State v. Turner

138 So. 3d 740, 2014 WL 1238845
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMarch 26, 2014
DocketNo. 13-KA-836
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 138 So. 3d 740 (State v. Turner) 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. Turner, 138 So. 3d 740, 2014 WL 1238845 (La. Ct. App. 2014).

Opinion

ROBERT M. MURPHY, Judge.

| ^Defendant, Darnell Turner, was convicted of the second degree murder of Donald Bates in violation of La. R.S. 14:30.1. After the denial of his motion for new trial, the trial court sentenced Defendant to life imprisonment at hard labor without benefit of parole, probation, or suspension of sentence. Defendant’s timely appeal followed. For the reasons that follow, we affirm Defendant’s conviction and sentence and remand the matter to the trial court for correction of an error patent as noted herein.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

On January 28, 2010, Donald Bates cashed a $12,000.00 check at Ace Check Cashing that he received for the sale of his vehicle. Rhonda Skinner was with Bates at the time he cashed the check. Before bringing Skinner to her home, Bates purchased marijuana and crack and gave her money to purchase a phone. Bates also offered Skinner money in exchange for sexual relations, which she refused but ultimately agreed to think about it. That night, Mr. Bates was counting the money with his wife, Caroline Bates, at their home at 2217 Eastmere Street, which is located in the Woodmere neighborhood. He told his wife that he wanted to use the money to pay traffic tickets, insure their truck, and obtain groceries. He placed [742]*742$2,000.00 in an envelope for past-due rent, which was left on the kitchen | stable before Mrs. Bates left for work the next morning. Bates also gave his wife an additional $2,000.00 for the next two months’ rent, which she hid in a guestroom within their residence.

On the following morning of January 29, 2010, Mrs. Bates left their residence at approximately 6:00 a.m. to go to work. Bates was still in bed sleeping when she left. When she returned home from work that day at approximately 3:00 p.m., she noticed that her husband’s van was not at their home. When she attempted to unlock the door to her residence, she noticed that the door was unlocked. Knowing her husband usually did not leave the door unlocked, she called a friend to come over to her house. She and a friend opened the glass door and noticed spots of blood on the floor, at which point they chose not to go inside and called the police.

Deputy Jeffrey Easterby of the Jefferson Parish Sheriffs Office responded to Mrs. Bates’ call at her residence. Once inside, Deputy Easterby noticed that the home had been ransacked, with the furniture disturbed, drawers pulled out with property removed, and mattresses flipped up. He discovered the victim, Bates, who did not appear to be alive, on the bathroom floor of the master bedroom. The victim was dead and had sustained multiple different types of traumatic injuries, including four gunshot wounds, blunt force trauma wounds, and superficial incised wounds.

Detective Gary Barteet of the Jefferson Parish Sheriffs Office testified regarding the scene and the evidence seized from the residence. Based on the presence of blood in multiple areas of the residence, the scene indicated that there had been a struggle in the foyer/hallway area, just past the front door, and that portions of the residence had been searched and left in disarray. The mattress had been pulled off of the bed, and a baseball bat was found on the box springs. |4Petective Bar-teet believed that there were at least two people involved due to the violence, which seemed to indicate that the victim was “striking back.” He did not find any evidence that indicated there was forced entry. The police recovered four 9 mm fired cartridge cases, two of which were discovered in the hallway and the remaining two were discovered in the bathroom. A pillow was also found in the bathroom on the victim that had been penetrated by a passing bullet.

Once Mrs. Bates was allowed to return to her home, she noticed that a World War II plaque from her father was missing, as well as the $2,000 which had been left inside an envelope on the kitchen table. She also found a blood-covered knife inside a drawer of her home.

Dr. Susan Garcia, an expert in the field of forensic pathology, performed the autopsy on the victim and determined that one of the gunshots punctured his heart and went through his right lung, which she believed was a lethal wound. The victim had other gunshot wounds, including one to his leg. Dr. Garcia believed that the incised wounds to the victim’s scalp, neck, and fingers were caused by a sharp object, possibly a knife. She further believed that the blunt force trauma to the victim’s head was consistent with him being struck by a hard object, possibly a baseball bat.

Detective Solomon Burke of the Jefferson Parish Sheriffs Office testified that the victim’s van was recovered on the night of the murder on a dead-end road near the intersection of Jordan Street and Ray Street, within the Haydel area. Someone had made an attempt to set the van on fire, but the fire was unsuccessful due to the fact that it was set inside of a [743]*743sealed van. A baseball cap was found on the ground a few feet away from the driver’s side door of the van. Detective Burke testified that he obtained an exigent circumstance request for the victim’s cell phone. It was discovered that the last phone call received by the victim was from | ¡¡Rhonda Skinner. The phone traced Skinner’s phone to a hotel, where she was found. The police recovered Skinner’s phone, but the SIM card had been removed. Skinner was brought to the Detective Bureau as a person of interest where she gave seven taped statements over the course of approximately twenty-four hours, all of which were played for the jury at trial.

In Skinner’s first statement, taken at 2:15 a.m. on January 31, 2010, she admitted that she knew the victim, and that she was with him on January 28, 2010 when he cashed his $12,000.00 check at Ace Check Cashing. She further admitted that she called him from her home in the Bee-chgrove area at approximately 8:00 a.m. on January 29, 2010 to discuss his previous offer of money in exchange for sex.

In her third statement at 2:11 p.m., Skinner admitted that her call to the victim on the morning of January 29, 2010 took place while she was in the same area where the victim’s residence is located— the Woodmere area. She stated that she was in the Woodmere area to inspect an apartment for rent. While walking, a car stopped beside her with two males inside. She described the driver, and said that a man she knew as “Nasty” was in the passenger seat. She stated that Nasty advised her that he was about to “hit a lick,” (meaning “to steal”), and that he was going to “get it” from the victim, whom he referred to as “Mr. Don.” In her fourth statement, taken at 3:55 p.m., Skinner added that Nasty already knew that the victim had recently received a large sum of money for the sale of his ear, and that he intended to knock on the victim’s door and impersonate a lawn service worker. Once the victim opened the door, she stated that Nasty told her that he planned to force his way in.

In her fifth statement, given at 6:15 p.m., Skinner admitted that she had withheld some information from her prior statements. Specifically, she admitted | ¡¡that she had received a phone call from Nasty on the morning of January 29, 2010, wherein he asked her to meet him in the Woodmere area. She said that she called Mr. Don when she got to the Woodmere area, at around 8:00 a.m. She then said that Nasty called her a second time, and came to meet her in a vehicle. He was on the passenger’s side and she said that the driver was someone she had never seen before. At Nasty’s request, Skinner called the victim again at 8:53 a.m. to see if he was at his home.

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Related

State v. Robertson
216 So. 3d 1137 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2017)

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Bluebook (online)
138 So. 3d 740, 2014 WL 1238845, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-turner-lactapp-2014.