State v. Thibodeaux

216 So. 3d 73, 16 La.App. 3 Cir. 542, 2017 WL 1009156, 2017 La. App. LEXIS 424
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMarch 15, 2017
Docket16-542
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 216 So. 3d 73 (State v. Thibodeaux) 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. Thibodeaux, 216 So. 3d 73, 16 La.App. 3 Cir. 542, 2017 WL 1009156, 2017 La. App. LEXIS 424 (La. Ct. App. 2017).

Opinion

AMY, Judge.

hA grand jury charged the defendant with second degree murder in connection with the death of his girlfriend. Prior to trial, the trial court conducted a Prieur hearing and determined that it would allow certain other crimes evidence to be introduced. A jury found the defendant guilty as charged, and the defendant was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole. The defendant appeals. For the following reasons, we affirm the defendant’s conviction and sentence. We further direct the trial court to send appropriate written notice to the defendant within ten days of the rendition of this opinion and to file written proof in the record that the defendant received said notice.

Factual and Procedural Background

The record indicates that, in the early morning hours of March 28, 2012, the defendant, Leo Paul Thibodeaux, Jr., called his friend Chris Cooper,1 who was with his Mend Raphael Johnson. Cooper and Johnson drove to the defendant’s home, which he shared with his girlfriend, Toni Frab-biele. Johnson testified at trial that he saw Cooper enter the defendant’s home and then exit with a shotgun wrapped in his shirt. Cooper then drove away from the home and called 911. Cooper and Johnson met with Calcasieu Parish deputies on Highway 27, at which time Cooper exited his vehicle with the shotgun in his left hand. When the deputies ordered him to drop the shotgun, Cooper threw the shotgun on the ground. Deputies later retrieved a Springfield Arms single-shot 12-gauge shotgun which, per the trial testimony of Corporal Brandon Peresich, was missing a trigger guardia and contained a spent shell casing. Johnson was unaware of whether the trigger guard was already missing before it fell to the ground.

According to Corporal Gordon McGee’s testimony, he and other deputies responded to the defendant’s home at approximately 3:16 that morning. Upon entering the home, deputies discovered Frabbiele’s deceased body on a bed in one of the bedrooms. Deputies then found the defendant on a couch in the living room, holding a pocket knife and threatening to harm himself. When the defendant failed to drop his knife after deputies ordered him to do so, deputies deployed a Taser on the defendant and detained him. The record re-[77]*77fleets that deputies then obtained a search warrant and searched the home, where they found a shotgun wad2 in the mattress cover with Frabbiele’s hair attached, letters apparently handwritten by Frabbiele located at the foot of the bed, a cell phone in Frabbiele’s left hand with 911 dialed, and stains throughout the home appearing to be blood. Following his detainment, the defendant was interviewed by authorities and maintained that RFrabbiele shot herself. Defendant’s statement to the detectives further indicates that only he and Frabbiele were present in the home at the time.

Dr. Terry Welke, the Calcasieu Parish Coroner, testified that when he initially examined Frabbiele’s body, he originally believed that the death was a suicide. However, he explained that he became concerned upon viewing photographs of the crime scene and noticing differing patterns of blood spatter on the walls of the bedroom, which led him to believe that there had been “two different trajectories” of gunshots. He also noted that while “shotgun wounds and suicides” typically consist of “contact gunshots[,]” “there was evidence of gunpowder stippling” on Frab-biele’s skin, which he explained indicated to him “that the barrel was not in tight contact with the skin” when the shotgun was fired. Moreover, he explained that he observed the presence of soot “in the wound” but not on Frabbiele’s skin, which indicated to him that “there were two separate wounds.” Dr. Welke stated that due to these observations, he “went back in and re-evaluated” Frabbiele’s body, this time finding an additional shotgun wad embedded in Frabbiele’s facial bones. He further testified that, because he was aware that a shotgun wad had previously been found at the scene, and that “there’s only one power piston, plastic wad, pellet containing container, whatever you want to call them, per shotgun shell,”3 he concluded that Frabbiele “had died as the result of two shotgun wounds, as opposed to a single shotgun wound,” such that he “changed [his] mind as a ruling from a suicide to a homicide[.]”

I/The defendant was charged with second degree murder via a bill of indictment on September 26, 2013. At trial, the jury unanimously found him guilty as charged. He was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole.

The defendant appeals, assigning as error:

[78]*78[L] That the Trial Court erred in allowing the State of Louisiana to proceed with an “other crimes” or Prieur hearing despite unreasonable notice being given to the Defendant. Further, that the Trial Court erred in admitting the Prieur evidence despite the ambiguity of the notice.
[II.] That the Trial Court erred in admitting inculpatory statements made by the Defendant, when the notice to admit inculpatory statements was not filed until a day after the trial was set to begin. This error furthered the undeniable notion that Trial Courts feel that any notice, no matter how short, is good notice when it comes to both 404 (b) (Prieur evidence) and notice of intent to use inculpatory statements.
[III.] That the Trial Court erred in allowing the introduction of demonstrative images relating to the design and operation of shotgun shells. The Defense was only notified of the existence of these images until [sic] the eve of trial. This severely prejudiced the Defendant as he was not able to digest the images, have an expert review those images, conduct a Daubert hearing, or prepare the Defense[’]s own images to counter the State’s images.
[IV.] That the Trial Court erred in allowing Dr. Terry Welke to testify as an expert in the areas of blood spatter, firearm, and ammunition. The Trial Court allowed an individual who had been tendered and accepted as an expert in forensic pathology to offer expert and opinion testimony as to at least two disciplines in which he was not an expert, and admitted that he had not [sic] expertise in.
[V.] That the Trial Court erred when it failed to grant the Defendant’s motion for mistrial. The State elicited testimony from witnesses that the Court had previously held were inadmissible. The Defendant found himself forced to decide whether an admonition to the jury would bring more attention to the inadmissible statement. More importantly, it is impossible to expect a lay person to simply ignore some testimony or piece of evidence because a judge tells them to do so. It is no comfort when that individual is made to promise that they can ignore the statement or evidence. In this instance, the State played a recorded statement where the Defendant admitted to falling off the wagon and using drugs. These statements were to be redacted, however the State failed to do so. The Defendant’s counsel received] B the six-hour statement the day before it was played. The Defendant’s counsel did not have time to review the discovery as he receive [sic] the redacted version until [sic] 6:00 p.m. the day before.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
216 So. 3d 73, 16 La.App. 3 Cir. 542, 2017 WL 1009156, 2017 La. App. LEXIS 424, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-thibodeaux-lactapp-2017.