State v. Eason

• Decision Date: 25 February 2009
• Docket Number: No. 43,788-KA.,43,788-KA.
• Citation: 3 So.3d 685
• Parties: STATE of Louisiana, Appellee v. Geoffrey EASON, Appellant.
• Court: Court of Appeal of Louisiana — District of US

3 So.3d 685

STATE of Louisiana, Appellee v. Geoffrey EASON, Appellant.

No. 43,788-KA.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Second Circuit.

February 25, 2009.

Louisiana Appellate Project by: Peggy J. Sullivan, Monroe, for Appellant.

J. Schuyler Marvin, District Attorney, John M. Lawrence, Charles A. Smith, C. Sherburne Sentell, III, Edward C. Jacobs, Assistant District Attorneys for Appellee.

Before BROWN, STEWART and PEATROSS, JJ.

STEWART, J.

Defendant, Geoffrey Eason, was charged with two counts of armed robbery with a firearm. A jury found Eason guilty as charged on both counts, and the court sentenced the defendant to serve two concurrent terms of fifty years' imprisonment at hard labor without parole. Eason now appeals, urging five assignments of error. We affirm the defendant's convictions, but vacate his sentences and remand for resentencing due to an error patent.

FACTS

On the evening of January 31, 2006, Dr. Wayne McMahen and his teenage daughter, M.M.¹, returned to their home in Springhill, Louisiana, after attending a ballgame. M.M. went to her room, while Dr. McMahen sat in the den watching the news. Dr. McMahen heard the family dog barking in the kitchen, so he went into the kitchen to let the dog out into the yard. As he opened the sliding glass door, a masked man, armed with a gun, rushed into the door. Dr. McMahen tried to slam the door shut, but the armed man put his hand into the doorframe to hold the door open.

The armed man entered the home, followed by two other masked men. The men forced Dr. McMahen to the ground and demanded money. Dr. McMahen gave the men his wallet, and the man with the gun held Dr. McMahen down while the other two men searched the house for valuables. Dr. McMahen saw that the gunman's injured hand was bleeding on the floor.

One of the other two men entered M.M.'s room and demanded money; M.M. surrendered several hundred dollars to the masked man. When that man left her room, M.M. went to her door to look down the hall, and another masked man armed with a gun slammed her door shut. When M.M. heard another door slam, she believed that the men had left, so she came out of her room only to find the three men, two of whom had guns, still in the home. M.M. returned to her room.

Dr. McMahen then told the men that his keys were in his truck. After some discussion among themselves, the men took the truck and left. Dr. McMahen immediately called his wife, who was at Dr. McMahen's office, and asked her to call police. Dr. McMahen's truck was equipped with the OnStar system, so Dr. McMahen called OnStar, which then located the truck via satellite within ten or fifteen minutes.

In the meantime, Springhill police arrived at the McMahen residence. Police Chief Ronnie Coleman found the robber's blood on the floor. He explained that he used sterile water and a sterile swab to collect the blood evidence to permit later testing. Coleman put the sample into a bag, then another officer marked the bag for identification and sealed the bag, and then Chief Coleman stored the evidence in a secure closet. Coleman admitted that he had no special training in the collection of DNA evidence.

The robbers were not located with the truck, so in the ensuing days police questioned various people in the community about their knowledge of the crime. The police developed a juvenile suspect, Alva Tealer, and questioned Tealer in the presence of his mother. After waiving his rights, Tealer admitted his involvement in the crime and named the defendant, and another man, Standrius White, as the other two participants.

Police found and questioned White and Eason, and then arrested the men for armed robbery. After their arrest, White and Eason were placed in the back of a patrol car. The patrol car was equipped with a video camera whose microphone recorded a whispered conversation between White and Eason at the time of their arrest; in part of the conversation, one of the men can be heard to say "... he slammed my hand in the door...." In addition, police took DNA swabs from the men's mouths. Laboratory analysis showed that the blood on the McMahens' floor came from the defendant, Geoffrey Eason. Because the men wore masks during the robbery, the victims were unable to identify them.

The state charged both Eason and White with armed robbery with a firearm of both victims. The case was assigned to Judge John Robinson. The defendants joined in a motion to recuse Judge Robinson and a motion to change the venue. The motion to recuse was heard by Judge Bolin. Judge Robinson was called as a witness and testified that he had, for many years, lived three doors down from the McMahens and that he and Mr. McMahen had once been "pretty good" friends and frequently visited each other's homes. The judge had also been friends with Dr. McMahen's father, the former sheriff. However, the judge said that he was no longer close friends with Dr. McMahen and had seen him only rarely since moving away from Springhill in 2000.

In addition, Judge Robinson had only recently placed Eason on probation for another offense at the time Eason committed this offense. The judge said that he was disappointed to hear that Eason was involved and might have voiced that disappointment to others. Judge Robinson stated that neither his prior friendship with the victim nor his recent judicial encounter with Eason would prevent him from presiding over the case in a fair and impartial manner.

After hearing Judge Robinson's testimony, Judge Bolin concluded that Judge Robinson's relationship to the victim was "not of a substantial nature to the extent that it would affect his ability to be fair and impartial." The judge was convinced that Judge Robinson would not be biased, prejudiced or have any personal interest in the result; consequently, the judge found that Judge Robinson could conduct a fair and impartial trial and denied the defendants' motion over their stated objection.

The defendants opted to be tried together. At the outset of the trial after the jury was selected, the judge denied the motion for a change of venue. In addition to the evidence outlined above, Alva Tealer testified at the trial. Pursuant to a plea agreement in consideration of his future testimony, Tealer had already pled guilty to armed robbery and was serving a 10-year hard labor sentence. He said that on the day of the robbery, Eason told Tealer that Eason was looking for a "quick money scheme." Tealer said that Eason armed himself with a gun before Eason, White and Tealer decided to break into a home. Tealer said that they went to Dr. McMahen's home, went into the back door and forced Dr. McMahen to the floor at gunpoint. Tealer said that the robbers took the money from Dr. McMahen's wallet. He said that he was not the one who encountered M.M. Tealer said that the men then took Dr. McMahen's truck and escaped.

With regard to the DNA evidence, the crime lab technician, Pat Wojtkiewicz, testified that samples of blood from a crime scene are often recovered using a cotton swab and that these swabs are then submitted for testing. The technician computed a probability of one in 19.6 trillion that the blood sample submitted from the scene by Coleman belonged to a person other than Eason.

The defendants chose not to testify. On December 4, 2006, the jury convicted both defendants as charged with two counts of armed robbery with a firearm; the verdict was unanimous as to Eason. On March 5, 2007, the court sentenced Eason to serve fifty years' imprisonment at hard labor, for each conviction, without benefit of parole, and the court imposed those sentences concurrently. Eason filed a motion to reconsider sentence, which the trial court denied. Eason now appeals, urging five assignments of error.

LAW AND DISCUSSION

Assignment of Error Number Four: Sufficiency of the Evidence

In the fourth assignment of error, the defendant argues that the evidence was not legally sufficient to support his conviction of two counts of armed robbery with a firearm. More specifically, he challenges the state's proof of his identity through the DNA evidence on the grounds that this evidence could have been improperly collected at the scene by Coleman. Eason urges that the remaining evidence was insufficient to convict him, because the victims could not identify the robbers and because Tealer's testimony was unreliable.

When issues are raised on appeal, both as to the sufficiency of the evidence and as to one or more trial errors, the reviewing court should first determine the sufficiency of the evidence. The reason for reviewing sufficiency first is that the accused may be entitled to an acquittal under Hudson v. Louisiana, 450 U.S. 40, 101 S.Ct. 970, 67 L.Ed.2d 30 (1981), if a rational trier of fact, viewing the evidence in accord with Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979), in the light most favorable to the prosecution, could not reasonably conclude that all of the elements of the offense have been proved beyond a reasonable doubt. State v. Hearold, 603 So.2d 731 (La.1992); State v. Bosley, 29,253 (La.App. 2d Cir.4/2/97), 691 So.2d 347, writ denied, 97-1203 (La.10/17/97), 701 So.2d 1333.

The standard of appellate review for a sufficiency of the evidence claim is whether, after viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Jackson v. Virginia, supra; State v. Tate, 2001-1658 (La.5/20/03), 851 So.2d 921, cert. denied, 541 U.S. 905, 124 S.Ct. 1604, 158 L.Ed.2d 248 (2004); State v. Cummings, 95-1377 (La.2/28/96), 668 So.2d 1132; State v. Murray, 36,137 (La.App. 2d Cir.8/29/02), 827 So.2d 488, writ denied, 2002-2634 (La.9/05/03), 852 So.2d 1020. This standard, now legislatively embodied in La. C. Cr. P. art. 821, does not provide the appellate court with a vehicle to substitute its own appreciation of the evidence for...