State v. Vargas

138 So. 3d 749, 13 La.App. 5 Cir. 848, 2014 WL 1238859, 2014 La. App. LEXIS 821
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMarch 26, 2014
DocketNo. 13-KA-848
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 138 So. 3d 749 (State v. Vargas) 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. Vargas, 138 So. 3d 749, 13 La.App. 5 Cir. 848, 2014 WL 1238859, 2014 La. App. LEXIS 821 (La. Ct. App. 2014).

Opinion

ROBERT M. MURPHY, Judge.

12Pefendant, Rolando Vargas, appeals his conviction for attempted simple rape, a violation of La. R.S. 14:43 and 14:27, on the basis of insufficiency of the evidence. For the following reasons, we affirm defendant’s conviction and sentence and remand for correction of an error patent as noted herein.

PROCEDURAL HISTORY

On August 24, 2012, the District Attorney for the Parish of Jefferson filed a bill of information that charged defendant, Rolando Vargas, with one count of simple rape, in violation of La. R.S. 14:43. Defendant pled not guilty on September 20, 2012. Trial commenced on February 21, 2013, and on February 22, 2013, defendant was found guilty by a jury of the lesser responsive offense of attempted simple rape. On March 11, 2013, defendant was sentenced to seven years at hard labor with credit for time served, without the benefit of parole, probation, or suspension of sentence. Defendant was also ordered to register as a sex offender pursuant to La. R.S. 15:543.1. On March 25, 2013, defendant timely piled a notice of intent to appeal, which was granted by the trial court on March 27, 2013. The instant appeal follows.

FACTS

The trial commenced on February 21, 2013. Candice Hovell, Jeff Dodson, Emily Ratliff, Bernardo Munoz, and the victim, D.V.,1 each testified that they were all part of a group2 which drove in a single vehicle from Alabama to the New Orleans metro[752]*752politan area in March- of 2011, for Mardi Gras. They arrived in Jefferson Parish in the evening hours of Friday, March 4, 2011. During their stay, the group of six shared a single room at the Comfort Inn Suites in Kenner.

After checking in on Friday night, the group went to the French Quarter in New Orleans, where they stayed for several hours. Upon returning to the hotel, some members of their party went to sleep while Emily Ratliff and Jeff Dodson went to the hotel’s pool and hot tub area. While by the pool, they met two Hispanic men. The men offered Emily a beer from their cooler, and she spoke to them for a short while. She learned that the men were cousins from Texas and had also traveled to see Mardi Gras. They also told Emily where their hotel room was located and invited Emily and her boyfriend for drinks which they declined.

On the night of Saturday, March 5, 2011, everyone in the group went back to the French Quarter where several of them, including the victim and her boyfriend Bernardo Munoz, became heavily intoxicated. Upon returning to the hotel in the early morning hours on Sunday, March 6, 2011, Candice and Dan went to the room to sleep, while Emily, Jeff, D.Y., and Bernardo continued to drink.

Jeff testified that he and the three others in his group arrived at the hotel pool area at approximately 4:00 a.m., and they were there for an hour in the jacuzzi. He [4noted that during that time, the victim was passed out, her feet barely touching the water, while Bernardo was sitting next to her vomiting.

After Bernardo got sick, Jeff described how he and Emily went to the hotel buffet to get Bernardo some water, as well as food for themselves. When Jeff and Emily left, the victim and Bernardo remained near the hot tub in the condition previously described. Ten minutes later, Jeff returned to the pool area to check on Bernardo. Jeff described how someone temporarily held the pool door closed, and he heard something yelled which he did not understand. The door opened quickly, and Jeff saw the victim with her legs underwater wrapped around a man and her top removed. Jeff testified he could not tell if the victim was still wearing her bikini bottom.

Per Jeffs testimony, Jeff alerted Bernardo that the victim was being assaulted. The man, who was in the hot tub with the victim, then pulled up his pants as he got out of the water with a visible erection. That man and another man then left the scene. Jeff went to the front desk and asked the hotel clerk to call 911. The police arrived and went upstairs to the group’s room; they were then directed to defendant’s room. The location of the room was known to Emily because the men staying in the other room had spoken to Emily the night before.

The State played Exhibit 3-N for Jeff, which was video footage of the pool area at the time of the assault. Jeff identified three men who were in the pool area when he left to go to the buffet. Jeff identified himself trying repeatedly to open the pool door before finally getting in. He said that the man pulling the door closed yelled something, but he did not know what was said. The video also showed the man who had held the door closed as well as the man who was with the victim in the hot tub, leaving the area.

| fiLater that summer, Jeff was sent a photographic lineup by detectives; he testified that he was unable to make an identification.

On cross-examination, Jeff explained that the man in the hot tub -with the victim got out quickly. The man got into an [753]*753elevator across the hallway. The suspect did not exit through the front door of the hotel, or jump the fence into the parking lot.

Emily testified that she, the victim, and their boyfriends brought alcohol down to the pool area. They sat around the hot tub with their feet in the water. The victim was intoxicated and passed out on the edge of the hot tub with her feet in the water. When Bernardo started throwing up, Emily and her boyfriend went to get some water for him from the hotel breakfast area. Emily testified that at the time they left, no one else was in the pool area. The two were gone for approximately five minutes and Jeff returned to check on the victim and Bernardo. She continued that she remembered seeing Jeff coming back down the hallway saying that the victim had just been raped. Emily went to check on the victim, who was still there. She testified that she did not see anyone else with the victim at that time. She tried to interact with the victim who was “out of it” but still in the water. Emily noted that although the victim had been clothed when Emily had left minutes before, the victim did not have her swim suit bottom on when Emily returned. She found them about four feet away.

It was approximately 5:30 a.m., and the hotel lobby was busy. Jeff went upstairs to alert Candice and Dan. Candice called the police, who arrived quickly. The victim was brought upstairs. When Emily spoke to the police, she told them about the people she and her boyfriend had met the night before and gave a description as well as the location of the room where the men were staying. She followed the police to the men’s room and recognized one of the cousins. Emily ^testified that she talked to him, and he indicated that his cousin had left to return to work in Texas. This occurred 30 minutes after the alleged incident had occurred.

Later that summer, police presented Emily with a photo lineup. She testified at trial that she was able to identify one of the men from the pool and wrote on the back of the document.3 A detective also wrote on the back of the document that, “[Emily] Ratliff states she’s 95 percent sure Number Five is the suspect; 100 percent sure that 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6 are not the suspect.” At trial, Emily viewed video footage taken at the hotel and identified one of the men who had previously invited her and her boyfriend to come to their hotel room. Emily said that the victim was “very intoxicated” after the incident and confused about what was happening.

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Bluebook (online)
138 So. 3d 749, 13 La.App. 5 Cir. 848, 2014 WL 1238859, 2014 La. App. LEXIS 821, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-vargas-lactapp-2014.