State v. Marshall

• Decision Date: 08 April 2009
• Docket Number: No. 44,121-KA.,44,121-KA.
• Citation: 6 So.3d 1051
• Parties: STATE of Louisiana, Appellee, v. Randy C. MARSHALL, Appellant.
• Court: Court of Appeal of Louisiana — District of US

6 So.3d 1051

STATE of Louisiana, Appellee, v. Randy C. MARSHALL, Appellant.

No. 44,121-KA.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Second Circuit.

April 8, 2009.

Louisiana Appellate Project by Edward K. Bauman, for Appellant.

Paul J. Carmouche, District Attorney, Dhu Thompson, Catherine M. Estopinal, Assistant District Attorneys, for Appellee.

Before PEATROSS, MOORE & LOLLEY, JJ.

PEATROSS, J.

Defendant, Randy C. Marshall, was convicted of second degree murder in violation of La. R.S. 14:30.1 and sentenced to a term of life imprisonment at hard labor, without the benefit of probation, parole or suspension of sentence. Defendant now appeals. For the reasons stated herein, the conviction and sentence of Defendant are affirmed.

FACTS

On April 6, 2005, Defendant and his friend and high school classmate at the time, Cordero Campbell, discussed a plan to rob a man¹ who they believed had money. Defendant then contacted another friend, Renando Johnson, and asked him to help with the robbery. Defendant and Campbell skipped school that afternoon and waited at a local supermarket for Johnson to pick them up. Johnson arrived in a Crown Victoria and the trio drove to the man's house to observe him prior to the intended robbery. While the trio waited in the car, Johnson gave Defendant and Campbell a .38-caliber revolver and a 380 semi-automatic handgun to use during the robbery.

A little while later, the man left his home and went to Moham's Tire Shop and the trio followed him. Defendant, Campbell and Johnson developed a plan whereby Defendant and Campbell would attempt to enter the tire shop under the ruse of getting an inner tube fixed. Once inside, they would demand that everyone get down on the floor so they could determine where the man they had followed to the shop was hiding the money. The plan failed, however, and Defendant and Campbell were not able to gain entry into the shop. Accordingly, Defendant and Campbell revised their plan and decided to simply force their way into the shop and rob anyone who happened to be inside.

Meanwhile, inside of the shop, Hoyle Moham, Santanion Dixon, Willie Pryor, Curtis Lewis, Charlie Lewis, Fred Jefferson, Milton Jackson and Benner Washington were playing a game of dominoes. Moham and Jackson, the two men who initially refused to allow Defendant and Campbell to enter the shop, were standing in the garage door of the shop when Defendant and Campbell entered the garage area. Defendant and Campbell held Moham and Jackson at gunpoint and Campbell told them that they were being robbed and demanded to be led into the shop. Once inside the shop, Campbell demanded that the men get down on the floor and place all the money they had on the floor beside them.

While Campbell was recovering the money placed on the floor and Defendant was standing by in the rear area of the building, Charlie Lewis ("Charlie") stabbed Defendant in his ankle and his side. Defendant then shot Charlie five times with the .38-caliber revolver: once in the chest, shoulder and arm and twice in the back. Defendant and Campbell then exited the shop through the back door of the building. After Defendant and Campbell had left the shop, the men inside called the police and an ambulance. When paramedics arrived at the crime scene, Charlie was nonresponsive and later died at the hospital as the result of multiple gunshot wounds. The police recovered a little over $200 from Charlie's pocket.

During this time, Johnson drove Defendant and Campbell to a local park where Campbell split the money from the robbery with Defendant, but Johnson did not receive a share of the money. Campbell gave his handgun to Johnson, but kept Defendant's handgun since Johnson refused to take it because the gun had been involved in a murder.

Campbell put Defendant's handgun in a trash can in the park and then called the police and the paramedics. In order to get medical treatment for Defendant's stab wounds, Campbell and Defendant told the police and paramedics that Defendant had been robbed in the park and that he was stabbed by the would-be robber after Defendant refused to give up his money. Defendant was transported to the hospital where he was treated. Campbell was not questioned by the officers regarding the fictitious park robbery story and went home. Campbell later returned to the park and retrieved the handgun. He attempted to sell the weapon, but was unsuccessful and hid it inside a shoe box in his home.

While canvassing the neighborhood of Moham's Tire Shop after the robbery, police officers learned from witnesses that Defendant and Campbell fled the scene of the crime in the Crown Victoria driven by Johnson. Accordingly, the police questioned Johnson, who informed them of Campbell's involvement. The police then questioned Campbell, who revealed Defendant's involvement in the crime as well as the location of the handgun hidden in Campbell's home. When the officers arrested Defendant at his home, Defendant told his father that he was being arrested because he had shot someone. Defendant also told the officers that the handgun was in the park trash can, but the gun was no longer there when the officers went to the park to retrieve it.

Subsequent to his arrest, Defendant was questioned twice by police officers. During his first interrogation, after being informed of his rights, Defendant told officers that he shot Charlie in self-defense after Charlie had stabbed him for refusing to return Charlie's money that he had won in a domino game. In his second interrogation, after being informed of his rights again, Defendant admitted that he and Campbell robbed the men in the tire shop while they were playing a game of dominos and that, during the robbery, Charlie stabbed Defendant who then shot Charlie "three or four" times. Police then placed Defendant into custody.

While in jail, Defendant and Campbell discussed a strategy to explain the shooting. Defendant wrote, and Campbell signed, an affidavit which stated that Charlie stabbed Defendant out of anger for winning his money in a dominos game and that Defendant only confessed to the shooting because he was forced to do so by the police. Defendant later revised the affidavit to state that Campbell had shot Charlie in defense of Defendant. None of the victims of the robbery could identify Defendant or Campbell in a photographic lineup.

On May 11, 2005, a bill of indictment was filed charging Defendant with the second degree murder of Charlie Lewis as defined by La. R.S. 14:30.1. During a hearing on the Motion to Suppress filed by then co-defendant Campbell,² Defendant's trial counsel attempted to suppress Defendant's confession, arguing that there was no evidence in the record to explain why Defendant changed his self-defense story in the first interrogation to a murder confession in the second interrogation. Defense counsel asserted that one or more of the officers must have employed improper interrogation tactics to coerce Defendant into confessing to the murder during the second interrogation. The trial court, however, denied Defendant's request to suppress the confession, finding that there was no evidence in the record to suggest that anything improper took place during the interrogation of Defendant.

The State offered Defendant a plea agreement whereby he would serve a term of 32 years' imprisonment if he pled guilty to manslaughter, but Defendant rejected the offer. After a bench trial, the court found Defendant guilty as charged of second degree murder. Defendant's trial counsel filed a motion for new trial and a post-verdict judgment of acquittal, both of which were denied by the trial judge, who then ordered that Defendant serve the mandatory sentence of life imprisonment at hard labor without benefit of probation, parole or suspension of sentence. This appeal ensued.

DISCUSSION

Assignment of Error Number One (verbatim): The evidence introduced at trial was insufficient to find Randy Marshall guilty of second degree murder. Therefore, the trial court erred in denying his Motion for Directed Verdict, Motion of Judgment of Acquittal, Motion for New Trial and Motion for Post Verdict Judgment of Acquittal.

Pro se Assignment of Error Number One (verbatim): Insufficient Evidence. The appellant contends that his conviction should be reversed because the state failed to prove each and every element of the crime charged, specifically arguing that the state failed to prove the corpus delicti of felony-murder as the commission of armed robbery was never established. Appellant contends that, even with his statements, the state failed to establish his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, as all evidence other than appellant's statements is circumstantial and the state failed to exclude every hypothesis of innocence.

The State supports the conviction, arguing that the evidence is sufficient to sustain the second degree murder conviction because it showed that (1) Charlie was killed during an armed robbery and (2) Defendant had the specific intent to kill or inflict great bodily harm, as evidenced by the fact that he shot Charlie five times. The State also contends that Defendant is precluded from claiming self-defense in this case because he was the aggressor as defined under La. R.S. 14:21.

Defendant asserts that the State did not prove that he committed the armed robbery of Charlie because the evidence does not show that Defendant took or attempted to take anything of value from Charlie. Defendant further asserts that the evidence proves that Defendant was attempting to leave the shop when Charlie stabbed him and that he shot Charlie in a reaction of self-defense to the stabbing.

In his pro se brief, Defendant argues that the evidence is insufficient to support his second degree murder conviction because it shows that Campbell was the one who ordered the victims to the floor during the robbery and to give up their money, and it was Campbell who took their money. Defendant also points...