State v. Aguliar-Benitez
Decision Date | 10 December 2018 |
Docket Number | NO. 17-KA-361,17-KA-361 |
Citation | 260 So.3d 1247 |
Parties | STATE of Louisiana v. Noe A. AGULIAR-BENITEZ aka Noe Aguilar-Benitez |
Court | Court of Appeal of Louisiana — District of US |
COUNSEL FOR PLAINTIFF/APPELLEE, STATE OF LOUISIANA, Paul D. Connick, Jr., Metairie, Richard L. Olivier, Terry M. Boudreaux, Gretna, Anne M. Wallis
COUNSEL FOR DEFENDANT/APPELLANT, Gwendolyn K. Brown, Baton Rouge, NOE A. AGULIAR-BENITEZ
Panel composed of Judges Fredericka Homberg Wicker, Marc E. Johnson, and Robert A. Chaisson
In this appeal, defendant, Noe A. Aguliar-Benitez, seeks review of the denial of a motion to suppress an incriminating statement taken during a custodial interrogation, the denial of a motion for new trial based on the failure to suppress that incriminating statement, and the excessiveness of his sentences for convictions of attempted aggravated rape and sexual battery. For the following reasons, we affirm the denial of the motion to suppress and the denial of the motion for new trial, vacate defendant's sentences as unconstitutionally excessive, and remand to the district court for resentencing.
On May 15, 2014, a Jefferson Parish Grand Jury returned an indictment charging defendant, in count one, with aggravated rape of a victim under thirteen in violation of La. R.S. 14:42,1 and in count two, with sexual battery of a child under thirteen in violation of La. R.S. 14:43.1. At his arraignment on May 27, 2014, defendant pled not guilty to both counts.
On September 10, 2015, the district court held a hearing on defendant's motion to suppress a statement that he gave to Kenner Police after his arrest. Following the hearing, the district court denied defendant's motion from the bench.
On November 9 and 10, 2015, defendant's trial was held before a twelve-person jury. After deliberations, the jury unanimously found defendant guilty on count one of the lesser charge of attempted aggravated rape of a victim under thirteen in violation of La. R.S. 14:42 ;14:27, and guilty as charged on count two of sexual battery of a victim under the age of thirteen in violation of La. R.S. 14:43.1. On November 13, 2015, defendant filed a motion for new trial, which was not considered before sentencing.
On December 10, 2015, the district court sentenced defendant to the statutory maximum sentence on each conviction. As to his attempted aggravated rape conviction, the district court sentenced defendant to fifty years at hard labor without the benefit of parole, probation, or suspension of sentence. As to his sexual battery conviction, the district court sentenced defendant to ninety-nine years at hard labor without the benefit of parole, probation, or suspension of sentence. The district court ordered the two sentences to run concurrently.
Two days later, on December 12, 2015, defendant filed a motion to reconsider sentence, a second motion for new trial, and a motion for appeal. On January 19, 2016, the district court ruled that the motion for new trial was moot. The district court granted defendant's motion for appeal on January 28, 2016. On May 16, 2016, after a hearing, the district court denied defendant's motion to reconsider sentence and defendant's second motion for new trial. On May 22, 2016, defendant filed an additional motion for appeal addressing the May 16, 2016 motion to reconsider and motion for new trial rulings. The district court granted defendant's motion for appeal on May 25, 2016.
On December 7, 2016, in defendant's first appeal, this Court found that the trial court erred in failing to dispose of defendant's motion for new trial before sentencing. Therefore, this Court vacated defendant's sentences and remanded the case to the district court with instructions to dispose of defendant's pending November 13, 2015 motion for new trial before resentencing defendant. State v. Aguliar-Benitez , supra . This Court also vacated the district court's post-December 10, 2015 rulings in order to return the matter to its November 13, 2015 procedural posture at the time defendant filed his motion for new trial. Id.
After remand on January 26, 2017, the district court denied defendant's motion for new trial pending since November 13, 2015. On February 23, 2017, the district court resentenced defendant to the statutory maximum sentences for both convictions. As to his conviction for attempted aggravated rape of a victim under thirteen, defendant was again sentenced to serve fifty years at hard labor. As to his conviction for sexual battery of a child under thirteen, defendant was again sentenced to ninety-nine years at hard labor without the benefit of probation, parole, or suspension of sentence. Defendant was given credit for time served, and the district court ordered the two sentences to be served concurrently. Defendant filed a motion to reconsider sentence on February 24, 2017, which was denied by the court on April 20, 2017. This timely appeal follows.
Sometime in mid-to-late October 2013, E.M.P.,2 an eight-year-old juvenile, told her mother, M.P., that in June 2013, defendant—a houseguest living in the family home3 —had touched her legs, and that she did not want defendant to live with the family any longer. Concerned, M.P. continued asking her daughter about defendant touching her. Eventually, E.M.P. told her mother that defendant touched her vagina.
While defendant was living with E.M.P.'s family, defendant and E.M.P. developed a close relationship. She liked that he was living in the home with her family, and enjoyed playing with defendant.4 Their relationship changed, according to E.M.P., after "[defendant] started touching me in my private part, and then I started not liking him." E.M.P testified that she did not tell anyone of the abuse, because defendant told her it was their "secret."
M.P. testified that, after E.M.P. disclosed the abuse to her, she noticed a change in E.M.P.'s behavior. Before the incident, she described her daughter as "a very sweet girl," but after the abuse she "seemed sad."
After learning of defendant's abuse, M.P. testified that she told her husband, R.M., that defendant touched E.M.P's vagina. R.M. testified that he asked his wife to take their children away from the house, while he asked defendant whether he touched his daughter. Under questioning, defendant became scared. R.M. told defendant he could no longer live in the home and punched him in the face. While the confrontation was taking place, E.M.P. testified that the rest of the family waited in a parking lot of a nearby Winn-Dixie and prayed.
Thereafter, M.P. took E.M.P. to her pediatrician, who recommended that she be taken to Children's Hospital for an evaluation. On October 21, 2013, E.M.P. was evaluated at Children's Hospital, and the Kenner Police Department was notified. Officer Paul Carmouche was dispatched to the hospital to talk to the family and made an initial report. The initial report identified defendant as the perpetrator. Later, Detective Joseph McRae was assigned to complete the investigation.
On November 9, 2013, Ann Troy, a forensic pediatric nurse practitioner who qualified at trial as an expert in childhood emotional, physical, and sexual abuse, and the delayed disclosure of that abuse, examined E.M.P. and performed a forensic interview regarding the June 2013 incident.
Ms. Troy concluded that E.M.P. had suffered child sex abuse. According to Ms. Troy's testimony and diagrams marked by E.M.P. during the interview and later admitted at trial, E.M.P. told Ms. Troy defendant touched her vagina. Further, E.M.P. told Ms. Troy that during the June 2013 incident defendant pulled her pants to the side and put his penis into her vagina. E.M.P told Ms. Troy that her brother was in the room when the incident occurred. Ms. Troy testified that she found E.M.P. to be clear and spontaneous during their interview, which was, in her opinion, indicative of truthfulness.
Ms. Troy also performed a physical examination of E.M.P. The exam did not reveal any injury to E.M.P.'s vagina. Ms. Troy testified that this is a normal finding in children who have been sexually abused, because young girls' bodies are resilient and can quickly heal without showing evidence of penetration.
On December 19, 2013, E.M.P. subsequently underwent a forensic interview with Brittney Bergeron of the Jefferson Parish Children's Advocacy Center, which was video recorded and played for the jury at trial. During that interview, E.M.P. recounted the details of her abuse. E.M.P. explained that defendant was living at the family home, and that she liked defendant, until he "did things [she] didn't like." Regarding the June 2013 incident, E.M.P. said she and defendant were watching television on the sofa in the living room when defendant started touching her leg. E.M.P told defendant to stop touching her, but defendant continued to touch her, including her "private part." E.M.P. told Ms. Bergeron that defendant pulled her shorts to the side, pulled his pants down, and touched "the skin of his private" against her private. During the interview E.M.P. could not recall whether defendant put "his private inside her private." E.M.P. explained that she wanted to kick defendant in his arm—which was in a cast after a work-related injury—but she feared a kick to defendant's arm would kill him.
E.M.P. recounted that defendant had touched "her private part" on other instances. E.M.P. told Ms. Bergeron that she thought defendant attempted to touch her on the upper thigh, but E.M.P. went outside the house, where two of her father's co-workers were, to avoid defendant's touching her. E.M.P. stated during the interview that she did not immediately tell her mom about defendant touching her, "because I didn't know how to tell [her]."
At trial, E.M.P. testified that she first told her mother in October 2013 that defendant had touched her. E.M.P. further testified that defendant touched her vagina with his hand and his private on more than once occasion, and at some point in time he star...
To continue reading
Request your trial-
State v. Manuel
...address its merits. See State v. Blackwell , 18-118 (La. App. 5 Cir. 12/27/18), 263 So.3d 1234, 1240 ; State v. Aguliar-Benitez , 17-361 (La. App. 5 Cir. 12/10/18), 260 So.3d 1247, 1261, writ denied , 19-147 (La. 6/3/19); 272 So.3d 543 ; State v. Blank , 01-564 (La. App. 5 Cir. 11/27/01), 8......
-
State v. Aguliar-Benitez
...suggested a sentencing range of thirty-five to fifty-five years, with both sentences to run concurrently. State v. Aguliar-Benitez , 17-361 (La. App. 5 Cir. 12/10/18), 260 So.3d 1247, writ denied , 19-147 (La. 6/3/19), 272 So.3d 543.On September 19, 2019, on remand, defendant appeared for r......
-
State v. Melgar
...for crimes where the nature of the crime is one of long-term or repeated sexual abuse of the victim. State v. Aguliar-Benitez , 17-361 (La. App. 5 Cir. 12/10/18), 260 So.3d 1247, 1265, writ denied , 19-147 (La. 6/3/19), 272 So.3d 543. Although a sentence may fall within the statutory limits......
-
State v. Harmon
...harm to society and gauge whether the penalty is so disproportionate as to shock the sense of justice. State v. Aguliar-Benitez, 17-361 (La. App. 5 Cir. 12/10/18), 260 So.3d 1247, 1262, writ denied, 19-0147 (La. 6/3/19), 272 So.3d 543.Defendant was convicted of issuing a worthless check in ......