State v. Singleton

263 So. 3d 1269
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJanuary 16, 2019
DocketNo. 52,151-KA
StatusPublished

This text of 263 So. 3d 1269 (State v. Singleton) 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. Singleton, 263 So. 3d 1269 (La. Ct. App. 2019).

Opinion

McCALLUM, J.

Kinoy Singleton, who was convicted of second degree murder and sentenced to life imprisonment, appeals his conviction. We affirm his conviction and sentence.

FACTS

At 2:05 a.m. on July 28, 2014, Harry Luzader left Margaritaville Casino in Bossier City, Louisiana, after many hours of drinking and playing blackjack there. Luzader was accompanied by Shavez Taylor ("Taylor"), whom he had met a couple of hours earlier when she approached him at a blackjack table. Luzader and Taylor took a cab to an upstairs garage apartment ("apartment") that Luzader shared with William David Carroll. The apartment was located behind the residence at 3134 Holly Street, a dead-end street in Shreveport, Louisiana. The front door of the apartment was located on the first floor, and there was an interior stairway leading to the apartment.

Taylor was on her phone during the cab ride, but Luzader did not know if she was texting or playing games on it. Luzader lacked sufficient cash to pay the entire $13 fare to the driver, Demetric Jackson, so he went to the apartment to get the necessary amount. Meanwhile, Taylor remained in the cab and continued to play on her cell phone. Jackson, thinking the situation was strange, asked Taylor to wait outside the cab. Jackson left without receiving the full fare when Luzader returned without the remainder.

Upon entering the apartment, Luzader introduced Taylor to Carroll and began preparing food for Taylor. After they had been in the apartment for approximately 10-15 minutes, Carroll exited his bedroom and told Luzader that two men were walking up the driveway. Carroll went downstairs to the apartment's front door. When Carroll came back upstairs, he said that the men had the wrong house. Luzader asked Carroll if he had locked the door, and Carroll said yes. Taylor, who was in the den, continued using her phone while this was happening. Unbeknownst to Luzader, Taylor was communicating with the two men outside. After Luzader returned to the kitchen to finish preparing the food, Taylor, who was alone in the den, unlocked the apartment's front door.

After Luzader came back to the den with the food and sat down on a couch, a man holding a gun burst through a curtain *1273that was used to cover the stairway and demanded money. Luzader believed a second man who had entered the apartment was near the curtain, but Luzader was more focused on the man who was pointing a gun at him. As Carroll began opening his bedroom door, Luzader heard a gunshot. Carroll sustained a gunshot wound to the chest after being shot through the bedroom door. Taylor and the two males then fled the apartment. Luzader estimated that the incident lasted 30 to 40 seconds.

Freddie Stokes, who lived in a home near the apartment, awoke to Luzader pounding on his front door and screaming that "somebody tried to rob us" and "somebody shot my buddy." While Stokes' wife called 911, Stokes ran to the apartment with Luzader. Stokes discovered Carroll face down on the floor and making a gurgling sound.

Captain Barry Seidel with the Shreveport Fire Department was dispatched to the apartment at 2:59 a.m. Seidel declared Carroll dead.

Corporal James Tilley with the Shreveport Police Department described the area around the apartment as secluded and very dark. He thought the apartment was difficult to find and that someone driving down Holly Street would not know there was an apartment in the back. Luzader, who was highly intoxicated,1 did not give an in-depth description of the two males to Tilley other than to say one was bigger than the other. Luzader told Tilley that he fought for his life and had been pistol-whipped, but Tilley did not see signs of a struggle in the apartment or signs of an altercation on the shirtless Luzader. Luzader was secured in a patrol car, then transported to the homicide unit's office.

Detective Joe Brown with the homicide unit of the Shreveport Police Department was the lead detective on the case. Brown, who interviewed Luzader at his office, was assisted in the investigation by Detectives Mayfield and Moss. Luzader was considered a possible suspect at the time of his interview.

Luzader described the gunman as a large black male who was 40 years old and looked like a linebacker. He estimated the man's height to be 6'2? and his weight to be 220 pounds. Luzader stated that the man was wearing shorts and a white shirt with a plaid animal print on it. Luzader described the other man who entered the apartment as a short black male with dreads that looked like a spiderweb on top of his head. He testified that this man was wearing a dark shirt. Luzader explained at trial that by spiderweb dreads he meant short dreads. He told detectives that the second male did not have a gun. Luzader was unable to remember Taylor's name during the interview with detectives.

As Luzader was interviewed, the information he provided was being relayed to the surveillance department at Margaritaville. Sonja Taylor ("Sonja") worked as the surveillance lead at Margaritaville. When she came to work on the morning of July 28, she was asked to determine if Luzader had been at the casino on that date, what time he entered the property, and if she could identify the female who accompanied him as he left the property. Checking the casino's database to determine if Luzader had used his player's card, she learned that Luzader had entered the casino on the afternoon of July 27 and had gambled by himself until just after midnight. She was later asked if the female had arrived with anyone or associated with *1274anyone before Luzader. She was also given a description of a black female with two black males, one of whom was wearing a white shirt with a turquoise print on the front, while the other male was wearing a dark or gray shirt. She was not told that one of the males had a dreadlock hairstyle.

Sonja saw that the female had entered the casino's gaming area at 11:34 p.m. followed by two men whose appearances Sonja felt were consistent with the police descriptions given to her by her supervisor. One male was wearing a white shirt with an argyle print on the front. The other male was wearing dark colored shorts and a gray shirt. When these three individuals entered the gaming area, their IDs were scanned and photographed as per casino policy. The female's name was Shavez Taylor, and the males' names were Robert Lynn and Kinoy Singleton. Margaritaville faxed copies of their IDs to the detectives. Sonja determined that the three had entered the casino at 11:30 p.m. after parking their vehicle in the lot for the nearby Bass Pro Shop. Taylor left the casino's gaming area at 12:14 a.m. with Singleton and Lynn not far behind her.

A hallway separated the entrances to the men's and women's restrooms just outside the gaming area. The surveillance video showed that Luzader, who had been playing blackjack, headed toward the restroom at 12:14 a.m. before entering it a minute later. Taylor entered her restroom at about the same time. Meanwhile, Singleton and Lynn stood near a bar before Singleton entered the men's restroom. Singleton exited the restroom at 12:16 a.m. Lynn then entered the men's restroom at 12:17 a.m. Luzader and Taylor walked out of their respective restrooms at 12:17 a.m., with Lynn behind them. Taylor, Lynn, and Singleton then gathered behind a column near the bar. Luzader returned to the casino area at 12:18 a.m. He was joined at the blackjack table by Taylor at 12:19 a.m.

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

Related

Jackson v. Virginia
443 U.S. 307 (Supreme Court, 1979)
Robertson v. Casual Corner Group, Inc
541 U.S. 905 (Supreme Court, 2004)
State v. Smith
661 So. 2d 442 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1995)
Draughn v. Louisiana
128 S. Ct. 537 (Supreme Court, 2007)
State v. Speed
2 So. 3d 582 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2009)
State v. Dotie
1 So. 3d 833 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2009)
State v. Pigford
922 So. 2d 517 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 2006)
State v. Tate
851 So. 2d 921 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 2003)
State v. Sutton
436 So. 2d 471 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1983)
State v. Moore
414 So. 2d 340 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1982)
State v. Carter
974 So. 2d 181 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2008)
State v. Draughn
950 So. 2d 583 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 2007)
State v. Shaw
672 So. 2d 237 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1996)
State v. Johnson
113 So. 3d 1209 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2013)
State v. Crossley
117 So. 3d 585 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2013)
State v. Free
127 So. 3d 956 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2013)
State v. Casaday
162 So. 3d 578 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2015)
State v. Jones
178 So. 3d 1075 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2015)
State v. Lyons
195 So. 3d 545 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2016)
State v. Johnson
196 So. 3d 26 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2016)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
263 So. 3d 1269, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-singleton-lactapp-2019.