State v. Devillier
| Decision Date | 17 October 2018 |
| Docket Number | NO. 17-KA-572,17-KA-572 |
| Citation | 258 So.3d 230 |
| Parties | STATE of Louisiana v. John Paul DEVILLIER |
| Court | Court of Appeal of Louisiana — District of US |
COUNSEL FOR PLAINTIFF/APPELLEE, STATE OF LOUISIANA, Joel T. Chaisson, II, Baton Rouge, Louis G. Authement, Hahnville
COUNSEL FOR DEFENDANT/APPELLANT, JOHN PAUL DEVILLIER, David E. Stanley, Baton Rouge,
Panel composed of Judges Susan M. Chehardy, Jude G. Gravois, and John J. Molaison, Jr.
Defendant, John Paul Devillier, was convicted by a jury of attempted first degree murder of a peace officer, Corporal Burt Hazeltine. On appeal, he argues multiple assignments of error as noted below. Upon review, for the following reasons, we find no reversible error and affirm defendant's conviction and sentence.
On May 12, 2015, the St. Charles Parish District Attorney filed a bill of information charging defendant, John Paul Devillier, with the attempted first degree murder of a peace officer, Corporal Burt Hazeltine of the St. Charles Parish Sheriff's Office, in violation of La. R.S. 14:27 and La. R.S. 14:30. Immediately prior to the filing of the bill of information on May 12, 2015, a sanity hearing was held1 and defendant was found competent to proceed to trial. Defendant then waived reading of the bill of information and entered a plea of not guilty.
At a hearing on August 4, 2015, and in writing on September 14, 2015, defendant withdrew his plea of not guilty and entered the dual plea of not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity. On October 5, 2015, a sanity commission composed of Dr. Richard Richoux and Dr. Rafael Salcedo was appointed by the trial court to determine defendant's mental condition at the time of the alleged offense.
On August 23, 2016, the State filed a motion to produce defendant for an independent mental examination by Dr. John W. Thompson, Jr., and on September 6, 2016, the trial court granted the State's motion after a hearing. Defendant filed a writ application with this Court seeking review of the ruling to produce him for the mental examination, which this Court denied. See State v. Devillier , 16-535 (La. App. 5 Cir. 9/20/16) (unpublished writ decision).
On January 24, 2017, the trial court held a hearing on the State's La. C.E. art. 404(B) Notice of Intent to Use Evidence of Other Bad Acts and Incorporated Supporting Memorandum. The trial court granted the State's motion to admit into evidence defendant's prior bad acts of refusing to cooperate with police commands and/or failure to surrender.
Trial commenced before a twelve-person jury on February 8, 2017. On February 14, 2017, the jury found defendant guilty as charged. On February 23, 2017, defendant filed a motion for a new trial and a motion for post-verdict judgment of acquittal, challenging the sufficiency of the evidence presented by the State at trial. After a hearing on April 11, 2017, the trial court denied defendant's motion for a new trial and motion for post-verdict judgment of acquittal.
On April 25, 2017, after considering a pre-sentencing investigation ("PSI") report, a victim impact statement, and La. C.Cr.P. art. 894.1, the trial court sentenced defendant to 40 years in the Department of Corrections2 without the benefit of parole, probation, or suspension of sentence. On May 2, 2017, defendant filed a motion to reconsider sentence; the trial court denied the motion on June 13, 2017. Immediately after the motion to reconsider sentence was denied, defendant orally moved for and was granted an appeal. Defendant also filed a written motion for an appeal on June 13, 2017, which was granted that same day.
On the morning of April 16, 2015, Corporal Burt Hazeltine with the St. Charles Parish Sheriff's Office was working a traffic control detail in a school zone at the corner of Louisiana Street and U.S. Highway 90 in Paradis, Louisiana, in St. Charles Parish. Corporal Hazeltine's assignment was to ensure that school buses serving nearby schools safely entered and exited Highway 90.3
Following his usual routine, Corporal Hazeltine arrived at the intersection that morning between 7:20 a.m. and 7:25 a.m. for take-in at J.B. Martin School. He planned to leave the area around 8:45 a.m. after the buses dropped the children off at R.J. Vial Elementary, another nearby school. Corporal Hazeltine was sitting in his marked police unit parked on the shoulder of Highway 90 near a Timesaver store close to Louisiana Street with his lights activated when a pickup truck pulled up beside his unit. Assuming that the person needed directions or help, Corporal Hazeltine exited his unit and began to approach the pickup truck when defendant, John Paul Devillier, the driver of the pickup truck,4 began yelling at Corporal Hazeltine that he did not know how to do his job and that he knew Sheriff Greg Champagne and was going to call him. Defendant, who was described as irate, flashed what appeared to be a souvenir "Navy police" keychain out of his window. Corporal Hazeltine asked if he could help defendant, who replied in the negative. Defendant then put his truck in reverse and turned down Louisiana Street.5
Sherry Champagne, the administrative assistant for Sheriff Champagne, received a phone call from defendant asking to speak to the Sheriff. Ms. Champagne informed defendant that the Sheriff was unavailable, upon which defendant explained that he wanted the Sheriff to meet him in the Timesaver's parking lot because he was upset with the way a deputy was directing traffic. Defendant became "more and more agitated" because Ms. Champagne would not put him through to the Sheriff.
Approximately fifteen or twenty minutes after defendant initially left the area, as Corporal Hazeltine was finishing his detail, he stepped out of his unit to remove his reflective vest when he saw that defendant's pickup truck had returned and was located in the driveway of the Timesaver. Remembering that defendant had been upset, Corporal Hazeltine walked from behind his unit to approach defendant's truck to converse with him. As Corporal Hazeltine approached the front of defendant's truck in which defendant sat, he saw a revolver laying on the dashboard of the truck.6 Given defendant's previous irate behavior and the visibility of the gun, Corporal Hazeltine, who was standing approximately fifteen feet from his unit, drew his service weapon, began to move back towards his unit, and told defendant to show his hands. Corporal Hazeltine testified that in response, defendant's "right hand went up in the air and his left hand went out the driver's side window with a black semi-automatic pistol hanging from – with it hanging from the trigger guard." Corporal Hazeltine ordered several times for defendant to drop the weapon, but defendant refused.
At the time of defendant's return to the corner of Highway 90 and Louisiana Street, he contacted OnStar. In the call which was published to the jury, defendant identified himself and his location and can be heard yelling to Corporal Hazeltine not to approach and to call Sheriff Champagne. Defendant yelled to Corporal Hazeltine that he would "find out who [he (defendant) was] in a second." Corporal Hazeltine can be heard ordering defendant to show his hands and to put the gun down, and defendant is heard refusing to do so since he was "federal law enforcement."7
In a second OnStar call that was published to the jury, defendant told the OnStar operator that he needed the Sheriff's Office immediately. Defendant is heard saying: "I know what you need but I'm going to tell you what I need, see, I'm showing you mine your showing me yours you got yours pointed at me go ahead and fire it mother f**ker." At that time, gunfire can be heard, and the recording seems to indicate that defendant yelled: "I got two of them." After a lapse in the recording, defendant again requested assistance from the Sheriff because there was an officer who had a "problem" with him "pinned down." Defendant then appears to say to Corporal Hazeltine that he had a right to defend himself against anybody in this country and "here they come" as sirens are heard approaching in the background. He stated that Corporal Hazeltine was going to lose his job, was "f**kin done," and "this [was his] parish you mother f**cker." He apologized for shooting him but said "god damnnit don't shoot at me."
Meanwhile, Corporal Hazeltine had radioed to dispatch that a suspect had a gun and was refusing to drop it. As Corporal Hazeltine focused on defendant's left hand hanging out the window with the weapon, he saw "the barrel of a gun coming up over the dashboard pointed at [him]."8 Feeling that his life was being threatened, in response, Corporal Hazeltine fired his service weapon, a 40 caliber semi-automatic Glock Model 22, at defendant.9 Defendant returned fire at Corporal Hazeltine and a gunfight ensued. Corporal Hazeltine was shot in the chest and in his arm just above his elbow, and a fragmented bullet passed through his left eye.10 As the gunfight continued, Corporal Hazeltine fell to the ground in front of his patrol unit and dropped his service weapon, which landed several feet away from him. In order to not further expose himself, Corporal Hazeltine crawled behind his unit.
Lieutenant Roddy Landry, Lieutenant Rory Champagne, and Sergeant Jose Alvarenga with the St. Charles Parish Sheriff's Office heard Corporal Hazeltine's radio in that a subject in the school zone had a weapon followed by shots being fired. They proceeded to Paradis in each of their police vehicles, and upon arrival, they exited their units with weapons drawn and assumed tactical positions.
Defendant initially refused the officers' commands to drop his weapons, but finally tossed the weapons out of the open front driver's side window and into a grassy area. Sergeant Alvarenga, Lieutenant Landry, and Lieutenant Champagne surrounded defendant's truck and ordered him to exit the vehicle, which defendant refused to do. Defendant continually refused to obey the officers'...
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...prove the mitigating factors of "sudden passion" and "heat of blood" by a preponderance of the evidence. State v. Devillier , 17-572, (La. App. 5 Cir. 10/17/18), 258 So.3d 230, 255, writ denied , 18-1855 (La. 10/8/19), 280 So.3d 589 ; State v. Thompson , 14-764 (La. App. 5 Cir. 1/28/15), 16......
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