State v. Thomas

138 So. 3d 92, 2012 La.App. 4 Cir. 0816, 2014 WL 1097833, 2014 La. App. LEXIS 723
Louisiana Court of Appeal·Decided March 19, 2014·No. No. 2013-KA-0816·Published·Cited by 8 cases

Opinion

PAUL A. BONIN, Judge.

I,The district attorney appeals the trial judge’s decision to grant Tanislla Thomas’ motion to quash the bill of information. See La.C.Cr.P. arts. 538(3); 912 B(l). Ms. Thomas, in her motion, asserted violations of her statutory and constitutional rights to a speedy trial. The prosecution contends that Ms. Thomas’ right to a speedy trial under Article 578 A(2) of the Louisiana Code of Criminal Procedure was not violated because the running of the two-year prescriptive period to commence trial had been interrupted.1

We have reviewed the trial judge’s ruling under an abuse of discretion standard. And after applying the proper legal principles to this matter, we find that the trial judge did not err in sustaining the motion to quash, dismissing the charges, and discharging Ms. Thomas. We accordingly affirm. We explain our conclusion in greater detail in the following parts.

In this Part we address the timeline in this prosecution.

On September 2, 2006, Ms. Thomas was arrested in Orleans Parish. On the incident report generated from that arrest, her home address was listed as 328 Pavilli-an St, New Orleans, Louisiana 70115. The incident report also contained Ms. Thomas’ social security number, physical description, and birth date. Ms. Thomas was continued in custody, reportedly unable to furnish bail in the sum of $6,000 as required by the magistrate judge: After being held in custody for seventy-seven days, Ms. Thomas handwrote a pro se motion seeking her release due to the district attorney’s failure to timely institute her prosecution. See La.C.Cr.P. art. 701 B. As that period of confinement exceeded that allowed by Article 701 B(l)(a), Ms. Thomas was ordered released without a bail obligation on November 27, 2006.

On November 3, 2008, the district attorney instituted formal prosecution of Ms. Thomas by filing a bill of information, charging her with possession of cocaine, a felony, in violation of La. R.S. 40:967 C.2 See La.C.Cr.P. arts. 382 A (“[Cjriminal prosecutions in a district court shall be instituted by indictment or by information.”); 384 (“An information is a written accusation of crime made by the district attorney....”). Without the intervention of a neutral magistrate, the district l^attorney obtained a warrant, or alias ca-pias, for the arrest of Ms. Thomas.3 An [95] arraignment hearing was set on November 18, 2008. The only evidence of any attempt to provide notice of this hearing to Ms. Thomas is a handwritten notation on the side of a single unsigned return for an unserved subpoena directed at 328 Paivil-lon St., which stated, “Street not listed in 2008 Haines Directory for New Orleans. Street also not listed on internet Mapquest for New Orleans area.” Without notice, Ms. Thomas failed to appear. The district court in that hearing issued another alias capias with no bond. No further action was taken in this case for over three years until Ms. Thomas was arrested on March 30, 2012.

On May 30, 2012, Ms. Thomas filed her motion to quash this bill of information, claiming that the prescriptive period to commence her trial under Article 578 A(2) had expired.4 See La. C.Cr.P. art. 532(7). A hearing on the motion was held, and the trial judge granted Ms. Thomas’ motion to quash. The trial judge, finding that Ms. Thomas was under no bail obligation to notify the court of any changes in her address after her release under Article 701 B, held that the prosecution failed to carry their burden of proving the exercise of due diligence in obtaining Ms. Thomas’ presence for trial by legal process. The trial judge then found that the prosecution had untimely filed this bill of information because more than two years had elapsed since Ms. Thomas’ initial arrest.5

In this Part we discuss the legal precepts which guide our review of a trial judge’s ruling on a motion to quash.

“A motion to quash is ‘a mechanism whereby pre-trial pleas are urged, i.e., pleas which do not go to the merits of the charge.’ ” State v. Franklin, 13-0488, p. 3 (La.App. 4 Cir. 10/9/13), 126 So.3d 663, 666 (citing State v. Carter, 11-0859, p. 3 (La. App. 4 Cir. 3/21/12), 88 So.3d 1181, 1182). See also State v. Clark, 12-1296, p. 3 (La.5/7/13), 117 So.3d 1246, 1249. “All issues, whether of law or fact, that arise on a motion to quash shall be tried by the court without a jury.” La.C.Cr.P. art. 537.

“All pleas or defenses raised before trial, other than mental incapacity to proceed, or pleas of ‘not guilt/ and of ‘not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity,’ shall be urged by a motion to quash.” La.C.Cr.P. art. 531. A motion to quash may be grounded in the prosecution’s failure to timely commence a defendant’s trial. See La.C.Cr.P. arts. 532(7), 578 A(2). See also State v. Ramirez, 07-0652, p. 3 (La.App. 4 Cir. 1/9/08), 976 So.2d 204, 207.6

In non-capital felony cases, the district attorney is required to commence a defendant’s trial within “two years from the date of institution of the prosecution.” La.C.Cr.P. art. 578 A(2). This serves “to enforce the accused’s right to a speedy trial and to prevent the oppression caused by suspending criminal prosecutions 1 sover citizens for indefinite periods of time.” Ramirez, 07-0652, p. 4, 976 So.2d at 207.7 [96] The two-year limitations period set forth in Article 578 A(2) is prescriptive in nature. See State v. Morris, 99-3235, p. 1 (La.2/18/00), 755 So.2d 205, 205 (per curiam). See also La.C.Cr.P. art. 578 cmt. (b). As such, the running of this time period may be interrupted. See La.C.Cr.P. art. 579 A.

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State v. Thomas, 138 So. 3d 92, 2012 La.App. 4 Cir. 0816, 2014 WL 1097833, 2014 La. App. LEXIS 723 (La. Ct. App. 2014).

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