State v. Thornton

611 So. 2d 732, 1992 WL 367607
Louisiana Court of Appeal·Decided December 15, 1992·No. 91-KA-1971·Published·Cited by 10 cases

Opinion

611 So.2d 732 (1992)

STATE of Louisiana
v.
George THORNTON.

No. 91-KA-1971.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Fourth Circuit.

December 15, 1992.

*733 Harry F. Connick, Dist. Atty., Valerie Ann Welz, Asst. Dist. Atty., New Orleans, for plaintiff.

M. Craig Colwart, Orleans Indigent Defender Program, New Orleans, for defendant.

Before CIACCIO, WARD and ARMSTRONG, JJ.

ARMSTRONG, Judge.

The defendant, George Thornton, was charged by bill of information with the illegal carrying of a weapon, second offense, a violation of La.R.S. 14:95(C).[1] After a trial by a six-person jury he was found guilty as charged. The defendant filed motions for post-verdict judgment of acquittal and for arrest of judgment which were denied on July 3, 1991. After waiving all legal delays, he was sentenced to three (3) years at hard labor. It is from this conviction and sentence that the defendant has appealed.

The record reflects that at approximately 7:00 p.m., on February 14, 1991, Terry Brumfield, who was eleven years old, was sitting with a friend on the front porch of his home at 3303 Audubon Court. They saw the defendant, who was called "Georgie-Porgie," approach, and the friend told Terry that he saw the defendant going into his (defendant's) pocket. The friend ran, and defendant pulled a gun out of his pocket and held it to Terry's head. Defendant asked Terry, "Who you kin to?" Terry told him, and defendant left.

Terry then ran to his friend's aunt's house, and the aunt called the police. Officer Matthew Riles arrived, and the aunt showed him where defendant lived which was 1217 South Clark Street. Riles went there, and the defendant and Laurie Hilton, defendant's wife, exited. Riles spoke with Ms. Hilton, and she told him that the gun was hers and that it was underneath a sofa cushion. Riles retrieved the gun.

The defendant denied ever having the gun in his possession and denied seeing Brumfield that day. Ms. Hilton testified that the gun was hers and that the defendant never had possession of it.

Defense counsel stipulated that the defendant was the same person previously convicted of carrying a concealed weapon in Case No. 344-696.

A review of the record reflects that there are no errors patent.

In his first assignment of error, the defendant complains that the trial court erred in denying his motion for post-verdict judgment *734 of acquittal in that the State failed to present sufficient evidence of an essential element of the offense. The defendant asserts that the State failed to prove that his guilty plea to the previous conviction for illegal carrying of a weapon was constitutionally valid, i.e. that he validly waived his privilege against self-incrimination, his right to a trial by jury, and his right to confront his accusers. The defendant argues that the State was required to prove the waiver even though he stipulated to the prior conviction.

A post-verdict judgment of acquittal is to be granted only if the court finds that the evidence, viewed in the light most favorable to the prosecution, does not reasonably permit a finding of guilty. La.C.Cr.P. art. 821.

The defendant was found guilty of illegally carrying a weapon by intentionally concealing a firearm on his person. La. R.S. 14:95(A)(1). Subsections (C) and (D) of R.S. 14:95 provide for enhanced penalties in the event of second, third, and subsequent convictions. Subsection (E) provides that the enhanced penalty does not apply in cases where more than five years have elapsed since the expiration of the maximum sentence or sentences of the previous conviction or convictions and the time of the commission of the last offense for which he has been convicted.

In State v. Pounds, 359 So.2d 150 (La. 1978), the defendant stipulated to his two prior convictions for illegal carrying of a weapon, and he attempted to testify to the circumstances of his guilty pleas to those prior convictions. The trial court sustained the prosecutor's objection to this testimony, and the Supreme Court affirmed. The court stated that the defendant's having stipulated to the prior convictions foreclosed the issues related to them and that any testimony related to them was irrelevant. The court further stated that it was the existence of the prior convictions which supplied the element of the crime and that attacks upon them were more properly the subject of a post-conviction remedy.

Therefore, under Pounds, due to defendant's stipulation, the validity of the guilty plea to the prior conviction is irrelevant to the sufficiency of the evidence. But even without the stipulation, the validity of the guilty pleas to the predicate conviction is not pertinent in the present prosecution. In State v. Williams, 392 So.2d 448 (La. 1980), in a prosecution for being a convicted felon in unlawful possession of a firearm, the trial court granted the defendant's motion to quash based on the invalidity of the guilty plea to the prior conviction. The Supreme Court reversed, citing Lewis v. United States, 445 U.S. 55, 100 S.Ct. 915, 63 L.Ed.2d 198 (1980), which involved the federal counterpart to La.R.S. 14:95.1, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. The court stated that one charged with violating La.R.S. 14:95.1 could not challenge the predicate felony conviction on constitutional grounds. Williams was followed by this court in State v. Wilson, 454 So.2d 383 (La.App. 4th Cir.1984), writ denied 457 So.2d 1200 (La. 1984).

Although Williams and Wilson involved a different statute, there is no reason why the result in the present case should be different. As noted in Williams, the term "conviction" as used in La.R.S. 14:95.1 was not modified so as to require that the term be read as requiring a valid conviction. The term "conviction" as used in La.R.S. 14:95 is also without modification or qualification. Therefore, it was not incumbent on the State to prove as an essential element of the offense that the guilty plea in the prior conviction was valid. This assignment of error is without merit.

In his second assignment of error, the defendant complains that the trial court erred in denying his motion in arrest of judgment based on double jeopardy. The defendant argues that his conviction for aggravated assault involved the same conduct as the charge of illegal carrying of a weapon, and that as a result, double jeopardy bars his being prosecuted on that charge. The defendant cites as support Grady v. Corbin, 495 U.S. 508, 110 S.Ct. 2084, 109 L.Ed.2d 548 (1990).

La.C.Cr.P. art. 596 provides:

*735 Double jeopardy exists in a second trial only when the charge in that trial is:
(1) Identical with or a different grade of the same offense for which the defendant was in jeopardy in the first trial, whether or not a responsive verdict could have been rendered in the first trial as to the charge in the second trial; or
(2) Based on part of a continuous offense for which offense the defendant was in jeopardy in the first trial.

In analyzing cases involving claims of double jeopardy, the Louisiana courts have used two different tests. State v. Smith, 461 So.2d 417 (La.App. 4th Cir.1984), affirmed as amended 475 So.2d 331 (La.1985). The first test is based on Blockburger v. United States,

State v. Thornton, 611 So. 2d 732, 1992 WL 367607 (La. Ct. App. 1992).

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