State v. Holliday

• Decision Date: 29 January 2020
• Docket Number: 2017-KA-01921
• Citation: 340 So.3d 648
• Parties: STATE of Louisiana v. Dacarius HOLLIDAY
• Court: Louisiana Supreme Court

340 So.3d 648

STATE of Louisiana

v.Dacarius HOLLIDAY

No. 2017-KA-01921

Supreme Court of Louisiana.

January 29, 2020

Erica Lauren Navalance, Sarah Lynn Ottinger, Cecelia Trenticosta, Shanita Louise Farris, and Christopher James Sanders Murell, for Appellant.

Hon. Jeffrey Martin Landry, Attorney General, Hon. Hillar Clement Moore, III, District Attorney, Monisa L. Thompson, Dana K. Jones, Stacy Lynn Wright, and Colin Andrew Clark, for Appellee.

CRICHTON, J.^*

On June 27, 2007, a grand jury indicated defendant Dacarius Holliday ("defendant") for the first-degree murder of two-year-old Darian Coon. On March 14, 2010, a unanimous jury found defendant guilty as charged. On March 17, 2010, the jury unanimously determined that defendant be sentenced to death, finding the following aggravating circumstances proven beyond a reasonable doubt: (1) the offender was engaged in the perpetration or attempted perpetration of second-degree cruelty to juveniles; and (2) the victim was under the age of twelve (12) years. See La. R.S. 14:30 (A)(1) and (5) and La. R.S. 14:93.2.3.

This is defendant's direct appeal pursuant to La. Const. art. V, § 5 (D).¹ Defendant raises 52 assignments of error, variously combined into 29 arguments, all of which will be addressed herein. After a thorough review of the law and the evidence contained in the record before this Court, we find that none of the arguments set forth by defendant constitute reversible error. Accordingly, for reasons that follow, we affirm the defendant's first-degree murder conviction and sentence of death.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Ms. Amanda Coon ("Ms. Coon") met defendant, 29-year-old Dacarius Holliday, on the last day of her vacation in Pensacola, Florida in early April 2007. Defendant, who lived in St. Louis, Missouri, was in Pensacola visiting his aunt. The same day they met, defendant traveled back to Baton Rouge with Ms. Coon and moved in with her and her two children: four-year-old Daisha and two-year-old Darian, the victim. Early in the morning on May 14, 2007, Ms. Coon left for work, dropping Daisha at daycare on the way. Although Darian ordinarily went to daycare as well, he remained at home that particular day with defendant because Ms. Coon was out of "pull-up" diapers, which the daycare required.

Ms. Coon called to check on Darian around noon, and defendant told her Darian was fine and playing. Later that afternoon while Ms. Coon was at lunch, however, defendant began calling her at work. When she returned from lunch at around 4:00 p.m., she returned defendant's call, and defendant told her to come home right away but did not say why. During that conversation, defendant told Ms. Coon that Darian was sleeping.

When Ms. Coon arrived home from work sometime between 5:30 and 6:00 p.m., defendant met her outside and began telling her that he had "done things in his life," which probably explained what was happening to him. Alarmed, she went inside and found Darian on the sofa, unresponsive, not breathing, and cold to the touch. She ran outside, hysterical, screaming and crying for help. Because of the screaming, neighbor Kim Lejander Godfrey, appeared outside just as Ms. Coon's brother Derrick, who was visiting from Houston, drove up with Ms. Coon's daughter Daisha. The four adults went into the house, and Ms. Coon called 911 at 5:57 p.m.² As defendant punched the walls repeatedly, Ms. Coon, followed by Ms. Godfrey, unsuccessfully attempted CPR at the direction of the 911 dispatcher. Firefighters arrived quickly and attempted to resuscitate Darian, promptly followed by paramedics, who took over the attempt at resuscitation, but detected no breathing or cardiac activity. They continued resuscitation efforts as they transported Darian to Baton Rouge General Hospital, where further life-saving efforts failed, and Darian was pronounced dead at 6:42 p.m.

Defendant voluntarily accompanied detectives to the police station when Darian and his family left for the hospital and gave a voluntary statement to police after hearing his Miranda rights³ and signing a waiver form. Defendant told police that after Ms. Coon and Daisha left that morning, the victim had urinated on himself, so defendant had "beat his ass and put him on the toilet and put him in the tub." Defendant said he ordered Darian to sit on the toilet "for about two hours," or "until the toilet gets tired," as punishment for his toilet-training accident. After leaving Darian on the toilet, defendant informed detectives he fell asleep on the sofa and was awakened by the victim calling out. He moved Darian to the bathtub and again fell asleep while the victim sat in the tub. Defendant awoke because of a noise in the bathroom, indicating that Darian was "not sitting there like this, like he's supposed to, because he's in trouble." Referencing him as a "little bitch," defendant stated Darian was "whimpering and whining," so he dressed him and walked him to a nearby store. When they returned, he put the victim on the sofa and later realized the victim was unresponsive. Defendant denied hitting the victim hard enough to cause injury and speculated that the victim had fallen and injured himself in the bathroom while defendant was sleeping. When detectives requested a DNA sample, defendant asked for a lawyer for that limited purpose but denied requesting a lawyer for any other reason and continued to re-initiate conversation with the detectives. Eventually, the detectives obtained a warrant for defendant's DNA sample, terminated the interview, and released defendant after obtaining the DNA swabs.

The following day, May 15, 2007, defendant contacted detectives and requested to attend the victim's autopsy because he wanted to offer suggestions about potential causes of the victim's death. Detectives declined his offer but agreed to give defendant a ride to the police station to discuss his concerns further. Dr. Gilbert Corrigan, the pathologist who conducted the autopsy that day, concluded that the victim died of multiple traumatic injuries, including a lacerated liver

, a partially lacerated renal artery, and a fractured rib. Dr. Corrigan also observed extensive bruising on the victim's head, face, and body, bruising and a bite mark on the bottom of the victim's foot, an injury to the tip of the victim's penis, and noted as well that the victim's anus appeared slightly dilated and distended.

After the autopsy, detectives again met with defendant, at which time he signed another waiver of rights form. During this interview, defendant speculated that when he "roughed up" the victim for urinating on himself, he could have accidentally "misfired" and broken the victim's rib, which then punctured the victim's lung and killed him. Defendant also told officers "since you've done the autopsy, you probably know," that he had bitten the victim's foot and inserted his finger into the victim's rectum. He claimed he did these things in an effort to revive the victim and check his temperature.⁴ Eventually, the detectives told defendant the autopsy showed the victim had died of massive internal injuries, and defendant responded, "That's deep—massive internal injuries? That means I fucked up." Officers ended the interview and placed defendant under arrest.

A grand jury indicted defendant on June 27, 2007, charging him with first- degree murder of Darian Coon. Defendant was arraigned on October 31, 2007, and entered a plea of not guilty. That same day, the State filed a notice of intent to seek the death penalty, designating as statutory aggravating circumstances: 1) the offender was engaged in the perpetration or attempted perpetration of cruelty to juveniles; 2) the offender was engaged in the perpetration or attempted perpetration of second-degree cruelty to juveniles; and 3) the victim was under the age of twelve. On May 20, 2008, the State filed its first amended notice of intent to seek the death penalty and designation of aggravating circumstances, adding to the above list of aggravating circumstances that 4) the offender was engaged in the perpetration or the attempted perpetration of aggravated rape. On October 19, 2009, the State filed its second amended notice of intent to seek the death penalty and designation of aggravating circumstances, deleting two previously designated circumstances, and designating only two: 1) the offender was engaged in the perpetration or the attempted perpetration of second-degree cruelty to juveniles; and 2) the victim was under the age of twelve.

The defense filed more than 90 pre-trial motions, as well as additional supplemental motions. Notable among these were: a motion to suppress and/or preclude the use of DNA evidence at trial; motions to suppress defendant's two statements to police; motions to exclude gruesome autopsy photographs from use at trial; a motion to determine admissibility of the 911 recording for use at trial; and motions relating to jury selection, change of venue, the constitutionality of the death penalty and portions of Louisiana's statutory death penalty framework. The trial court held numerous pre-trial hearings and ruled upon the motions. Both the State and defendant sought appellate review of some of those rulings.⁵

Jury selection began on March 1, 2010, and a jury was sworn on March 11, 2010. Eight panels of thirteen prospective jurors were examined, and each side exercised all available peremptory strikes. Opening statements took place on March 11, 2010. The State argued that it would present evidence to show that defendant beat the victim to death after he urinated on himself, that he deliberately harmed the victim by biting his foot and damaging the victim's anus, and that he failed to seek medical attention for the victim as the victim died. In its opening statement, the defense posited that the victim's death was an accident in the course of discipline, and the State's evidence would only demonstrate that defendant had acted with negligence or recklessness.

On March 14,...