State v. Shipp

712 So. 2d 230, 1998 WL 175735
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedApril 8, 1998
Docket30562-KA
StatusPublished
Cited by24 cases

This text of 712 So. 2d 230 (State v. Shipp) 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. Shipp, 712 So. 2d 230, 1998 WL 175735 (La. Ct. App. 1998).

Opinion

712 So.2d 230 (1998)

STATE of Louisiana, Appellee,
v.
Dalton D. SHIPP, III, Appellant.

No. 30562-KA.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Second Circuit.

April 8, 1998.

*232 Robert C. White, John M. Lawrence, Shreveport, Indigent Defender Board, for Appellant.

Richard Ieyoub, Attorney General, James M. Bullers, District Attorney, J. Schuyler *233 Marvin, Assistant District Attorney, for Appellee.

Before NORRIS, BROWN and PEATROSS, JJ.

BROWN, Judge.

This criminal appeal arises from the Twenty-Sixth Judicial District Court, Webster Parish, Louisiana, the Honorable Cecil P. Campbell, II, presiding. A jury found defendant Dalton Shipp guilty of one count of attempted second degree murder; one count of aggravated rape; and one count of aggravated kidnapping. The trial court sentenced defendant to 50 years at hard labor for attempted second degree murder and denied eligibility for good time; life imprisonment for aggravated rape; and life imprisonment for aggravated kidnapping, the sentences to run consecutively. From the conviction and sentence, Shipp appeals urging five assignments of error. We affirm.

FACTS

During the late evening hours of May 19, 1996 in Minden, Louisiana, victim, Cherie Shipp, returned from washing clothes at her cousin's home. Ms. Shipp had separated from her husband, the defendant, and was residing at her sister's apartment. The cousin, LaShonda Winn, carried the clothes because Ms. Shipp had recently suffered severe leg injuries in a car accident and was on crutches. Defendant awaited Ms. Shipp inside the apartment, having been let in by Ms. Shipp's sister, LaCheen Gates. Defendant had paged Ms. Shipp five times that day, all to which she did not respond.

Defendant asked to speak outside with Ms. Shipp about reconciling. She agreed and the two went outside, standing near defendant's car. Ms. Shipp refused defendant's requests for her to leave with him. She laid her crutches against the car and sat down in the passenger seat of defendant's car with her legs positioned outside the car. The two continued to argue about her refusal to leave with him. Defendant then proceeded to walk around the car to the passenger side and put the crutches in the backseat. He started the car and as Ms. Shipp protested and unsuccessfully reached for her crutches, backed out of the parking space, exiting the complex with Ms. Shipp's legs still dangling out of the car. Ms. Shipp testified that she demanded that defendant take her back to the apartment, to which he repeatedly asked, "Why don't you love me anymore." Ms. Shipp's sister witnessed the kidnapping from an apartment window and called the police.

Defendant drove to his home in Sibley. After Ms. Shipp refused to exit the car, defendant punched her in the face. Ms. Shipp testified that her jaw felt like it had been broken. Defendant carried her into the house with his hand placed over her mouth as she kicked and screamed. Once inside the residence, defendant tore off her shorts and carried her to a bedroom where he took off the rest of her clothes and raped her, telling her, "Now you know how sluts and whores feel."

Defendant then heard the officers knock at the door. He walked to the living room and returned with a shotgun. He pointed the gun at himself. Ms. Shipp pleaded with him not to kill himself. Defendant then pointed the gun at Ms. Shipp and shot her in the chest, then turned the gun on himself, shooting himself in the chest area. Ms. Shipp managed to stumble out of the residence, completely nude, holding her hand over a large gaping gunshot wound. She immediately told Webster Parish Sheriff's Deputy Steve Cropper, "Steve, Buddy raped me, he shot me, then he shot himself." A suicide note in defendant's handwriting was discovered in the bedroom. Ms. Shipp testified that the note was written prior to the time of defendant's attack on her.

DISCUSSION

Motion to Quash.

Defendant asserts that the charges were improperly joined in a single three-count indictment and that the trial court erred by refusing to sever them. He asserts that he was deprived of the right to a fair trial by having to defend himself against all the charges in a single indictment *234 tried together, the combination of which confused the jury.

La.C.Cr.P. art. 493 provides:

Two or more offenses may be charged in the same indictment or information in a separate count for each offense if the offenses charged, whether felonies or misdemeanors, are of the same or similar character or are based on the same act or transaction or on two or more acts or transactions connected together or constituting parts of a common scheme or plan; provided that the offenses joined must be triable by the same mode of trial.

The trial court has discretion to order separate trials when two or more offenses have been improperly joined to the detriment of the defendant or the state. See La. C.Cr.P. art. 495.1. However, a motion for severance is addressed to the sound discretion of the trial court, and the ruling should not be disturbed on appeal absent a showing of abuse of discretion. State v. Jeffers, 623 So.2d 882 (La.App. 2d Cir.1993).

Defendant was charged by grand jury indictment with one count of aggravated kidnapping, one count of aggravated rape, and one count of attempted second degree murder. All three crimes were committed consecutively upon the same victim on the same night in question. All three crimes charged in the three count indictment are triable by the same mode. The three crimes are all necessarily "of the same character." Each crime was compartmentalized by its time frame and not confused with the occurrence of the other crimes. The crimes were part of a continuous criminal transaction that occurred over a period of approximately one hour. The crimes occurred consecutively: first, defendant kidnapped the victim; he raped her; then he attempted to kill her. The primary witness was the victim herself. Following detailed instructions from the trial court, the jury was given three verdict forms and it later returned three separate verdicts. In short, the record is devoid of any evidence that defendant was prejudiced by the joinder of the offenses.

A defendant in any case bears a heavy burden when alleging prejudicial joinder of offenses as grounds for a motion to sever. Factual rather than conclusory allegations are required. State v. Davis, 92-1623 (La.05/23/94), 637 So.2d 1012, cert. denied, 513 U.S. 975, 115 S.Ct. 450, 130 L.Ed.2d 359. The trial court did not abuse its great discretion by refusing to sever the offenses.

Rebuttal Evidence.

Defendant testified at trial. Defendant alleged that the victim was present when he showed up at her apartment that night. He testified that the victim shot him after the two had consensual sexual intercourse; that he only took the gun away from her and shot her in self-defense. Defendant asserted that he has never told anyone that he shot himself that night. Defendant testified that he had never conveyed this version of events to the police or anyone else prior to trial because, "I wasn't ready to talk yet."

Defendant urges that the trial court erred by permitting the rebuttal testimony of Shreveport Police Officers Anita Chambers and Craig Ivy.[1] Officer Chambers testified that she is the intake officer at the Shreveport City Jail. As part of her duty, Officer Chambers searches incoming arrestees and interviews them concerning their medical and suicide histories.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
712 So. 2d 230, 1998 WL 175735, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-shipp-lactapp-1998.