State v. Wilson

613 So. 2d 234, 1992 WL 410062
Louisiana Court of Appeal·Decided December 23, 1992·No. 91 KA 2080·Published·Cited by 8 cases

Opinion

613 So.2d 234 (1992)

STATE of Louisiana
v.
Marcus Todd WILSON.

No. 91 KA 2080.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, First Circuit.

December 23, 1992.
Rehearing Denied January 28, 1993.

*235 Charles Genco, Asst. Dist. Atty., Office of Dist. Atty., Livingston, for appellee.

Lewis Unglesby, Baton Rouge, for appellant.

Before CARTER and LeBLANC, JJ., and CHIASSON,[1] J. Pro Tem.

CARTER, Judge.

Marcus Todd Wilson was indicted with manslaughter, a violation of LSA-R.S. 14:31. He pled not guilty, waived trial by jury, and was found guilty as charged. The trial court sentenced him to serve a term of ten years imprisonment at hard labor, with all but one year in the parish *236 prison suspended. The court ordered that, upon his release, defendant would be placed on five years supervised probation with the following special conditions: (1) perform 250 hours of community service; (2) pay $2500 fine and court costs; (3) pay restitution for funeral and burial expenses, if requested; and (4) pay $20 monthly supervision fee.[2] Defendant has appealed, urging three assignments of error.

FACTS

On June 25, 1989, defendant and several other young men (Damien Miley, Melvin Ray "BoBo" Gentiles, Anthony Tridico, III, and Lynn Zachary) were playing pool at T & T Lounge in French Settlement. The young men were staying at Miley's grandfather's camp, which was located about a mile away, and celebrating a bachelor party for Corbin Thacker who was to be married soon. Other men had been left at the camp while these men played pool at T & T.

At about 10:00 p.m., Richard Rainey and Michael Brown arrived at T & T. Prior to this evening, Rainey and Brown did not know the young men who were attending the bachelor party. Sharon Avants, a lounge employee, testified that Rainey and Brown were "angry—mean." Rainey's wife had left him that weekend, and he had consumed about seven beers before arriving at T & T. At some point, Rainey told Avants he was upset and wanted to get into a fight with someone. Avants discouraged Rainey from taking his frustrations out on innocent people, but Rainey responded that he did not have anything to worry about because he could shoot someone because of who his relatives were. While defendant and his friends were playing pool, Rainey remarked, "Don't let them hit me in the back of the head with a pool cue." At the trial, Rainey admitted he had no reason to suspect the men were going to hit him. Eventually, Avants asked Rainey and Brown to leave the bar. While they were in the parking lot, they apparently harassed defendant. When defendant told Avants about the harassment, she made Rainey and Brown leave the premises. She also warned defendant and his friends to be careful because Rainey and Brown "were packing guns."[3] Defendant told her not to worry because he also had a gun, which he showed to her.

Upon leaving the bar, Rainey and Brown parked their car at a vacant store across the highway, intending to follow defendant and his friends. Rainey admitted that defendant and his friends had been minding their own business playing pool and had not bothered him. He offered no real explanation for his decision to follow the men. After about five or six minutes, defendant's group left T & T Lounge, and Rainey and Brown followed them to the camp. Rainey testified that he and Brown had every intention of getting into a fight with the men at the camp. Fearing they would be outnumbered, Rainey and Brown drove back to the highway, where Rainey yelled at the camp. Rainey testified that he yelled, "[Y]ou got guns, you better get your guns." Rainey then heard two to three gunshots. He testified that he thought it was fireworks. However, Brown tried to convince Rainey it was gunshots.

While Rainey and Brown were hollering to the men at the camp, Tridico and Zachary each had fired a warning shot from the camp. They explained they were afraid and wanted to scare off Rainey and Brown. At one point, defendant and "BoBo" Gentiles asked Marion Guitreaux, who lived nearby, to call the police. Guitreaux testified that she called the police and that she also fired warning shots to warn the people who were threatening defendant and his group. When the police did not arrive, defendant, Zachary, and Tridico went to see *237 if anyone was around and to find the police, leaving Gentiles, Miley, and Thacker at the camp.

After having yelled threats at the camp, including the threat to return with more people, Rainey and Brown left the camp area and went to Nolan's Hangout. Rainey explained that he wanted to get help to even out the odds. At Nolan's Hangout, he recruited Hubie Leader, Scott Fontenot, and Rodney Wallace. He told the men he was going to have a fight and he wanted their help if necessary. Leaving in two vehicles, the men went to the camp.

After Rainey and his group arrived at the camp, defendant, Zachary, and Tridico drove up. The three men had been unsuccessful in locating the police, and they returned to the camp because of their concerns for the men left behind, two of whom were asleep. Before defendant, Zachary, and Tridico were able to get out of their truck, Rainey and his group exited their vehicles with their shirts off and walked toward the truck. Fontenot testified that he was concerned about the activities of his friends. He heard Rainey hollering, but he did not recall what Rainey said. Rainey denied making any threats at this point. However, defendant, Tridico, and Zachary testified that someone in Rainey's group said something to the effect of "get your guns, we got ours." Defendant, Tridico, and Zachary got out of the truck on the passenger side to avoid Rainey. Defendant quickly secured a .44 magnum pistol which was in the back of the truck and told the men to "stop."

Wallace testified that, when he saw the gun, he started backing off. However, Rainey apparently did not see the gun. He kept going toward defendant, and, as soon as he got close to defendant, defendant fired at him, wounding him in the neck. Although Rainey had been hit, he continued to come toward defendant and his group. Tridico and Zachary struck Rainey, not realizing he had been shot. Zachary described the situation as being "chaos" and "pandemonium." After the initial shot, Fontenot told Leader, "[L]et's go." The two men ran toward Leader's car. As they were running, Fontenot heard another shot. When he got into the vehicle, he told Leader to leave, but Leader said something was wrong with his arm. When Fontenot went to look at Leader's arm, he saw defendant coming toward the car with the gun. The exact distance defendant ran to reach the victim's car is not clear from the record. Fontenot and Wallace both testified for the state. Fontenot described the distance as being fifteen to twenty yards; Wallace testified that the distance was approximately thirty feet. As Fontenot ducked underneath the dash and Leader slumped over, defendant fired another shot into the car, striking Leader in the head. Tridico testified that before defendant fired the shot into the car, he had a "really scared look on his face, his eyes got big and he shot again." Defendant then yelled, "[C]ome on mother fucker's, what ya'll gonna do now?" After the three shots, defendant ordered Fontenot out of the vehicle. When he realized Fontenot was not armed, he told Fontenot to help Rainey. According to one witness, defendant was "[r]eal shook up." He repeatedly told people to call the police and get an ambulance. He also wanted to call his parents. In tears, defendant ad

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State v. Wilson, 613 So. 2d 234, 1992 WL 410062 (La. Ct. App. 1992).

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