State v. Humphrey

• Decision Date: 16 January 1984
• Docket Number: No. 82-KA-2141,82-KA-2141
• Citation: 445 So.2d 1155
• Parties: STATE of Louisiana v. James Louis HUMPHREY.
• Court: Louisiana Supreme Court

Page 1155

445 So.2d 1155

STATE of Louisiana v. James Louis HUMPHREY.

No. 82-KA-2141.

Supreme Court of Louisiana Jan. 16, 1984.

William J. Guste, Jr., Atty. Gen., Barbara Rutledge, Asst. Atty. Gen., Leonard Knapp, Jr., Dist. Atty., Eugene Bouquet, Robert R. Bryant, Jr., Asst. Dist. Attys., for plaintiff-appellee.

Richard P. Ieyoub, Thomas L. Lorenzi, Lake Charles, for defendant-appellant.

CALOGERO, Justice.

In this appeal following a jury's finding the defendant guilty of two counts of manslaughter, for the reasons which follow, we affirm the defendant's conviction and sentence on each count to fifteen years at hard labor with the sentences to run consecutively.

This case has had a somewhat lengthy procedural history. The matter first came to this Court on a pre-trial writ which was granted in order to decide whether evidence of prior offenses would be admissible. In State v. Humphrey, 381 So.2d 815 (La.1980), we decided that evidence of simple batteries committed upon the same victims on April 25, 1978, three days before the fatal April 28, 1978, beatings was admissible. Humphrey's case was then remanded to the district court for trial on the merits. Thereafter he was convicted and sentenced to fifteen years at hard labor on each count of manslaughter, with the sentences to run consecutively. Defendant appealed his conviction and sentence. The conviction was conditionally affirmed by this Court pending disposition on remand for the trial court's consideration of the proffered evidence of a polygraph examination and for a trial court ruling on a motion for a new trial, to be accomplished prior to resentencing. State v. Humphrey, 412 So.2d 507 (La.1981). A rehearing was granted. The original opinion was reinstated. ¹ Accordingly a hearing on the motion for a new trial was conducted at which the trial court received evidence of Humphrey's post-verdict polygraph examination and the newly discovered evidence of a polygraph examination administered about one year prior to the trial on the merits to one Mona Brouchet, the mother of the deceased infant children. At the hearing's conclusion the trial court denied the motion for a new trial and resentenced defendant to fifteen year terms at hard labor on each count, to run consecutively. Defendant appeals the trial court's ruling and the reimposed sentence contending that the trial court erred in denying his motion for a new trial and that the sentence he received was excessive. Upon review and for the reasons which follow, we affirm both his conviction and sentence.

The facts of this case are the following:

James Humphrey and his common law wife Mona Brouchet lived together in Lake Charles with their two infant daughters; Janice, age 22 months and Latasha, age 9 months at the time of their death. On Friday, April 28, 1978, after feeding both girls, Mona Brouchet left them at home with Humphrey allegedly around 6:00 p.m. while she spent the evening with other family members at the home of Humphrey's father. Shortly after Mona left, Joseph Breaux, a seven year old neighbor saw Janice outside alive. Around 9:00 p.m., Humphrey's sister, Della Lane, came to the house but did not enter when she saw Humphrey asleep on the bed with the children. Sometime after 10:00 p.m., the defendant woke up and apparently thought something was wrong with the children. He walked to the park about two blocks away. After a while in the park, he met a friend Howard, and told him that Mona had done "something bad, bad, bad" to the children and that he was afraid that he might go to jail for it. Around 11:00 p.m. Humphrey's relatives drove past him in the park, stopping briefly to tell him that they had dropped Mona off at the house. Humphrey and his friend Howard walked back to the house. Allegedly when Humphrey saw Mona smiling, he assumed that the children were all right. The three adults played cards without discussing the children. However Mona allegedly checked the girls at some point for wetness or a fever. Howard left sometime after midnight. Shortly thereafter Humphrey and Mona went to sleep.

Both awoke around eight o'clock the following morning. Humphrey offered to go to the store while Mona stayed at home to "clean up" the children. Allegedly it was then that Mona discovered that something was wrong with them and went, at Humphrey's instruction, to a neighbor's to call for assistance.

After trial on the merits, a jury found Humphrey guilty of two counts of manslaughter in connection with the deaths of his infant daughters, Janice and Latasha Brouchet.

ASSIGNMENT OF ERROR NUMBER ONE

The defendant contends that the trial court erred as a matter of law in denying his motion for a new trial. This contention originates in the administration of two polygraph examinations.

Subsequent to his guilty verdict and sentence and in connection with his motion for a new trial, Humphrey requested that he be administered a polygraph examination. This request was denied, but with remarks by the sitting judge that polygraph results might be considered in a later motion for a new trial, were Humphrey to have a polygraph examination performed at his own expense. Accordingly, defense counsel arranged for a polygraph examination to be administered to defendant James Humphrey, in DeRidder, Louisiana by Joe Bartlett, chief deputy with the Beauregard Parish Sheriff's Department and a court-qualified expert in polygraph examinations. The results indicated that Humphrey was not being deceptive in his answers. What happened thereafter is summarized at 412 So.2d 517 as follows:

When the trial judge was not available on the last day for filing of the appeal, defendant requested another district judge to hear and pass on his motion proferring the polygraph examination. Defendant sought to have the proffered examination admitted as a supplement to the record for review by this court of the trial court's denial of the motion for a new trial. The district judge hearing the proffer motion denied the proffer.

On appeal, we directed that on remand "the trial judge consider the proffered evidence in light of defendant's prior motion for a new trial and again pass upon defendant's motion for a new trial before resentencing." 412 So.2d 518.

Then, in conjunction with that remand for hearing on motion for new trial and for resentencing, the defense was told by law enforcement officers that a polygraph examination had been administered approximately one year prior to trial to Mona Brouchet, the then common law wife of James Humphrey and mother of the two slain infant children. This examination took place at the request of George Perez of the district attorney's office and was administered at the Calcasieu Parish Sheriff's department by Deputy Carl Chism, also a court qualified expert in polygraph examination. That examination indicated that Mona Brouchet was being deceptive in her answers.

At the hearing on the motion for a new trial, the defense requested and was permitted to introduce evidence of Mona Brouchet's polygraph as well as that of Humphrey. The trial judge considered evidence of both polygraph examinations, but concluded that Humphrey's motion for a new trial should nonetheless be denied.

Based on these polygraph results, the defendant contends essentially that there are two reasons for granting a new trial under La.C.Cr.P. art. 851. ²

In the first place, the defendant argues that his post-verdict polygraph examination, although inadmissible at a new trial, was allegedly corroborated by Mona Brouchet's pre-trial polygraph examination and so purportedly exonerates him in the murder of his two children. Therefore he contends that the jury's guilty verdict was contrary to the law and the evidence and a new trial would serve the ends of justice. La.C.Cr.P. art. 851(1) and (5).

In the second place, the defendant contends that Mona Broucher's pre-trial polygraph results indicating her deceptive responses as a key witness constitute new and material evidence which evidence was improperly withheld from the defense prior to trial in violation of the defendant's constitutional rights under Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963) and its progeny.

We find neither argument persuasive.

Polygraph examination information and results are inadmissible at Louisiana criminal trials "either as substantive evidence or as relating to the credibility of a party or witness." State v. Tonubee, 420 So.2d 126 at 132 (La.1982). Neither polygraph could have been used in Humphrey's original trial, nor might either be used at any new trial, should Humphrey be afforded one.

Nonetheless State v. Catanese, 368 So.2d 975 (La.1979) in dicta advanced the opinion that a trial judge may consider polygraph evidence in the context of a motion for a new trial. In Catanese, we said at 368 So.2d 982, 983:

Although we conclude that polygraph evidence is inadmissible in criminal trials, the reasons for our decision do not prevent its introduction in post trial proceedings, within judicial discretion and subject to guidelines such as those laid down by the trial judge in the instant case. Because the defendant's guilt or innocence is not at issue in such proceedings, there is less demand for the rigorous guarantees of accuracy which typify the rules governing introduction of evidence at trial. Consequently, the reasons for excluding polygraph evidence in criminal trials are not necessarily compelling in post trial proceedings.

Catanese clearly did not say that the results of polygraph examinations in and of themselves are sufficient to warrant the granting of a new trial. Catanese simply permits their introduction in post trial proceedings "within judicial discretion and subject to [certain] guidelines," ³ in order to assist the trial judge in his post-trial deliberations and to be considered along with whatever other evidence is presented in those proceedings. If anything, Catanese recognized the...