State v. Long
| Decision Date | 30 October 2002 |
| Docket Number | No. 36,167-KA.,36,167-KA. |
| Citation | 830 So.2d 552 |
| Parties | STATE of Louisiana, Appellee v. Santez LONG, Appellant. |
| Court | Court of Appeal of Louisiana — District of US |
Peggy J. Sullivan, Counsel for Appellant.
Richard P. Ieyoub, Attorney General, Jerry L. Jones, District Attorney, George D. Ross, Assistant District Attorney, Counsel for Appellee.
Before WILLIAMS, GASKINS and CARAWAY, JJ.
The defendant, Santez Long, was charged by bill of information with one count of armed robbery, a violation of LSA-R.S. 14:64. After a jury trial, the defendant was convicted as charged. He was sentenced to serve eight years at hard labor without the benefit of probation, parole or suspension of sentence. The defendant now appeals. He challenges the sufficiency of the evidence presented at trial and the excessiveness of the sentence imposed. For the following reasons, we affirm.
On April 28, 1999, at approximately 12:00 p.m., two men armed with guns walked into Moody's Lounge in Monroe, Louisiana. The men had "dollar-bill" bandanas covering their faces. They ordered everyone in the lounge to lay down on the floor and they took a grey metal box containing approximately $175. Cherelyn Ross ("Ross"), who was the employee on duty at the time of the robbery, had taken a break to go to the restroom. When she did not hear the regular crowd noise from inside the restroom, she looked out of the restroom door. Ross saw everyone on the floor, and witnessed two men running out of the front door. She stated that she had seen the men in the lounge a short time before the robbery. Ross did not see their faces. After the men left, Ross called 911 and reported that two black males with dollar-bill bandanas had robbed the patrons of the lounge at gunpoint and taken a metal box containing money. Law enforcement officers arrived at the scene and recovered a bandana with a dollar-bill design from behind the building.
Sergeant Connie Miller of the Ouachita Parish Sheriff's Office was dispatched to the scene of the armed robbery. She was given a description of a red Jeep Eagle used by the suspects to leave the scene. At some time later that day, Sergeant Miller spotted and stopped a red Jeep Eagle occupied by three individuals, two of whom fit the description of the suspects. Lieutenant Jay Via of the Ouachita Parish Sheriff's Office secured the crime scene and then met Sergeant Miller at the location of the stopped vehicle. The two occupants of the vehicle who fit Ross' general description of the suspects, Elton Bonner ("Bonner") and John Armstrong ("Armstrong"), were arrested for armed robbery. The third occupant was released. Bonner and Armstrong were transported to the lounge. Ross identified them as the two men who had been in the lounge earlier that day and who were possibly involved with the robbery.1 Bonner and Armstrong were then transported to the police station.
At the police station, Armstrong signed a waiver of his Miranda rights and gave a recorded statement. Armstrong denied his involvement in the robbery as a gunman. He stated that on the day of the robbery, he and Bonner picked up the defendant and an accomplice identified as "Keon" at the Oak Manor Apartments. The defendant told Armstrong to drop the defendant and Keon at Moody's Lounge, drive around the block and return to pick them up. The defendant promised Armstrong a sum of money if he complied with defendant's request. Bonner also gave a similar statement, implicating the defendant in the crime.
Shortly after Armstrong and Bonner made their statements, Lieutenant Via received a telephone call from a woman, who identified herself as Rachel Sims ("Sims"). Sims informed Lieutenant Via that Armstrong and Bonner were not the gunmen in the robbery. She stated that the defendant and Keon were the actual gunmen, and that she would assist the police in locating them. Lieutenant Via and Sargent Danny Peeler met Sims at the Wossman High School. Sims informed the officers that the defendant and Keon were residing at the Oak Manor Apartments with a female named Sharon Jones ("Jones"). Sims agreed to lure the defendant to a nearby gas station so that he could be apprehended.
Sims brought the defendant to the gas station, exited the vehicle and went into the gas station. She signaled to the officers and identified the defendant. The defendant was arrested and immediately advised of his Miranda rights. The defendant acknowledged his willingness to cooperate with the officers and told them where Keon lived. Sims led the officers to Jones' apartment. Jones gave her consent to search the apartment, and the officers located Keon. Additionally the officers recovered two firearms from the apartment—a Ruger .22 semi-automatic pistol and a Raven Arms .25 semi-automatic pistol.
At approximately 8:40 p.m., the defendant was interviewed at the sheriff's office by Lieutenant Via in the presence of Sergeant Danny Peeler. The defendant read his Miranda rights aloud and signed a waiver of rights form. His signature was witnessed by both Lieutenant Via and Sergeant Peeler. The defendant then indicated that he would give a recorded statement.
During his statement, the defendant related that he and Keon were in a red vehicle with Bonner and Armstrong before the crime. The defendant confessed that he armed himself with a Ruger .22 semi-automatic and entered Moody's lounge with Keon and committed an armed robbery. According to the defendant, he held his gun at his side during the armed robbery and told everyone to get down. The defendant then grabbed a gray metal box, and he and Keon left the building.
During the statement, the defendant identified the Ruger .22 semi-automatic pistol recovered by the police as the weapon he used during the commission of the armed robbery. He also identified the Raven Arms .25 semi-automatic pistol recovered by the police as the weapon Keon used during the robbery. The defendant identified the bandana with a dollar-bill design as the one he had worn during the robbery. He further identified sixty-four dollars as the money taken from his person after his arrest. The money recovered from the defendant's person, when added to the money recovered from Keon's person, totaled one dollar less than the total amount of money taken during the robbery.
During Keon's interview, he revealed that his name was actually Antonio Fernando Walker and that he was wanted for numerous armed robberies in the state of Alabama. He gave a statement with regard to the robbery at Moody's Lounge that was consistent with the statement made by the defendant.
Subsequently, the defendant was charged by bill of information with armed robbery. After a trial by jury, the defendant was convicted as charged. During sentencing, the trial court noted the receipt of the pre-sentence investigation report ("PSI"), input from the defendant's family and friends, and the factors set forth in LSA-C.Cr.P. art. 894.1. Specifically, the trial court noted that the defendant was a first felony offender with only one prior minor juvenile offense. It observed that the defendant was a high school dropout, who was not gainfully employed at the time of the offense. The trial court further noted that the defendant has maintained his innocence despite the jury's guilty verdict.2 After stating its opinion that armed robbery is an extremely dangerous crime because of the real and direct danger of injury and/or death during its commission, the trial court sentenced the defendant to serve eight years imprisonment at hard labor without the benefit of probation, parole or suspension of sentence, with credit for time served. The defendant now appeals.
The defendant contends the evidence was insufficient to support the jury's verdict. He argues that the state did not prove that there was a taking of property from the person of or that was in the control of Ross, the victim and eyewitness. The defendant also argues that the state failed to prove that the property was removed from the control of Ross by the use of force or intimidation. He argues that Ross was in the restroom when the money was removed and was unaware of what had happened until after the taking. The defendant also notes that Ross did not see a gun.
The state notes that Ross testified she was an employee of the lounge, she was working at the time of the robbery and she was responsible for the money taken. It contends that although Ross was in the restroom immediately before the defendant entered the lounge, she was still in control of the money taken by the defendant. The state also asserts that the defendant's action in arming himself and entering the lounge proved that he intended to use force and/or intimidation against anyone who was in control of the money in the lounge. The state further asserts that Ross was aware that a robbery was in progress because she saw all the customers lying on the floor and saw the suspects wearing bandanas on their faces. Ross was obviously intimidated because she remained in the bathroom, watching, until the suspects ran out of the lounge. Furthermore, the state argues that the defendant's own confession, which was introduced into evidence, was sufficient to prove that he committed the armed robbery. It notes that the contents of and circumstances surrounding the defendant's confession were corroborated by Lieutenant Via's testimony of the results of his investigation.
Although the record does not reflect that defendant filed a motion for post-verdict judgment of acquittal pursuant to LSA-C.Cr.P. art. 821, we will consider a sufficiency of the evidence argument in the absence of such a motion. State v. Green, 28,994 (La.App. 2d Cir. 2/26/97), 691 So.2d 1273.
The standard of appellate review for a sufficiency of evidence claim is whether, after viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime proven beyond a...
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