State v. Young

551 So. 2d 695, 1989 WL 119598
Louisiana Court of Appeal·Decided October 11, 1989·No. KA 88 1528·Published·Cited by 7 cases

Opinion

551 So.2d 695 (1989)

STATE of Louisiana
v.
Robert T. YOUNG, Jr.

No. KA 88 1528.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, First Circuit.

October 11, 1989.

*696 Lewis V. Murray, III, Asst. Dist. Atty., Franklinton, William R. Campbell, Jr., New Orleans, for plaintiff-appellee.

Darrell Cvitanovich, J.J. McKernan, Baton Rouge, Sam J. Collett, Jr., Bogalusa, for defendant-appellant.

*697 Before CARTER, SAVOIE and ALFORD, JJ.

SAVOIE, Judge.

Robert T. Young was indicted by the Washington Parish grand jury for first degree murder, a violation of La.R.S. 14:30. He was tried by a jury, which convicted him of the responsive offense of second degree murder. The trial court imposed the mandatory term of life imprisonment, without benefit of probation, parole, or suspension of sentence. Defendant appealed, urging seven assignments of error, as follows:

1. The trial court erred by denying his motion to quash the jury venire on the grounds that the state exercised racially discriminatory peremptory challenges.

2. The trial court erred by finding defendant's custodial statement was freely and voluntarily given.

3. The trial court erred by restricting defense cross-examination of Officer Mike Edwards.

4. The trial court erred by finding defendant's statement was freely and voluntarily given.

5. The trial court erred by restricting defense cross-examination of Michael Johnson.

6. The trial court erred by refusing to give a special jury instruction.

7. The trial court erred by failing to grant a mistrial on the grounds that the prosecutor referred to defendant's failure to call a rebuttal witness; that the prosecutor expressed his personal opinion of the evidence; and that the prosecutor misrepresented the law of double jeopardy.

Assignments of error two, three, four, five and six were not briefed on appeal and, therefore, are considered abandoned. Uniform Rules, Courts of Appeal, Rule 2-12.4. Additionally, with regard to assignment of error number seven, defendant briefed only his claim that the court erred by failing to grant a mistrial on the grounds that the prosecutor misrepresented the law of double jeopardy. Accordingly, defendant's other allegations are considered abandoned.

FACTS

Defendant and his two co-participants, Michael "Dirty" Johnson and Gregory "Burnt" Cotton, were charged with the murder of William Provost, the night attendant at Osborne's Service Station in Bogalusa, Louisiana.[1] The victim was killed in the course of an armed robbery. A patron sought help after she found the station unattended in the early morning hours of December 19, 1985. The victim's hat was discovered in a pool of blood in the driveway of the station. His body was found the following day, several miles from the station. He had been brutally beaten and his skull crushed with a claw hammer. The station's receipts, approximately three hundred dollars, had been taken from his person.

Each of the participants gave statements to the police. Defendant claimed that he accompanied Cotton and Johnson to the service station on the night of the murder. After purchasing a small amount of gasoline, the trio noted that the victim made change from a large wad of bills from his pocket. Defendant related that the three men had been using cocaine earlier that evening, and Cotton and Johnson decided to rob the attendant in order to obtain money to buy more cocaine. Defendant claimed that Cotton first suggested that it would be necessary to murder the attendant because of a distinctive burn scar that marred his face. Defendant further claimed that he refused to participate in the offense because he knew the attendant and his family traded at the station; however, he agreed *698 to bring the others to his source after the robbery to obtain more cocaine. He told investigating officers that Cotton and Johnson dropped him off at his apartment above his family's store. When they returned, they told him that they had tricked the victim into leaning into the car, hit him in the head with a hammer, kidnapped him, and had taken him to a river where he was killed and the money taken. Defendant claimed that his participation was limited to helping the others clean Cotton's truck, providing clean clothing for them to wear, and finding cocaine for the group's consumption.

The first trial was begun on June 23, 1986. The court granted a mistrial when a state witness referred to another crime alleged to have been committed by the accused. The second trial began on October 29, 1986. During that proceeding, Michael Anthony Johnson testified that defendant killed the victim because he was concerned that the attendant recognized him from his patronage of the station. Defendant testified on his own behalf, essentially repeating the sequence of events he had related in his taped statement. He also produced an alibi witness, who claimed that he saw Cotton and Johnson leave defendant at his apartment on the night of the murder and that defendant did not leave again for several hours. The jury convicted defendant of second degree murder.

DISCRIMINATORY CHALLENGES

By assignment of error number one, defendant submits that the trial court erred by denying his motion to quash the jury venire on the ground that the state exercised its peremptory challenges in a racially discriminatory manner by excusing black prospective jurors from the panel. Citing Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 90 L.Ed.2d 69 (1986), defendant claims the court erred in concluding that he had failed to establish a prima facie case of discriminatory challenges.

In Batson v. Kentucky, the United States Supreme Court reexamined the evidentiary burden placed on a criminal defendant who claims that he has been denied equal protection through the state's exercise of peremptory challenges against members of his race. To establish a prima facie case under Batson, the defendant must show that he is a member of a cognizable racial group and that the state has exercised peremptory challenges to remove members of his race from the petit jury. Additionally, under Batson, the defendant "must show that these facts and any other relevant circumstances raise an inference that the prosecutor used that practice to exclude the veniremen from the petit jury on account of thier race." Once the defendant makes this showing, the burden shifts to the state to come forward with a neutral explanation for challenging those jurors; however, the prosecutor's explanation need not rise to a level justifying exercise of a challenge for cause. Batson, 106 S.Ct. at 1723. The ultimate burden of persuasion is on the defendant.

Defendant is black and his victim was white. Although the race of each prospective juror was not designated for the record, it appears that defendant may have been tried before an all white jury. Defendant also introduced the voir dire proceedings of the first trial to support his claim that the state showed a pattern of discriminatory selection.

During the first trial, defendant objected to the state's use of peremptory challenges against black potential jurors. After the jury was selected, he made a continuing objection for the record and moved the court to require the state to provide an explanation for the challenges. The court refused to do so, noting that the composition of the jury, which included six black jurors and a black alternate juror, illustrated that the state's challen

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

State v. Young, 551 So. 2d 695, 1989 WL 119598 (La. Ct. App. 1989).

551 So. 2d 695 (State v. Young) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

State v. Henderson
135 So. 3d 36 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2013)
State v. Magee
916 So. 2d 191 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2005)
State v. Young
613 So. 2d 631 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1992)
State v. Hamilton
594 So. 2d 1376 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1992)
State v. Tucker
591 So. 2d 1208 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1991)
State v. Johnson
561 So. 2d 922 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1990)