State v. Comeaux

• Decision Date: 15 February 2018
• Docket Number: KA 17–682
• Citation: 239 So.3d 920
• Parties: STATE of Louisiana v. Adam COMEAUX
• Court: Court of Appeal of Louisiana — District of US

239 So.3d 920

STATE of Louisiana

v.Adam COMEAUX

KA 17–682

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Third Circuit.

February 15, 2018

Katherine M. Franks, Louisiana Appellate Project, P.O. Box 1677, Slidell, LA 70459–2341, (985) 847–1212, COUNSEL FOR DEFENDANT/APPELLANT: Adam Comeaux

Phillip Terrell, Jr., District Attorney Ninth Judicial District Court, P.O. Box 1472, Alexandria, La 71309 (318) 473–6650, COUNSEL FOR PLAINTIFF/APPELLEE: State of Louisiana

Catherine L. Davidson, Attorney at Law, 1921 Jackson Street, Alexandria, LA 71301, (318) 473–5019, COUNSEL FOR PLAINTIFF/APPELLEE: State of Louisiana, Adam Comeaux, Cypress–1, Louisiana State Prison, Angola, La 70712

Court composed of Billy Howard Ezell, Van H. Kyzar, and Candyce G. Perret, Judges.

EZELL, Judge.

Adam Comeaux was indicted by the grand jury in separate counts for the first degree murder of Ida Voiselle and Ruby Voiselle Smith in violation of La.R.S. 14:30. After trial by jury, defendant was found guilty as charged on each count. A sentencing hearing was conducted before the same jury that determined the issue of guilt. The jury unanimously recommended that a sentence of death be imposed on defendant for each murder. The trial judge sentenced defendant to death in accordance with the recommendation of the jury.

State v. Comeaux , 514 So.2d 84, 86 (La.1987). The supreme court affirmed the Defendant's convictions but vacated his sentences and remanded the matter to the district court for a new penalty hearing. On remand, the Defendant was again sentenced to death on each count. The sentences were subsequently affirmed. State v. Comeaux , 93-2729 (La. 7/1/97), 699 So.2d 16, cert. denied , 522 U.S. 1150, 118 S.Ct. 1169, 140 L.Ed.2d 179 (1998).

On November 3, 2003, the trial court granted the Defendant's "Motion to Correct an Illegal and Unconstitutional Death Sentence," which was based on the ground that he was mentally retarded and could not be executed per Atkins v. Virginia , 536 U.S. 304, 122 S.Ct. 2242, 153 L.Ed.2d 335 (2002), and commuted the Defendant's sentences to life at hard labor on each count to run concurrently, without benefit of probation, parole, or suspension of sentence.¹

On July 1, 2013, the Defendant filed a "Motion to Correct Illegal Sentence and Supporting Memorandum of Law and Facts." Therein, the Defendant alleged his sentences were illegal and unconstitutional under the ruling in Miller v. Alabama , 567 U.S. 460, 132 S.Ct. 2455, 183 L.Ed.2d 407 (2012), which prohibited a sentencing scheme that mandated a life sentence without the possibility of parole for those under the age of eighteen at the time of the commission of a homicide. The district court initially stayed the proceedings until it could be determined whether Millerapplied retroactively. The district court subsequently denied the motion on December 18, 2013, relying on the Louisiana Supreme Court's decision in State v. Tate , 12-2763 (La. 11/5/13), 130 So.3d 829, cert. denied , ––– U.S. ––––, 134 S.Ct. 2663, 189 L.Ed.2d 214 (2014), abrogated by Montgomery v. Louisiana , ––– U.S. ––––, 136 S.Ct. 718, 193 L.Ed.2d 599 (2016), which found the decision in Miller , 567 U.S. 460, 132 S.Ct. 2455, did not apply retroactively.

The Defendant filed another "Motion to Correct Illegal Sentence and Supporting Memorandum of Law and Facts" after September 22, 2015. The district court denied the motion on October 14, 2015, as moot and untimely.

A third "Motion to Correct Illegal Sentence" was filed on April 12, 2016. Therein, the Defendant cited the United States Supreme Court ruling in Montgomery , 136 S.Ct. 718, which found the decision in Miller , 567 U.S. 460, 132 S.Ct. 2455, announced a new, substantive constitutional rule that was retroactive on state collateral review. He sought to be resentenced to the penalty for manslaughter, moved for the appointment of counsel, and asked for investigators and experts to secure evidence required for a hearing. A hearing on the motion was held on March 27, 2017, and the district court sentenced the Defendant to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole.

A "Notice of Appeal" was also filed on April 13, 2017, and granted on April 27, 2017. A "Motion to Reconsider Sentence" was filed on April 13, 2017, and was subsequently denied.

The State filed a "Motion to Correct Sentence Without Hearing" on June 14, 2017. Therein, the State waived a sentencing hearing and stated it would not contest a resentencing of the Defendant to life with eligibility for parole. The district court signed an order granting the motion and sentencing the Defendant to life imprisonment with the benefit of parole.

A second "Notice of Appeal" and "Motion to Reconsider Sentence" were filed on July 17, 2017. The trial court issued the following ruling regarding the appeal: "Reviewed. Must file in accordance with law." The trial court subsequently denied the motion to reconsider.

Appellate counsel is now before this court asserting five assignments of error, and the Defendant has raised five pro se assignments of error. For the reasons set forth below, we affirm Defendant's sentences.

FACTS

The victims, Smith and Voiselle, were sisters. They lived across the street from one another and often spent the night together at Smith's home. In 1985, the Defendant entered Smith's home and beat Smith, who was sixty-three years old, and Voiselle, who was seventy-two years old, with a cypress knee doorstop. Smith and Voiselle suffered multiple traumatic injuries to the head and body, resulting in shock, rapid blood loss, and death. Additionally, Smith exhibited evidence of recent intercourse, ejaculation, and trauma to the genitalia, "probably resulting from the insertion of a flat, blunt instrumentality into the vagina." Comeaux , 514 So.2d at 87. The Defendant was seventeen years old and mildly mentally retarded at the time he committed the crimes. Comeaux , 699 So.2d at 25.

ERRORS PATENT

In accordance with La.Code Crim.P. art. 920, all appeals are reviewed for errors patent on the face of the record. After reviewing the record, we note appellate counsel raises a potential error patent that will be addressed in Assignment of Error Number Five.

ASSIGNMENTS OF ERROR NUMBERS ONE, TWO, AND THREE

In the first assignment of error, appellate counsel contends the district court violated the Defendant's due process rights under both the United States Constitution and La.Const. art. 1, § 2 when it imposed a sentence in violation of the United States Supreme Court's mandate to impose a proportionate sentence that offered a meaningful opportunity for release of an offender who committed homicide as a juvenile and had demonstrated that he had rehabilitated himself. In the second assignment of error, appellate counsel contends the Louisiana Supreme Court was without authority to craft penal provisions not authorized legislatively. As a result, the district court failed to perform its duty as sentencer and to assure that a proper and proportionate sentence was imposed at the resentencing, deferring its sentencing authority to the Parole Board and denying the Defendant due process. In the third assignment of error, appellate counsel contends the district court erred in denying the Defendant's "Motion to Amend and/or Modify Sentence Pursuant to La.Code Crim.P. arts. 882 and 872".^{2 ,3} These issues overlap and will be addressed together.

In Miller , 567 U.S. at 479, 132 S.Ct. 2455, the United States Supreme Court held that "the Eighth Amendment forbids a sentencing scheme that mandates life in prison without possibility of parole for juvenile offenders." The Court went on to state:

[W]e do not consider Jackson's and Miller's alternative argument that the Eighth Amendment requires a categorical bar on life without parole for juveniles, or at least for those 14 and younger. But given all we have said in Roper [v. Simmons , 543 U.S. 551, 125 S.Ct. 1183, 161 L.Ed.2d 1 (2005) ], Graham [v. Florida , 560 U.S. 48, 130 S.Ct. 2011, 176 L.Ed.2d 825 (2010) ],

and this decision about children's diminished culpability and heightened capacity for change, we think appropriate occasions for sentencing juveniles to this harshest possible penalty will be uncommon. That is especially so because of the great difficulty we noted in Roper and Graham of distinguishing at this early age between "the juvenile offender whose crime reflects unfortunate yet transient immaturity, and the rare juvenile offender whose crime reflects irreparable corruption." Roper , 543 U.S., at 573, 125 S.Ct. 1183 ; Graham , 560 U.S., at 68, 130 S.Ct. at 2026–2027. Although we do not foreclose a sentencer's ability to make that judgment in homicide cases, we require it to take into account how children are different, and how those differences counsel against irrevocably sentencing them to a lifetime in prison.

Id. at 479–80, 132 S.Ct. 2455 (footnote omitted).

In Montgomery , 136 S.Ct. at 736 (emphasis added), the United States Supreme Court stated:

The Court now holds that Miller [v. Alabama , 567 U.S. 460, 132 S.Ct. 2455, 183 L.Ed.2d 407 (2012),] announced a substantive rule of constitutional law.... Miller 's conclusion that the sentence of life without parole is disproportionate for the vast majority of juvenile offenders raises a grave risk that many are being held in violation of the Constitution.

Giving Miller retroactive effect, moreover, does not require States to relitigate sentences, let alone convictions, in every case where a juvenile offender received mandatory life without parole. A State may remedy a Miller violation by permitting juvenile homicide offenders to be considered for parole, rather than by resentencing them. See, e.g. , Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 6–10–301(c) (2013) (juvenile homicide offenders eligible for parole after 25 years). Allowing those offenders to be considered for parole ensures that juveniles whose crimes reflected only transient immaturity—and who have since matured—will not be forced to serve a disproportionate sentence in violation of the

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