State v. Yates

350 So. 2d 1169
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedOctober 10, 1977
Docket59350
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 350 So. 2d 1169 (State v. Yates) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Yates, 350 So. 2d 1169 (La. 1977).

Opinion

350 So.2d 1169 (1977)

STATE of Louisiana
v.
Robert Earl YATES.

No. 59350.

Supreme Court of Louisiana.

October 10, 1977.

*1170 John A. Files, Shreveport, for defendant-appellant.

William J. Guste, Jr., Atty. Gen., Barbara Rutledge, Asst. Atty. Gen., John A. Richardson, Dist. Atty., William L. Goode, Asst. Dist. Atty., for plaintiff-appellee.

SUMMERS, Justice.

On June 8, 1976 the grand jury of Caddo Parish indicted Robert Earl Yates for the crime of aggravated rape. La.Rev.Stat. 14:42. The charge was later amended to attempted aggravated rape. A jury of twelve unanimously found Yates guilty as charged, and he was sentenced to serve twenty years at hard labor. On this appeal he assigns thirteen errors for reversal of his conviction and sentence.

Assignment 1

Voir dire examination of the prospective jurors began at approximately eleven o'clock on the first day of trial and continued until noon. Court was then recessed for lunch until two o'clock. When Court reconvened after lunch, before the jury returned, defense counsel moved for a mistrial. He asserted that defendant wore prison clothes during the voir dire examination and these clothes were visible to all members of the jury. Relying upon the decision in Hernandez v. Beto, 443 F.2d 634 (5th Cir. 1971), cert. denied, 404 U.S. 897, 92 S.Ct. 201, 30 L.Ed.2d 174 (1971), counsel urged that defendant's appearance in prison garb was a violation of due process which destroyed the presumption of innocence to which defendant was entitled.

It was then pointed out by the prosecutor that during the voir dire examination that morning no objection was made that defendant was attired in prison garb. It was also noted that no recess was requested to change into civilian garb, and that defendant had, since the noon recess, changed into civilian clothes, precluding any subsequent cause for complaint.

In addition, photographs taken on a previous occasion were introduced depicting defendant in the same clothes worn by him during the morning court session. These photographs disclosed that there were no markings on his clothes which appeared to be an ordinary denim shirt and trousers not unlike the civilian clothes he then wore.

Notwithstanding this showing, defense counsel persisted, claiming that during the voir dire examination defendant's shoes were stamped with the large letters: "C.C. I.", identifying them as prison issue. Although he had not noticed these markings on defendant's shoes, the shoes having been changed during the noon recess, the trial judge was of the opinion that it would have been extremely difficult for any jurymen to see the markings. Defendant was in the dock, or seated virtually the whole time, and the jury was not in a position to see his shoes.

*1171 It was also noted by the trial judge that as a matter of policy the sheriff and officers at the prison allow defendants to appear at trial in the attire of their choice. Furthermore, the jail uniform was orange in contrast to the blue denim clothes worn by defendant.

In Hernandez v. Beto, 443 F.2d 634 (5th Cir. 1971), cert. denied, 404 U.S. 897, 92 S.Ct. 201, 30 L.Ed.2d 174 (1971), no issue was raised concerning the nature of the defendant's attire at the trial. He was tried in his prison garb, described as a white T-shirt with "Harris County Jail" stamped on the front and dungarees with the same inscription on front and back.

In the instant case the record preponderates to the effect that defendant's clothes were not recognizable by the judge or jury as prison garb. The cases are therefore distinguishable on the facts. The trial judge properly denied defendant's motion for a mistrial based upon this Court's decision in State v. Thomas, 325 So.2d 593 (La. 1976), where in a similar situation the Court recognized that an accused may insist that he be brought into court with the appearance, dignity and self-respect of a free and innocent man. However, one asserting the deprivation of such right must establish a deprivation by clear and convincing evidence. State v. Kinchen, 290 So.2d 860 (La.1974) and State v. Tennant, 262 La. 941, 265 So.2d 230 (1972). That burden has not been discharged here.

This assignment is without merit.

Assignment 2

Testimony at the trial disclosed that defendant joined the victim and her boy friend, Tommy Coker, in the early morning hours of September 6, 1975 at the Cotton Bowl Market in Shreveport. They set out together in Coker's car to a bar to buy beer. Finding the bar closed, defendant asked them for a ride home and directed Coker into the driveway of a deserted house in a sparsely settled residential neighborhood.

When Coker stopped the car, defendant reached across the victim, who was seated in the front seat between them, and struck Coker in the eye, thereafter pulling the victim from the car. A fight then ensued in which defendant overcame Coker and forced him away. Defendant then dragged the victim into a nearby wooded area and there forcefully attempted to rape her.

In the meantime Coker had summoned the police, and the first police car to arrive spotted defendant leading the victim down the road. As the patrol car approached, defendant fled. He was apprehended in Georgia nine months later.

After defendant was apprehended in Georgia, where he was first notified of his Miranda rights, he was returned to Shreveport, where he was again advised of his rights and interrogated by Detective Bill Strange on May 7, 1976. He gave a voluntary statement which was recorded and later transcribed and signed by him. In that statement he outlined his version of the meeting and an attempt by Coker and the victim to rob him. He said he paid Coker two dollars for a ride home, but Coker drove him to the driveway of the deserted house and, with the victim's help, attempted to rob him. According to the defendant he fought them in self-defense and fled. The interrogation continued:

"DET.: Ok. Ah, ROBERT, you ah stated these people attempted to rob you ah can you tell me why you didn't report this to the police?
ROBERT: Don't do me no good to report nothing to the police.
DET.: You want to explain that, ROBERT?
ROBERT: Well, it just don't do me no good. I got a pretty bad record down here and they don't believe nothing I say.
DET.: Ok. Where did you ah after you had gone home, how long did you stay in the city?
ROBERT: Up until I found out the police was looking for me for rape charge on the night that I tried to get robbed.
DET.: What did you do then?
ROBERT: Well that's when I hauled out.
*1172 DET.: Ok. Where did you go, ROBERT?
ROBERT: Well I went back to ah GEORGIA. I always, everytime they start looking for me I take off.
DET.: Ok and you were arrested in GEORGIA?
ROBERT: Right.

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350 So. 2d 1169, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-yates-la-1977.