State v. Sumlin

25 So. 3d 931, 2009 La. App. LEXIS 1791, 2009 WL 3448837
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedOctober 28, 2009
Docket44,805-KA, 44,806-KA
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 25 So. 3d 931 (State v. Sumlin) 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. Sumlin, 25 So. 3d 931, 2009 La. App. LEXIS 1791, 2009 WL 3448837 (La. Ct. App. 2009).

Opinion

DREW, J.

| iWadelen Sumlin was convicted as charged of second degree murder and attempted second degree murder. On the murder conviction, he was sentenced to life imprisonment at hard labor without benefit of probation, parole or suspension of sentence. He was sentenced to 35 years at hard labor for attempted second degree murder, with the sentences to be served consecutively. He appeals. We affirm in all respects.

FACTSITESTIMONY

On January 9, 2007, 17-year-old Shannon Sanders decided to skip her night school classes to spend time with 23-year-old Quantavious Webb. Sanders had met Webb two weeks before at Shreveport’s Grimmett Drive Apartments, located near her home and reachable by a trail which also led to a bus stop she normally used for transportation to night school from her high school classes.

From 4:00 p.m. until 9:00 p.m., Sanders rode as the passenger in Webb’s vehicle while he illegally delivered drugs to his customers. Webb parked his car in the parking lot of the complex, near the same trail Sanders would have taken to return home.

As the two sat talking, a man in dark clothing came to the passenger side of the *933 vehicle, walked in front of the car to the driver’s side, and pulled out a gun. The coroner testified that the perpetrator shot Webb ten times before shooting Sanders once in the left arm. This bullet traveled into and out of each breast and into her right arm. The police found sixteen 9mm spent cartridge casings next to the driver’s side door and collected five bullet projectiles from the ground and from inside the vehicle.

|2Webb was pronounced dead at the scene. Sanders, in great pain, was transported to LSU Health Sciences Center (“LSUHSC”).

The police received intelligence from bystanders and from a confidential informant that “Lando” and “Sneaky” were responsible. The officers knew “Lando” to be Renaudo Baker and that Richard Baker was his brother.

The officers included Richard Baker in one photographic lineup and Renaudo Baker in another. That night, shortly after her admission into LSUHSC and prior to receiving any pain medication, Sanders was presented these two lineups from which she was unable to identify anyone. She later stated that she did recognize Renaudo and Richard Baker as being from the neighborhood.

A photograph of “Sneaky” was not included in the first set of lineups because the officers needed to further investigate his/her identity. Sometime later, after determining that Wadelen Sumlin, the defendant, was known as “Sneaky” on the streets, the officers included a photograph of him in a lineup. This was presented to Sanders in the middle of the night, after she had received morphine and Percocet to treat her pain. She was unable to identify anyone in the third lineup.

Sanders consistently gave the following description of the shooter:

Light complected black male wearing dark pants and a dark jacket and a stocking cap on his head with some of his hair sticking out the bottom of the cap, short and stocky build, and scraggly facial hair.

While in the hospital, visitors told her that “Sneaky” and/or the Baker Brothers were responsible. However, not only was the name “Wadelen LSumlin” never mentioned, the physical description (of “Sneaky”) given to her by these visitors did not match her description of the shooter.

While back home, in the presence of her two siblings, she saw on TV a photograph of a robbery suspect from another crime that had occurred a few days after she had been shot. She began to cry that the man on the screen (Sumlin) was the man who shot her and Webb.

Her father contacted Shreveport Police Dept. Detective Lowell Bowen with this information.

An arrest warrant was issued for Sum-lin. Weeks later, he was found in Dallas and transported back to Shreveport. A Caddo Parish Grand Jury indicted him for second degree murder and attempted second degree murder.

At trial, the State’s first witness was Shannon Sanders, who testified that:

• She and Webb smoked marijuana as Webb supplied his customers with drugs;

• At the time of the shooting, she had known Webb only a couple of weeks;

• The shooter walked to the driver’s side, pulled out a gun, and began to shoot Webb, before pausing briefly and shooting her;

• She did not see his face until he was at the driver’s side window; and

*934 • She identified Sumlin, in court, as the shooter.

The State’s second witness was Tony Moffett, a Shreveport Fire Department paramedic, who observed the scene of the crime and the condition of Sanders from the moment of his arrival until she was admitted |4to LSUHSC. Moffett testified that the light at the scene of the crime was “fairly dim.”

The State introduced the videotaped deposition of Detective Eric Farquhar, one of the responding officers to the scene. Farquhar was on military duty at the time of trial and therefore unavailable. Defendant was present and with counsel when Farquhar’s deposition was taken. His testimony shed light on the physical condition of the scene of the crime. Based on the information he received, he compiled the two lineups containing the photographs of the two Bakers.

Farquhar testified that Sanders appeared to be in pain and that she looked over the lineups for a “brief two or three seconds” before responding that she did not recognize anyone. Farquhar accompanied Detective Bowen to LSUHSC to show Sanders the third lineup (the one containing the picture of the defendant). During this time, he observed Sanders’ speech to be slurred, her eyes glazed over, and that she no longer appeared to be in pain. When questioned about the lighting at the scene, Detective Farquhar stated that “the area is lit up pretty good” and agreed that “there was enough lighting to be able to observe and recognize the features on a man’s face if seated inside the car.”

The State’s next witness was Cary Byrnes, M.D., who qualified as an expert witness as a medical doctor with special expertise in the field of general surgery. Complications from the gunshot wound required Sanders to undergo a brachial artery bypass (to repair damage to her biceps). Dr. |BByrnes testified that Sanders is likely to suffer scarring and nerve damage for the rest of her life.

The State also introduced a videotaped deposition of Detective Lowell Bowen, who was also on military duty and unavailable for trial. Bowen, one of the first responders, testified that the lighting was sufficient for identification purposes.

Bowen further testified that:

• At the scene he received a call from a confidential informant who provided him with the names of some suspects: Sneaky, Little Richard, and Lando;

• He identified three individuals based on their nicknames (“Sneaky” is Wadelen Sumlin, “Little Richard” is Richard Baker, and “Lando” is Renaudo Baker);

• He put together the photographic lineups based on this information;

• He (and others) presented Sanders with the third photographic lineup;

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
25 So. 3d 931, 2009 La. App. LEXIS 1791, 2009 WL 3448837, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-sumlin-lactapp-2009.