State v. Terrance

80 So. 3d 560, 11 La.App. 5 Cir. 131, 2011 La. App. LEXIS 1377, 2011 WL 5554505
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedNovember 15, 2011
DocketNo. 11-KA-131
StatusPublished

This text of 80 So. 3d 560 (State v. Terrance) 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. Terrance, 80 So. 3d 560, 11 La.App. 5 Cir. 131, 2011 La. App. LEXIS 1377, 2011 WL 5554505 (La. Ct. App. 2011).

Opinion

SUSAN M. CHEHARDY, Judge.

li>On April 1, 2010, the Jefferson Parish District Attorney filed a bill of information charging Joneisha Terrance with violation of La. R.S. 40:966(A), distribution of marijuana. The defendant was arraigned on April 26, 2010, and pleaded not guilty. On June 24, 2010, the defendant filed a motion to appoint a sanity commission to determine her competency to stand trial. After a sanity hearing on August 18, 2010, the trial judge found the defendant competent to stand trial. On August 24 and 25, 2010, the case was tried before a 12-person jury that found the defendant guilty as charged.

The defendant filed a motion in arrest of judgment or, alternatively, for new trial, which was denied after a hearing on September 29, 2010. On that date, the trial judge sentenced the defendant to imprisonment at hard labor for eight years, with four years suspended, and placed the defendant on active probation for five years upon her release from prison. The defendant also filed a motion for appeal on September 29, 2010, which was granted.

On October 21, 2010, the defendant filed a motion to reconsider sentence, which was denied after a hearing on January 28, 2011. On January 10, 2011, the defendant filed a motion for out-of-time appeal, which was denied as moot on January 19, 2011.

[563]*563laFACTS

On September 4, 2009 at approximately 3:40 p.m., Deputy Billie Nunamaker, an undercover agent with the Jefferson Parish Sheriffs Office, went to East Monterrey Court off Behrman Highway, a high-crime/high-narcotics area, in an attempt to purchase narcotics. Deputy Nunamaker was driving an unmarked vehicle equipped with audio and video equipment to record any narcotics transactions that occurred. Detective Brian Rico of the Gretna Police Department and other officers had established surveillance in that area.

Deputy Nunamaker pulled up to a location and signaled to a man standing in front of the residence that she wanted to buy some marijuana. The man pointed in the direction of the defendant, who was standing nearby on a sidewalk, and an unknown male who was riding around the defendant on a bicycle. Nunamaker proceeded to the place where the defendant and the unknown male were positioned. The defendant walked around the back of Nunamaker’s vehicle to the driver’s side. Nunamaker asked the defendant for some “weed” and if she had a twenty,” and the defendant replied, “Where’s the money?”

Deputy Nunamaker responded that she was not going to give her the money because last time she was in that area to purchase narcotics, she gave money to somebody who took it and left. The defendant pointed toward 952 East Monterrey and said she lived right there in Apartment B. The defendant then told the unknown male on the bicycle that Nunamaker wanted to purchase marijuana. At that point, Nunamaker knew that the defendant and the unknown male were working together.

The unknown male pulled four bags of marijuana from his pocket and handed them to Deputy Nunamaker. He had other marijuana in his hand, which he put back into his pocket. The defendant put her hand in the window of |4Nunamaker’s vehicle, apparently expecting to get the money. Nunamaker, however, gave the $20.00 to the unknown male.

Deputy Nunamaker asked the defendant and the unknown male for their names and phone numbers, but the unknown male left the area. The defendant asked for a light and gave Nunamaker her phone number. Nunamaker asked the defendant whether she could come back and see the defendant, and the defendant pointed to where she lived and replied affirmatively.

The videotape of the transaction was shown to the jury.

Detective Rico testified he viewed the videotape of the transaction and was able to identify the defendant. He generated a photographic lineup and showed it to Deputy Nunamaker, who positively identified the defendant as one of the two individuals who sold her marijuana on the day in question.

Detective Rico, who was accepted as an expert in the field of narcotics investigations and the packaging and sale of narcotics, testified it is common for subjects to work in tandem to sell drugs. He explained that person A will engage the buyer in conversation while person B holds the drugs. If person A feels comfortable with the buyer, person A will then give person B a hand signal or tell them to come over to sell the drugs. Rico testified that it was common for the person holding the drugs to take the money in order to maintain the “point person” as “clean.” In Deputy Rico’s expert opinion, the defendant and the other subject were working in tandem when they sold marijuana to the undercover agent. Rico said further that it was his opinion that defendant held her hand out in anticipation of receiving the funds of the drug transaction.

[564]*564Detective Rico asserted that the marijuana in this case was packaged in four “nickel” bags in five-dollar increments for a total of twenty dollars. He stated that the undercover agent requested “twenty” because it is the most common | ¿denomination when purchasing marijuana. Rico stated that the marijuana was already prepackaged, which suggested to him a predisposition to engage in the sale of narcotics.

Raven Barrois, a forensic chemist with the Jefferson Parish Sheriffs Office Crime Laboratory, testified that the evidence in this case was positive for marijuana.

The defendant testified that the undercover agent stopped in front of her door where she used to live and talked to a male. The defendant explained that she was walking toward the bus stop to wait for her son because he got out of school at 4:00 p.m., and the school bus came at 4:10 p.m. When the agent spoke to her, the defendant walked over to see if she knew her. The defendant claimed she told the agent where she lived and gave the agent her phone number because she is bisexual and was interested in pursuing a romantic relationship with the agent.

The defendant contended that the agent was engaged in a narcotics transaction with the male, and that she did not know the male. She admitted that when the agent asked her if she had any marijuana, she in turn asked the agent where her money was. The defendant explained that the agent wanted a “twenty,” but that the male heard “two days,” so she assisted by telling the male that the agent wanted a “twenty.” The defendant stated that the male then gave the agent four bags. The defendant testified that she did not sell drugs, did not know the male on the bicycle, and was not working with the male. She claimed she was holding her hand out because she wanted a light for her cigarette, and not because she was expecting to get money. The defendant said she was not trying to get the agent to come back for drugs, but she wanted the agent to come back to pursue a romantic relationship with her. She denied selling drugs to the agent on the day in question.

|r,On rebuttal, Deputy Nunamaker testified she did not get the impression that the defendant was trying to “hit on her.” She testified further that even if the defendant was trying to “hit on her,” she had no doubt that the defendant also was conducting a narcotics transaction as well.

ASSIGNMENT OF ERROR NUMBER ONE

The defendant asserts it was reversible error for the trial court to accept the jury’s guilty verdict against the defendant when the record reflects the defendant has been diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic and as bipolar, which made it virtually impossible for her to have criminal intent to commit the crime.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
80 So. 3d 560, 11 La.App. 5 Cir. 131, 2011 La. App. LEXIS 1377, 2011 WL 5554505, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-terrance-lactapp-2011.