State v. Honor
| Decision Date | 29 January 2020 |
| Docket Number | NO. 19-KA-379,19-KA-379 |
| Citation | 289 So.3d 249 |
| Parties | STATE of Louisiana v. Maurice HONOR |
| Court | Court of Appeal of Louisiana — District of US |
Ricky L. Babin, Lindsey D. Manda, Donald D. Candell, Counsel for Plaintiff/Appellee, State of Louisiana.
Cynthia K. Meyer, Counsel for Defendant/Appellant, Maurice Honor.
Panel composed of Judges Susan M. Chehardy, Marc E. Johnson, and John J. Molaison, Jr.
On appeal, Maurice Honor challenges his conviction for first degree robbery and sentence of forty years at hard labor without benefit of parole, probation, or suspension of sentence. For the following reasons, we affirm his conviction and sentence but remand for correction of the commitment.
On February 17, 2016, the St. James Parish District Attorney filed a bill of information charging Maurice Honor with armed robbery with a firearm in violation of La. R.S. 14:64 and La. R.S. 14:64.3. On March 14, 2016, Honor pled not guilty at his arraignment. On October 10, 2017, the State dismissed the charge enhancing the sentence for use of a firearm and amended the charge of armed robbery to first degree robbery, a violation of La. R.S. 14:64.1. The State later arraigned Honor on the amended charge, and he pled not guilty.
On May 15, 2018, trial before a twelve person jury commenced. At the close of the three-day trial, following the State's rebuttal during closing arguments, Honor made an oral motion for mistrial, which the trial judge denied. On May 17, 2018, the jury unanimously found Honor guilty as charged.
On October 9, 2018, after considering the presentence investigation report, the trial court sentenced Honor to forty years at hard labor without benefit of parole, probation, or suspension of sentence. On November 19, 2018, Honor timely filed a motion for appeal, which the trial judge granted on November 21, 2018.
At approximately 6:00 a.m. on January 17, 2016, Keyania Keyes, the manager of Big River Food & Fuel in Gramercy, was opening the store for the day when a white female came inside and asked where the restroom was located. Keyes observed that the female must have arrived in a white sedan, which was parked near the gasoline pumps. Keyes remembered that the woman left the store right after leaving the restroom.
Very soon after the woman exited, Keyes heard the front door chime again, and, as Keyes exited her office to greet the customer, a male "came straight at" her. She described the man as having a deep voice and wearing a dark jacket with a hood, dark pants, dark-colored gloves, and a black mask over his face. He also held a gun in his hand. Keyes tried to retreat, but he grabbed the front of the shirt and pointed the gun in her face. The assailant pulled Keyes to the cash register, demanded that she open the register, and ordered her not to press the store's silent alarm. As the assailant emptied the register, he began asking about the store's safe but Keyes told him that she could not open the safe. At that point, Keyes saw flashing police lights out of the corner of her eye.
By chance, Lieutenant Tyrone Lafargue with the St. James Parish Sheriff's Office (hereinafter "SJPSO") drove by the store that morning on his routine patrol. When he entered the parking lot, Lieutenant Lafargue was able to see into the store and observed the suspect, who wore a hoodie and kept his hands near his waist as if trying to conceal something, run out of the store in a crouch. Lieutenant Lafargue was immediately suspicious and attempted to drive after the suspect but lost sight of him so Lafargue went inside the store to check on Keyes, who he found "crying" and "traumatized." Keyes reported to Lieutenant Lafargue that she had been robbed at gunpoint by a person wearing a black ski mask and a hoodie, and relayed the details of the white female coming in to use the restroom right before the robbery. Keyes additionally was able to describe an older-model, white Crown Victoria sedan as the vehicle driven by the woman who had entered the store a short time before the robbery.
Lead Detective Juliette Scioneaux and Detective Monica Credidio arrived to Big River gas station to meet with Keyes, who was still visibly shaken, and to take her statement. In her statement, Keyes described the suspect as wearing a black mask and a black hoodie. When Detective Scioneaux watched the surveillance video, she noticed there was something on the mask around the mouth area. She also was able to observe the gun, which appeared to be some kind of semiautomatic weapon.
Lieutenant Lafargue left to search for the suspect when he observed a white female driving an older-model, white Crown Victoria. Lieutenant Lafargue became suspicious when the white female refused to make eye contact with him and drove at a suspiciously slow speed. Lieutenant Lafargue returned to the Big River store, watched the surveillance video, and recognized the woman and the white Crown Victoria that he had observed. He reported the incident and a description of the vehicle to SJPSO officers.
Based on Lieutenant Lafargue's description, SJPSO officers stopped the driver of the vehicle that had been at the convenience store immediately before the robbery, identified that driver as Renee Shrake, and advised her of her Miranda1 rights. Upon further questioning, Shrake provided the name of the suspect, Maurice Honor, who was her boyfriend at the time.
Meanwhile, SJPSO officers continued patrolling the area looking for Honor. During his search, Detective Derick Washington of SJPSO stopped at another convenience store located approximately half a mile from the Big River store. While there, Detective Washington received two separate reports that a black male wearing only a white undershirt and jogging pants had been roaming around in the parking lot that morning. Further, the store's cashier asked Detective Washington to conduct a welfare check on the elderly man living in the house adjacent to the convenience store because the cashier could not reach him by telephone after repeated tries. During the welfare check, Detective Washington performed a perimeter search of the residence and discovered a dark hoodie; a black, gray, and green knitted ski hat with a ball on top; and a black pistol underneath the edge of the elevated house. Detective Washington moved the objects for officer safety. The homeowner, who was located at his residence, denied ownership of the items.
Detectives Scioneaux and Credidio received word from Detective Washington that items had been discovered under the house and went to the scene to recover the evidence. Upon seeing the mask and gun, Detective Scioneaux believed they were likely the same mask and gun portrayed in the surveillance video from the Big River store. Detective Credidio recovered the hoodie, the ski mask, and the BB gun as evidence.
Later, SJPSO officers obtained an arrest warrant for Honor and Shrake, and after their arrests, police obtained their DNA. Detective Credidio testified that she swabbed the ski mask, and the trigger and handle of the BB gun, and sent the swabs for processing by the Louisiana State Police Crime Laboratory. SJPSO officers also obtained a search warrant for Shrake's Crown Victoria and recovered a black TracFone.
Tammy Rash, a forensic analyst with the Louisiana State Police Crime Lab, was accepted as an expert in the field of forensic DNA analysis. Rash analyzed the DNA of Honor and Shrake and compared their profiles to the DNA found on the trigger and handle of the BB gun and on the mask. Rash provided that Honor's DNA could not be excluded as being present on the mask, and a mixture containing Honor's and Shrake's DNA was found on the trigger of the BB gun. Finally, Honor's DNA could not be excluded as being present on the handle of the BB gun. Additionally, there was other DNA present on the handle at such a low concentration that a valid DNA profile could not be obtained.
At trial, Shrake stated that she pled guilty to conspiracy to commit first degree robbery, in violation of La. R.S. 14:26 and La. R.S. 14:64.1, for her involvement and promised to testify truthfully as part of her plea agreement. Shrake provided that at approximately 6:00 p.m. the day before the robbery, Honor called her, so she drove to his house in Boutte in her white Crown Victoria. They then drove to the Treasure Chest casino, and after they left the casino, Honor was driving her car, and she fell asleep.
When she woke up, they were in Thibodeaux parked across from a gas station, and Honor told her he intended to commit a robbery. Shrake told Honor not to, and in response, Honor pulled her hair, put a gun in her face, and threatened to kill her parents and daughter. The gas station was busy, however, so Honor drove them to the Big River gas station in Gramercy. Honor pulled up, exited the vehicle, and told Shrake to go inside and look around. Shrake complied, and when she came back outside, Honor told her to drive around to the car wash located behind the gas station. At that point, Honor put on a black hoodie, put on the "kind of black and white and green color" mask with "a ball on top," and went inside the store. Shrake was able to see Honor run out of the gas station and into a residential area. At that point, she left in her vehicle and was eventually pulled over by the police.
Shrake admitted at trial that she initially lied to the officers because she was afraid and was protecting Honor. As to her interview, Shrake admitted that she gave the detectives some untruthful information because she was scared, traumatized, and was still trying to "cover for" Honor at that point. She maintained that her trial testimony was truthful to the best of her recollection and that she pled guilty to conspiracy to commit first degree robbery because she was, in fact, guilty.
At the end of trial, the twelve-person jury unanimously found Honor guilty as charged of first degree robbery. This appeal follows.
On appeal, Honor raises three...
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