State v. Touchet

897 So. 2d 900, 2005 WL 545095
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMarch 9, 2005
Docket2004-1027
StatusPublished
Cited by23 cases

This text of 897 So. 2d 900 (State v. Touchet) 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. Touchet, 897 So. 2d 900, 2005 WL 545095 (La. Ct. App. 2005).

Opinion

897 So.2d 900 (2005)

STATE of Louisiana
v.
Wilbert TOUCHET, Jr.

No. 2004-1027.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Third Circuit.

March 9, 2005.

*901 Michael Harson, District Attorney, Lafayette, LA, for Appellee State of Louisiana.

Edward Kelly Bauman, Louisiana Appellate Projects, Lake Charles, LA, for Defendant/Appellant Wilbert Touchet, Jr.

Richard Johnson Putnam, III, Abbeville, LA, for Appellee State of Louisiana.

Wilbert Touchet, Jr., Elayn Hunt Correctional, St. Gabriel, LA, pro se.

Court composed of OSWALD A. DECUIR, GLENN B. GREMILLION, and ELIZABETH A. PICKETT, Judges.

DECUIR, Judge.

FACTS

The State of Louisiana alleges that the Defendant struck the victim with his fists, *902 forced her to remove her clothing at knife point, and had sexual intercourse with the victim against her will.

The Defendant, Wilbert Touchet, Jr., was charged with aggravated rape committed in violation of La.R.S. 14:42, second degree battery committed in violation of La.R.S. 14:34.1, and false imprisonment while armed with a dangerous weapon in violation of La.R.S. 14:46.1. The Defendant was arraigned and entered pleas of not guilty to all charges.

The Defendant waived his right to a trial by jury. Following a bench trial, the trial judge found the Defendant guilty as charged on all three counts. The trial court sentenced the Defendant to a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment on the charge of aggravated rape, five years imprisonment to run concurrently with the life sentence on the charge of second degree battery, and five years imprisonment to run concurrently to the other two on the charge of false imprisonment.

The Defendant appeals these convictions.

SUFFICIENCY OF THE EVIDENCE

The Defendant sets forth one assignment of error alleging the evidence submitted by the State is insufficient to support conviction of the three offenses charged. With regard to sufficiency of the evidence, this court set forth as follows in State v. Lambert, 97-64, pp. 4-5 (La.App. 3 Cir. 9/30/98), 720 So.2d 724, 726-27:

When the issue of sufficiency of evidence is raised on appeal, the critical inquiry of the reviewing court is whether, after viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979); State ex rel. Graffagnino v. King, 436 So.2d 559 (La.1983); State v. Duncan, 420 So.2d 1105 (La.1982); State v. Moody, 393 So.2d 1212 (La.1981). It is the role of the fact finder to weigh the respective credibility of the witness. Therefore, the appellate court should not second-guess the credibility determination of the trier of fact beyond the sufficiency evaluations under the Jackson standard of review. See King, 436 So.2d 559, citing State v. Richardson, 425 So.2d 1228 (La.1983).

In order for the State to obtain a conviction, it must prove the elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. In order for this court to affirm a conviction, the record must reflect that the State has satisfied this burden of proving the elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. State v. Kennerson, 96-1518 (La.App. 3 Cir. 5/7/97), 695 So.2d 1367.

Aggravated Rape

The trial court found the Defendant guilty of aggravated rape in violation of La.R.S. 14:42(A)(3), which states, in pertinent part:

A. Aggravated rape is a rape committed upon a person sixty-five years of age or older or where the anal, oral, or vaginal sexual intercourse is deemed to be without lawful consent of the victim because it is committed under any one or more of the following circumstances:
....
(3) When the victim is prevented from resisting the act because the offender is armed with a dangerous weapon.

The victim testified that she met the Defendant around Mardi Gras 2002. The two subsequently spent several nights together. At some point, the Defendant left to go to work offshore. While he was offshore, the victim rented a house for the *903 two to live in together when he returned. All of this happened between Mardi Gras and the first week of March 2002. When the Defendant returned from working offshore, he moved in with the victim. The two slept together in a small bedroom in the rented house.

The victim stated that about two weeks after they had moved in together, she and the Defendant had gone on an outing and when they returned, the Defendant told the victim that she had been acting like a whore. Upon arriving at their home, they entered the home, and the Defendant locked the front door. The victim proceeded to go to the bathroom, which was through the bedroom. The Defendant met the victim and told her, "[i]f you want to act like a whore, I'm going to treat you like a whore," and told the victim to remove her clothing. The victim testified that she told the Defendant no at first. At that point, the Defendant pulled out a pocket knife. Then the victim testified that she did not remember the knife being very close to her, but "he came to [her] with it." The victim stated that she believed that he was capable of using the knife and that she was scared that if she tried to get away, the Defendant would catch up to her.

After refusing once or twice, the victim removed her own clothing at the Defendant's prompting. She stated she probably would have removed her clothing even if he had not had the knife because she was the "underdog." After she removed her clothing, the Defendant "set the knife down" and "proceeded to come up on [her]." At that point the two had sexual intercourse.

The victim testified that she did not want to have sex. The victim stated that she resisted the Defendant verbally, but did not get up and leave the room because she was scared. On cross-examination, the victim stated that other than saying no, she did not resist the Defendant in any way.

The Defendant testified that he never held a knife to the victim's throat and raped her. The Defendant further testified that the victim never indicated to him that she did not want to have sex with him.

In State v. Jackson, 03-1079 (La.App. 3 Cir. 2/4/04), 866 So.2d 358, writ denied, 04-1126 (La.10/8/04), 883 So.2d 1027, this court upheld the defendant's conviction of aggravated rape. In Jackson, the defendant forced two women upstairs at knife point, tied one of the women up with an electrical cord and put her in a hall closet. The victim testified that while he was tying up the other woman, the defendant told her to shut up "that he had killed a woman in Houston and he would not hesitate killing two more." Id. at 363. Then Jackson told the victim to go into a room. He approached the victim, twisted her shirt around her neck, placed the knife at her throat and said, "you do it or I do it." Id. at 364. The victim then requested that they go into another room, which she testified contained items that she could have used as a weapon. During the rape, the victim testified that Jackson did not have the knife, but still had a pair of scissors, which were either in his hand or on the floor near the victim's head during the rape.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
897 So. 2d 900, 2005 WL 545095, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-touchet-lactapp-2005.