State v. Brooks

• Citation: 541 So.2d 801
• Decision Date: 30 January 1989
• Docket Number: No. 88-KD-1420,88-KD-1420
• Parties: STATE of Louisiana v. John BROOKS. 541 So.2d 801
• Court: Supreme Court of Louisiana

Page 801

541 So.2d 801

STATE of Louisiana v. John BROOKS.

No. 88-KD-1420.

541 So.2d 801

Supreme Court of Louisiana.

Jan. 30, 1989.

Philip Johnson, Clyde Merritt, Numa Bertel, Orleans Indigent Defender Program, New Orleans, for applicant.

William J. Guste, Jr., Atty. Gen., Harry F. Connick, Dist. Atty., James A. Williams, Jack Peebles, Asst. Dist. Attys., for respondent.

COLE, Justice.

Defendant John Brooks was indicted by grand jury on eight counts of first degree murder in violation of La.R.S. 14:30. La.R.S. 14:30 provides:

A. First degree murder is the killing of a human being:

(1) When the offender has specific intent to kill or to inflict great bodily harm and is engaged in the perpetration or attempted perpetration of ... armed robbery....

The state elected to sever and in October of 1987 tried the defendant on only four of the eight counts of murder. After a trial, the jury convicted defendant of all four murders but was unable to reach a unanimous verdict as to whether the sentence should be life imprisonment or death. Thus petitioner was sentenced to four consecutive life sentences. The results of that trial are currently on appeal to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal.

The state is now proceeding to trial on two of the remaining counts in the original indictment. In connection with this second proceeding, the defendant filed several pretrial motions. These included: 1) a motion to be declared mentally incompetent to proceed to trial; 2) a motion to sever counts one and two; 3) a motion to quash evidence of the four prior murder convictions as aggravating circumstances under La.C.Cr.P. art. 905.4(A)(3); 4) a motion to quash defendant's confession and evidence of unrelated and unadjudicated crimes as character and propensity evidence under La.C.Cr.P. art. 905.2. The trial judge denied all these motions and defendant sought writs in this Court.

In his application, defendant raised the following assignments of error: ¹

1. The trial court erred in refusing to grant the defense request to sever count 1 from count 2, although, on the State's motion, it twice granted a severance, (without a Prieur hearing).

2. The court erred as a matter of law in finding that the accused was competent to proceed to trial in May of 1988 despite unrebutted defense testimony that the accused met none of the Bennett competency criteria.

3. The trial court erred in refusing to quash La.C.Cr.P. 905.4(A)(1) or in refusing to restrain the state from using evidence of "having been previously convicted of an unrelated murder," because they are still on appeal.

4. The trial court erred in refusing to quash 905.4(A)(3) despite due process vagueness of the "previously convicted" language as a constitutional issue affecting admissibility of "prior convictions."

5. The trial court erred in refusing to quash 905.4(A)(3) on the grounds of estoppel.

6. The trial court erred in refusing to quash the proceedings under 905.2 in view of the constitutionally infirm language of "character and propensities of the offender" in connection with the equally infirm language noted in 905.4(A)(3) ("previously convicted of an unrelated murder").

7. The trial court erred in refusing to restrict the state from its use of "propensity" evidence under C.Cr.P. 905.2 on the same grounds of estoppel as noted in Assignment of Error no. 5.

8. The trial court erred in refusing to restrict the state's use of "propensity and character" evidence and/or in the alternative, refusing to quash the statute because there is no defined standard of proof (which should be beyond a reasonable doubt) by which such "propensity" evidence is to be given to the jury.

9. The trial court erred in refusing to preliminarily restrict the prosecution from using such propensity evidence under any standard short of "proof beyond a reasonable doubt," in view of the fact that some unrelated crimes are to be put forth to the jury in the penalty phase, thus allowing an unconstitutional prejudicial and arbitrary factor to creep into the jury's penalty phase deliberations.

10. The court erred in finding that the statements/confessions of petitioner were free and voluntary, or alternatively, finding that this was so beyond a reasonable doubt.

In addition, petitioner's present counsel filed a brief after oral arguments were presented to the Court in which he argues that, because of mental deficiency, petitioner cannot be subject to the death penalty in light of Thompson v. Oklahoma, --- U.S. ----, 108 S.Ct. 2687, 101 L.Ed.2d 702 (1988).

We granted writs and, after consideration, we now find, with the exception of assignment eight, petitioner's assignments are without merit. We agree with petitioner that guidelines to help the court in determining the admissibility of unadjudicated crimes at sentencing are necessary and thus adopt standards to govern the introduction of such crimes as character and propensity evidence under La.C.Cr.P. art. 905.2. We otherwise uphold the rulings of the trial court and remand for proceedings consistent with this opinion.

FACTS

The grand jury indictment charged petitioner, who would have been 20 years old at the time of the crimes, with having committed a series of murders in connection with armed robberies in New Orleans between August 23 and December 28, 1986. In a trial held in October of 1987, defendant was found guilty of committing four murders, one of which took place early on Christmas morning in 1986 at the New Orleans lakefront. In a second, now pending proceeding, he is charged with having murdered Edward Harrison in the 1500 block of Annette Street at about 5 a.m. on November 9, 1986 and with having murdered Archie Chapman at the intersection of Humanity and Allen Streets at about 1:30 a.m. on November 15, 1986. The state alleges these two murders were committed with the same weapon and that defendant gave a detailed confession concerning both crimes.

ASSIGNMENT OF ERROR NO. 1

In his first assignment of error, defendant alleges he is entitled to a severance of the two counts on which he is now proceeding to trial. In the original indictment, these counts were numbered three and four. By pretrial stipulation, the counts were renumbered one and two to minimize the possibility of prejudice to defendant. Defendant argues the two counts are nevertheless improperly joined and he will be prejudiced at trial by joinder of the offenses.

Offenses may be joined in the same indictment in a separate count for each offense under La.C.Cr.P. art. 493:

if the offenses charged ... are of the same or similar character or are based on the same act or transaction or on two or more acts or transactions connected together or constituting parts of a common scheme or plan; provided that the offenses joined must be triable by the same mode of trial.

Here the offenses charged, two counts of first degree murder, are of the same character. Since the penalty for each offense is either death or life imprisonment, each requires the same mode of trial, a jury of twelve jurors, all of whom must concur in order for a sentence of death to be imposed. La.C.Cr.P. art. 782. Hence, the offenses were properly joined in the same indictment.

The general rule for severance of offenses is set out in La.C.Cr.P. art. 495.1, which provides:

If it appears that a defendant or the state is prejudiced by a joinder of offenses in an indictment or bill of information or by such joinder for trial together, the court may order separate trials, grant a severance of offenses, or provide whatever other relief justice requires.

The motion to sever is addressed to the sound discretion of the trial court and the court's ruling should not be disturbed on appeal absent a showing of an abuse of discretion. State v. Williams, 418 So.2d 562, 564 (La.1982). In ruling on such a motion, the trial court must weigh the possibility of prejudice to the defendant against the important considerations of economical and expedient use of judicial resources. In determining whether joinder will be prejudicial, the court should consider the following:

whether the jury would be confused by the various counts; whether the jury would be able to segregate the various charges and evidence; whether the defendant would be confounded in presenting his various defenses; whether the crimes charged would be used by the jury to infer a criminal disposition and finally, whether, especially considering the nature of the charges, the charging of several crimes would make the jury hostile.

State v. Washington, 386 So.2d 1368, 1371 (La.1980) (citations omitted).

Defendant argues joinder is improper under State v. Carter, 352 So.2d 607 (La.1977). That decision has been superseded by amendment of La.C.Cr.P. art. 495.1 and our more recent jurisprudence interpreting the article. Under the new article, severance need not be granted if prejudice can be effectively avoided by other safeguards.

[T]here is no prejudicial effect from the joinder of two or more offenses when the evidence of each offense is relatively simple and distinct, even though such evidence might not have been admissible in separate trials of the offenses because, with a proper charge, the jury can easily keep the evidence of each offense separate in its deliberations.

State v. Celestine, 452 So.2d 676, 680 (La.1984) (citations omitted).

The state, meanwhile, argues it should be allowed to try both crimes in a single proceeding so the jury can evaluate defendant's claim that he is unable, due to mental defect, to form the criminal intent necessary to commit first degree murder. We have allowed the introduction of "similar offense" evidence to negate lack of intent due to insanity where the subsequent act was strikingly similar. State v. Monroe, 364 So.2d 570, 573 (La.1978). Here, the state concedes the murders of Edward Harrison and Archie Chapman were not "signature" crimes, in the sense that proof of one crime shows a system used by the defendant. In...