State v. Weidert

568 So. 2d 1162, 1990 WL 161358
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedOctober 11, 1990
Docket90-KA-226
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 568 So. 2d 1162 (State v. Weidert) 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. Weidert, 568 So. 2d 1162, 1990 WL 161358 (La. Ct. App. 1990).

Opinion

568 So.2d 1162 (1990)

STATE of Louisiana
v.
Eric Paul WEIDERT.

No. 90-KA-226.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Fifth Circuit.

October 11, 1990.
Writ Denied January 18, 1991.

*1164 Richard S. Thomas, Lane, Fertitta, Lane & Tullos, Baton Rouge, for defendant/appellant.

John M. Crum, Jr., Dist. Atty., Rodney A. Brignac, Asst. Dist. Atty., Edgard, for State.

Before BOWES, DUFRESNE and WICKER, JJ.

WICKER, Judge.

This appeal arises from a jury trial resulting in a conviction in violation of La. R.S. 14:42.1, forcible rape. Defendant, Eric Weidert, was sentenced to imprisonment at hard labor for 30 years. Weidert now appeals that conviction and sentence. We affirm and remand with an order to correct the commitment.

The testimony at trial established the victim and the defendant agree that an incident occurred at the trailer park residence of the female victim during the early morning hours of November 11, 1988. However, the parties sharply disagree in their versions of what actually took place.

The victim testified as follows: A crashing noise in the living room of her trailer suddenly awoke her on the morning of the incident. At the time the victim was sleeping with her two-year-old daughter in the rear bedroom of the trailer. The noise frightened them. They sat up in their bed, fearful of what was occurring. When the victim realized an intruder was entering her residence, she shouted for help through the bedroom window and attempted to close the bedroom door. However, the male intruder barged through the door, grabbed the victim and forcefully pushed her against a piece of furniture in the bedroom. After physically restraining the victim and placing his hand over her mouth, the man ordered her to quiet her terrified daughter. The forced acts of oral sex and intercourse were performed on the floor of the bedroom. However, her daughter remained in the room and was able to see the incidents with the aid of "two big mirrors" on the closet doors. The victim remarked that her daughter's presence did not "seem to bother" the defendant.

Afterward, the intruder went into the trailer's living room for a short time and then returned to the bedroom, where the victim was caring for her terrified daughter. The man told her that he had a drug problem and did not mean to harm her. He then left the trailer, after appealing to her not to turn him over to the authorities. He even identified himself to her. Fearful that he might return, the victim hesitated for a few moments and then reported the incident to the sheriff's office. Deputies were immediately dispatched to investigate the matter.

After interviewing her, the deputies proceeded to the defendant's residence down the street in the trailer park. The defendant was standing outside the trailer where he lived. Upon seeing the approaching deputies, the defendant fled on foot into a nearby cane field. Weidert was arrested and charged with forcible rape.

Detective David Lozano testified he was the investigating officer. He stated it appeared an individual had entered the victim's trailer through a "large plate glass window ... in the living room." The window "was busted out from the outside because the glass was all on the inside of the *1165 living room floor." He further stated "[i]t appeared someone had came [sic] in through the window and crossed over the television because the drapes were, were over, more or less over the television. There was also one drape that was on the floor, actually on the floor itself ... the curtains ... were ... pulled over the television as though someone came through this window to get in the trailer."

At trial, the defendant took the witness stand and denied that he raped the victim. He testified that she stopped him as he was driving home in the early morning hours of November 11, 1988 and asked him to sell her some cocaine. He told her he did not have enough cocaine to sell her; but, he offered to share with her the cocaine that he had just purchased for his own use. She accepted his offer and invited the defendant over to her trailer, where the two consumed all of the defendant's cocaine. The defendant claimed that he and the victim then had sexual intercourse which he characterized as being a purely voluntary act by each party. After engaging in this consensual sex, the defendant became extremely angry, according to his testimony, because the victim refused to give him money to purchase another supply of cocaine. The two had a heated confrontation, and the defendant stormed out of her trailer to return home. The defendant testified that, as he was walking from her trailer, he picked up a brick and threw it at the trailer's living room window in a fit of rage.

On appeal from his conviction and sentence Weidert now assigns the following errors:

1. The trial judge committed reversible error by making statements that were prejudicial towards the defendant in the presence of the jury;
2. The district attorney stated his personal opinion as to the guilt and and credibility of the defendant during the state's closing argument, and
3. The sentence of thirty years is excessive and does not meet the parameters set out in State v. Lathers, 444 So.2d 96 (La.1983).

TRIAL JUDGE'S STATEMENTS:

The defendant characterizes as prejudicial the emphasized portion of the following comments made by the trial judge during the voir dire phase of jury selection:

I usually don't go into this till the end of the case but one of the lawyers made reference to their duty and your duty and so forth, and I think it's appropriate for me to inject at this point that this jury, if you're chosen, has a responsibility of taking under advisement the guilt or innocence of the defendant. And you have absolutely no responsibility for sending him to the penitentiary or to give him a suspended sentence. That's something the Court does and you have no control over. The sentence that the defendant will pay for his crime is the duty of only the Court. And you play no role into that. [Emphasis added].

Defendant argues these comments are prejudicial in light of La.C.Cr.P. art. 772 which provides:

The judge in the presence of the jury shall not comment upon the facts of the case, either by commenting upon or recapitulating the evidence, repeating the testimony of any witness, or giving an opinion as to what has been proved, not proved, or refuted.

La.C.Cr.P. art. 772 imposes a duty on the trial judge to refrain from commenting on the facts or evidence in the presence of the jury. However, the remark attacked by the defendant was not a proscribed comment by the trial judge on the facts or evidence in the case because no evidence had yet been presented in the proceeding. See State v. Jackson, 308 So.2d 265, 267 (La.1975). The trial judge's statement occurred during voir dire, and a comment by the court during voir dire is not a comment on the facts or evidence within the purview of La.C.Cr.P. art. 772. State v. Gallow, 338 So.2d 920, 922 (La.1976).

Even construing the challenged statement as an impermissible factual comment or expression of opinion by the trial judge, this assignment of error lacks merit. The defendant's position rests heavily on *1166 considering the disputed statement standing alone.

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Bluebook (online)
568 So. 2d 1162, 1990 WL 161358, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-weidert-lactapp-1990.