State v. Eaglin

• Decision Date: 28 March 2018
• Docket Number: 17–657
• Citation: 239 So.3d 1001
• Parties: STATE of Louisiana v. Kyvonte Latrell EAGLIN
• Court: Court of Appeal of Louisiana — District of US

239 So.3d 1001

STATE of Louisiana

v.Kyvonte Latrell EAGLIN

17–657

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Third Circuit.

March 28, 2018

Rehearing Denied May 9, 2018

Alfred F. Boustany, II, Boustany Law Firm, P. O. Box 4626, Lafayette, LA 70502, (337) 261–0225, COUNSEL FOR DEFENDANT–APPELLANT: Kyvonte Latrell Eaglin

Michael C. Cassidy, District Attorney—31st JDC, Bennett R. LaPoint, Assistant District Attorney, P. O. Box 1388, Jennings, LA 70546, (337) 824–1893, COUNSEL FOR APPELLEE: State of Louisiana

Court composed of Sylvia R. Cooks, Elizabeth A. Pickett, and Phyllis M. Keaty, Judges.

PICKETT, Judge.

FACTS

The defendant, Kyvonte Latrell Eaglin, attended a party at the American Legion Hall in Jennings on August 8, 2015. An altercation broke out, and a group moved outside. The defendant went to his vehicle and retrieved a gun. Shots from one or more firearms were fired, and the victim, Jawon Lennette, was killed.

The defendant was indicted for second degree murder, a violation of La.R.S. 14:30.1, on December 16, 2015, as a result of the shooting on August 8, 2015, that resulted in the death of Jawon Lennette. Counsel filed a number of pre-trial motions, including a motion for a hearing pursuant to Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc. , 509 U.S. 579, 113 S.Ct. 2786, 125 L.Ed.2d 469 (1993), and Kumho Tire Co., Ltd. v. Carmichael , 526 U.S. 137, 119 S.Ct. 1167, 143 L.Ed.2d 238 (1999), as adopted by the Louisiana Supreme Court in State v. Foret , 628 So.2d 1116 (La.1993).

Counsel also filed a motion to declare the defendant indigent and to provide funds to retain a firearms expert. The trial court ruled on October 27, 2016, finding the defendant was indigent. However, the trial court denied the defendant's request to provide funds for him to retain an expert witness, and it denied his request to reopen the Daubert hearing to present new scientific evidence that purportedly refuted the state's expert's testimony. The defendant filed a proffer of the new evidence for purposes of appellate review on November 14, 2016.¹ He also proffered recorded statements of three witnesses.

The case went to trial on November 15, 2016. The jury rendered the responsive verdict of guilty of manslaughter on November 18, 2016. Although he was tried on a count of second degree murder, in closing argument the state argued the jury should return a verdict of guilt for manslaughter. The defendant filed a motion for new trial on December 6, 2016, which the trial court denied without a hearing. The defendant asked the trial court to reconsider the ruling, but the trial court denied his request on December 14, 2016.

The trial court sentenced the defendant to twenty years at hard labor on January 30, 2017. The defendant made an oral motion to reconsider his sentence, and the trial court denied it. The defendant timely appealed.

ASSIGNMENTS OF ERROR

1. The district judge erred when he denied this indigent defendant's request for funds to hire a firearms expert.

2. The district judge erred when he allowed the State to argue that the jury should accept the testimony and opinions of the State's firearms expert, because the defendant never called a firearms expert to contradict that testimony.

3. The district judge erred when he concluded that the State's firearms expert was qualified to testify as a firearms expert, and that she proved that her testing procedure had sufficient scientific validity.

4. The district judge erred when he refused to allow the defense to reopen the Daubert hearing on the State's firearms expert, after a very recent scientific report was brought to the court's attention, and filed in the record, that cast considerable doubt on the scientific basis for the expert's procedure and conclusion.

5. The district judge erred when he allowed the State unlimited challenges for cause against all prospective jurors who expressed reservations about a mandatory life sentence for a 17–year old child.

6. The district judge erred when the defense raised a Batson challenge, and the State did not give adequate or legal reasons for removing African–American jurors.

7. The district judge erred when he allowed the State to introduce, as evidence of the defendant's "bad character," a copy of a Facebook photograph of the defendant, who was roughly 13 years old, that falsely portrayed him as a masked armed robber holding a dangerous pistol to the back of a child's head, as though ready to shoot the child, that the judge himself described as "inflammatory."

8. The district judge erred when he refused to allow the defense to present the testimony of eye witnesses who would have testified that the defendant appeared to have accidentally fired a shot at the alleged victim.

9. The district judge erred when he refused to allow the defense to impeach the State's witnesses with prior inconsistent statements about how the shooting occurred.

10. The district judge erred, as a matter of law, when he denied the defendant's motion for new trial, without a hearing.

11. The district judge erred by failing to properly consider the mitigating factors when imposing the sentence and imposed an excessive sentence.

ERRORS PATENT

In accordance with La.Code Crim.P. art. 920, all appeals are reviewed by this court for errors patent on the face of the record. After reviewing the record, we find there are no errors patent.

ASSIGNMENT OF ERROR NUMBER THREE ²

The defendant argues the trial court erroneously held the state's firearms expert was qualified to testify and that she proved her testing procedure had sufficient scientific validity.

Daubert , 509 U.S. 579, 113 S.Ct. 2786, 125 L.Ed.2d 469, "set forth a means for determining reliability of expert scientific testimony and answered many questions as to proper standards for admissibility of expert testimony." Foret , 628 So.2d at 1121. When considering reliability, the trial court should first perform "a preliminary assessment of whether the reasoning or methodology underlying the testimony is scientifically valid and of whether that reasoning or methodology properly can be applied to the facts in issue." Daubert , 509 U.S. at 592–93, 113 S.Ct. 2786. Illustrative, not exclusive, factors bearing on that assessment include whether the theory or technique can be and has been tested, whether it has been subjected to peer review and publication, "the known or potential rate of error ... and the existence and maintenance of standards controlling the technique's operation," and general acceptance of the theory or technique in the scientific community. Id. at 594, 113 S.Ct. 2786. This gatekeeping function "applies not only to testimony based on ‘scientific’ knowledge, but also to testimony based on ‘technical’ and ‘other specialized’ knowledge." Kumho Tire , 526 U.S. at 141, 119 S.Ct. 1167. The inquiry must be applied to the facts of each particular case. Id.

Our supreme court adopted a three-part inquiry to determine the admissibility of expert testimony in Cheairs v. State ex rel. Department of Transportation & Development , 03-680 (La. 12/3/03), 861 So.2d 536. Quoting from the Eleventh Circuit's opinion in City of Tuscaloosa v. Harcros Chemicals, Inc., 158 F.3d 548, 562 (11th Cir.1998), cert. denied, 528 U.S. 812, 120 S.Ct. 309, 145 L.Ed.2d 42, and cert. denied , 528 U.S. 812, 120 S.Ct. 47, 145 L.Ed.2d 42 (1999), the court held expert testimony is proper when:

(1) the expert is qualified to testify competently regarding the matters he intends to address; (2) the methodology by which the expert reaches his conclusions is sufficiently reliable as determined by the sort of inquiry mandated in Daubert; and (3) the testimony assists the trier of fact, through the application of scientific, technical, or specialized expertise, to understand the evidence or to determine a fact in issue.

Cheairs , 861 So.2d at 542. The Daubert evaluation applies to the second of these prongs. Id.

The trial court heard the defendant's Daubert motion on September 21, 2016. The state offered Michelle Cazes as its firearms analysis expert.³ Ms. Cazes worked at the Louisiana State Police Crime Laboratory in crime scene and firearms analysis. She began her college studies at Southeastern Louisiana University, majoring in accounting. However, when Our Lady of the Lake College in Baton Rouge began offering a degree in forensic science, Ms. Cazes transferred and obtained her degree in that field.

After graduation, Ms. Cazes was accepted into a two-year training process with a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) training academy. During the first phase of the program, she did research and wrote papers. In the second phase, she spent four months in Maryland "doing hands on exercises and training." The third phase gave her "mock evidence to work up like casework." She returned to Maryland for the fourth phase to "testify in like a mock trial." She received a certificate and has completed a competency and proficiency test each year

An outside company administers annual tests to evaluate Ms. Cazes's competency at the crime lab. Ms. Cazes has not given any wrong answers in any of the tests; she testified, "I've had all the correct answers." Ms. Cazes previously qualified as an expert forensic firearm analyst in four different Louisiana courts. At the time of the Daubert hearing, Ms. Cazes was in the process of becoming certified in firearm analysis with the Association of Firearm and Tool Mark Examiners (AFTE). She was already certified in crime scene analysis. Additionally, the crime lab is accredited by AFTE and falls under its protocol.

Ms. Cazes's method of analysis is to examine, compare, and reach a conclusion regarding evidence. Everything is verified. By doing the analysis this way, "developing the class characteristics, individual detail, and then the conclusion, every one [sic] would also come up with the same thing[ ]" because her procedures are generally accepted in the scientific community.

According to Ms. Cazes, the procedures have also been subjected to peer review,...