State v. Mahogany

• Decision Date: 26 July 2017
• Docket Number: NO. 2017-KA-0377.,2017-KA-0377.
• Citation: 225 So.3d 489
• Parties: STATE of Louisiana v. Greenville MAHOGANY
• Court: Court of Appeal of Louisiana — District of US

225 So.3d 489

STATE of Louisiana
v.
Greenville MAHOGANY

NO. 2017-KA-0377.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Fourth Circuit.

JULY 26, 2017

Leon A. Cannizzaro, Jr., DISTRICT ATTORNEY, Kyle C. Daly, ASSISTANT DISTRICT ATTORNEY, PARISH OF ORLEANS, 619 South White Street, New Orleans, LA 70119, COUNSEL FOR APPELLEE/STATE OF LOUISIANA

Sherry Watters, LOUISIANA APPELLATE PROJECT, P. O. Box 58769, New Orleans, LA 70158, COUNSEL FOR DEFENDANT/APPELLANT

(Court composed of Judge Rosemary Ledet, Judge Regina Bartholomew Woods, Judge Paula A. Brown )

Judge Rosemary Ledet

In this criminal appeal, Greenville Mahogany appeals his convictions for attempted second degree murder, in violation of La. R.S. 14:27(30.1), and discharging a firearm during a violent crime, in violation of La. R.S. 14:94 F, and his sentences. For the reasons that follow, we affirm.

STATEMENT OF THE FACTS ¹

On December 19, 2011, at about 1:45 p.m., Mr. Brazile was shot in the hip while inside his vehicle on the corner of Mayo and Morrison Roads in New Orleans, Louisiana. The shooting was believed to be connected to an earlier November 2011 shooting, which Mr. Brazile had survived, and an October 2011 altercation. A brief summary of the October 2011 altercation and the November 2011 shooting is necessary to set the backdrop for the December 19, 2011, shooting at issue here.

Both the October 2011 altercation and the November 2011 shooting occurred at the Sports Café on Downman Road in New Orleans East. Both Mr. Brazile and Mr. Mahogany testified at trial that they were employed as promoters.² Each of them explained that they had an arrangement with the Sports Café, albeit on different days of the week, to use it as a venue for their promotions. Mr. Brazile's day was Saturday; Mr. Mahogany's day was Friday. On those days, they each used the Sports Café as a venue for a regular event in exchange for a take of the admissions at the door. Mr. Brazile testified that he was the chief executive officer of Life and Death Record Company and that his job included acting as a promoter staging music concerts. On Saturday nights, he used the Sports Café as the venue for his music concerts. Mr. Mahogany testified that he too was a promoter and that he used the Sports Café on Friday nights for his party nights for his group, Blowing Money Fast ("BMF"). Mr. Mahogany denied any rivalry between his and Mr. Bazile's promotions.

Both Mr. Brazile and Mr. Mahogany were at the Sports Café on the night of October 9, 2011. Mr. Brazile had an event there that night. At about midnight, Mr.

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Brazile saw his god-brother—Rashad Hall—and another man—later identified as Mr. Baham—engaged in a verbal altercation. Mr. Hall told Mr. Brazile that he did not know Mr. Baham. According to Mr. Brazile, Mr. Baham then joined a group of about six to eight men. Mr. Baham's group then gathered together in a "huddle." Mr. Brazile recognized Mr. Mahogany as one of the men in that huddle. Thereafter, Mr. Baham approached Mr. Brazile and told him "it's going down when I leave out the club." Fearing that Mr. Baham would attack him after he left the Sports Café, Mr. Brazile hit Mr. Baham in the face while exiting the Sports Café and then ran. Mr. Brazile encountered the police in the parking lot and explained to them that he was threatened by someone in the Sports Café; the police advised Mr. Brazile to leave the area.

On November 20, 2011, Mr. Brazile and Mr. Mahogany again were both at the Sports Café. Mr. Brazile had another event there that night. At about 2:30 a.m., Mr. Brazile first noticed Mr. Mahogany, who Mr. Brazile recognized as Mr. Baham's associate, and another man walk through the club. Mr. Brazile explained that he thought it was unusual that they were there so late since he had not seen them there earlier. Because he was uncomfortable in Mr. Mahogany's presence, Mr. Brazile told his friends that it was time to leave. When he walked to his car in the parking lot, Mr. Brazile spotted Mr. Mahogany leaning on the vehicle parked in front of his car. As Mr. Brazile fumbled for his keys in his pockets, he heard a noise come from the area where Mr. Mahogany was located. Mr. Brazile then saw Mr. Baham appear through the fog, running towards him holding a gun. As Mr. Brazile turned and ran, he heard gun shots and discovered that he was wounded in his side and back. Mr. Brazile then went to a service station on Dwyer and Downman Road, where he collapsed. He spent four days in a hospital.

After Mr. Brazile was released from the hospital, he conducted internet research on Facebook as to the identity of Mr. Baham's group—the BMF. Mr. Brazile explained that he saw pictures of Mr. Baham on the website; he memorized some of the names, but not the faces, of some of the people in Mr. Baham's photographs. He testified that he provided that information to the police.³

Again, the crime at issue here is the shooting that occurred on December 19, 2011. Between 12:00 p.m. and 1:00 p.m. that day, Mr. Brazile left his girlfriend's residence on Mayo Street to go to McDonald's to get food for his children. On his way back home, he stopped to speak with his friend, "Josh," in the parking lot of a mechanic shop on the I–10 Service Road and Morrison Avenue. While talking to Josh, Mr. Brazile noticed a white Dodge Charger enter the parking lot and drive past them. There were two men in the Charger. He testified that the driver, later identified as Mr. Williams, looked out the window at him with a menacing look, like "he's still alive." At that point, he did not see the passenger. The Charger stopped at the opposite end of the parking lot and waited. Because he felt that the men in the Charger had something to do with the November 2011 shooting, Mr. Brazile told Josh that he had to leave. Mr. Brazile got into his car and drove out of the parking lot. As he pulled out, he saw a blue Explorer with four passengers pull into the lot. According to Mr. Brazile, he recognized

225 So.3d 496

Mr. Baham as a passenger in the Explorer.

When he left the parking lot, Mr. Brazile noticed that the men in the Charger were following him down the service road. Mr. Brazile turned onto Mayo Road. As he turned a corner near Morrison and Mayo, a grass cutting truck was blocking the street. Mr. Brazile was unable to maneuver around the truck; his passage was blocked. At that point, the Charger pulled parallel to Mr. Brazile's vehicle; and the passenger, later identified as Mr. Mahogany, fired shots at Mr. Brazile. Mr. Brazile testified that he ducked and began alternatively "hitting the gas, hitting the brakes" until the Charger passed his vehicle. The men in the Charger then sped from the scene. Mr. Brazile drove a short distance to his girlfriend's residence, and his girlfriend called 911. Mr. Brazile was taken to the hospital by ambulance.

Mr. Brazile's hospital stay lasted about four hours; his injury did not require any surgical repair. During his hospital stay, two NOPD officers testified that they interviewed Mr. Brazile—Detective Borjius Guient, the lead investigating officer, and Officer Donald Blackwell, the initial investigating officer.⁴

Officer Blackwell explained that his involvement in this case consisted solely of speaking with Mr. Brazile at the hospital on the date of the shooting. Officer Blackwell described Mr. Brazile as cognizant and lucid. Officer Blackwell summarized Mr. Brazile's statement to him of what happened as follows:

Basically, he told me he was standing outside of Gabby's with a friend. They saw a white vehicle pull up. I believe it was a Dodge Charger pull up. Once the car pulled up, the friend asked was that Greenie, the person who shot him in the past. He said yes. A short time later Mr. Brazile walked away, got into his vehicle. Sometime after that, the white Charger started to follow. Greenie pulls on side. The friend that was in the car with Greenie was Junior, I believe, and he started opening fire on him.

Officer Blackwell further testified that Mr. Brazile denied having returned fire or shots at the Charger.

Detective Guient testified that he too interviewed Mr. Brazile at the hospital on the day of the shooting. Mr. Brazile told him that he got a good look at the driver and the passenger in the Charger and provided him with the two occupants' nicknames—Greenie and Ace or Junior. (Ace and Junior were nicknames for the same person.). Officer Guient, however, acknowledged that Mr. Brazile changed his account of the shooting several times.⁵

Both Detective Guient and Mr. Brazile consistently testified regarding Mr. Brazile locating a photograph of the person he identified as the shooter on Facebook a few hours after the shooting. Mr. Brazile explained that after returning home from the hospital, he went onto Facebook and looked through the pictures of Mr. Baham and the BMF group. He located a picture of Mr. Mahogany "in the same actual car

225 So.3d 497

that they came and shot [him] in" only hours earlier. Mr. Brazile telephoned Detective Guient and related to him that he had found this photograph on Facebook of "the person who actually fired the gun earlier that day at [him]." Officer Guient likewise testified that he too went on Facebook, located the photograph, and confirmed...