State v. Russell

416 So. 2d 1283
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedJune 21, 1982
Docket81-KA-2467
StatusPublished
Cited by43 cases

This text of 416 So. 2d 1283 (State v. Russell) 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. Russell, 416 So. 2d 1283 (La. 1982).

Opinion

416 So.2d 1283 (1982)

STATE of Louisiana
v.
Anthony L. RUSSELL.

No. 81-KA-2467.

Supreme Court of Louisiana.

June 21, 1982.

*1284 William J. Guste, Jr., Atty. Gen., Barbara Rutledge, Asst. Atty. Gen., Ossie Brown, Dist. Atty., Warren J. Hebert and Kay Kirkpatrick, Asst. Dist. Attys., for plaintiff-appellee.

Timothy M. Screen and David Randall Buckley, Jeffery Calmes, Baton Rouge, for defendant-appellant.

FRED C. SEXTON, Justice Ad Hoc.[*]

Defendant, Anthony L. Russell was charged in a three-count bill of indictment *1285 with aggravated rape, armed robbery, and aggravated burglary, violations of LSA-R.S. 14:42, 14:64, and 14:60, respectively. On April 13-16, 1981, he was tried by a jury of twelve persons and was found guilty of the responsive verdict of forcible rape on Count One, and guilty as charged on Counts Two and Three.

Thereafter he was sentenced on Count One, to 40 years at hard labor; on Count Two, to 80 years at hard labor; and on Count Three to 20 years at hard labor. Each sentence was assessed concurrently to the other counts and without benefit of probation, parole or suspension. Defendant originally asserted nine assignments of error and argues the first six of these before us. Accordingly assignments 7, 8 and 9 are considered abandoned. State v. Edwards, 261 So.2d 649 (La.1972).

FACTS

Testimony at the trial indicated that early on the morning of December 3, 1980, Marlin Michelle Troxell was awakened in her bedroom at 3251 Carlotta Street in East Baton Rouge Parish by a black male later identified as the defendant. A hallway light shone sufficiently to enable Michelle to view the intruder's face and the knife which he held in his hand. The assailant removed a necklace and rings from Michelle and then undressed her prior to having sexual intercourse with her, all the while holding the knife in his hand. Thereafter he rummaged through her dresser and closet. Michelle testified that after the rape, while the defendant was walking around the bedroom he told her not to look at him. She stated she asked if it was alright to call him "Dave" and he agreed. Prior to leaving the defendant also took money and Michelle's driver's license from her wallet, which license contained her parents' address. After reporting the offense and the ensuing hospital examination, she selected the defendant out of a six man lineup some ten days after.

About four days after this incident, the victim's parents began to receive suspicious phone calls at their home, the address on Michelle's stolen driver's license. In one of these calls Michelle's mother answered the phone and the male caller asked to speak to "Marlin."[1] Upon calling her husband to the phone, thinking that was whom the caller wanted, the caller hung up. Later that same evening when another call was received by Mrs. Troxell asking for Marlin, she was asked by the caller if she knew who was calling. Having learned of the details of the incident from her daughter, she answered in the affirmative that the caller was "Dave." He stated he could not talk long and would call back soon as he could. He called again a few minutes later and apparently thinking he was speaking to Michelle inquired "Why are you doing this?" He went on to remind her that she had promised not to call the police if he did not hurt her. He further reminded her he did not hurt her and told her he knew that she had been to the hospital. He told her she had been followed and that someone was continuously watching her, stating that "Even if I go, it doesn't matter." He went on to state that he had been to prison before and that there were others who would take care of her.

Mrs. Troxell coincidentally worked for the phone company and arranged to have the line traced.

She continued to receive several more calls and pretended each time to be her daughter, engaging in fairly lengthy conversations with the caller during which the caller stated that she was picked at random by others and that he was directed to her. He told her that he was ordered to hurt her and a conversation ensued about whether the caller was proud of his actions and how he would feel if a similar event had happened to a female relative of his. Mrs. Troxell pretended that the ring which was taken during the incident had been given to *1286 her by a boyfriend and contended that she wanted it back, trying to make arrangements to meet with the caller. As the caller was testifying that arrangements could be made for the return of the jewelry the caller put the phone aside apparently saying "just a moment." She then heard muffled voices and the caller returned and got off the phone.

Early in the morning hours of December 9 the last of these calls was traced and Detective Odom was notified. He went to the address to which the phone was registered and subsequently arrested this defendant who resided there with his mother and father.

ASSIGNMENT OF ERROR NO. 1

Defendant, in assignment of error number one, asserts that the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress the lineup identification, asserting that he was subjected to the lineup without being advised of his right to counsel or making a knowing and intelligent waiver of that right, as per the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. He further contends that the manner in which the lineup was conducted by the officers involved violated his due process rights under the Fourteenth Amendment.

The defendant testified that prior to the lineup he and the other participants were taken to a room where numbered tags for use in the lineup were on a table. He chose tag number two, placing it around his neck. But before the lineup actually started he switched numbers with another party in the lineup and became number five.

He further testified at the motion to suppress that upon entering the lineup room someone behind the mirror, whom he assumed to be the victim, hollered out that it was number two and that she was sure of that. He stated he was later informed that he had been picked out of the lineup. Lawrence Johnson testified during the trial itself that he was indeed lineup participant number two and that he heard someone say that number two was the culprit. Detective Ben Odom who conducted the lineup denied that the victim picked number two as her assailant and testified that her choice was definitely number five. He further testified that she was not prompted in any way, to his knowledge, by any other officers present.

Detective Odom testified at the motion to suppress that as a matter of course he called the public defender's office, not because the defendant requested it, because that was his procedure when he was conducting a lineup when the defendant was represented by that organization.

Louisiana has followed the United States Supreme Court's limitation of United States v. Wade, 388 U.S. 218, 87 S.Ct. 1926, 18 L.Ed.2d 1149 (1967) in Kirby v. Illinois, 406 U.S. 682, 92 S.Ct. 1877, 32 L.Ed.2d 411 (1972) in holding that presence of counsel at a preindictment lineup is not a due process requirement. State v. Stewart, 389 So.2d 1321 (La.1980). But see State v. Thomas, 406 So.2d 1325 (La. 1981).

Furthermore just as in Stewart, supra, it appears that the unrequired good faith effort was made by the police to notify defendant's counsel of the intention to hold a lineup.

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Bluebook (online)
416 So. 2d 1283, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-russell-la-1982.