State v. LaCaze

• Decision Date: 25 January 2002
• Docket Number: No. 99-KA-0584.,99-KA-0584.
• Parties: STATE of Louisiana v. Roger LaCAZE.
• Court: Louisiana Supreme Court

824 So.2d 1063

STATE of Louisiana v. Roger LaCAZE.

No. 99-KA-0584.

Supreme Court of Louisiana.

January 25, 2002.

G. Benjamin Cohen, Clive A. Smith, New Orleans, Lane R. Trippe, New Orleans, Counsel for Applicant.

Richard P. Ieyoub, Attorney General, Harry F. Connick, District Attorney, John J. Glas, New Orleans, Valentin M. Solino, Counsel for Defendant.

TRAYLOR, Judge.¹

On April 27, 1995, an Orleans Parish Grand Jury indicted the defendant, Roger LaCaze, for three counts of first degree murder in violation of La.Rev.Stat. 14:30. After a trial by jury, the Defendant was found guilty as charged on all three counts. At the conclusion of the penalty phase the jury, having found multiple aggravating factors, unanimously sentenced defendant to death. The trial judge sentenced defendant to death in accordance with the jury determination. This matter is now before this court on direct appeal. La. Const. art. V, § 5(D).² On appeal, Defendant alleges twenty-seven assignments of error for the reversal of his conviction and sentence.³ Finding no merit to Defendant's assignments of error, we affirm his sentence and conviction.

Factual Background and Procedural History

On April 27, 1995, an Orleans Parish grand jury indicted the defendant Roger⁴ LaCaze and co-defendant Antoinette Frank for three counts of first degree murder. La.Rev.Stat. 14:30. The cases were severed. Following a five-day bifurcated trial in July of 1995, the defendant was found guilty as charged. Jurors thereafter unanimously recommended imposition of the death penalty on each of three counts. The defendant now appeals.

Co-defendant Antoinette Frank, then a 24-year-old New Orleans Police Officer, and 18-year-old defendant Roger LaCaze were charged with murdering two members of the Vu family and a New Orleans Police Officer. The Vus owned and operated the Kim Anh Vietnamese Restaurant, located at 4952 Bullard Road in Eastern New Orleans. Officer Ronald Williams was working a security detail at the restaurant the night of the murders.

Evidence at trial established that Antoinette Frank had worked security at the Kim Anh and knew the Vu family. Around 9 p.m. on Friday, March 3, 1995, she called to inquire if she would be needed for the detail that night. Frank spoke with Chau Vu, the 23 year old daughter of the owner. Chau advised Frank that she was not needed, as Officer Ronald Williams would work from 11 p.m. until closing time, normally around 1 a.m. Frank completed her shift at the 7th District Police Station at 11 p.m. After changing clothes at home, she picked up the defendant and drove directly to the Kim Anh. She entered alone, asking for cold drinks for herself and a "nephew," who remained in the car. Frank spoke with Officer Williams, whom she knew, and with Mrs. Vu. Frank told Chau that she and her nephew were going to a midnight movie, and left with the drinks. Business was slow that evening, and the family decided to close early. Mrs. Vu went home, leaving her children to clean up. Frank telephoned a pick-up food order about fifteen minutes later to order some food, indicating that she had missed the movie. At this point there were six people in the restaurant: Chau, her 24-year-old sister Ha Vu, her 18-year-old brother Quoc Vu, and her 17-year-old brother Cuong Vu, a waitress named Tu, and 25-year-old Officer Williams.

Frank and a man she introduced as her nephew arrived at the restaurant minutes later and were the only customers. Their order was brought out in styrofoam containers, but Frank and her dinner companion decided to eat in the restaurant. Chau took close notice of Frank's dinner partner, later describing him to police as a short African-American with several gold front teeth, carrying a cellular phone.⁵ Quoc, who was sweeping up around the tables, also made note of Frank's companion because he "kept staring" at Quoc. Frank and the man left without finishing their meal, exited the restaurant, but remained outside, talking. Chau went to attached grocery side of the building, unlocked the doors, and bid them good night. Frank asked if she would be needed Saturday night for the security detail. After checking with Officer Williams, Chau said no, that Williams would handle it. The two got in Frank's car and drove off.

Shortly thereafter, Frank and the man returned for a third time. Chau Vu and Quoc Vu were certain that the man accompanying Frank on her third trip to the restaurant was the man she introduced as her nephew, the same person who had eaten with her. Chau was frightened when she saw Frank approaching for the third time. Shouting to Officer Williams and Quoc not to open the doors, Chau gathered the money and ran to the kitchen where her sister Ha and brother Cuong were cleaning. As Chau hid the money in a microwave, she heard Quoc calling for her to come quickly to the front.

Quoc had interrupted his sweeping to watch Frank pull into the parking lot, maneuver her car, then exit and walk up to the glass door and begin shaking it. He called to Chau and moved toward the kitchen. Chau was leaving the kitchen area and coming towards him when, suddenly, Quoc saw Antoinette Frank there inside the restaurant. Frank began pushing Chau backward, forcefully and rapidly, toward the kitchen, saying that they needed to talk. Frank tried but failed to grab Quoc. Officer Williams was behind the bar. He had started moving in Chau's and Quoc's direction when Quoc heard "lots of gunshots" from that area.

Frank spun around and ran towards the bar and the front of the restaurant. Chau and Quoc ran in the opposite direction, going deeper into the building. They raced through the kitchen and into a large, room-sized cooler, situated between the kitchen and a small grocery the family also operated. As they ran they called to Ha and Cuong, who were by the stoves, to come along. But Ha and Cuong did not follow.

Chau testified similarly, that suddenly Antoinette Frank was inside the restaurant pushing her roughly toward the kitchen. It was at a point when she, Quoc, and Frank were together that Chau heard gunfire from the bar area where Officer Williams was located. When Frank left them, Chau, Quoc, and a helper hid in the cooler. Quoc turned off the cooler's lights as they entered and crouched down. From the darkened interior he and Chau were able to see into parts of the kitchen and bar through a small window. Chau saw Frank and her companion running back and forth, all over the kitchen. She saw Frank do something to the phone at the bar. Chau heard more gunfire but was unable to see who was shooting. Quoc observed Frank and her companion running around, rummaging, "digging in this little area where we always hide our money." Then she heard gunfire from the area where he had last seen his siblings, Ha and Cuong. Quoc was positive that the defendant was the man who was with Frank during the shooting.

Then Frank and the defendant were gone. From her vantage point inside the cooler, Chau looked through the windows of the grocery to the parking lot and watched Frank's car pull out and drive away. Yet she and Quoc hesitated to leave the relative safety of the cooler, uncertain what they would find and unsure whether Frank and the defendant had left or would return. Chau left the cooler on the grocery side to try to reach the telephone or her cellular phone at the bar. The telephone normally kept on the bar was gone. Going to retrieve her cellular phone, Chau spotted Officer Williams's body and lost all "confidence ... because the person that protects us is lying right there." She returned to the cooler with her cellular phone and attempted unsuccessfully to call 911. She finally reached a friend and asked him to relay news of the shooting and that an officer was hurt. The friend's call was received by 911 operators at 1:48 a.m.

While Chau was calling, Quoc left the cooler on the kitchen side to look for his brother and sister. He returned with news that both were lying in pools of blood. Quoc decided to try to reach a friend's house and call police from there. He left through the kitchen and back door. Quoc's call from his friend's home was received by 911 operators at 1:50 a.m.

The first police unit arrived on the scene at 1:52 a.m. Officers Wayne Farve and Reginald Jacques pulled into an empty parking lot. Jacques went around to the back, while Farve approached the front. A young female Vietnamese darted out of the building and ran toward him. Officer Farve also observed "a black female running a short distance behind [the Vietnamese female]," whom he recognized as another police officer, Antoinette Frank, who told him that the injured officer and perpetrators were "in the back." Farve entered the restaurant, with the semi-hysterical Vietnamese female right behind him. After quickly checking on the three victims, Farve made the appropriate notifications by radio then withdrew to the front of the restaurant. Arriving close behind him in another unit was Officer Yvonne Farve, who pulled in as her husband, Wayne, entered the restaurant. She attempted to follow him but was stopped by Chau who bolted from the building, crying and shouting. Yvonne Farve later testified that she "just grabbed on to me. So, I held her."

Chau had waited "so long" in the cooler for help to arrive. She saw one patrol car pull up but hesitated, not "want[ing] to go outside because I know Antoinette is police too...." When she heard more sirens approaching she felt safe enough to leave the building. Exiting on the grocery side, Chau began running toward the policeman. But from "somewhere[] Antoinette" appeared. Frank kept asking where she and her brother had hidden and what happen to her sister and other brother. Chau answered, "You was there. You know everything. Why you ask me that...." Frank reached out to grab her but Chau "saw the lady with the uniform [and] ran to her, and she hug me[.]" Later, after the Yvonne Farve calmed her down, Chau was able to...