State v. Steward

975 So. 2d 829, 2008 WL 375511
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedFebruary 13, 2008
Docket42,705-KA
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 975 So. 2d 829 (State v. Steward) 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. Steward, 975 So. 2d 829, 2008 WL 375511 (La. Ct. App. 2008).

Opinion

975 So.2d 829 (2008)

STATE of Louisiana, Appellee
v.
Emanuel Jermaine STEWARD, Appellant.

No. 42,705-KA.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Second Circuit.

February 13, 2008.

*830 Louisiana Appellate Project, by Mary E. Roper, Baton Rouge, for Appellant.

Anthony G. Falterman, District Attorney, Donald D. Candell, Jennifer G. Braud, Assistant District Attorneys, for Appellee.

Before STEWART, GASKINS and LOLLEY, JJ.

STEWART, J.

Defendant Emanuel Steward was convicted of simple rape. The trial court sentenced him to 25 years at hard labor in the Louisiana Department of Corrections, with credit for time served. Steward subsequently filed a motion for reconsideration of sentence which was denied. He now appeals. Finding no reversible error, we affirm the trial court's decision.

FACTS

On the night of July 15, 2002, Jeremy Johnson gave R.L., age 17, a ride to Lhauan Washington's house. While R.L. was knocking on the door, Jeremy threw her belongings out of his car and drove off. After discovering that no one was at the house, R.L. walked down the road toward another friend's house.

Defendant Emanuel Steward approached R.L. while riding his bicycle. *831 She asked him if he knew her friends, Lhauan and Donjel. Steward nodded his head and mumbled, but did not say anything. He eventually got off his bicycle and pushed it alongside R.L. Then, Steward pulled out two or three dollars from his pocket and tried to give it to R.L. When she asked what the money was for, he made a gesture, indicating that it was for sex. R.L. told Steward "no" and walked away from him.

Steward then grabbed her from behind and dragged her backwards toward the muddy, gravel driveway of an abandoned house. R.L. testified that she thought he was going to kill her and that she screamed loudly for someone to help her. She scratched Steward several times on his chest and face. R.L. also stated that he proceeded to pull her shorts down and attempted to penetrate her anally. When he was unable to do so, he threw her on the ground, took off her denim shorts, and raped her. R.L. did everything she could, but was unsuccessful in getting Steward off of her. She testified that she did not consent to sexual intercourse with him. When he was finished, Steward put his clothes back on and rode his bicycle through a yard headed toward Peterville Lane.

In the meantime, Barry Cavalier was awoken at 2:00 a.m. to the "horrifying" cry of a woman yelling "somebody help me, please." Cavalier called 911, and Deputy Timothy Naquin of the Assumption Parish Sheriff's Office was dispatched to respond to the call about a woman yelling for help on Klotzville Lane. When Deputy Naquin arrived there, he saw a white female walking toward him. Deputy Naquin testified that R.L. was very upset and hyperventilating. R.L. also blurted out, "I been raped."

R.L. described the assailant to Deputy Naquin, stating that he was a black male she did not know wearing a white T-shirt with blue trim and a picture of a basketball on the front. R.L. also told Deputy Naquin that the assailant did not say anything, but that he grunted or mumbled, and that the assailant rode away on his bicycle through an abandoned yard that connects Klotzville Lane to Peterville Lane. Based upon the description of the assailant, Deputy Naquin thought that it might be Steward, who lived nearby on Peterville Lane.

Deputy Naquin took R.L. to Steward's home, where he noticed a bicycle with fresh mud on the tires and fresh bicycle tracks in the driveway. When officers took Steward to the police unit for R.L. to see whether this was the assailant, she was not sure at first and requested that they make him say something. Before the officers could do anything, Steward made a gurgling noise, and R.L. immediately began to shout that it was him.

The officers took Steward into custody and R.L. to Assumption Community Hospital, where a sexual assault examination was performed. The evidence recovered from R.L. was sent to the North Louisiana Crime Laboratory, which found that DNA from the spermatozoa found in the vaginal swab of R.L. matched Steward's DNA, which had been gained through a blood sample. The state presented photographs to the jury that depicted the abrasions on R.L.'s body and the scratches on Steward's face, chest, and neck area. Deputy Naquin testified that a T-shirt matching R.L.'s description was found on the floor of Steward's bedroom.

Based upon the evidence presented at trial, the jury convicted Steward of simple rape.

DISCUSSION

Authority to Prosecute

In his first assignment of error, the defendant argues that the trial court erred *832 by allowing the assistant district attorneys from Assumption Parish to prosecute this case after venue had been transferred to Lincoln Parish. He asserts that the assistant district attorney from Assumption Parish did not have the authority to prosecute this case because they had not been appointed as special prosecutors for Lincoln Parish, making the verdict in the case an absolute nullity.

The offense was committed in Assumption Parish, and prosecution was initiated when an assistant district attorney for Assumption Parish filed a bill of information charging the defendant with forcible rape on October 22, 2002. On June 27, 2006, the trial court granted the defendant's motion for change of venue and ordered that the case be transferred to Lincoln Parish.

The Lincoln Parish Clerk of Court subsequently appointed two deputy clerks of court from Assumption Parish to act as deputy clerks of court for Lincoln Parish in regard to this case. The Louisiana Supreme Court appointed Judge Alvin Turner, Jr., who was the judge to whom the case had been allotted in Assumption Parish, to preside as judge ad hoc for Lincoln Parish in regard to this case. The record contains no indication that the Lincoln Parish District Attorney appointed the assistant district attorneys from Assumption Parish to prosecute the present case as assistant district attorneys ad hoc for Lincoln Parish, and the parties on appeal do not allege that such an appointment was ever made.

The procedure for a change of venue is set forth in La. C. Cr. P. art. 624, which states, in pertinent part, that "[w]hen a change of venue is granted, . . . the case shall be proceeded with in the same manner as if the proceedings had originally been instituted therein." According to La. C. Cr. P. art. 61, "the district attorney has entire charge and control over every criminal prosecution instituted or pending in his district, and determines whom, when, and how he shall prosecute." Additionally, La. Const. art. 5, § 26(B) states that "a district attorney or his designated assistant, shall have charge of every criminal prosecution by the state in his district." Reading these statutes together, it is clear that the district attorney for the parish to which venue is transferred gains the authority to prosecute that case just as if it had occurred within his jurisdiction.

While La. C. Cr. P. art. 63 states that "[t]he district attorney may employ or accept the assistance of other counsel in the conduct of a criminal case," the special counsel must have been officially appointed. See Opinion of the Attorney General, 1942-44, p. 254. The record does not indicate that the Lincoln Parish District Attorney made such an appointment in the present case.

The third circuit essentially addressed this same situation in State v. Juniors, 2005-649 (La.App. 3d Cir.

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Related

State v. Glenn
162 So. 3d 525 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2015)
State ex rel. D.S.
83 So. 3d 1131 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2011)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
975 So. 2d 829, 2008 WL 375511, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-steward-lactapp-2008.