State v. Sanchez

516 So. 2d 415, 1987 WL 1506
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedNovember 10, 1987
Docket87 KA 0442
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 516 So. 2d 415 (State v. Sanchez) 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. Sanchez, 516 So. 2d 415, 1987 WL 1506 (La. Ct. App. 1987).

Opinion

516 So.2d 415 (1987)

STATE of Louisiana
v.
Juan Jose SANCHEZ

No. 87 KA 0442.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, First Circuit.

November 10, 1987.
Rehearing Denied January 7, 1988.

Allen Helm, III, Asst. Dist. Atty., Houma, for plaintiff and appellee State of La.

F. Smith Knobloch, Thibodaux, for defendant and appellant Juan Jose Sanchez.

*416 Before GROVER L. COVINGTON, C.J., and SHORTESS and SAVOIE, JJ.

SAVOIE, Judge.

Juan Jose Sanchez was charged by a single bill of information with (Count I) conspiracy to possess more than four hundred grams of cocaine, a controlled dangerous substance classified in Schedule II (LSA-R.S. 14:26 and 40:967 F), and (Count II) possession of more than four hundred grams of cocaine (LSA-R.S. 40:967 F). Defendant pled not guilty and filed a motion to suppress the seized contraband. Following a hearing, the trial court denied defendant's motion to suppress. Thereafter, defendant withdrew his former pleas of not guilty and pled guilty as charged in each count, reserving his right to appeal the adverse ruling on the motion to suppress. See State v. Crosby, 338 So.2d 584 (La. 1976). The trial court sentenced defendant to a seven and one-half year term of imprisonment at hard labor on Count I and to a fifteen year term of imprisonment at hard labor, without benefit of parole, probation, or suspension of sentence, on Count II. The two sentences are to be served concurrently.[1]

Defendant brings this appeal urging as his only assignment of error that the trial court erred by denying the motion to suppress.

FACTS

In December of 1985, Ken Perry, the general manager of Perry Flying Center, located in Patterson, Louisiana, rented a Piper Navajo airplane to Ray Howell. The airplane was owned by Mike Foster, but Perry was responsible for the operation and maintenance of the aircraft. Ken Perry testified that Howell represented that he had an opportunity to fly computer parts from New Orleans to Tampa, Florida, and needed an airplane to demonstrate to the company that transportation by air would be cost effective. Howell took possession of the aircraft on December 13, 1985. According to Ken Perry, the rental agreement, in part oral, provided that Howell return the airplane to Perry Flying Center every other day. In addition, Howell was to have use of the craft for a period not to exceed one week; also he was not to allow anyone else to pilot the aircraft.

During the week following Howell's possession of the aircraft, Ken Perry and his father, M.C. Perry, tried to locate Howell, who had failed to return the airplane for the scheduled inspections. Finally, on December 18, 1985, the Perrys spoke with Howell by telephone and informed him that it was imperative that he present the aircraft for inspection. Howell stated the aircraft had been detained, but he promised to present it for inspection. The Perrys, who had grown suspicious, asked if any unauthorized persons were piloting the aircraft. Howell assured them that no one other than himself was flying the airplane. Nothing more was heard about the airplane until the afternoon of December 21, 1985. Ray Howell's wife, who lived in Oklahoma, called the Perrys and informed them that her husband would be leaving Florida that day and would return the airplane by 6:00 p.m. By that point in time, the Perrys had decided to file a stolen plane report.

During the late afternoon of December 21, Ken Perry heard a radio transmission by a pilot utilizing the registration number of the Piper Navajo rented to Howell. That pilot requested an airport advisory and fuel from the Thibodaux, Louisiana, airport. Ken Perry contacted the pilot by private radio frequency and confirmed the registration number of the aircraft. Perry asked to speak with Ray Howell, and the pilot responded that Howell was not aboard. Mr. Perry identified himself as the owner of the aircraft and ordered the unidentified pilot to fly the airplane to the Perry Flying Center. The pilot did not respond. Ken Perry testified that he was *417 perplexed by the pilot's request for fuel from the Thibodaux Airport, since flight time from Thibodaux to Patterson is only ten minutes.

Concerned that the airplane rented to Howell was being used in a prohibited manner by unauthorized persons, Ken Perry and his father began calling all of the local airports in an effort to detain the airplane if it should land. Finally, through Brian Saunders, an air traffic controller at the Houma Airport, Ken Perry learned that the airplane was refueling at that facility. Saunders, who knew Ken Perry and recognized the aircraft, agreed to have the fuel truck block the craft's forward movement, after he was informed that it was in the possession of unauthorized persons. While the Perrys flew to the Houma Airport, Saunders telephoned the Houma Police Department and requested a unit to investigate the unauthorized use of the aircraft.

Officer Duplantis testified that he was dispatched to the Houma Airport to investigate the unauthorized use of an airplane. On the way to the airport, Duplantis observed two men, one Hispanic and the other a non-Hispanic Caucasian, walking west on Louisiana Highway 24. Duplantis reached the airport in two minutes or less and reported directly to Hammond's Air Service, a private aviation service company located at the airport. Two laborers for the air service told him that two men, one Spanish and the other white, got out of the disputed airplane and began walking toward Highway 24.

Duplantis quickly located the two men he had spotted moments earlier. When asked, each admitted that he had just come from Hammond's Air Service. Duplantis conducted a pat down and then transported the two men (later identified as Juan Jose Sanchez and Peter Hugh Taylor) back to the airport in his police car. At that point, Duplantis had not spoken with the Perrys and wanted all parties present in one location so the disputed rightful possession of the aircraft could be resolved.

The remainder of the investigation took place on the tarmac of the runway where the Piper Navajo was parked. When Duplantis returned with defendant and Taylor, he found the Perrys on the scene inspecting the aircraft. Ken Perry convinced Duplantis that defendant and Taylor were not authorized to use the airplane. Ken Perry asked the men for the key to the airplane, but defendant said the key was lost. However, Perry informed Duplantis that the two men must have the key, as the door to the aircraft could only be locked by use of a key. When Duplantis told Taylor, who identified himself as the pilot, to empty his pockets, defendant produced a key. Ken Perry testified that the oral discussion with defendant, Taylor and Officer Duplantis lasted approximately twenty minutes.

Ken Perry took the key, which defendant had handed to Duplantis, and opened the door of the airplane. He was immediately overcome by gasoline fumes emanating from the cabin of the aircraft. Extra fuel tanks had been installed and holes cut in the floorboard in violation of the rental agreement. The cabin's carpeting was saturated with fuel leaking into the airplane's interior. In addition, all of the airplane's logs and documents were missing. During the process of surveying the craft's interior, Ken Perry opened one of several sealed boxes. Inside a brown plastic pouch, he found a white powdery substance, which he suspected was cocaine. Officer Duplantis testified that he heard Ken Perry remark, "I can't believe they're hauling cocaine in my plane." Thereafter, the officer turned to defendant and Taylor and advised both men of their Miranda rights.

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Related

State v. Tucker
604 So. 2d 600 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1992)
State v. Revere
572 So. 2d 117 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1990)
State v. Taylor
553 So. 2d 873 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1989)
State v. Sanchez
523 So. 2d 1334 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1988)

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Bluebook (online)
516 So. 2d 415, 1987 WL 1506, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-sanchez-lactapp-1987.