State v. Townsend

859 So. 2d 885, 2003 La. App. LEXIS 2976, 2003 WL 22439599
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedOctober 29, 2003
DocketNo. 37,628-KA
StatusPublished

This text of 859 So. 2d 885 (State v. Townsend) 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. Townsend, 859 So. 2d 885, 2003 La. App. LEXIS 2976, 2003 WL 22439599 (La. Ct. App. 2003).

Opinion

I,STEWART, J.

Following a bench trial, James Townsend was convicted of illegal use of a weapon while committing a crime of violence. He was sentenced as a second felony offender to 25 years at hard labor without benefit of parole, probation or suspension of sentence. The defendant now appeals the multiple offender conviction and his sentence. For the following reasons, we vacate the defendant’s sentence and remand for resentencing consistent with this opinion.

FACTS

On January 14, 2000, Shreveport police were dispatched on an “unknown trouble” call to the Queensborough area. As the first officer to arrive at the scene, James Tipton (“Tipton”) was flagged down by Carrie Bates (“Bates”) as he approached 3829 Morrow Street. Bates told him that her daughter had been shot and was lying in the front yard of her house. When Tipton arrived at that residence another officer, David Heaser (“Heaser”), pulled up behind him. Tipton saw that a teenage girl was lying on her back about 15 feet from the front door. He ran up to her and saw that she had some gunshot wounds. The victim was later identified as D.B., a 14-year-old girl.

Tipton told Heaser to go secure the back of the residence. As, he knelt down to check the girl’s wounds, he heard Heaser tell someone to drop a weapon. Tipton ran to the back to assist him, but when he got to the back of the house, Heaser reported that the suspect had gone into the house. The officers then requested additional police back up. When the back up arrived, D.B. was moved to the side of the house for safety and an off-duty | gfireman rendered first aid to her. The suspect, defendant James Townsend, eventually [887]*887surrendered and came out of the house unarmed and without incident.

D.B. was taken to LSU Medical Center where she underwent surgery for wounds to her abdominal area. She remained hospitalized for over a month.

A search warrant was obtained for the residence and officers found a silver semiautomatic handgun. Carrie Bates said she was the owner of the gun, but that she had given it to Townsend’s mother for safekeeping.

At trial, D.B. testified that prior to the shooting, she and Townsend were inside the residence with her sister, Renika, who is also a minor, Renika’s infant, and a friend of the young girls identified only as “Muffin.” Townsend was her mother’s boyfriend and had lived in the residence with them for over a year. Townsend and D.B. had an argument over her behavior with boys, and he threatened to tell her mother. When Bates arrived at the house, Townsend was telling her about the altercation when he grabbed D.B. by her shorts and slammed her up and down on the floor. Bates and Renika tried to stop him.

Bates ran outside to go to a neighbor’s house to call the police. D.B. and Renika also ran out of the house. However, D.B. realized that her infant niece and Muffin were still in the house so she went back into the residence to get them. As she was walking out of the door, Townsend started shooting D.B., hitting her in the side and in her leg.

|sOn April 18, 2001, the trial court found the defendant guilty as charged of illegal use of a weapon while committing aggravated battery. The state filed a third felony habitual offender bill on June 19, 2001. Counsel for the defendant filed a motion to quash on the grounds that the two predicate offenses occurred on the same day. The trial court allowed the defendant to argue several motions pro se and evidence was taken at several different hearings. These pro se motions were denied on September 3, 2002. Counsel for the defendant filed a motion for new trial and a motion for post-verdict judgment of acquittal on November 11, 2002. These motions were never argued or ruled on.

On September 3, 2002, the trial court found Townsend to be a second felony offender after the state concurred that only one of the convictions could be used to enhance the penalty. At the sentencing hearing on December 10, 2002, the trial court allowed the defendant to argue his pro se motion to quash the habitual offender bill he filed on the same day. The defendant raised two new issues that had not been presented at the original habitual offender hearing. The trial court denied his motion. The trial court sentenced the defendant to 25 years at hard labor without the benefit of parole, probation or suspension of sentence. He filed this timely appeal.

DISCUSSION

Townsend argues that the district court erred in adjudicating him as a second felony offender. He argues that the documentation was insufficient to indicate that he knowingly and voluntarily pled guilty to the predicate offense.

l/The state argues that the document admitted into evidence showed that Townsend was represented by counsel and waived his rights under Boykin in the proceedings of the prior offense.

La.R.S. 15:529.1 allows for enhanced sentencing for persons convicted of second and subsequent offenses. It reads:

A. (1) Any person who, after having been convicted within this state of a felony or adjudicated a delinquent under Title VIII of the Louisiana Children’s [888]*888Code for the commission of a felony-grade violation of either the Louisiana Controlled Dangerous Substances Law involving the manufacture, distribution, or possession with intent to distribute a controlled dangerous substance or a crime of violence as listed in Paragraph (2) of this Subsection, or who, after having been convicted under the laws of any other state or of the United States, or any foreign government of a crime which, if committed in this state would be a felony, thereafter commits any subsequent felony within this state, upon conviction of said felony, shall be punished as follows:
(a) If the second felony is such that upon a first conviction the offender would be punishable by imprisonment for any term less than his natural life, then the sentence to imprisonment shall be for a determinate term not less than one-half the longest term and not more than twice the longest term prescribed for a first conviction;
* * *

In Boykin v. Alabama, 395 U.S. 238, 242, 89 S.Ct. 1709, 1711, 23 L.Ed.2d 274 (1969) the United States Supreme Court held on appeal of a criminal conviction that “it was error, plain on the face of the record, for the trial judge to accept petitioner’s guilty plea, without an affirmative showing that it was intelligent and voluntary.” Concerning the record of such a guilty plea on appeal, the Court found that because a guilty plea constitutes a waiver of several constitutional rights, including the privilege against self-incrimination, the right to trial by jury, and the right to confront one’s ^accusers, the prosecution was required to “spread on the record the prerequisites of a valid waiver.” Id. Thus, the Court held that it could not presume a voluntary and knowing waiver of these rights from a silent record.

In an attempt to comply with Boykin, the Louisiana Supreme Court held in State ex rel. Jackson v. Henderson, 260 La. 90, 255 So.2d 85 (1971), a post conviction proceeding, that a guilty plea will be considered knowingly and voluntarily made only if the accused was informed of and made an articulated waiver of his right to jury, his right to his confront his accusers, and his privilege against self-incrimination. Because the transcript of the colloquy with the judge in Jackson

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Related

Boykin v. Alabama
395 U.S. 238 (Supreme Court, 1969)
State v. Shelton
621 So. 2d 769 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1993)
State v. Lewis
367 So. 2d 1155 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1979)
State Ex Rel. Jackson v. Henderson
255 So. 2d 85 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1971)
State v. Zachary
829 So. 2d 405 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 2002)

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859 So. 2d 885, 2003 La. App. LEXIS 2976, 2003 WL 22439599, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-townsend-lactapp-2003.