State v. Standifer

513 So. 2d 481
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedSeptember 23, 1987
Docket18951-KA, 18952-KA
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 513 So. 2d 481 (State v. Standifer) 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. Standifer, 513 So. 2d 481 (La. Ct. App. 1987).

Opinion

513 So.2d 481 (1987)

STATE of Louisiana, Appellee,
v.
Stanley STANDIFER & Charles Edward Morgan, Defendants/Appellants.

Nos. 18951-KA, 18952-KA.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Second Circuit.

September 23, 1987.

*482 Larry Jefferson, Monroe, for defendants-appellants.

Kathy McCoy, Asst. Dist. Atty., Monroe, for appellee.

Before FRED W. JONES, Jr., SEXTON and NORRIS, JJ.

NORRIS, Judge.

Stanley Standifer and Charles Edward Morgan were found guilty of forcible rape after a jury trial. [LSA-R.S. 14:42.1] Each defendant was sentenced to a term of 20 years at hard labor without benefit of parole, probation or suspension of sentence. The defendants appeal the denial of their motions for post-verdict judgment of acquittal and appeal their sentences as excessive. We find no merit in defendants' assignments of error. The convictions and sentences are affirmed.

*483 The record reveals that the victim left her place of employment, Elite's Disco, at 2:40 a.m. on February 17, 1986. As she was walking home a tall black male shouted at her from across Highway 165, which she had just crossed. She told the man, whom she recognized as a customer she had seen earlier in the evening, that she had to go home and continued walking. She noticed a second man, whom she had also seen at Elite's that night, across the street. She entered a convenience store to buy a bag of potato chips and loitered there for a few minutes, hoping that the men would go on. After she left the store she noticed the man who had called out to her following her, and spotted the other man across the street. When she reached the front of the Bojangles restaurant, the tall man following her grabbed her purse and began wrestling with her. The other man crossed the street to help restrain her, and they pushed her behind the produce stand next to Bojangles. The taller man went through her purse, scattering the contents on the ground, as the second man "guarded" her to prevent her from escaping. The victim was then forced to have sexual intercourse with both men. The victim struggled, but the taller man hit her, threatened her with beer bottles, and said he would kill her if she told anyone. After the sexual assault she was able to escape from her attackers while they were attempting to move her to another location. She ran across the street, entered a Yellow Cab, and had the driver call the police. When the police arrived at the crime scene the victim told them that she had seen her attackers earlier at Elite's Disco, but did not know their names. After hearing the victim's description of her assailants, Billy Varner, the manager of Elite's, obtained the defendants' names from a friend and supplied them to the police. The police showed the victim photographic line-ups from which she identified the defendants as the men who raped her. Varner also identified the defendants from a photographic line-up as two men who had been in Elite's on the date of the rape. The defendants were then arrested and tried for forcible rape.

ASSIGNMENT OF ERROR # 1

Defendants argue that they were entitled to a post-verdict judgment of acquittal based upon: 1) the lack of positive identification of the defendants as the perpetrators of the crime; 2) the lack of proof of penetration; and 3) the lack of proof that the defendants prevented the victim from resisting the act of rape.

The test for reviewing the denial of a post-verdict judgment of acquittal is the sufficiency of evidence test enunciated in Jackson v. Virginia. The evidence, viewed in the light most favorable to the prosecution, must be sufficient for a rational factfinder to conclude that the essential elements of the crime were proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979). If the evidence is legally insufficient, the verdict must be set aside and either a modified verdict or judgment of acquittal must be entered. State v. Byrd, 385 So.2d 248 (La.1980).

The defendants' first argument is that there was no positive identification of the defendants as the perpetrators of the crime. The defense counsel[1] asserts that the witnesses had contradictions in their descriptions of the defendants that rendered their identifications of the defendants invalid. The victim testified that Morgan, the tall defendant, had a moustache and a light beard and that Standifer, the shorter defendant, had a moustache. Billy Varner, who identified the defendants at trial as having been in Elite's the night of the rape, stated that he did not notice whether either of the defendants had beards. Officer Brown said he noticed Morgan and Standifer had moustaches at *484 the time that they were arrested, but that if they had beards then they were "scraggly". It is on this contradiction in testimony that defense counsel bases his argument that the defendants were not sufficiently identified so as to connect them with the crime in question. However, the only contradictory point is that the victim said that Morgan had a light beard while Varner and Officer Brown did not notice one. This slight disparity is not in and of itself sufficient to render the witnesses' identification of the defendants unreliable.

It is clear that the victim had ample opportunity to view the defendants. The victim testified that she initially saw both men in Elite's Disco on the night in question. She remembered selling Morgan three bowls of ice, and seeing Standifer standing next to the DJ stand. She described the lighting in the bar as "moderate", and sufficient to recognize people. The victim testified that she recognized Morgan when he called out to her on the street, and recognized Standifer when she first spotted him. She said that there was plenty of light from the street lights, and that the front of Bojangles, where they first attacked her, was well-lighted. She readily picked both defendants out of a photographic line-up, and made a positive in-court identification of the defendants. Her description of her two assailants was so detailed and accurate that Varner was able to remember that they were in Elite's on the night of the rape and learn their names. Varner corroborated the victim's testimony that the defendants had been in Elite's that night, making a positive identification of them in a photographic line-up and at trial. When we view the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, we find that a rational trier of fact could conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that the victim had correctly identified her assailants, and the defendants were the perpetrators of the crime.

Defendants' next argument is that penetration was not proven. Rape and forcible rape are defined as follows:

§ 41 Rape; defined

A. Rape is the act of anal or vaginal sexual intercourse with a male or female person who is not the spouse of the offender, committed without the person's lawful consent.
B. Emission is not necessary and any sexual penetration, vaginal or anal, however slight is sufficient to complete the crime.

§ 42.1 Forcible rape

A. Forcible rape is a rape committed where the anal or vaginal sexual intercourse is deemed to be without the lawful consent of the victim because the victim is prevented from resisting the act by force or threats of physical violence under circumstances where the victim reasonably believes that such resistance would not prevent the rape.
B.

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513 So. 2d 481, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-standifer-lactapp-1987.