State v. Hicks
| Decision Date | 02 March 1981 |
| Docket Number | No. 67698,67698 |
| Citation | 395 So.2d 790 |
| Parties | STATE of Louisiana v. Jamie HICKS. |
| Court | Louisiana Supreme Court |
William J. Guste, Jr., Atty. Gen., Barbara Rutledge, Asst. Atty. Gen., James D. Caldwell, Dist. Atty., Crawford Rose, Asst. Dist. Atty., for plaintiff-appellee.
Richard Burnes, Alexandria, for defendant-appellant.
Defendant, Jamie Hicks, was convicted of the second degree murder of Sheldon Claxton in violation of R.S. 14:30.1. Defendant filed a motion for a new trial and now appeals from the trial judge's denial of that motion and from his conviction, raising five assignments of error before this Court. For the following reasons, we affirm the ruling denying the motion for a new trial and affirm the defendant's conviction.
The evidence adduced at trial shows that on September 16, 1979 at approximately 10:45 p. m., defendant left the Tallulah, Louisiana residence he shared with Ann Spencer in search of Spencer. Spencer had informed defendant she would be home at 10:30 and when she did not return at that time, Hicks left on his bicycle to look for her. He soon found her with Sheldon Claxton, a man she had been dating notwithstanding her relationship with defendant. Claxton and Spencer were returning from a grocery store, and Claxton carried a bag of groceries which he had purchased and also held Spencer's bicycle as they walked down the street. Hicks then confronted the couple and inquired of Spencer concerning her absence from the home. Hicks was armed with a pistol and, according to Hicks, when he first encountered the couple, Claxton reached inside his grocery bag and defendant then pulled his pistol and demanded that Claxton not reach into the bag since defendant did not know what it contained. According to defendant, when he saw that Claxton had merely reached for a soft drink, he then placed his pistol in a front pocket of his sweater.
An argument over Hicks' relationship with Ann Spencer finally erupted into a fight between the two. Both Spencer and Hicks testified that Hicks and Claxton began exchanging blows almost simultaneously. Spencer testified that after the fighting began, the defendant and Claxton were standing close to the side of the street near a ditch when defendant pulled a gun and fired about five shots at Claxton. According to Spencer, Claxton fell to his hands and knees after the shots were fired and defendant tried with his foot to shove Claxton's hands out from under him. Spencer stated that Claxton then grabbed Hicks by the legs, and Hicks began beating Claxton over the head with his pistol. According to defendant Hicks, he pulled his pistol and shot Claxton only after Claxton made two attempts to reach into his pants. Defendant remembers firing his weapon three times. He admits that he tried to knock Claxton's hands out from under him after the shooting and that he struck Claxton twice over the head after he had grabbed defendant's legs. After the shooting was over, Hicks testified he felt Claxton's pockets, and felt a cigarette lighter, a pocket knife, and some change. He then left the scene on his bicycle, but later returned, handing his pistol over to the police who, by that time, had arrived on the scene.
Three witnesses who testified that they were in the area of the shooting at the time it occurred corroborated portions of the above testimony at the trial of defendant. Deborah Frost said she saw defendant fighting with someone, heard shots and saw defendant hitting someone who was in the ditch on the side of the street. Her companion Ronnie Jones testified that he saw Jamie (Hicks) shooting down into the ditch, saw him jump down in the ditch and beat someone with his gun, then heard him shouting to Ann Spencer, "he's dead, now you don't need him." Marie Porter, another witness to the events of that night, stated that she saw Hicks push Claxton into the ditch, shoot him as he came up after Hicks, then jump down and beat Claxton. She also testified that she heard the defendant tell Spencer "he's dead now".
Dr. Kermit Walters testified that the victim, Sheldon Claxton, received three gunshot wounds the night in question, one to his scalp, one to his groin, and a fatal shot to his chest. Claxton also had a black eye resulting from a blow dealt with a blunt instrument or a fist. The victim died in a hospital in Vicksburg, Mississippi from the gunshot wound to the chest.
Defendant's sole defense at trial was that he was acting in self defense when he shot the victim. Hicks testified that he kept his pistol for his own protection and took it with him that night because he though something may have happened to Spencer. His only explanation for pulling the trigger (an action he admitted he intended) was that he saw defendant "going into his pants". Ann Spencer the center of the controversy, testified that she did not see the victim reach into his pants, although her testimony reveals that she did not witness the entire altercation. Spencer did state that defendant owned a pocket knife and that he had it with him earlier that night. She also said that she had told Jamie at some point before the night of the shooting that Claxton had a .357 Magnum. According to Ann Spencer, Claxton had threatened the defendant about a week or two before the shooting, but Spencer did not explain the content of the threat. Also, Spencer related that Claxton had told her the day before the shooting that "he would like to get a chance to swing on him (Hicks)". Spencer testified that Claxton did not, to her knowledge, have his pistol with him the night of the shooting and that she did not see him take his pocket knife out of his pants.
At the hearing of defendant's motion for a new trial, Joanne Claxton testified that she retrieved her brother Sheldon Claxton's personal effects from the hospital in Vicksburg, Mississippi where Claxton died from the gunshot wounds inflicted by defendant Hicks. She was given Claxton's wallet, a set of keys, some change and a pocket knife. Ann Spencer testified at the hearing that Joanne Claxton told her that the above items of Claxton's had been turned over to her.
Defendant first contends that the trial judge erred in denying his motion for a new trial in view of the fact that the prosecution incorrectly responded to an inquiry defendant made in his application for a bill of particulars. In that application, defendant posed the following question to the state: "What, if any, dangerous weapon or instrument was found on the victim at the scene of the crime during the commission of the alleged crime or during the investigation of the crime charged." The state responded: "No dangerous weapon of any type was found upon the victim." Defendant argues that this response was incorrect and that the state was thereby withholding evidence favorable to the accused and denying defendant due process of law in violation of the rule set out by the United States Supreme Court in Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963) and in Moore v. Illinois, 408 U.S. 786, 92 S.Ct. 2562, 33 L.Ed.2d 706 (1972). The evidence does not support defendant's contention that the state denied him Brady material. A fair inference from the evidence is that defendant knew as much or more about the knife as the state. In any event, any "withheld" evidence did not create a reasonable doubt as to defendant's guilt, and defendant was not denied a fair trial.
At trial, the defendant testified that after shooting Claxton, he felt the deceased's pockets and determined that there was a knife, a cigarette lighter and some change in his pockets. Ann Spencer also testified at trial that the deceased had a knife in his possession earlier that evening. Spencer not only gave this testimony at trial but the defense elicited the same information from her as early as the preliminary hearing.
At the hearing on the motion for a new trial, the deceased's sister, Joanne Claxton, testified for the first time. She stated that she went to the hospital where her brother died and received her brother's personal belongings. Among the items given to her was a folding pocket knife. There is some indication that a member of the Tallulah police force may have known that a pocket knife had been recovered from the victim's body since Joanne Claxton stated at the hearing that "uh, Wilmore was with me" when she received her brother's personal effects. The record of the hearing does not reveal any clue as to the identity of "Wilmore", but the record at trial shows that an Officer Ernest Wilmore of the Tallulah Police participated in the investigation of the shooting at issue and testified at defendant's trial. At defendant's trial, Officer Buddy Cupit, another of the investigating officers, testified that no one searched the shooting victim at the scene because he was seriously wounded.
The state insists that it was not aware of the existence of the pocket knife at the time the defense requested whether a dangerous weapon was found on Claxton. The state maintains that the knife was never in its possession and that it became aware of the existence of the knife at the preliminary examination when the defense elicited testimony from Ann Spencer concerning the knife. The defense alleges that the testimony adduced at the hearing of the motion for a new trial shows that a dangerous weapon was found on the victim and that the state denied defendant Brady material when it stated to them that no dangerous weapon was found on the victim.
It was not conclusively established that the state's response to defendant's request was inaccurate. In addition to this pertinent lack of knowledge of the knife's existence by the state, it is further unknown whether the knife possessed such qualities as to qualify as a dangerous weapon. The pocket knife was never produced at the hearing on the motion for new trial, although the victim's sister...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
State v. Taylor
... ... Brady v. Maryland, supra. The test for materiality is whether the suppressed evidence creates a reasonable doubt that does not otherwise exist. United States v. Agurs, 427 U.S. 97, 96 S.Ct. 2392, 49 L.Ed.2d 342 (1976); State v. Hicks, 395 So.2d 790 (La.1981); State v. Falkins, 356 So.2d 415 (La.1978), cert. denied 439 U.S. 865, 99 S.Ct. 190, 58 L.Ed.2d 175 (1978) ... Technician Deidrich lifted one partial palm print from the outside trunk lid, one partial palm print from the inside trunk lid, two ... ...
-
State v. Willis
...if the prosecutor refers to, or it is apparent that his opinion is based on, the evidence of record. Id. See also State v. Hicks, 395 So.2d 790, 797-98 (La.1981); State v. Bretz, 394 So.2d 245, 248 (La.1981), cert. denied, 454 U.S. 820, 102 S.Ct. 102, 70 L.Ed.2d 91 This Court has recognized......
-
State v. Frost, 97-KA-1771.
...if the prosecutor refers to, or it is apparent that his opinion is based on, the evidence of record. Id. See also State v. Hicks, 395 So.2d 790, 797-98 (La.1981); State v. Bretz, 394 So.2d 245, 248 (La.1981),cert. denied, 454 U.S. 820, 102 S.Ct. 102, 70 L.Ed.2d 91 This Court has recognized ......
-
State v. Vaccaro
... ... United States v. Agurs, supra. An admission by the state that defendant had denied any knowledge of the victim's murder would not have created a reasonable doubt as to defendant's guilt in light of the substantial evidence against him. See State v. Hicks, 395 So.2d 790 (La.1981). Nor, under a lesser standard of materiality that may control specific requests for exculpatory material in advance of trial, would the evidence have likely altered the jury's verdict. See State v. Sylvester, 388 So.2d 1155 (La.1980). This assignment of error lacks ... ...