State v. Williams

431 So. 2d 885
Louisiana Court of Appeal·Decided May 3, 1983·No. 15354-KA·Published·Cited by 12 cases

Opinion

431 So.2d 885 (1983)

STATE of Louisiana, Appellee,
v.
Ricardo Leon WILLIAMS, Appellant.

No. 15354-KA.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Second Circuit.

May 3, 1983.
Writ Denied June 27, 1983.

Jack Wright, Jr., Monroe, for appellant.

William J. Guste, Jr., Atty. Gen., Barbara B. Rutledge, Asst. Atty. Gen., Baton Rouge, Johnny Parkerson, Dist. Atty., Robert S. Kennedy, Jr., Asst. Dist. Atty., Monroe, for appellee.

Before PRICE, HALL, and MARVIN, JJ.

*886 HALL, Judge.

The defendant, Ricardo Leon Williams, was charged by bill of information with one count of forcible rape and one count of attempted forcible rape, in violation of LSA-R.S. 14:42.1.[1] The defendant was found guilty by a twelve-person jury and was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment at hard labor on the first count and 10 years imprisonment at hard labor on the second count, the sentences to run consecutively. The defendant appealed, assigning three errors.

The charges arose out of two incidents which occurred between two inmates of cell block D of the Ouachita Parish jail during the late night or early morning hours of a Friday and Sunday in August 1982. On the first occasion the defendant engaged in an act of anal sexual intercourse with one James "Indian" Townsend and on the second occasion the defendant attempted to engage in the same act with Townsend. The essence of the state's case was that Townsend submitted to the acts because of physical threats made to him by the defendant under circumstances where Townsend reasonably believed that resistance would not have prevented the rape. Through a recorded statement given to police officers and by testimony at the trial defendant admitted the acts but claimed they were consensual.

In assignment of error No. 1 the defendant contends that there were insufficient facts to persuade a rational trier of fact of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Defendant's argument is centered on the alleged lack of evidence of the essential elements of force or threats of physical violence and the existence of circumstances which justified the victim in reasonably believing that resistance would not prevent the rape. The defendant urges that the victim's testimony was not specific in regard to threats of physical violence, that there had not been any previous trouble between the defendant and the victim, that the victim should have tried to get help from other inmates in the cell, that because the cell was equipped with a television monitor and a panic button and guards were stationed nearby the victim could and should have sought assistance from the guards, and that any resistance or efforts on his part would have prevented the rape and any belief on his part to the contrary was not reasonable. Defendant also points out that the victim did not report the incidents to the jail guards, who apparently learned of the incidents from another inmate.

The standard for determining sufficiency of evidence was recently stated in State v. Graham, 420 So.2d 1126 (La.1982) as follows:

"The present standard by which the sufficiency of the state's evidence is determined was set forth by the United States Supreme Court in Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560, rehearing den. 444 U.S. 890, 100 S.Ct. 195, 62 L.Ed.2d 126 (1979). We have also adopted this standard as expressed in State v. Straughter, 406 So.2d 221 (La.1981); State v. Campuzano, 404 So.2d 1217 (La.1981) and State ex rel Ross v. Blackburn, 403 So.2d 719 (La. 1981).
"In reviewing a case to determine whether the evidence supports a conviction, the standard set forth, in Jackson, supra, requires this court to examine the record to determine if, after viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact *887 could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. State v. Hicks, 395 So.2d 790, 797 (La. 1981)."

Viewed in the light most favorable to the prosecution the testimony of the victim, corroborated to some extent by the testimony of other inmates, establishes the following facts. Defendant and Townsend, who did not previously know each other, had been incarcerated together in cell block D for several weeks. Eleven or twelve inmates of the cell block slept on five double bunks and one or two mattresses on the floor. On the Friday afternoon of the first incident Townsend got into a fight with another inmate, Caleb McDonald, who along with Billy Boyte was a friend of the defendant. The defendant broke up the fight and after the fight told Townsend that "he was going to teach me the ropes" and "more or less protect me ... in return for sexual favors." Townsend told the defendant he "didn't do that kind of stuff." After midnight when all of the other inmates were apparently asleep defendant approached Townsend at his bunk and said he wanted Townsend to come down to a mattress on the floor. The defendant had made arrangements to switch bunks with an inmate whose mattress lay out of range of the television camera covering the cell. Townsend said he "didn't want to do it" and defendant said that if Townsend didn't "he was going to cut me loose ... he was going to take it if I didn't." Townsend was afraid of the defendant because of things the defendant had said and fights he had gotten into. On one occasion defendant had knocked another inmate's tooth out and on another occasion he had commandeered a mattress from another inmate. Defendant, McDonald, and Boyte "stuck together" and were "tight" and if a fight broke out "all three would be in on it." Townsend was scared to try to push the call button and believed that he would "get my ass whipped or jumped on" if he did so. It sometimes took the guards 30 minutes to answer the buzzer and he thought there was "no sense" in trying it. Although Townsend protested, he got down on his stomach on the mattress and the defendant performed anal intercourse. Townsend testified "it hurt bad", that he "started crying" and that he was "scared of getting the hell beat out of me."

The following Sunday, again late at night after the inmates were apparently asleep and after making arrangements to switch mattresses, defendant again approached Townsend. Townsend again said he "didn't want to do it" and that he was hurt. Defendant told him he was going to "cut me loose for the cell and they was waiting." Townsend understood him to mean that all of the cell "was going to try it and was going to do it"; that "they were either going to whip my ass or they were going to do the same thing he done." Townsend believed he would get no help from anyone in the cell and that he could do nothing to prevent it. The defendant again attempted to perform anal intercourse but was unable to do so.

After the incidents the victim made some effort to get attention from a nurse on a complaint of a kidney disorder but was unable to do so. Another inmate apparently told the officers about the incidents and Townsend was removed from the cell and taken to the hospital.

Another inmate testified that he observed the fight in which Townsend and defendant and his two friends were involved, and also observed the "sexual activity" the first night. The inmate testified that he did not do anything to call for help because he was afraid that he might get beat up and was afraid for his own safety. This inmate also testified that it often took the guards a long time to respond to the buzzer and sometimes the guards

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