State v. Gaines

• Decision Date: 06 October 1976
• Docket Number: No. 57958,57958
• Citation: 340 So.2d 1294
• Parties: STATE of Louisiana v. Donald Ray GAINES.
• Court: Louisiana Supreme Court

Page 1294

340 So.2d 1294

STATE of Louisiana v. Donald Ray GAINES.

No. 57958.

Supreme Court of Louisiana.

Oct. 6, 1976.

Concurring Opinion Jan. 21, 1977.

Lawrence R. Anderson, Jr., Anderson & Roberts, Baton Rouge, for defendant-appellant.

William J. Guste, Jr., Atty. Gen., Barbara Rutledge, Asst. Dist. Atty., Ossie B. Brown, Dist. Atty., Ralph Roy, Asst. Dist. Atty., for plaintiff-appellee.

DIXON, Justice.

On July 10, 1975 defendant, Donald Ray Gaines, was indicted by the East Baton Rouge Grand Jury for the first degree murder of Rita Decuir, a violation of R.S. 14:30. On December 15, 1975 the trial began and on December 17, 1975 a unanimous jury found the defendant guilty as charged. Motions for a new trial and in arrest of judgment were denied on December 23, 1975 and the trial court on that date sentenced the defendant to death. The defendant appeals relying upon twelve assignments of error. Due our disposition of this case we will only discuss Assignments of Error Nos. 2 and 3.

The defendant was tried as a principal to first degree felony murder for his participation in an armed robbery of the Southside Grocery in Baton Rouge on December 20, 1974 at approximately 1:00 p.m. during which the victim was shot and killed by Steve Perkins. It was established that on that occasion two men dressed in jeans, jean jackets and hats with bandanas over a large portion of their faces entered the Southside Grocery with guns drawn. One man was slightly shorter than the other and the shorter man told the two clerks, Sharon Haynes and Rita Decuir, to lie on the floor. Apparently Ms. Decuir hesitated in getting on the floor and the taller man shot and killed her. The robbers then took about $30.00 and fled on foot.

At defendant's trial Sharon Haynes identified the accused as the shorter man. However, the issue of identity was strongly contested. It was established that the witness had seen the defendant prior to this occasion but that she did not identify him as one of the participants until the following night, some thirty hours later. She could not identify the taller man. (The other man was identified in another case as Steve Perkins and was convicted of this crime). In addition to the weak identification, the defense rested on an alibi.

At the hearing on the State's request to admit evidence of another robbery in which the defendant allegedly participated, the defendant objected on two grounds. Primarily the defense contended that the other crime did not fit within any established exception to the rule prohibiting the introduction of evidence of other crimes. The judge ruled that the evidence would be admissible. When the evidence was sought to be introduced the defendant again objected and, when overruled, properly made this his Assignment of Error No. 2. In addition, in the defendant's Assignment of Error No. 3, the defendant contends it was error to deny his motion for a new trial made on the ground that the admission of this evidence constituted prejudicial error.

The evidence of similar acts consisted of the following:

On December 18, 1974 at approximately 5:30 p.m. two men, one slightly taller than the other, entered the State Cleaners in Baton Rouge (between one and two miles from Southside Grocery). The taller man, identified as Steve Perkins, went up to the proprietor and told him to 'give me your money,' at which point the taller man pulled out a pistol and attempted to put a bandana to his face. The shorter man, identified as the defendant in this case, did not have a gun nor a bandana and both men were dressed only in 'T-shirts' and jeans. The taller man then told the proprietor to get down on the floor after this had allegedly been suggested to the taller man by the defendant. The proprietor was not harmed but the robbers took approximately $80.00 and fled on foot.

In his notice to the defendant the prosecutor indicated that he would introduce evidence of the December 18 armed robbery to prove intent, guilty knowledge, system and identity. R.S. 15:445 provides:

'In order to show intent, evidence is admissible of similar acts, independent of the act charged as a crime in the indictment, for though intent is a question of fact, it need not be proven as a fact, it may be inferred from the circumstances of the transaction.'

R.S. 15:446 provides:

'When knowledge or intent forms an essential part of the inquiry, testimony may be offered of such acts, conduct or declarations of the accused as tend to establish such knowledge or intent and where the offense is one of a system, evidence is admissible to prove the continuity of the offense, and the commission of similar offenses for the purpose of showing guilty knowledge and intent, but not to prove the offense charged.'

These statutes and the jurisprudence construing them rest on the proposition that if the sole relevance of other acts is to prove the defendant's criminal disposition, then the evidence is inadmissible character evidence. ¹ Although it can be effectively argued that evidence of other offenses is inadmissible because it is irrelevant to any issue in the trial for the crime charged, it can also be argued that this character evidence is relevant to guilt generally, because, having committed this kind of crime before, the defendant is at least capable of the criminal activity charged. Under either analysis, however, the evidence has been uniformly excluded due to the fact that the evidence presents an inordinate risk of prejudice. The prejudice results from various factors, among which are: (1) the strong possibility that the jury will be unduly swayed in its determination of guilt merely because the defendant is a 'bad man,' (2) the possibility that the evidence may confuse the jury in collateral issues and detract their attention from the main issue of the defendant's guilt for the crime charged, and (3) the danger of unfair surprise.

Therefore, accepting the argument that this evidence is highly relevant, the evidence is nonetheless excluded, not because it fails to tend to prove the defendant's guilt, but because it does it too well and thereby deprives the 'bad man' of the fair trial and benefit of the presumption of innocence and the State's burden of proof. However, when the extraneous offense is logically relevant to prove a material issue before the jury and is not merely offered to prove that on this occasion the accused probably acted in conformity with his 'criminal disposition,' then the evidence should not be excluded merely because it shows that the accused has committed other offenses.

In State v. Moore, 278 So.2d 781, 785 (La.1973), this court established a framework within which to analyze whether an extraneous offense is admissible. We held at the outset that the evidence must be 'relevant.' This requisite referred not to whether the extraneous offense tended to prove the defendant's criminal disposition and thus his 'guilt.' Rather, it referred to the question of whether the evidence tended to prove an element of the State's case Other than the defendant's character. That is, was the evidence independently relevant as tending to prove knowledge, intent, identity, etc. If in the initial analysis the court determines that the evidence only tended to prove the defendant's bad character, then it was not 'relevant' and should be excluded on policy grounds. If, however, the evidence did tend to prove an element of the State's case, then the evidence was 'relevant' but was only admissible if the probative value of the evidence on that element outweighed its prejudicial effect. This second factor in the analysis allows the court some measure of discretion in determining, once the extraneous offense is found to have substantial independent relevance, whether it should nonetheless be excluded if it tends to influence the jury's determination of guilt or innocence due to less rational factors such as emotion. ²

The State initially indicated four reasons to justify the introduction of the December 18 armed robbery, but in oral argument before this court appeared to admit that the evidence was only relevant on the issue of identity. When the two men entered the Southside Grocery on December 20 both had revolvers drawn, both were masked, the victims were told to lie on the floor, and they fled after taking $30.00. It was clear that the two men intended to rob the clerks in the store; thus, guilty knowledge and intent were not at issue. ³ Likewise, the identification by the proprietor of State Cleaners in no way corroborated Sharon Haynes' identification of the accused as a participant in the case at bar. State v. Hicks, 301 So.2d 357, 365 (La.1974). Thus, identification by the witness to the State Cleaners robbery is not probative of the commission of the Southside Grocery robbery. ⁴

Therefore, if the evidence of the December 18 armed robbery was admissible at all, it was admissible under the 'system' or modus operandi exception. Of course the 'system' exception originally contemplated by R.S. 15:446 is not applicable here in the sense that the term is meant to apply to continuity of two or more activities for the completion of an offense. State v. Hicks, supra. Rather, our jurisprudence allows evidence of other offenses to prove what is called 'system' in robbery prosecutions.

All robberies exhibit certain common modes of operation such as the use of force to obtain something of value, often from small business establishments. Although the earlier jurisprudence was quite liberal in the application of the system exception, State v. Prieur, 277 So.2d 126 (La.1973), and other cases ⁵ have more clearly delineated and limited the scope of 'system.' The earlier cases appeared to recognize that the relevance of the extraneous offense lies in the inference that because the accused has committed somewhat similar crimes in a general area, it is more likely that he committed the crime at bar. The more recent cases have limited the...