State v. Luzzo
| Decision Date | 01 March 2017 |
| Docket Number | NO. 2016–KA–0289,2016–KA–0289 |
| Parties | STATE of Louisiana v. Mark LUZZO |
| Court | Court of Appeal of Louisiana — District of US |
LEON A. CANNIZZARO, JR., DISTRICT ATTORNEY, ORLEANS PARISH, DONNA ANDRIEU, CHIEF OF APPEALS, ASSISTANT DISTRICT ATTORNEY, KYLE DALY, ASSISTANT DISTRICT ATTORNEY, 619 South White Street, New Orleans, Louisiana 70119, COUNSEL FOR STATE OF LOUISIANA/APPELLEE
CHRISTOPHER A. ABERLE, LOUISIANA APPELLATE PROJECT,
P.O. BOX 8583, Mandevelle, Louisiana 70740, COUNSEL FOR DEFENDANT/APPELLANT
(Court composed of Chief Judge James F. McKay III, Judge Edwin A. Lombard, Judge Madeleine M. Landrieu )
Defendant, Mark Luzzo, appeals his conviction and sentence for manslaughter. For the reasons set forth below, we affirm.
Defendant was charged by grand jury indictment on June 14, 2012, with second degree murder, a violation of La. R.S. 14:30.1 ; he pled not guilty. Defendant was found incompetent to proceed at the conclusion of a July 31, 2012 competency hearing. Thereafter, defendant was found competent to proceed at the conclusion of an April 16, 2013 competency hearing.
The trial court denied defendant's motions to suppress the statements and evidence. The defendant's motion in limine to exclude as privileged his statement to a non-clergy member of a Methodist church was also denied. Defendant sought review of that ruling in this Court on September 19, 2014, but this Court declined to exercise its supervisory jurisdiction.1
Defendant was found competent to proceed on June 4, 2015, at the conclusion of a lunacy hearing. Defendant proceeded to trial by a twelve-person jury on July 28–31, 2015. He was found guilty of manslaughter under La. R.S. 14:31, for the February 20–21, 2012 beating death of Conrad Blanchard. Defendant's motion for new trial and for post-verdict judgment of acquittal were denied. After waiving delays, defendant was sentenced to serve thirty years at hard labor. Defendant's appeal followed.
Lechia Powell, a New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) 911 operator, identified State Exhibits 1 and 2, respectively, as a CD of a 911 call under NOPD Item # B–31091–12 and a 911 incident recall under that same item number. She said the call came in at 8:21 a.m. on February 21, 2012, as an unclassified death, at 914 N. Rocheblave Street. The caller was identified as "Mark." Ms. Powell confirmed that the 911 call, which was played for the jury, reflected that defendant called the police to report the death of his friend, reporting that his friend had gotten into a fight the previous night and sustained some cuts to his head.
NOPD Detective Nathan Gex testified that he investigated the unclassified death in question on February 21, 2012. He said he arrived on the scene between 8:00 and 8:30 a.m., whereupon he met with defendant. Defendant was not a suspect at the time. As he walked through the front door, he could see the victim lying on the floor in the second room with his feet protruding into the hallway. He inspected the body and then walked through the rest of the residence to see if anyone else was present or whether there was any evidence in plain view. He noticed a droplet of blood in the kitchen area and some damp clothing on top of the washer and dryer in the adjoining laundry room, including two towels that appeared they might be tinted with blood.
Det. Gex confirmed that he had NOPD Crime Scene Technician Erin Stewart come to the residence to analyze the crime scene. The towels were collected at his direction. He identified a package containing at least one of them as State Exhibit 3.Det. Gex noticed that the victim had obvious signs of trauma to his face and eye area. The detective testified that with unclassified deaths, he calls "crime scene" to document the location and position of the body and things of that nature. He also called the Coroner's Office. Det. Gex identified State Exhibits 4 and 5, respectively, as a CD of the crime scene photographs and the photos themselves. He identified one photo of a droplet of blood on the kitchen floor and what appeared to be blood spatter residue on the kitchen cabinet door. The victim was on his back, covered with a red blanket up to his neck. Photos depicted lacerations to the victim's face and left eye area. Defendant told the detective the victim arrived at the residence the prior evening around 8:00 or 9:00 p.m. in that condition. Defendant did not call the police until the following day, which was Mardi Gras Day. Det. Gex said the coroner classified the death as unclassified pending an autopsy to be conducted the following day.
Det. Gex testified on cross examination that defendant said the victim was intoxicated when he arrived the prior night, already beaten. He helped the victim change clothes, cleaned blood off the victim, and helped him lie down on the floor. Defendant gave him a pillow and covered him with a blanket. Thereafter, defendant washed the victim's bloody clothes in the washing machine.
Det. Gex also stated on cross examination that he thought what defendant said was that when he woke up the next morning he discovered the victim was deceased. Det. Gex confirmed that the only sign of obvious trauma was to the victim's face. He thought the wounds to the face appeared to be fresh, confirming they had likely been sustained the night before. Det. Gex confirmed that he did not see blood in the bathroom or in the bedroom. The detective did not believe that what he thought was blood spatter on the cabinet area was ever collected by a crime scene tech or that it was ever tested. He had no knowledge of a swab from the blood on the kitchen floor ever being tested or analyzed. Det. Gex testified that he did not smell any strong cleaning agents, but he did notice some cleaning supplies at the rear door of the residence. No crime scene photo was taken of that. He stated that he saw no signs of a struggle in the apartment, and that defendant had no signs of injury.
Det. Gex explained that he did not arrest defendant that day because he had no reason to do so at that point. He further confirmed that at some point he spoke with defendant again, and defendant said something about the victim being beaten up by someone he recalled was named "Kulio," who frequented the Woldenberg Park, French Quarter area. The detective said he believed NOPD Homicide Det. Elizabeth Garcia located someone by that name, who was confined to a wheelchair.
Dr. Samantha Huber, who performed the autopsy on the victim, identified her autopsy protocol (report) as State Exhibit 6. She confirmed that the cause of the victim's death was blunt-force injuries. She viewed a crime scene photo and pointed out a laceration above the victim's left eye with a contusion around it, another laceration below the same eye, and a bruise or contusion on the closed eyelid. She said these were the only injuries to the victim's head. She said there was "fresh hemorrhage" under the scalp, at least around one laceration, apparently referring to the one above the left eye, the larger of the two lacerations. Dr. Huber stated that this hemorrhage underneath the scalp was a more recent injury and did not occur "the day before," presumably meaning the day before death.
Dr. Huber found an abrasion/scrape on the back of the victim's shoulder, and contusions on the front and sides of his upper arms, and also on his left elbow. There were bruises around the victim's knees. She said they were all fresh injuries—as opposed to older ones, some of which he also had. She testified that the victim had contusions on his small bowel/intestines, but those did not show up on the skin of the abdomen. Similarly, the victim had a broken rib on his left back, with hemorrhage beneath the skin in that area, although there was no outer bruising. Associated with that broken rib, the victim had a five and one-half inch laceration in his spleen, approximately one centimeter deep. His torn spleen hemorrhaged more than two liters of blood into the abdominal cavity. She said that "would have been more of the fatal wound." She recommended that the coroner classify the death as a homicide.
When Dr. Huber was asked whether the victim's injuries were consistent with him having been kicked repeatedly on the left side of his torso, Dr. Huber stated that it was possible, but that she had no "pattern injuries" indicating that this had been a "kicking" as opposed to a "beating". Dr. Huber testified generally that it could have taken minutes to a few hours for a person to die from a ruptured spleen. However, she did not believe it took a few hours with the victim because he had cirrhosis of the liver, which, she said, causes one to bleed easier. But she also said that this did not mean the victim could not have had a small laceration in his spleen that over time became larger. She said it was possible it could have taken a few hours for the victim to die in such a case.
Dr. Huber testified that there would be a fair amount of pain, especially as the abdomen filled with blood, noting that two liters had bled out from the ruptured spleen. She also said that the rib fracture would have been painful. When asked about the possibility that the victim would have been able to walk two miles to defendant's residence, given his condition, she said it would not have been impossible, but was probably unlikely. She said the victim's head injury would have been consistent with striking it on a cabinet, but she said the recessed injury on the eye could have been from a punch or kick. She said she would expect there would have been a fair amount of bleeding from the head lacerations, especially as large and deep as they were. She noted that the victim had dried blood in his hair. She said a toxicology report showed no illicit drugs in the victim's system, just an anti-psychotic medication, a sleep aid she identified as Remeron, nicotine, and caffeine.
Dr. Huber saw no recent injuries on the victim's...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
State v. Robinson
...to conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant was guilty of every essential element of the crime. State v. Luzzo , 2016-0289 (La. App. 4 Cir. 3/1/17), 214 So.3d 55. Circumstantial evidence consists of proof of collateral facts and circumstances from which the existence of the mai......