State v. Young

344 So. 2d 983
Supreme Court of Louisiana·Decided April 11, 1977·No. 58707·Published·Cited by 10 cases

Opinion

344 So.2d 983 (1977)

STATE of Louisiana
v.
Roma YOUNG.

No. 58707.

Supreme Court of Louisiana.

April 11, 1977.

*985 Robert F. DeJean, Sr., Opelousas, for defendant-appellant.

William J. Guste, Jr., Atty. Gen., Barbara Rutledge, Asst. Atty. Gen., William C. Pegues, III, Dist. Atty., for plaintiff-appellee.

DENNIS, Justice.

Defendant, Roma Young, was charged by bill of information with second degree murder, for the fatal shooting of her husband, Clovees Young. La.R.S. 14:30.1. She was convicted by a twelve member jury, and sentenced to life imprisonment at hard labor without benefit of parole, probation or suspension of sentence for a period of twenty years. On appeal defendant relies on five assignments of error for reversal of her conviction and sentence.

ASSIGNMENTS OF ERROR NOS. 1 and 2

Defendant, in these assignments, complains that the trial judge improperly admitted *986 into evidence over timely objection, a written confession executed by the defendant at the Beauregard Parish Sheriff's Office in DeRidder, Louisiana, some two hours after the shooting. Defense counsel had unsuccessfully opposed admission of the statement arguing that defendant had been hysterical at the time it was taken, and had therefore been unable knowingly and intelligently to exercise her constitutional rights; that the written statement was a direct product of prior inculpatory statements elicited by the police at the crime scene at a time when defendant was clearly incapable of understanding and exercising her constitutional rights; and that the interrogating officers had violated defendant's constitutional rights by refusing to allow her to confer with counsel before taking the written statement.

Evidence adduced at trial established that the shooting occurred at the Young's mobile home near Ragley, Louisiana, in Beauregard Parish, shortly before two o'clock on the afternoon of August 10, 1973. Deputy James McCarty, of the Beauregard Parish Sheriff's Office, was the first law enforcement officer to reach the scene. When he arrived he found the defendant kneeling over her mortally wounded husband, in a state of obvious emotional distress. She spontaneously declared:

"Why did I do it—I love him so much— God don't let him die."

After securing the crime scene and tending to the wounded victim, Deputy McCarty questioned Mrs. Young about the shooting. Before doing so, however, he advised her of her constitutional rights. In response to this questioning defendant admitted that she shot her husband when he informed her that he was leaving her. The oral inculpatory statements elicited by Deputy McCarty at the crime scene were not presented to the jury, as the trial judge ruled them inadmissible on the theory that defendant was so emotionally upset at the time, she could not have understood her rights as they were given to her, and therefore had not knowingly and intelligently waived them.[1]

Clovees Young was taken by ambulance to a hospital in Lake Charles, where he died as a result of his wounds. At Deputy McCarty's request, Roma Young was taken to the Sheriff's Office in DeRidder. After again being advised of her rights, and after signing a waiver of rights form, Mrs. Young dictated a type-written statement, admitting that she shot her husband. She read the statement after it was completed, initialed certain corrections, then signed it. This statement was taken between 4:00 and 4:15 p. m., a little more than two hours after the shooting. Defendant was thereafter placed under arrest.

The trial judge ruled that the written inculpatory statement executed by the defendant at the Sheriff's Office in DeRidder was admissible, apparently accepting the testimony of the three law enforcement officers who had been present when it was taken that Mrs. Young appeared reasonably calm, that she indicated her desire to waive her rights after she was informed of them, and that she was neither threatened nor promised anything in exchange for her statement.

Defense counsel first contends that the record shows Mrs. Young, at the time she executed the written confession, was emotionally distraught and hysterical, and therefore unable to give a free and voluntary statement. Our examination of the record, however, reveals abundant evidence upon which the trial judge could rely, supporting his conclusion that defendant had calmed down and was not, at the time the written statement was executed, in such a state of emotional distress as to be unable to waive her constitutional rights. The trial judge's factual determination in this respect is entitled to great weight, and will not be overturned absent clear abuse. State v. Hills, 337 So.2d 1155 (La.1976); State v. Alexander, 328 So.2d 144 (La.1976); State v. White, 321 So.2d 491 (La.1975); *987 State v. Scott, 320 So.2d 538 (La.1975). No abuse or error has been demonstrated by defendant in this instance.

Defense counsel next argues that the written statement should have been excluded because it was a direct product of the earlier oral statements which the trial court had excluded on the ground that the defendant had been emotionally unable to understand and waive her constitutional rights.

As we said in State v. Davis, 336 So.2d 805 (La.1976):

"* * * In securing evidence, the state may not obtain a first statement by violation of constitutional safeguards, and then claim that a second confession secured by reason of the illegal first confession is admissible because (directly as the result of the first illegal admissions) the accused now again freely admits his guilt (since he has already `confessed', albeit the alleged confession is illegal and inadmissible). See Brown v. Illinois, 422 U.S. 590, 95 S.Ct. 2254, 45 L.Ed.2d 416 (1975).
"Nevertheless, if the second confession is truly voluntary and is not a product of the first, it is not inadmissible simply because of any technical deficiency in the Miranda warnings given before the first interrogation. The second confession may nevertheless be admissible, if (granting establishment of the prior technical illegality) it is not obtained by exploitation of the initial illegality, but instead is shown by the state to be sufficiently an act of free will entirely purged of and independent of the primary taint. See Brown v. Illinois at 95 S.Ct. 2259 (1975)." (Emphasis supplied.) 336 So.2d at 807.

Further, we acknowledged in State v. Welch, 337 So.2d 1114 (La.1976), that

"When a defendant urges suppression of an inculpatory statement given subsequent to a prior inculpatory statement that is inadmissible because it is not free and voluntary or because the Miranda directives were not followed in conducting interrogation leading to the initial confession, the proper inquiry is whether the conditions that rendered the earlier confession inadmissible carried over to invalidate the subsequent one. Darwin v. Connecticut, 391 U.S. 346, 88 S.Ct. 1488, 20 L.Ed.2d 630 (1968); Beecher v. Alabama, 389 U.S. 35, 88 S.Ct. 189, 19 L.Ed.2d 35 (1967); Randall v. Estelle, 492 F

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