State v. Williams

974 So. 2d 157, 2008 WL 80686
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJanuary 9, 2008
Docket42,914-KA
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 974 So. 2d 157 (State v. Williams) 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. Williams, 974 So. 2d 157, 2008 WL 80686 (La. Ct. App. 2008).

Opinion

974 So.2d 157 (2008)

STATE of Louisiana, Appellee,
v.
Jerry L. WILLIAMS, Appellant.

No. 42,914-KA.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Second Circuit.

January 9, 2008.

Louisiana Appellate Project by Edward K. Bauman, for Appellant.

Paul J. Carmouche, District Attorney, William Jacob Edwards, Tommy J. Johnson, Assistant District Attorneys, for Appellee.

Before BROWN, PEATROSS & MOORE, JJ.

*159 PEATROSS, J.

Defendant, Jerry L. Williams, appeals from his convictions for second degree murder and" attempted second degree murder. On appeal, Defendant does not contest the sufficiency of the evidence to convict him; he raises issues concerning the admissibility into evidence of certain expert testimony and of the murder weapon. For the reasons set forth below, we affirm the convictions and sentences of Defendant.

FACTS

Ms. Sara Mims Payton lives in Shreveport in a home near the corner of Looney Street and Pierre Avenue. Ms. Payton's 24-year-old son, Alonzo Mims, also resided at Ms. Payton's house. On October 13, 2005, Ms. Payton and her son decided to go to a nearby grocery store. The two walked across the vacant wooded lot between her house and the store. After making their purchases, Ms. Payton and Alonzo started to walk back across the same vacant lot towards her home.

As they walked, they met Defendant, who was sitting on bricks in the vacant lot. Ms. Payton recognized Defendant because she had known Defendant and his family since before Alonzo was born. Defendant and his younger brother, Jason Williams, had been occasional visitors at Ms. Payton's home, and Defendant had been to Ms. Payton's house the night before when he retrieved a jacket that he had left there.

Ms. Payton spoke to Defendant, who spoke back to her. Defendant then began speaking with Alonzo. Ms. Payton kept walking toward her house while Alonzo spoke to Defendant. Ms. Payton then noticed another man she described as "squatting" behind a tree across from Defendant. Ms. Payton looked back toward her son, and, because he had the keys, she asked him to let her into the house. At trial, Ms. Payton testified:

He [Alonzo] turned toward me to answer me. When he turned towards me to answer me, that's when I seen Jerry go in his pants right here, pull the gun out, put it to the side of my baby head and shot (sic) him. I said, "Oh, my God, he done shot my damn baby." So I broke out and I start running.

Ms. Payton further testified that Defendant chased her until she fell to the ground near her house. Defendant then shot her in the upper shoulder as she lay on the ground. The bullet passed through her shoulder and neck into her mouth, and she spit the spent bullet out of her mouth onto the ground. Defendant and the other man left the scene. Paramedics arrived and transported Ms. Payton and Alonzo to the hospital. Alonzo later died as the result of the gunshot wound to his head. A bullet fragment was later recovered from his head.

At the hospital, Ms. Payton could not remember Defendant's name, but she told police that the shooter was one of two brothers who lived on Ziegler Street in Shreveport (a street that is only one block long) and who had "cat eyes." In a photo lineup, Ms. Payton later positively identified Defendant as the shooter. Further, on the morning of the shooting prior to the event, a local pastor had spotted Defendant riding his bicycle and carrying a black handgun near the scene of the crime. Defendant was arrested for the shootings.

Shreveport police officers twice combed the crime scene, which was littered with trash and leaves, and recovered two fired cartridge cases and a spent bullet. One of the spent cartridge cases and the spent bullet were recovered from the area where Ms. Payton was shot. The other spent cartridge case was found near where *160 Alonzo was shot. No weapon was recovered from the scene.

On November 22, 2005, Shreveport police officers were present at the home of Mr. Ervin Armstrong, an acquaintance of Defendant. The police were investigating Mr. Armstrong on an apparently unrelated matter and arrested Mr. Armstrong at his home. The lead detective in the case against Mr. Armstrong was not available to testify because he is serving in the military in Iraq, but several detectives who assisted in that investigation did testify. The details of the offense involving Mr. Armstrong, however, were not disclosed to the jury. After receiving consent to search the residence, police seized a HiPoint .380 ACP handgun from Mr. Armstrong's home.

Police sent the spent cartridge cases, the spent bullet and the firearm to the North Louisiana Crime Lab. At the lab, firearms section supervisor Richard Beighley examined the evidence. Mr. Beighley, who has a college degree in biology, has, worked in the crime lab as the lab's firearms examiner since 1988. He is a member of several professional organizations, including the Louisiana and International Associations for Identification, the Association of Firearm and Tool Mark Examiners and the Southern Association of Forensic Science. Mr. Beighley had testified as an expert witness in his field more than 300 times in parishes all over Louisiana and in Federal court.

Mr. Beighley testified about the procedures he used to examine evidence, particularly the process he used to determine whether the submitted spent cartridges and the bullet were shot from the firearm recovered in Mr. Armstrong's house. Defense counsel questioned him in detail and in particular about the lack of a potential error rate:

Q (Defense counsel): Whenever you measure anything in science like the distance from the Earth to the Moon, you have a plus and minus error rate and you can measure it with a certain accuracy depending upon your equipment. . . . . In this firearms identification, do they have any type of an established accuracy or error rate that can be given with the conclusion?
A (Witness): As far as — I'm not familiar with any type of error rate as far as percentage or I'd say the chance of error in this particular case I feel would be zero.
Q: You're talking about this particular case you come here to testify?
A: Yes.
Q: But what I'm asking you about is in this field, is there a standardized word or term that refers to errors in the field?
A: No, there is not that I'm aware of.
Q: . . . . To the best of your memory, do you ever recall any of the journal articles that talked about errors in the field or error rates or anything like that?
A: Not that I'm familiar with, no.

On redirect examination by the prosecutor, Beighley explained further:

Q: And about the questions regarding error rates, is there a difference in the analysis that you do as to firearm analysis and there be (sic) something along the lines of, let's say, under DNA analysis where you have statistics which come (sic) a part of DNA analysis?
A: My analysis is mainly a visual analysis under the microscope. My results are based on my experience and my opinion. As far as percentages, they're trying to attempt to assign percentages to striations, but in particular at this time there is no sound scientific method that I'm aware of about assigning percentages to striation.

*161 The court accepted Mr. Beighley as an expert witness over the objection of Defendant.

Mr. Beighley determined by visual inspection that both cartridge cases had been fired from the same gun.

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Related

State v. Magee
243 So. 3d 151 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2018)
State ex rel. Williams v. State
222 So. 3d 712 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 2017)
State v. Lee
217 So. 3d 1266 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2017)
State v. Williams
124 So. 3d 1236 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2013)
State v. Lindsey
69 So. 3d 566 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2011)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
974 So. 2d 157, 2008 WL 80686, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-williams-lactapp-2008.