State v. Wisinger

618 So. 2d 923, 1993 WL 146157
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedApril 23, 1993
Docket92 KA 0763
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 618 So. 2d 923 (State v. Wisinger) 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. Wisinger, 618 So. 2d 923, 1993 WL 146157 (La. Ct. App. 1993).

Opinion

618 So.2d 923 (1993)

STATE of Louisiana
v.
Don Terry WISINGER.

No. 92 KA 0763.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, First Circuit.

April 23, 1993.
Rehearing Denied June 16, 1993.

*925 Jason Lyons, Asst. Dist. Atty., Houma, for plaintiff and appellee—State of La.

Michael L. Thiel, Hammond, for defendant and appellant—Don Terry Wisinger.

Before CARTER, LeBLANC and PITCHER, JJ.

CARTER, Judge.

Don Terry Wisinger was indicted with first degree murder, a violation of LSA-R.S. 14:30. He pled not guilty and, after trial by jury, was convicted as charged. The jury recommended that a penalty of life imprisonment be imposed. The trial court sentenced defendant to serve a term of life imprisonment at hard labor, without benefit of parole, probation, or suspension of sentence. Defendant has appealed, urging sixteen assignments of error. Assignments of error numbers 1-5, 8, 9, 11, and 13 expressly have been abandoned by defendant.

FACTS

On April 23, 1990, defendant shot and killed his next door neighbor, Mark Portier. The victim's wife testified that, at 3:23 a.m., the doorbell rang. Because of the time, she and her husband assumed there was an emergency. One of their neighbors recently had heart surgery, and the neighbor's family knew Mr. Portier was an emergency care provider. After Mr. and Mrs. Portier reached their carport door, Mrs. Portier asked who was there. When she got no reply, she unlocked the deadbolt. Her husband then opened the door and unlocked and opened the glass storm door. He then extended his hand, as if for a handshake, and said, "Hey, Don, what's wrong? What do you need?" Mrs. Portier saw her next door neighbor's face (defendant) and observed that he looked at both her and her husband. Because she was not dressed, she stood behind the door. She then noticed that the tone of her husband's voice changed as he took a step back and said, "Don, what are you doing?" Defendant then fired one shot, striking Mr. Portier just beneath his breastbone. The coroner estimated that the shot was fired from a fairly close range, about two to three feet away.

*926 After the shot, Mr. Portier fell into the house; and Mrs. Portier slammed the door and locked the deadbolt. Before she was able to assist her husband, defendant fired at the same door, striking the deadbolt lock. Mr. Portier then told his wife to get their gun. Mrs. Portier tried to drag her husband away from the door, but she was unable to do so. She grabbed her cordless telephone and immediately contacted law enforcement authorities. While on the phone with the sheriff's office, she got her children out of their rooms and secured them in her bedroom. She continued to hear defendant trying to get into the house, at both the carport door and the front door. Defendant then fired a third shot at the front door.

Before defendant was able to enter the Portier's home, Terrebonne Parish Sheriff's deputies arrived. The first deputy on the scene observed defendant at the front door. Defendant walked to the carport door and pulled on the door with one hand while holding the gun in his other hand. When the deputies identified themselves and ordered defendant to put down the gun, defendant cooperated and placed the gun, a semi-automatic .45 caliber pistol, on the windowsill of the Portier's carport window. The deputies arrested defendant at the scene and brought him to the courthouse for booking. Mr. Portier died at the scene from a loss of blood.

Deputies found evidence that at least three shots were fired at the Portier's residence. An expert qualified in firearms identification concluded that the damage to the deadbolt locks was consistent with bullet holes. The deputies also found a live round (unused bullet) outside defendant's residence, a spent casing inside his residence, and a bullet hole on an interior wall in defendant's residence.

Defendant's wife testified as a defense witness. Recapping her husband's activities on the day before the offense, she recalled that she, her husband, and their son went to the video store and to the supermarket. At the supermarket, defendant purchased a liter of Jack Daniel's whiskey. At about 8 p.m., the family watched a video, and after her son went to bed at about 10 p.m., she and her husband watched another video, during which, she saw her husband have two drinks of whiskey. After watching a few minutes of the third video (a gangster movie), defendant's wife went to bed, leaving defendant to watch the movie alone. At about 2 a.m., defendant's wife was awakened when she heard defendant playing the stereo. When she questioned him about the music, he turned the volume down and indicated he would go to sleep when the tape was over. Defendant's wife went back to sleep and was awakened by a deputy at about 4 a.m.

Defendant's wife indicated that, beginning in 1988, her husband began seeing Dr. Herman Walker about depression and anxiety. Defendant faithfully took the anti-depressant and anti-anxiety medications prescribed by Dr. Walker. Defendant had just seen Dr. Walker three days prior to the incident involved herein.

ADMISSION OF OTHER CRIMES EVIDENCE

In three related assignments of error (numbers six, seven, and fifteen), defendant contests the admission of evidence concerning a prowler which the victim's wife observed in her yard on several occasions since 1981. In the sixth assignment, defendant argues that the court erred in allowing the evidence to be admitted. In the seventh assignment, defendant contends that the court erred in denying a motion to exclude the evidence. In the fifteenth assignment, defendant maintains that the court erred by failing to instruct the jury as to the limited purpose for which the other crimes evidence was admitted.

Mrs. Portier testified that on various nights since 1981, and up until her husband's death, she had observed a prowler while standing at her kitchen window. On at least two of the occasions (in early 1990 and again about a week before her husband's death), she was able to recognize defendant as being the prowler, but she did not report these incidents to law enforcement authorities. Initially, defendant did not object to this testimony. However, after *927 the bulk of this other crimes evidence had been admitted through Mrs. Portier's testimony, defense counsel objected that the evidence was irrelevant because the time frame had not been established. The court overruled the objection, but ordered the state to establish specific dates for the other crimes.

Generally, evidence of criminal offenses other than the offense being tried is inadmissible as substantive evidence because of the substantial risk of grave prejudice to the defendant. State v. McDermitt, 406 So.2d 195, 200 (La.1981). However, article 404(B)(1) of the Louisiana Code of Evidence provides the following exceptions to this general rule of inadmissibility:

Except as provided in Article 412, evidence of other crimes, wrongs, or acts is not admissible to prove the character of a person in order to show that he acted in conformity therewith. It may, however, be admissible for other purposes, such as proof of motive, opportunity, intent, preparation, plan, knowledge, identity, absence of mistake or accident, or when it relates to conduct that constitutes an integral part of the act or transaction that is the subject of the present proceeding.

The second sentence of this article refers to other crimes evidence which previously was admissible under LSA-R.S. 15:445-446 (Prieur evidence) and LSA-R.S. 15:447-448 (res gestae). See LSA-C.E. art.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

State Of Louisiana v. Melanie Barnett Curtin
Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2023
State Of Louisiana v. Chaddrick Piper
Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2019
State v. Guillory
206 So. 3d 1153 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2016)
State of Louisiana v. Jonathan Jerome Guillory
Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2016
State v. Dilosa
849 So. 2d 657 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2003)
State v. Shanks
715 So. 2d 157 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1998)
State v. Lutcher
700 So. 2d 961 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1997)
State v. Whins
692 So. 2d 1350 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1997)
State v. Carter
684 So. 2d 432 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1996)
State v. Ellis
677 So. 2d 617 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1996)
State v. Huls
676 So. 2d 160 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1996)
State v. McCutcheon
633 So. 2d 1338 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1994)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
618 So. 2d 923, 1993 WL 146157, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-wisinger-lactapp-1993.