State v. Scroggins

926 So. 2d 64, 2006 WL 709983
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMarch 22, 2006
Docket40,746-KA
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 926 So. 2d 64 (State v. Scroggins) 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. Scroggins, 926 So. 2d 64, 2006 WL 709983 (La. Ct. App. 2006).

Opinion

926 So.2d 64 (2006)

STATE of Louisiana, Appellee
v.
Torius SCROGGINS, Appellant.

No. 40,746-KA.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Second Circuit.

March 22, 2006.

*65 John Cucci, Jr., Shreveport, for Appellant.

Paul J. Carmouche, District Attorney, Catherine M. Estopinal, Edward M. Brossette, Assistant District Attorneys, for Appellee.

Before STEWART, DREW and MOORE, JJ.

STEWART, J.

Torius Scroggins was found guilty following a jury trial of armed robbery. He was sentenced to serve 27½ years at hard labor without benefit of parole, probation or suspension of sentence. The defendant now appeals his conviction only. For the reasons that follow, we affirm his conviction and sentence.

FACTS

Scroggins was charged via a bill of information with armed robbery in connection with the December 23, 2000, robbery, rape, and homicide of Vickie McGraw. The record establishes that he was in a vehicle with three other men when the victim was spotted driving alone. They followed her to an apartment complex and parked beside her white 1996 Chevrolet S-10 Blazer. Two of the men, Aaron Wilson and Derrick "Monster" Bouya, got out of the vehicle and Wilson held a pistol to her head. Scroggins and the fourth man, Leon "Fat" Bagley, left and went to wait at Bagley's residence. About an hour later, Bouya and Wilson arrived at Bagley's residence. The men went outside to look at the vehicle that had been taken, and Scroggins saw a purse and credit cards in the vehicle. Bouya and Wilson told Bagley and Scroggins that they raped the victim and that they shot her since she had seen their faces. The men left Bagley's residence to take Scroggins home. On the way, they stopped to withdraw funds from an ATM, and Scroggins was given some of the money. The victim's vehicle was later recovered from an apartment complex where Scroggins was living and his fingerprints were found on the vehicle.

Following a trial, the jury voted 11-1 to convict Scroggins of armed robbery, and he was sentenced to serve 27½ years at hard labor without benefit of parole, probation or suspension of sentence. A motion to reconsider sentence was filed and denied and this appeal followed.

DISCUSSION

Insufficiency of Evidence

Scroggins alleges that the state failed to produce sufficient evidence to sustain a conviction of armed robbery. He further argues that the bill of information does not inform him that he is alleged to be a principal and that the only proof of his being near the crime committed on the victim was that he was a passenger in the automobile that brought the co-defendants to their victim. The state argues that Scroggins' own statement establishes his guilt as a principal when he admitted that when he joined the group he knew that *66 they were wanting to "hit a lick" and gave details of the activities as they searched for a victim. The state further argues that once the robbery began, Scroggins did nothing to distance himself from the crime and received a small amount of cash for his part in the offense. Although the record does not reflect that defendant filed a motion for post-verdict judgment of acquittal pursuant to La. C. Cr. P. art. 821, this court will consider sufficiency arguments in the absence of such a motion. State v. Henson, 38,820 (La.App. 2d Cir.9/22/04), 882 So.2d 670; State v. Green, 28,994 (La. App. 2d Cir.2/26/97), 691 So.2d 1273.

La. R.S. 14:64 defines armed robbery as:

A. Armed robbery is the taking of anything of value belonging to another from the person of another or that is in the immediate control of another, by use of force or intimidation, while armed with a dangerous weapon.

The law of principals found in La. R.S. 14:24 reads:

All persons concerned in the commission of a crime, whether present or absent, and whether they directly commit the act constituting the offense, aid and abet in its commission, or directly or indirectly counsel or procure another to commit the crime, are principals.

La. R.S. 15:438, regarding use of circumstantial evidence, provides:

The rule as to circumstantial evidence is: assuming every fact to be proved that the evidence tends to prove, in order to convict, it must exclude every reasonable hypothesis of innocence.

La. R.S. 14:10 defines criminal intent as follows:

(1) Specific criminal intent is that state of mind which exists when the circumstances indicate that the offender actively desired the prescribed criminal consequences to follow his act or failure to act.
(2) General criminal intent is present whenever there is specific intent, and also when the circumstances indicate that the offender, in the ordinary course of human experience, must have adverted to the prescribed criminal consequences as reasonably certain to result from his act or failure to act.

The standard of appellate review for a sufficiency of the evidence claim is whether, after viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 2789, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979); State v. Cummings, 95-1377 (La.2/28/96), 668 So.2d 1132; State v. Murray, 36,137 (La.App. 2d Cir.8/29/02), 827 So.2d 488, writ denied, 2002-2634 (La.9/05/03), 852 So.2d 1020. This standard, now legislatively embodied in La. C. Cr. P. art. 821, does not provide the appellate court with a vehicle to substitute its own appreciation of the evidence for that of the fact finder. State v. Robertson, 96-1048 (La.10/4/96), 680 So.2d 1165. The appellate court does not assess the credibility of witnesses or reweigh evidence. State v. Smith, 94-3116 (La.10/16/95), 661 So.2d 442.

The audiotaped interview with Scroggins shows that he was advised of his rights before being questioned on December 28, 2000. The recorded interview shows that the appellant made the following admissions:

1. Scroggins was picked up from Monster's house at around 7:30 p.m. on December 23, 2000, by the other three men who were in Fat's vehicle. He said, "They just came and got me and said they wanted to hit a lick or something." He further explained *67 that "hit a lick" meant they were "gonna take something from somebody." Scroggins also stated that it was "more than one person's idea" to take something and that he knew that Aaron had a handgun with him.
2. They went to Super Wal-Mart at the corner of Bert Kouns and Youree Drive where they spotted a red Expedition with 20" rims in the parking lot. He stated that "Aaron was gonna take it if somebody would have came (sic) to it. Didn't nobody (sic) come to it."
3. Aaron took a rifle out of the trunk. They were driving down 70th Street when "they were saying man, get that woman right there" referring to the victim driving a white SUV. He said they followed her and "she pulled up in the apartments" and parked.
4. The men parked beside the victim, and Aaron and Monster, who were both on the passenger side of the vehicle, got out. He said he saw Aaron put a gun to her head and that he and Bagley left at that point. When asked what the plan had been, he said they were going to "take the woman and put her in the backseat." He said that idea had been either Monster's or Aaron's.
5.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

State of Louisiana v. Jamal Christopher Lacon
Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2019
State of Louisiana v. Raven Lamar Wiltz
Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2019
State v. Griffin
217 So. 3d 484 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2017)
State of Louisiana v. Joshua X. Griffin
Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2017
State v. Richardson
210 So. 3d 340 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2016)
State of Louisiana v. Tedrick Jewan Richardson
Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2016
State v. Cole
131 So. 3d 931 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2013)
State v. Acker
111 So. 3d 535 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2013)
State of Louisiana v. Ronald G. Acker, Jr.
Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2013
State v. Womack
109 So. 3d 418 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2013)
State v. Hall
986 So. 2d 863 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2008)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
926 So. 2d 64, 2006 WL 709983, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-scroggins-lactapp-2006.