State v. Thomas

683 So. 2d 1272, 1996 WL 628226
Louisiana Court of Appeal·Decided October 30, 1996·No. 28790-KA·Published·Cited by 23 cases

Opinion

683 So.2d 1272 (1996)

STATE of Louisiana, Appellee,
v.
Randy Glenn THOMAS, Appellant.

No. 28790-KA.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Second Circuit.

October 30, 1996.

*1274 Indigent Defender Office by Allan R. Harris and Richard E. Hiller, Shreveport, for Appellant.

Richard Ieyoub, Attorney General, Paul J. Carmouche, District Attorney, Hugo A. Holland and Catherine M. Estopinal, Assistant District Attorneys, for Appellee.

Before MARVIN, C.J., and BROWN and GASKINS, JJ.

GASKINS, Judge.

The defendant, Randy Glenn Thomas, pled guilty, pursuant to State v. Crosby, 338 So.2d 584 (La.1976), to one count of first degree murder and one count of second degree murder. The trial court sentenced the defendant to serve two concurrent terms of imprisonment for life without benefit of parole, probation or suspension of sentence. The defendant appealed, urging 11 assignments of error. For the reasons set forth below, the convictions and sentences are affirmed.

FACTS

In early June 1994, three Shreveport men—the defendant, Antonio M. Jackson, and Joseph Lee Jackson—decided to rob Burford's grocery store in Keithville. The defendant, armed with a .22 caliber handgun, drove the men to the store in the early morning hours of June 10. At least one of the other men was armed with a large caliber revolver. The defendant entered the store first; he was followed by both Jacksons.

David Lacobee and his son Glenn were opening the store as the men came inside. David Lacobee drew his .357 revolver and fired at the defendant, striking him once in the abdomen. The defendant then shot David Lacobee twice, fatally wounding him, before running out of the store. Shortly thereafter, one of the Jacksons shot Glenn Lacobee, killing him instantly. Joseph Jackson stole approximately $400 in change from the store's safe.

When the Jacksons left the store, they discovered that the defendant had already fled in his vehicle. The two men ran across Mansfield Road where they hitched a ride to a bus stop and later caught a bus to their home. An anonymous tip led the police to the men about two weeks later; all three men eventually confessed to the crimes.

All three men were indicted on two counts of first degree murder. In exchange for the state's promise not to seek the death penalty, the defendant pled guilty to one count of first degree murder in the death of David Lacobee and one count of second degree *1275 murder in the death of Glenn Lacobee. However, he reserved his right to appeal the denial of his pretrial motions under State v. Crosby, supra. The trial court imposed the mandatory sentence of life imprisonment without benefit of parole, probation or suspension of sentence on each count and ordered that the sentences be served concurrently.

The defendant appealed. Although he originally asserted 11 assignments of error, Assignment of Error 5 was expressly abandoned in brief. Also, Assignment of Error 11, which was neither briefed nor argued, is deemed abandoned. URCA Rule 2-12.4; State v. Schwartz, 354 So.2d 1332 (La.1978); State v. Kotwitz, 549 So.2d 351 (La.App. 2d Cir.1989), writs denied, 558 So.2d 1123 (La. 1990).

MOTION TO QUASH INDICTMENT

Initially, the defendant was charged by indictment for the first degree murder of both David and Glenn Lacobee. Count 2 of the indictment, pertaining to Glenn Lacobee, read as follows:

[The grand jury charges the defendant with first degree murder in that he] killed Glenn Lacobee, and was a principal to said killing, at a time when he had the specific intent to kill and inflict great bodily harm upon him and at a time when he was engaged in the perpetration and attempted perpetration of an armed robbery.

The defendant filed a motion to quash the indictment on two grounds: (1) there was no evidence to support the allegation in Count 2 that he had the specific intent to kill or commit great bodily harm upon Glenn Lacobee; and (2) the grand jury which indicted the defendant was improperly constituted. The trial court denied the motion. In his first assignment of error, the defendant contends that this ruling was erroneous.

Specific Intent

The defendant contends that the indictment for the first degree murder of Glenn Lacobee should be quashed because the evidence at the preliminary hearing proved that the defendant had already fled the crime scene when Glenn Lacobee was murdered. This charge was reduced pursuant to a plea agreement to second degree murder. Any defects in the indictment should thereby have been corrected since second degree murder encompasses the situation where a victim is killed during an armed robbery and no specific intent to kill or inflict great bodily harm need be proven. However, out of an abundance of caution, we will address this assigned error.

The motion to quash is essentially a mechanism by which to raise pre-trial pleas of defense, i.e., those matters which do not go to the merits of the charge. La.C.Cr.P. art. 531-534; State v. Perez, 464 So.2d 737 (La. 1985). In considering a motion to quash, a court must accept as true the facts contained in the bill of information and in the bills of particulars, and determine as a matter of law and from the face of the pleadings, whether a crime has been charged. While evidence may be adduced, such may not include a defense on the merits. The question of factual guilt or innocence of the offense charged is not raised by the motion to quash. State v. Perez, supra.

Clearly, the indictment charges a valid offense. The defendant's motion challenged the sufficiency of the evidence—a "question of factual guilt or innocence of the offense" not properly raised by a motion to quash. Furthermore, as mentioned above, the defendant subsequently rendered this claim moot by his guilty plea.[1] A guilty plea by its nature admits factual guilt and relieves the state of the necessity of proving it by a contested trial. State v. Buggs, 567 So.2d 744 (La.App. 2d Cir.1990). Here, the defendant entered a guilty plea whereby he admitted his guilt to second degree murder in Glenn Lacobee's death.

This portion of the assignment of error is without merit.

*1276 Grand Jury Composition

The defendant's second argument in his motion to quash challenged the composition of the Caddo Parish grand jury. Specifically, the defendant argued that the grand jury indictment was invalid because young adults, age 18 to 30, including young black males the same age as the 21-year-old defendant, were systematically excluded from the venire because they "traditionally do not register to vote" and the venire is made up only of registered voters. The defendant alleged that his equal protection rights were violated by this alleged exclusion of young people because "[s]cientific studies, which will be offered in support of this motion, show that a substantially smaller percentage of the persons under 30 years of age favor capital punishment as to people over 30."

The trial court denied the defendant's motion to quash on this ground as well. The court indicated in its opinion that the use of voter rolls as the sole source of potential jurors in Caddo Parish has twice been approved by this court. See State v. Davis, 626 So.2d 800 (La.App. 2d Cir.1993), writ denied, 93-2945 (La.2/25/94), 632 So.2d 762, and State v. Rose, 606 So.2d 845 (La.App. 2d Cir.1992). See also State v. Brogdon, 426 So.2d 158 (La.1983), cert. denied, 471 U.S. 1111, 10

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