State v. Scott

952 So. 2d 60, 2006 WL 3804681
Louisiana Court of Appeal·Decided December 28, 2006·No. 2006 KA 1103·Published·Cited by 3 cases

Opinion

952 So.2d 60 (2006)

STATE of Louisiana
v.
Leo SCOTT.

No. 2006 KA 1103.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, First Circuit.

December 28, 2006.

*62 Anthony G. Falterman, Donald D. Candell, Gonzales, for Appellee, State of Louisiana.

Holli Herrie-Castillo, Marrero, for Defendant/Appellant, Leo Scott.

Before: CARTER, C.J., WHIPPLE and McDONALD, JJ.

WHIPPLE, J.

The defendant, Leo Scott, Sr., was charged by bill of information with one count of second degree battery (count I), a violation of LSA-R.S. 14:34.1, and one count of simple kidnapping (count II), a violation of LSA-R.S. 14:45. He pled not guilty on both counts. Following a jury trial, he was found guilty as charged on both counts. On count I, he was sentenced to five years at hard labor. On count II, he was sentenced to five years at hard labor to run consecutively to the sentence imposed on count I.

He now appeals, designating the following four assignments of error:

(1.) The trial court erred in failing to admonish the jury to disregard Wilda Fontenot's testimony regarding the defendant being incarcerated;

(2.) The record is not complete to conduct an adequate review for assignments of error;

(3.) The State failed to provide sufficient evidence to support the verdicts of second degree battery and simple kidnapping; and

(4.) The trial court erred in imposing consecutive sentences.

Finding no merit to the assignments of error, we affirm the defendant's convictions and sentences.

*63 FACTS

The victim testified at trial and gave the following account of the incident. On March 1, 2004, she worked from 1:00 p.m. until 10:00 p.m. at the Siegen Lane Wal-Mart in Baton Rouge. After completing her shift, she drove a co-worker to her car, and then began driving home. The victim's vehicle's headlights began to dim. She knew that Walter Bureau had an industrial, big battery charger, so she went to his house to ask him to charge her vehicle's battery. Bureau agreed to charge the battery, but indicated the charger would need thirty to forty-five minutes to complete the charge. The victim waited in Bureau's living room, watching television and talking to Bureau.

Before the battery was ready, the defendant knocked on Bureau's door, Bureau unlocked the door, and the defendant also entered Bureau's home. As soon as the defendant saw the victim, he stated, "[W]hat the shit are you doing?[,]" and began punching her on her head and face with his hands, arms, and fists. The victim fell from the sofa and onto the floor, but the defendant continued to punch her. Bureau went to a neighbor's house and alerted the police. While bleeding profusely, the victim got up to search for a towel or something to staunch the blood. When she stopped to wipe her face, the defendant told her, "Come on. You coming (sic) with me." He then grabbed her by her shirt and forcibly pulled her out of Bureau's house. The victim fell, but the defendant forced her to accompany him by pushing and kicking her into his daughter's vehicle. The defendant then drove away with her. While they drove, the defendant threatened to kill the victim, questioned why she had not sent him money while he was incarcerated, and told her, "I ought to kill you. I just ought to kill you."

The defendant took the victim to the Budget Inn Motel and yelled at her, asking, "[W]hy didn't you send me money?[,]" and "[W]hy don't you stick by my side?" The victim could not remember how long he kept her at the motel because she passed in and out of consciousness during that time. She was also in severe pain and vomiting. Thereafter, the defendant left the victim at the motel, but returned with a man and a woman. The woman asked the victim if she wanted to go to the hospital. The victim declined, stating she just wanted to go to her car and go home. Ultimately, the defendant called Bureau and told him he was going to take the victim back to her car.

The victim later went to the emergency room and learned she had multiple fractures to her head, face, and nose. She denied that she was drinking and doing "crack" with Bureau when the defendant came into Bureau's home.

Walter Bureau testified that on March 1, 2004, at approximately 1:15 a.m., the victim came to his home on Airline Highway in Baton Rouge because her vehicle's alternator was not working. Bureau charged the victim's battery, and he and the victim sat and talked while the battery charged. They were disturbed by the defendant coming to the door. The defendant came into the house and began beating the victim with his fists. Bureau went to a neighbor's house to summon the police.

Bureau conceded he had a rifle with him when he answered the defendant's knock on the door. He indicated he put the rifle down, however, when he saw who was at the door because he had known the defendant since he was a child. Bureau denied that he and the victim were doing "crack" when the defendant disturbed them. He also denied struggling with the defendant *64 for the rifle and denied that the rifle struck the victim.

Dr. Gary Moll testified that on March 1, 2004, at approximately 3:16 p.m., he treated the victim in the emergency room of St. Elizabeth Hospital. The victim reported being in an altercation during the night. She indicated she had been hit in the face and eyes, and suffered pain, blurry vision, but no loss of consciousness. The victim also indicated her nose had been bleeding and that she had vomited once. The victim had extensive swelling and bruising around her right eye and around and inside her nose. She indicated her pain level was "7 over 10." A CAT scan of her facial bones revealed approximately six different fractures of her face and nasal cavities. Dr. Moll felt that the victim needed to be evaluated by a plastic surgeon and an ophthalmologist to determine whether she needed surgical repair of her facial fractures and to determine whether she had suffered any kind of retinal damage to her eye.

The defendant also testified at trial. He indicated he was 6'1" tall and weighed 227 lbs. He claimed he had been "on and off' friends with the victim since 1978 and that they had lived together at different times. He conceded he went to Bureau's house on the night in question, but denied assaulting the victim. He claimed he was afraid of the victim because she had stabbed him before when she was using drugs. He claimed when he went into Bureau's house, the victim was "all spaced out" and her blouse was open. He claimed there was a crack pipe and four rocks of crack cocaine on the coffee table. According to the defendant, he slapped the cocaine off the table and began struggling with Bureau for the rifle Bureau was carrying. The defendant claimed he told the victim to sit down and stay out of the way, but the barrel of the rifle hit her in the face. The defendant claimed that his finger was also injured when Bureau took the rifle out of the defendant's hand and that "half of the blood" in Bureau's house was the defendant's blood.

The defendant also denied kidnapping the victim. He conceded he drove off with the victim, but claimed she asked him to take her to the hospital. He claimed the victim then asked him to take her to a motel to put ice on her face because she was "loaded on crack cocaine" and did not want anyone to see her face. He claimed the victim threatened him, "Well, you tell my people I'm on crack cocaine, I'm going to tell them you beat me up like this here." The defendant claimed he then took the victim back to Bureau's house.

SUFFICIENCY OF THE EVIDENCE

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State v. Scott, 952 So. 2d 60, 2006 WL 3804681 (La. Ct. App. 2006).

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