Hebert, New Orleans, for appellant.

William J. Guste, Jr., Atty. Gen., Barbara Rutledge, Asst. Atty. Gen., Harry F. Connick, Dist. Atty., Rockne L. Moseley, Asst. Dist. Atty., New Orleans, for appellee.

Before GULOTTA, CIACCIO and LOBRANO, JJ.

CIACCIO, Judge.

Defendant, Joseph Rousell was charged with forcible rape and found guilty as charged. R.S. 14:42.1. Rousell was sentenced to forty years at hard labor without benefit of parole, probation or suspension of sentence for the first two years. He was also ordered to pay $80 court cost or in default thereof to spend an additional thirty days in the custody of the Department of Corrections. Defendant appeals his conviction and sentence relying upon seven assignments of error.[1] We affirm the defendant's conviction and sentence.

On January 31, 1985, the victim, a fourth grade school teacher living at 1021 Valmont Street, was awakened at 2:00 a.m. by a black male, weighing approximately 170 pounds and standing approximately 5' 9". Ms. Dearden screamed and the perpetrator jumped on her bed, stuffed a rag in her mouth and moved a knife towards her throat. The perpetrator then pushed the victim down a small hallway and into her living room where he forced her to perform fellatio upon him before he raped her vaginally.

*836 Subsequently, the perpetrator, sitting on the couch, and the victim, on the floor, had a brief discussion. The victim assured the perpetrator that she would wait ten minutes before calling the police. At this point, they returned to her bedroom and he asked her if she enjoyed their sexual encounter and told her that he had not intended to wake her up. The perpetrator then exited through a window and the victim waited approximately ten minutes before seeking help. Following the ten minute waiting period, the victim attempted to telephone Dr. Halsey, her landlord who lived upstairs, but was prevented from doing so because her phone was not working; she then ran upstairs and sought help. Dr. Halsey notified the police.

Assignment of Error No. 1

Physical Lineup

Defendant, by this assignment of error contends that the trial court erred in denying a motion to suppress the identification. Rousell argues that the identification procedures utilized in the photographic and physical lineups were suggestive and that there existed a likelihood of misidentification.

We do not consider the merits of the defendant's objections to the physical lineup as we find that these objections have been waived.

A week before trial a physical lineup was conducted at the request of the victim. During the selection process and the physical lineup the defendant's counsel was present. Following the lineup, no motion to suppress this identification was filed. When the trial judge called for a hearing on any such motion counsel stipulated that there was no objection to this process since the defendant was represented throughout this lineup process. Additionally, when the results of the physical lineup were introduced at trial no objection was lodged by the defendant to their admissibility.

Under these circumstances we conclude that any objections which the defendant may have had against the physical line up process and its results have been waived.

Photographic Lineup

In order for a defendant to succeed in the suppression of an identification, resulting from a photographic lineup, he must prove, both, that the identification procedure was suggestive and that there exists a likelihood of misidentification as a result of the identification procedure. State v. Prudholm, 446 So.2d 729 (La., 1984) citing, Manson v. Brathwaite, 432 U.S. 98, 97 S.Ct. 2243, 53 L.Ed.2d 140 (1977).

The United States Supreme Court, in Manson, supra, enumerated five factors to be considered in determining whether an identification is suggestive:

(1) the witness's opportunity to view the defendant at the time the crime was committed; (2) the degree of attention paid by the witness during the commission of the crime; (3) the accuracy of any prior description; (4) the level of the witness's certainty displayed at the time of identification; and (5) the length of time elapsed between the crime and the identification.

The trial judge's determination that identification evidence is admissible is entitled to great weight and will not be disturbed on appeal unless the preponderance of the evidence clearly so mandates. State v. Gordon, 336 So.2d 793 (La., 1976).

Defendant contends that the identification procedure utilized in this case was suggestive because after the victim had tentatively identified the defendant from a photographic line up, she was told that the person she identified was already under arrest. Additionally Rousell argues that this identification process was suggestive in that he was the only person who was the same in the photographic and physical displays.

Defendant also argues that the victim's condition at the time of her initial encounter with her assailant contributed substantially to a misidentification in that she was awakened early in the morning and viewed *837 her attacker only briefly in a dimly lighted house.

The record reveals that on January 31, 1985 at approximately 2 a.m., the victim, an elementary school teacher, was awakened in her apartment at 1021 Valmont Street in New Orleans. She sat up in her bed and observed a man standing at the foot of her bed holding a knife over his head. A light shone into the hall and into the victim's bedroom from a fixture in the bathroom which contained two sixty watt lightbulbs. At the time, according to the victim, she clearly observed the assailant's face, as it was not covered. During the attack, the assailant's face was touching that of the victim and her face was turned to the side. Following the initial attack, the victim's arms were forced behind her back and she was made to walk from the bedroom to the living room area. As she proceeded down the hall towards the living room, with her assailant behind her, she observed him turn off the bathroom light. Upon reaching the living room the victim was instructed to lie flat on the floor. The living room is divided from the kitchen by a snack bar. A night light in the kitchen was shining into the living room. The living room also was lighted by a fixture on the outside of the house, near the front door. The light was shining into the partly opened draperies of that room. The victim testified that following oral sex, which occurred when she was in the living room, she pulled her head back and she could again see her attacker's face. The entire incident occurred over a 20 minute period.

Following the departure of the rapist, the police were summoned by the victim's landlord. The victim gave the landlord a brief description of her attacker as being a dark skin Black male approximately 5 feet 10 inches tall. She next described her assailant to Detective Louis Kissner of the New Orleans Police Department's Rape Investigation Squad on the day of her attack. The victim indicated that her assailant was a Black male in his 20's, muscular build, approximately 5 feet 10 inches tall, medium length curly hair, with medium to large lips.

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Related

State v. Greer
553 So. 2d 892 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1989)
State v. Nasworthy
542 So. 2d 715 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1989)
State v. Moore
534 So. 2d 1275 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1988)
State v. Anderson
517 So. 2d 1231 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1987)
State v. Rousell
504 So. 2d 874 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1987)

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501 So. 2d 834, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-rousell-lactapp-1986.