State v. Guidry
| Decision Date | 08 May 2019 |
| Docket Number | 18-867 |
| Citation | 271 So.3d 275 |
| Parties | STATE of Louisiana v. Miles J. GUIDRY |
| Court | Court of Appeal of Louisiana — District of US |
Keith A. Stutes, Fifteenth Judicial District Attorney, Michele S. Billeaud, Assistant District Attorney, P. O. Box 3306, Lafayette, LA 70502-3306, (337) 232-5170, COUNSEL FOR APPELLEE: State of Louisiana
Edward K. Bauman, Louisiana Appellate Project, P. O. Box 1641, Lake Charles, LA 70602-1641, (337) 491-0570, COUNSEL FOR DEFENDANT/APPELLANT: Miles J. Guidry
Miles J. Guidry, Louisiana State Prison, Camp D Hawk 3-R-3, Angola, LA 70712, PRO SE: Miles J. Guidry
Court composed of Ulysses Gene Thibodeaux, Chief Judge, Shannon J. Gremillion, and John E. Conery, Judges.
Defendant, Miles J. Guidry, was charged by indictment on March 23, 2016, with one count of second degree murder, a violation of La.R.S. 14:30.1. On May 24, 2016, he waived formal arraignment and entered a plea of not guilty. Defendant filed numerous motions, including a "Motion for Prieur Hearing," "Motion to Suppress Search of Vehicle In Colorado," "Motion to Suppress Gruesome but Otherwise Extremely Prejudicial Photographs and Evidence," "Motion to Exclude the Note Recovered from the Suzuki XL-7 by Glendale Police," "Motion in Limine to Exclude Irrelevant and Inadmissible Character Evidence," "Motion in Limine to Exclude Evidence of Prior Bad Acts as it is Inadmissible Hearsay," and "Motion in Limine to Preclude the Forensic Pathologist from Offering Any Opinion Testimony Outside His Written Reports." All of the motions were denied by the trial court. Defendant then sought supervisory writs with this court as to the gruesome photographs, and this court remanded the matter, ruling that the trial court must make an individual determination as to each of the over 400 photographs.
Trial began on May 7, 2018, and on May 15, 2018, a unanimous jury returned a verdict of guilty. At the May 29, 2018 sentencing hearing, the trial court ruled on Defendant's May 25, 2018 motion for a new trial, advising him that the motion was denied. Defendant then made an oral motion for a post-verdict judgment of acquittal, which was also denied. Defendant was then sentenced to the statutorily-mandated life imprisonment at hard labor without benefit of probation, parole, or suspension of sentence, and the trial court instructed him that he was given credit for time served. On May 29, 2018, Defendant filed a Motion for Appeal and Designation of Record which the trial court granted on May 31, 2018. Defendant assigns the following errors, which we address in differing order:
On November 28, 2015, the victim, Claire Walley, and Defendant brought their four-week-old son to the victim's mother's house so that the couple could go out and celebrate Defendant's birthday. At approximately 11:40 p.m., the victim and Defendant returned to pick up their son, talked to the victim's mother about returning the next day to watch the Saints game, and then went home.
The next morning at about 6:00 a.m., Defendant's mother received a call from Defendant instructing her to come over to his home he shared with the victim and told his mother to enter through the back door. Once Defendant's mother arrived, she tried to enter through the back door, but it was locked, so she let herself in through the side door and discovered a trail of blood on the floor that lead to the victim. Defendant's mother then observed the victim lying on the floor in a pool of blood, with more blood coming from a cut on her neck, and a knife nearby. After calling her husband for support, she then called 911 as she tended to her grandson who she found crying, but unharmed, in a back room of the house. One of the responding officers, Deputy Jordan Ancelet, arrived and found two deputies on the scene. The three officers then entered the residence and found the deceased victim on the floor. The officers began to search the house to make sure there were no other occupants. After completing the sweep of the house, the officers exited the house to avoid contaminating the crime scene. The officers then ran the information on Defendant's vehicle to attempt to locate it, and cameras located the vehicle, via its license plate, going into Texas at about 3:49 a.m. Defendant was subsequently stopped for speeding in Woodville, Texas and issued a citation; however, the officer was delayed in receiving information that there was a warrant for Defendant's arrest. Defendant was eventually located in Glendale, Colorado, when Officer Trace Warrick observed Defendant's vehicle parked in an empty parking lot at 4:00 a.m. on December 7, 2015. After the officer ran the license plate and learned of the warrant for a homicide connected with a possible occupant of the vehicle, Defendant was handcuffed, and the vehicle was treated as a crime scene. Defendant was then sent back to Lafayette and booked into jail.
In assignment of error six, Defendant contends the evidence introduced at trial was insufficient to sustain his conviction of second-degree murder. We consider this assignment of error first, in accordance with State v. Hearold , 603 So.2d 731 (La.1992).
The analysis for a sufficiency of the evidence claim is well-settled:
When the issue of sufficiency of evidence is raised on appeal, the critical inquiry of the reviewing court 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 , 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560, rehearing denied , 444 U.S. 890, 100 S.Ct. 195, 62 L.Ed.2d 126 (1979), State ex rel. Graffagnino v. King, 436 So.2d 559 (La.1983) ; State v. Duncan , 420 So.2d 1105 (La.1982) ; State v. Moody , 393 So.2d 1212 (La.1981). It is the role of the fact finder to weight the respective credibility of the witnesses, and therefore, the appellate court should not second guess the credibility determinations of the triers of fact beyond the sufficiency evaluations under the Jackson standard of review. See State ex rel. Graffagnino , 436 So.2d 559 (citing State v. Richardson , 425 So.2d 1228 (La.1983) ). In order for this Court to affirm a conviction, however, the record must reflect that the state has satisfied its burden of proving the elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt.
State v. Kennerson , 96-1518, p. 5 (La.App. 3 Cir. 5/7/97), 695 So.2d 1367, 1371.
Under La.R.S. 14:30.1, second degree murder is relevantly defined as the killing of a human being "[w]hen the offender has a specific intent to kill or to inflict great bodily harm[.]" As the fourth circuit noted in State v. White , 14-397, p. 17 (La.App. 4 Cir. 7/29/15), 174 So.3d 177, 189 (footnote omitted), writ denied , 15-1577 (La. 10/10/16), 207 So.3d 408, "to prove second degree murder the state must prove the killing of a human being either with specific intent or when the offender is engaged in one of the listed crimes." "The severity of the attack on the victim is an indicator of the defendant's specific intent to kill." State v. Corley , 97-235, p. 6 (La.App. 3 Cir. 10/8/97), 703 So.2d 653, 659, writ denied , 97-2845 (La. 3/13/98), 712 So.2d 875.
In the instant case, Defendant contends that
First, Defendant argues that too many errors were committed at the investigatory stage and at trial to allow a verdict of guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. To support his claim, Defendant highlights several alleged errors, many of which will be addressed in the assignments of error that follow due to Defendant's claims regarding the inadmissibility of certain pieces of evidence and claims regarding rulings made by the trial court on some of Defendant's motions.
He first notes that a detective with the Lafayette Police Department, Detective Chris Beasley, testified that a suspect was immediately identified, which negated the need to prioritize the identification of a fingerprint found on one of the homicide weapons. Defendant also argues that the fingerprint that was found did not match Defendant and was not able compared to the victim because the victim was laid to rest without being fingerprinted.
Secondly, Defendant points to the fact that all of his motions were denied by the trial court.
Defendant next points out that one juror was a member of law enforcement (Kimberly Sassau) and another was a relative of the victim (Fritz Farrar). This issue is fully and more appropriately discussed in assignment of error number two.
The next alleged error Defendant urges is his assertion that highly prejudicial "other crimes" evidence was admitted. The alleged inadmissible "other crimes" evidence is testimony from Detective St. Cyr, an investigator for the Lafayette Sheriff's Department, regarding marijuana he found when he opened some of the evidence...
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