State v. Hart
| Decision Date | 07 March 1997 |
| Citation | 691 So.2d 651 |
| Parties | 96-0697 La |
| Court | Louisiana Supreme Court |
John R. Simmons, Jr., Covington, Nicholas Joseph Trenticosta, Julieann Hernon, New Orleans, for Applicant.
Richard P. Ieyoub, Atty. Gen., Walter P. Reed, Dist. Atty., Lewis V. Murray, III, Bogalusa, Millard Kensey Gatewood, Franklinton, Terry M. Boudreaux, Gretna, for Respondent.
[96-0697 La. 1] KIMBALL, Justice. *
A Washington Parish Grand Jury indicted Leonard Hart, Jr. for the first degree murder of Ernest Emile Young, in violation of La. R.S. 14:30. After a trial by jury, Defendant was found guilty as charged and sentenced to death based upon the jury's finding of one aggravating circumstance. The trial judge sentenced Defendant to death in accordance with the jury's recommendation. This is the direct appeal of Defendant's conviction and sentence.
For the reasons that follow, we reverse Defendant's first degree murder conviction and death sentence, but find the record supports the conclusion that Defendant is guilty of second degree murder and remand the case to the trial court for entry of judgment of guilty of second degree murder and for resentencing of Defendant to life imprisonment at hard labor without benefit of parole, probation, or suspension of sentence, pursuant to La.R.S. 14:30.1.
On the night of July 25, 1994, Bogalusa Police Officer Phillip Collins attempted to arrest Defendant on two attachments for unspecified city offenses. Following a brief scuffle, Defendant escaped from Officer Collins and hid in a nearby greenhouse, located four houses away from Ernest Emile Young's residence.
According to Defendant's confession, he decided to enter Young's residence to "get away from the police officer ..." and to "... find some drug money." A few months prior to this night, [96-0697 La. 2] Defendant had performed some work for Young. 1 Defendant walked to the rear of Young's house, took a pair of hedge clippers, and cut out a section of the molding from the window in the back door by the kitchen. One pane of glass had already been removed during a burglary at Young's house in the previous week. Defendant removed the adjacent second pane of glass and slipped through the opening into Young's kitchen.
Alerted by the noise made by Defendant, Young emerged from his back bedroom. In his confession, Defendant stated that he and Young went back to Young's bedroom. There, Defendant tore a piece of Young's bedsheet and bound Young's hands together by crossing his wrists and knotting the rest of the sheet around Young's feet. Defendant left Young bound and lying on his bed, walked into the living room, spilled the contents of Young's wallet onto the floor, and removed approximately $25.00 from Young's wallet. Defendant then took Young's car keys, climbed into Young's car, and drove to Hammond. In his confession, Defendant estimated he only spent fifteen minutes inside Young's home. Throughout his confession, Defendant maintains he did not intend to harm Young, but only tied him up so he could safely get away.
At some point in his ordeal, Young rose from his bed and went into his living room, where he collapsed on the floor in front of his couch. In order to reach his couch, Young had to move past his unlocked front door. A telephone ordinarily rested on a small table located on the side of the couch in the living room. However, the phone line had been unplugged from its jack and moved to the other side of the couch across from the front door, where it was placed on the floor with the receiver off the hook.
While conducting an investigation into two local burglaries, the Hammond Police Department located Young's car in a local housing project and contacted the Bogalusa Police Department, requesting it determine who was driving Young's car. On July 30, 1994, Bogalusa Police Officers Phillip Collins and Tommie Sorrell went to Young's residence. Upon arriving at Young's residence, the Officers observed uncollected mail in the box on the front porch and uncollected newspapers dated July 26, 27, 28, and 29 scattered in the yard. Through the window in the front door, the Officers saw Young lying on the living room floor. The Officers [96-0697 La. 3] entered the home through the unlocked front door. Once inside the home, the Officers testified they smelled an extremely foul odor and thought Young was dead. However, Young, who was lying in his own waste, with his wrists and feet bound, was alive but in an advanced state of dehydration.
The officers summoned an ambulance to Young's residence. Photographs taken while Young was still lying on the floor show that his wrists were extremely swollen and discolored. 2 2 Officer Sorrell testified, "it appeared that this cloth material that his hands were tied with had cut through the flesh and it appeared that you could almost see the bone." Afraid to cause Young any further injury, the Officers left his hands tied while they waited for the ambulance. Officer Collins testified that he removed the sheet from the lower part of Young's body. When emergency medical personnel arrived, they cut the cloth ligatures from Young's hands and transported him to the emergency room at Bogalusa Medical Center. Richard Barber, one of the emergency medical technicians who cut the ligatures from Young's hands, testified that the ligatures appeared to have been tied real tight and that he could see bone and ligaments when he cut the ligatures.
At the Bogalusa Medical Center Emergency Room, Young was treated by Nurse Lynn Starkey. Nurse Starkey testified the medical staff was primarily concerned with the condition of Young's hands, as they were swollen and dripping fluid. According to Nurse Starkey, Young had urine and fecal matter all over him, a bed sore on his right buttock, and an abrasion on his right elbow. However, these were the only injuries sustained by Young.
Young was transported to Our Lady of the Lake Hospital in Baton Rouge, where he immediately underwent surgery to debride his wrist wounds and relieve the pressure. He was also placed on antibiotics to fight a systemic infection caused by the wrist wounds and given fluids intravenously to combat extreme dehydration. On August 5, 1994, Dr. Curtis Chastain II, an internist, took over Young's care. According to Dr. Chastain, Young's slurred speech and walk pattern indicated Young probably had a stroke. On August 6, 1994, blood appeared in Young's stool and he was placed on acid-blocking medication.
[96-0697 La. 4] Young died on August 9, 1994. While Dr. Chastain and Dr. Richard Tracy, a pathologist who performed the autopsy on Young, disagreed as to the cause of Young's death, both agreed that the binding of Young's hands set his death in motion. 3
Defendant was arrested on July 30, 1994, ten days before Young died. On July 30, 1994, Defendant gave the Hammond Police Department a statement detailing his involvement in two burglaries that took place in Hammond. On August 2, 1994, Defendant gave two statements concerning the Young burglary. Throughout both statements, Defendant maintained he did not intend to harm Young. Initially, Defendant was charged with aggravated burglary, aggravated kidnapping, crimes upon a person over sixty-five years of age, and theft of a vehicle. However, the charge was upgraded to first degree murder when Young died.
During their investigation of the crime scene, the police found a plastic hot dog wrapper lying on the floor in the back bedroom where Defendant tied Young up. While at the crime scene, the Officers noticed Young's house was stifling hot and turned on the only air conditioner located in the front room. 4 Several latent prints were lifted off the plastic hot dog wrapper, but none matched Defendant's prints. There is no evidence in the record indicating Defendant ever came into contact with Young's air conditioner and no useable prints were recovered from the telephone receiver.
On September 28, 1995, the jury found Defendant guilty of first degree murder. The jury determined Defendant possessed the requisite specific intent to kill or inflict great bodily harm upon Young while Defendant was engaged in the commission of an aggravated burglary. The jury returned a penalty of death based upon their finding of one aggravating circumstance, that Defendant was engaged in the perpetration of an aggravated burglary at the time he committed his crime. On November 27, 1995, the trial judge denied Defendant's Motion For Post-Judgment Verdict of Acquittal and his Motion For A New Trial. In accordance with the jury's recommendation, the trial judge formally sentenced Defendant to death on November 29, 1995.
[96-0697 La. 5] LAW AND DISCUSSION
On appeal, Defendant alleges forty-two assignments of error, of which ten were argued. Because this court vacates Defendant's first degree murder conviction and death sentence for reasons given hereafter, we find it unnecessary to address any assignments of error relating to the penalty phase, or any unbriefed or unargued assignments of error pertinent to the guilt phase. State v. Bay, 529 So.2d 845, 846 (La.1988). However, because we find the evidence sufficient to support a conviction of second degree murder, we will address all briefed or argued assignments of error relating to pretrial issues and the guilt phase which would, if meritorious, require this court to remand the case for a new trial.
Defendant contends his conviction and sentence should be reversed based upon the trial court's failure to grant his motion for a change of venue on the ground that widespread publicity in the parish deprived him of the opportunity for a fair trial. The trial judge deferred ruling on the motion until voir dire was conducted. Voir dire took place on September 25 through September 27, 1995.
La.C.Cr.P. art. 622 5 governs the grounds for a change of venue. To obtain a change of...
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