State v. Toups

144 So. 3d 1052, 2013 La.App. 1 Cir. 1371, 2014 WL 1327969, 2014 La. App. LEXIS 895
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedApril 3, 2014
DocketNo. 2013 KA 1371
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 144 So. 3d 1052 (State v. Toups) 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. Toups, 144 So. 3d 1052, 2013 La.App. 1 Cir. 1371, 2014 WL 1327969, 2014 La. App. LEXIS 895 (La. Ct. App. 2014).

Opinion

CRAIN, J.

|2Ted Michael Toups was charged by an amended bill of information with simple burglary, a violation of Louisiana Revised Statute 14:62. He pled not guilty and, following a jury trial, was found guilty as charged. After denying motions for new trial and postverdict judgment of acquittal, the trial court sentenced the defendant to imprisonment for eleven years at hard labor. Toups filed a motion for reconsideration of sentence, which the trial court denied. The defendant now appeals based upon four assignments of error. We affirm the conviction and sentence.

FACTS

On August 21, 2010, Sergeants Jacob Fonseca and Mark Richards with the Ter-rebonne Parish Sheriffs Office were dispatched to Tidewater Marine near the In-tracoastal Canal in response to a call from Captain Gilbert Brasher with Tidewater Marine. While making rounds that morning, Captain Brasher noticed a shrimp boat tied to the stern of one of Tidewater Marine’s boats, the Jan Tide. Captain Brasher boarded the Jan Tide and found a pump on the deck that was connected to a hose leading to the Jan Tide’s fuel tank and another hose leading to the shrimp boat.

After arriving on the scene, Sergeants Fonseca and Richards boarded the shrimp boat and found the defendant asleep inside the boat’s cabin. After reading him his Miranda1 rights, the officers questioned Toups about the hoses and pump on the deck of the Jan Tide, and he admitted that he had pumped about 1,200 gallons of fuel from the Jan Tide into his shrimp boat. The defendant advised that he knew it was wrong to steal the fuel, but he believed the “oil company” would reimburse Tidewater for any missing fuel. Although the pump was not running when the officers arrived, they observed that the hoses that were connected to the |spump terminated in the rear fuel tank of the defendant’s boat and in the Jan Tide’s fuel tank. Based on their observations and the statements by Toups, the officers arrested him.

SUFFICIENCY OF THE EVIDENCE

In his first assignment of error, the defendant argues that the evidence presented at his trial was insufficient to support the jury’s verdict finding him guilty of simple burglary. Specifically, while he admitted taking fuel from the Jan Tide, the defendant argues that the evidence was insufficient to prove that he committed a simple burglary because the State did not prove that he entered an enclosed area of the boat. In his related second assignment of error, the defendant argues that the trial court erred in denying his motions for new trial and postverdict judgment of acquittal because the evidence presented at trial did not support his conviction.

In reviewing claims challenging the sufficiency of the evidence, this court must consider “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 [1056]*1056crime beyond a reasonable doubt.” Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 2789, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979). See also La.Code Crim. Pro. art. 821B; State v. Mussall, 523 So.2d 1305, 1308-09 (La. 1988). The Jackson standard, incorporated in Article 821, is an objective standard for testing the overall evidence, both direct and circumstantial, for reasonable doubt. State v. Petitto, 12-1670 (La.App. 1 Cir. 4/26/13), 116 So.3d 761, 766, unit denied, 13-1183 (La.11/22/13), 126 So.3d 477; State v. Patomo, 01-2585 (La.App. 1 Cir. 6/21/02), 822 So.2d 141, 144. When a conviction is based on both direct and circumstantial evidence, the reviewing court must resolve any conflict in the direct evidence by viewing that evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution. State v. Wright, 98-0601 (La.App. 1 Cir. 2/19/99), 730 So.2d 485, 487, unit denied, 99-p8024 (La.10/29/99), 748 So.2d 1157, and writ denied sub nom, State ex rel. Wright v. State, 00-0895 (La.11/17/00), 773 So.2d 732. When analyzing circumstantial evidence, Louisiana Revised Statute 15:438 provides that the fact finder must be satisfied the overall evidence excludes every reasonable hypothesis of innocence. Petitto, 116 So.3d at 766; Patomo, 822 So.2d at 144. The facts then established by the direct evidence and inferred from the circumstances established by that evidence must be sufficient for a rational trier of fact to conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant was guilty of every essential element of the crime. WHght, 730 So.2d at 487.

Simple burglary is the unauthorized entering of any dwelling, vehicle, watercraft, or other structure, movable or immovable, or any cemetery, with the intent to commit a felony or any theft therein. La. R.S. 14:62A. The defendant does not dispute that the evidence is sufficient to support a conviction for criminal trespass and felony theft if he had been charged with those crimes; however, he contends that the evidence is not sufficient to support a conviction for simple burglary because the State did not prove that he entered an enclosed space of the Jan Tide. Thus, Toups’ argument turns on whether one can “enter” a watercraft for purposes of the simple burglary statute without breaching an enclosed area designed for occupants, such as an engine room or wheelhouse.

Criminal statutes must be given “a genuine construction, according to the fair import of their words, taken in their usual sense, in connection with the context, and with reference to the purpose of the provision.” La. R.S. 14:3. Moreover, it is a well-established tenet of statutory construction that criminal statutes are subject to strict construction under the rule of lenity. State v. Odom, 07-0516 (La.App. 1 Cir. 7/31/08), 993 So.2d 663, 671 (per cu-riani). Legislative intent is the fundamental question in all cases of statutory interpretation, and rules of statutory construction are designed to ascertain and enforce the intent of the | Sstatute. Odom, 993 So.2d at 671. In construing the applicable criminal statute, we consider two established rules of statutory construction: (1) all criminal statutes are construed strictly; and (2) the words of a statute must be given their everyday meaning. State v. Hinton, 08-1849 (La.App. 1 Cir. 2/13/09), 6 So.3d 242, 244, writ denied, 09-0821 (La.3/4/11), 58 So.3d 466.

The defendant asks this court to incorporate into the simple burglary statute a requirement that the unauthorized entry of a watercraft be made in an “enclosed space” in the watercraft. No such requirement appears in the statute, and this court will not craft one where the [1057]*1057legislature has chosen not to do so.2 Contrary to defendant’s assertions about “common parlance,” nothing about the word “enter” necessarily connotes movement into an enclosed space. One can just as simply “enter” an open park or field as one can “enter” a house or building.

Alternatively, even if this court were to adopt the defendant’s proposed interpretation of Section 14:62A, which we do not, the evidence was sufficient to demonstrate that the defendant entered an “enclosed space” on the watercraft with an intent to commit a theft. The Jan Tide’s deck is completely encircled by a bulwark between four and five feet in height that encloses the deck where the pump and hoses were discovered. The Jan Tide had no gangplanks, ladders, or other apparatuses to invite passersby to come aboard.

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Bluebook (online)
144 So. 3d 1052, 2013 La.App. 1 Cir. 1371, 2014 WL 1327969, 2014 La. App. LEXIS 895, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-toups-lactapp-2014.