State v. Wright

537 So. 2d 768, 1989 La. App. LEXIS 40, 1989 WL 4314
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJanuary 18, 1989
DocketNo. 20082-KA
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 537 So. 2d 768 (State v. Wright) 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. Wright, 537 So. 2d 768, 1989 La. App. LEXIS 40, 1989 WL 4314 (La. Ct. App. 1989).

Opinion

HALL, Chief Judge.

Defendant, Johnny B. Wright, was charged by indictment with aggravated rape in violation of LSA-R.S. 14:42 and aggravated burglary in violation of LSA-R.S. 14:60. Defendant was tried and found guilty as charged on both counts. He was sentenced to life imprisonment at hard labor without benefit of parole, probation or suspension of sentence on the aggravated rape charge and to 30 years at hard labor on the aggravated burglary charge, the sentences running consecutively. Defendant appealed contending that (1) the trial court erred when it denied defendant’s motion for judgment of acquittal in accordance with LSA-C.Cr.P. Art. 821; and (2) the evidence, viewed in the light most favorable to the state, was insufficient to convince a reasonable fact finder that defendant was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.1 Finding his contentions meritless, we affirm.

On June 14, 1986, around 1:00 a.m., the victim was awakened when an intruder put his hand over her mouth and held a knife to her throat. Her three children awakened when she struggled and cried out. One of the children turned on a light in their bedroom which partially illuminated the mother’s bedroom. The intruder threatened the victim and demanded that she tell her children to be quiet and to turn out the light. He overpowered her and took her through the children’s bedroom into the living room where he vaginally raped her. He penetrated her with his penis but withdrew prior to ejaculation. He ejaculated onto a pillowslip that the victim had on the loveseat in the living room. He took the pillowslip with him when he left the house.

Defendant’s assignments of error concern the sufficiency of the evidence. He relies on his own testimony and that of an alibi witness that he was elsewhere at the time the victim was attacked. He argues that the victim identified him because of her close friendship with one of the state’s witnesses, Georgia Lee, who held a grudge against the defendant. He further argues that the children’s identification of him as the attacker is unreliable and that the medical and scientific evidence was insufficient to establish penetration or that he was the person who assaulted the victim.

LSA-C.Cr.P. Art. 821 tracts Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979) in setting up a Louisiana standard pertaining to post-verdict motions for acquittal based upon insufficiency of the evidence. In order to satisfy due process standards, the record evidence, viewed in the light most favorable to the prosecution, must be sufficient for a rational fact finder to conclude that the essential elements of the crime were proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Jackson v. Virginia, supra.

LSA-R.S. 14:41 provides in part:

A. Rape is the act of anal or vaginal sexual intercourse with a male or female person who is not the spouse of the offender, committed without the person’s lawful consent.
B. Emission is not necessary and any sexual penetration, vaginal or anal, however slight is sufficient to complete the crime....

LSA-R.S. 14:42 provides in part:

A. Aggravated rape is a rape committed where the anal or vaginal sexual intercourse is deemed to be without lawful consent of the victim because it is committed under any one or more of the following circumstances:
[770]*770(1) When the victim resists the act to the utmost, but whose resistance is overcome by force.
(2) When the victim is prevented from resisting the act by threats of great and immediate bodily harm, accompanied by apparent power of execution.
(3) When the victim is prevented from resisting the act because the offender is armed with a dangerous weapon....

LSA-R.S. 14:60 provides in part:

Aggravated burglary is the unauthorized entering of any inhabited dwelling, or of any structure, water craft, or movable where a person is present, with the intent to commit a felony or any theft therein, if the offender,
(1) Is armed with a dangerous weapon; or
(2) After entering arms himself with a dangerous weapon; or
(3) Commits a battery upon any person while in such place, or in entering or leaving such place....

The victim testified that on June 14,1986 she resided at 2935 Willie Mays Street in Caddo Parish. She went to bed between 11:30 and 12:00 p.m. At approximately 1:00 a.m. she was awakened by someone with his hand across her mouth, and she felt something cold on her throat. The assailant told her not to say anything or he would kill heir. She struggled and yelled for her son. One of the children turned the light on in their bedroom, and it illuminated her bedroom. Her son ran into her bedroom. The assailant demanded that she tell the children to turn off the light and to be quiet, which she did. He pulled her from the bed with a knife at her throat and went through the children’s bedroom into the living room. The man constantly cursed at the children, and he said he was going to kill them. He forced the victim to the floor and penetrated her with his penis. The assailant did not ejaculate inside of her but ejaculated onto a pillowslip which was on the arm of a chair in the living room. He took the pillowslip with him when he left. The victim was wearing a black slip that she washed the day before. She looked at the clock when everything was over, and it was between 1:20 and 1:25 a.m. She took her children to a neighbor's house where she called the police.

The victim identified defendant as her assailant. There was enough light from the children's bedroom for her to determine who her attacker was. He was wearing a black t-shirt with designs on it. She noticed defendant pass her house several times on the day prior to the attack. Georgia Lee, a friend of the victim, told her that the man was Johnny B. Wright. She later noticed defendant lying on the street. She thought defendant was hurt but he walked away. She did not speak to defendant. The victim did not know defendant prior to the attack, and she did not give him permission to enter her house.

Defendant’s son, who was 13 years old at the time of the attack, stated that on the night of the attack he was awakened by his sisters. He went to the door of his mother’s bedroom and recognized the defendant on top of his mother. He knew defendant because he had seen him around the neighborhood previously.

One of the victim’s daughters, who was 12 years old at the time of the attack, also identified defendant as her mother’s assailant. Her mother’s crying awakened her. She turned on the light and saw the defendant with a knife and screwdriver at her mother’s neck. The defendant was wearing a black shirt and blue jeans.

The victim’s other daughter, who was eight years old at the time of the attack, stated that on the night of the attack her mother’s crying awakened her. She saw a man wearing a black shirt with red on it. The man brought her mother through her bedroom and raped her on the couch. She initially picked defendant out of a photographic lineup but was not positive.

Georgia Ann Lee testified that on the day before the victim was attacked she saw defendant near the victim’s residence wearing a black t-shirt with a glitter design on it.

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Related

State ex rel. Wright v. State
188 So. 3d 1019 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 2016)
State ex rel. Wright v. Whitley
592 So. 2d 1313 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1992)
State ex rel. Wright v. Smith
551 So. 2d 1332 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1989)
State v. Wright
541 So. 2d 891 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1989)

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Bluebook (online)
537 So. 2d 768, 1989 La. App. LEXIS 40, 1989 WL 4314, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-wright-lactapp-1989.