State v. Huckabay

• Decision Date: 06 February 2002
• Docket Number: No. 2000-KA-1082.,2000-KA-1082.
• Citation: 809 So.2d 1093
• Parties: STATE of Louisiana v. Justin E. HUCKABAY, II.
• Court: Court of Appeal of Louisiana — District of US

809 So.2d 1093

STATE of Louisiana v. Justin E. HUCKABAY, II.

No. 2000-KA-1082.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Fourth Circuit.

February 6, 2002.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Harry F. Connick, District Attorney, Anne M. Dickerson, Assistant District Attorney, New Orleans, LA, for Plaintiff/Appellee.

Ralph S. Whalen, Jr., New Orleans, LA, for Defendant/Appellant.

(Court composed of Judge JOAN BERNARD ARMSTRONG, Judge STEVEN R. PLOTKIN, Judge TERRI F. LOVE).

Judge STEVEN R. PLOTKIN.

There are multiple issues in this appeal of a second degree murder conviction. The first relates to jury selection; the second to rulings on evidence during the trial and the final one to the sufficiency of the evidence.

PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Defendant, Justin Huckabay, was charged by a grand jury indictment with the November 8, 1995 first degree murder of Michael Vasquez, in violation of La. R.S. 14:30.¹ Defendant was tried by a twelve-person jury and found guilty of second degree murder. The trial court denied defendant's motion for new trial. Defendant waived legal delays and was sentenced to life imprisonment at hard labor without benefit of parole, probation or suspension of sentence.

STATEMENT OF FACTS

New Orleans Police Officer Terry Thomas testified that on November 8, 1995, at approximately 4:20 a.m., he and his partner responded to a citizen report of a person lying on the sidewalk at the intersection of Chestnut and Josephine Streets. The individual, who was not moving and did not appear to be breathing, was bleeding profusely from a large open wound on his head. New Orleans Police Homicide Det. John Ronquillo investigated the homicide. There was a plastic bag over the feet of the victim, and the body was wrapped in a brown blanket and a beige comforter, with an electrical cord wrapped around the neck. Det. Ronquillo said the brown blanket had a great deal of white or gray hairs on it, like animal or cat hairs. When the outer coverings were removed, a rope was discovered wrapped around the victim's neck, with significant markings on the neck. The victim was wearing a pair of purple multi-colored swim trunks, and a blood-stained polo shirt was found at the scene. Det. Ronquillo later described the victim as five feet one inches tall, weighing one hundred and thirty pounds. There was no identification on the body.

On November 14, 1995, one of the victim's former co-workers at Choice Couriers contacted police after reading a newspaper article about the discovery of the body. That person identified the victim and the detectives learned that the victim had resided at 1431 St. Andrew Street, Apartment 6. Detectives discovered that the victim had not paid rent there for a week, and had partially moved out. The detectives subpoenaed utility records and learned that the victim had registered for utilities at 2033 Coliseum Street, Apartment 2. Det. Ronquillo and his partner, Det. Joseph Waguespack, went to that location on November 21, 1995, around 12:30 a.m. A male, later determined to be defendant, came to a window and left. The detectives knocked on a door, which was answered by Linda Sunell. Inside of the apartment were defendant and Kathleen Green, Sunell's fourteen-year old daughter. Defendant said that the three of them had lived with the victim on St. Andrew Street, before moving to the Coliseum Street apartment. Defendant said the last time he saw the victim was on November 11, when the victim had left to spend time with his girlfriend. Linda Sunell and Kathleen Green relayed essentially the same facts to the detectives. As the detectives were preparing to leave, Det. Ronquillo noticed what appeared to be a blood stain on the wooden arm of a sofa.

Det. Ronquillo obtained a search warrant for the apartment, which he executed on November 29 with another detective, a criminalist, and a forensic light examiner. Ms. Sunell answered the door. Det. Ronquillo said that when he and Det. Waguespack had gone to the apartment on November 21, it was filthy. He said it was obvious that the apartment had been cleaned. There were gouges in the sheetrock that looked as if they had been made by a knife or other instrument, and Det. Ronquillo said there was blood in the gouges. A piece of the sheetrock was removed from the wall for evidence. Det. Ronquillo said blood was still on the wooden arm of the sofa. There was also blood underneath the sofa cushions, and a large clump of black hair, similar to that of the victim. There was blood on the lining of the sofa, indicating that bloody cushions simply had been turned over. The cushions were confiscated, as was the lining. The wooden arm of the sofa was collected as evidence. Samples were taken of suspected blood stains everywhere. The floor had been cleaned up to point where some bicycles were located, but when those were moved, blood stains were discovered on the floor. Samples of these stains were collected, as were some of the floor tiles. A piece of a door was taken, as were a pair of size 12 Nike tennis shoes, with one shoe stained with blood. Some white plastic garbage bags similar to the one that had covered the victim's feet were recovered, as well as a piece of rope. Detectives removed some blood stained floor tiles from a bedroom, and a knife and a meat cleaver from the kitchen. Det. Ronquillo noted a police photograph of the apartment showing a grayish-white cat inside, looking out.

On November 29, 1995, the date the search warrant was executed, Linda Sunell and Kathleen Green were arrested. Defendant came to the homicide bureau that afternoon and gave a taped statement after being advised of his Miranda rights. That statement was played for the jury. In his scattered and rambling statement, defendant, then twenty years old, indicated that he did not move into the Coliseum Street apartment until after the victim's death. He later said that he never really moved in, but that he might have spent a night or two there. He claimed to have stayed with a number of different people. He knew the victim, and said the victim had moved in with Linda Sunell and her daughter Kathleen Green for a couple of days. Defendant said he met Sunell and Miss Green at the Hummingbird Grill; they had just arrived in town and were looking for a place to stay. Defendant was then living at the Hummingbird with Angie McGinnis. Defendant said that sometime after Sunell and Ms. Green moved in with the victim, he saw Sunell, who told him that the victim was gone. Sunell wanted defendant to come over "to help them get out or get Michael [sic] stuff together in case he came to get it, or if he was killed or what, [sic]...."

The two females asked defendant if they should file a missing person report. Defendant said he figured the victim had gone to stay with a girlfriend. He did not know her name or where she lived. When asked whether he knew if the victim had any enemies, defendant said no. Defendant said he did not know whether the victim and Sunell had a romantic relationship, but that there was nothing between the victim and Green, as he would have known that. Defendant said Green was his girlfriend, but that he had not had intercourse with her because she was only fourteen. Defendant stated he had pretty much been living at the Coliseum Street apartment since the victim left. Defendant denied killing the victim or knowing who did. He said he knew how the victim was killed because a lady next door told him that the victim had been beaten, strangled and wrapped up in a sheet.

Det. Ronquillo testified that blood was drawn from defendant, Sunell and Miss Green while they were in custody, on December 6, 1995. That blood was not submitted to the FBI for DNA analysis until May 1998, and the results did not come back until February 1999. On April 2, 1998, Det. Ronquillo was contacted by Det. Ron Eddington, of the Picayune Police Department in Mississippi. Det. Eddington advised him that Kathleen Green, by then seventeen years old, had been found in a vehicle with Raymond Johnson, who was arrested on outstanding warrants from Arkansas. Miss Green was made a ward of the State of Mississippi, and placed in Pine Grove Medical Center. Miss Green confided to a social worker that she knew details of a murder in New Orleans involving a friend of hers named Michael. Det. Ronquillo took a statement from Miss Green on May 11, 1998 at the Pine Grove Medical Center, which differed from the statement she had given in November 1995. Based on that statement, a grand jury indicted defendant and Linda Sunell for the first degree murder of Michael Vasquez.

Det. Ronquillo subsequently arrested defendant at a French Market stand operated by defendant and his wife, Elizabeth. Defendant was advised of his rights, and he said that he did not kill anyone. Defendant told the officers he did not recall what he said in his November 1995 statement, but that he stood by it. During a subsequent search of defendant's residence, at 8863 Highway 23, in Belle Chasse, Louisiana, officers seized a machete-type knife with a brown handle and a blade of sixteen and one quarter inches in length, along with a scabbard. Det. Ronquillo said he had continued to search for Linda Sunell, without success.

Det. Ronquillo testified on cross-examination that his report reflected that Dr. McGarey, a coroner, mentioned to him that certain wounds were caused by a meat cleaver. Det. Ronquillo said he did not know to whom the bloody size twelve Nike tennis shoes he recovered from 2033 Coliseum belonged. Det. Ronquillo believed that comparison tests between a meat cleaver and the gouges on the sheetrock wall of 2033 Coliseum Street were inconclusive. Det. Ronquillo admitted that defendant was uncertain of the date he last saw the victim when he made his November 1995 statement. However, Det. Ronquillo said defendant had told him on November 21 that he had last seen the victim two Saturdays ago, which Det. Ronquillo said would have been November 11. Det....