State v. Scott
| Citation | 921 So.2d 904 |
| Decision Date | 19 January 2006 |
| Docket Number | No. 2004-KA-1312.,2004-KA-1312. |
| Parties | STATE of Louisiana v. Anthony SCOTT. |
| Court | Supreme Court of Louisiana |
William Martin Sothern, G. Benjamin Cohen, Jelpi Pierre Picou, Jr., R. Neal Walker, New Orleans, for appellant.
Charles C. Foti, Jr., Attorney General, Anthony G. Falterman, District Attorney, Robin Catherine O'Bannon, Assistant District Attorney, Donald David Candell, Assistant Attorney, for appellee.
Paul R. Baier, Amicus Curiae, for The Arc of Louisiana, The Louisiana Psychological Association, The Louisiana Chapter of the AAMR, and The Louisiana Academy of Medical Psychologists
On June 22, 1998, an Assumption Parish grand jury indicted defendant, Anthony Scott, for the June 4, 1998, first degree murders of Jacqueline Guillot Blanchard and Lisa Ann Dupuis. On April 28, 1999, the jury returned a unanimous verdict of guilty as charged. At the conclusion of the penalty phase, the jury unanimously returned the sentence of death after finding the existence of three aggravating circumstances: (1) the offender was engaged in the perpetration or attempted perpetration of armed robbery, (2) the offender knowingly created a risk of death or great bodily harm to more than one person, and (3) the offender was engaged in the perpetration or attempted perpetration of aggravated arson. On direct appeal to this court pursuant to La. Const. art. V, § 5(D), defendant appeals his conviction and death sentence on the basis of 91 assignments of error. For the reasons that follow, we affirm defendant's conviction and remand the matter for a hearing to determine whether defendant is mentally retarded such that he is exempt from the death penalty under the law.1
On June 4, 1998, James Dunn2 borrowed a small green Pontiac vehicle owned by Avis Rent A Car and rented by Barbara Stewart, and drove to pick up Kendall Breaux3 and defendant, Anthony Scott. The three men drove from Garyville to the Iberville Bank4 in Napoleonville.
Lisa Ann Dupuis and Jacqueline Guillot Blanchard were working as bank tellers at the Iberville Bank that morning. At approximately 11:40 a.m., James Dunn, wearing a white baseball cap, and Anthony Scott, wearing a white tee shirt and knee-length blue jeans, entered the bank. A video surveillance camera captured images of the two men as they approached the teller counter and feigned a banking transaction. Ms. Dupuis can be seen filling out a money order while Dunn briefly exited the bank, leaving defendant alone at the teller counter. When Dunn re-entered the bank moments later, he pulled out a 9 mm weapon and aimed it at Ms. Dupuis. Simultaneously, defendant withdrew a large caliber revolver and aimed it at Ms. Blanchard, who was seated at a desk adjacent to the front door in the bank's lobby. Dunn jumped over the teller counter and grabbed Ms. Dupuis. Defendant, still aiming his gun at Ms. Blanchard, forced her to the area behind the teller counter.
The two men removed approximately $16,615.00 from the cash drawers. At gunpoint, defendant and Dunn forced the women into the side office, to the left of the teller counter, where the video equipment was housed.5 The surveillance cameras peripherally captured some of the activity in the side office, although there were no cameras in that office.
Kendall Breaux then entered the bank carrying a Prestone Anti-Freeze container filled with gasoline. Breaux poured gas throughout the bank, ostensibly to burn the building. However, several unstruck safety matches found on the scene suggest that he did not bring a matchbox with a striking surface to ignite the flammable liquid. The last frame of surveillance footage showed Ms. Blanchard standing just inside the office door, with her hands folded in prayer, as Breaux is strewing gasoline on her desk. At that point, the video equipment was disconnected and the tape went blank.
At this time, a bank customer, Earline Simoneaux, pulled up to the drive-through teller window. She noticed that the blinds were down, but the slats were open. Ms. Simoneaux saw two males running from the side office out of the bank. She testified that after she saw the males run out of the bank and just as she reached for the teller call button, she heard a gunshot. She pulled her arm back into her vehicle and heard two more gunshots. She next saw a third male wearing a white baseball cap run out of the bank, glancing at her as he got into the green car with the other two men. Simoneaux attempted to follow the three men in the green car, but then returned to give her statement the police officers she had seen arrive at the bank.
Assumption Parish Sheriff's Deputy Michael Brown responded to the hold-up alarm at the bank and drove into the bank parking lot as the green car was leaving. Brown entered the front door, announced his presence, and smelled a strong odor of gasoline emitting from the bank. He received no response from the tellers, but heard a gasping sound coming from the side office. Brown saw both tellers lying in pools of blood, and ascertained that Lisa Dupuis was dead on the scene, but that Jackie Blanchard was gasping for breath. Brown radioed for backup and an ambulance. Brown also gave a description of the green car, which was the last car he had seen exiting the bank, and asked that officers be on the lookout for the green car occupied by three black males. Acadian Ambulance arrived and began life-saving measures on Ms. Blanchard; however, she died en route to the hospital. Each woman had been shot three times.
Roadblocks were set up throughout the area, and the three males drove the green vehicle through one of the roadblocks at a high rate of speed. Seconds later, the green vehicle rounded a blind curve and collided headlong with a train that was passing on tracks perpendicular to the highway. The green car, now completely disabled, was carried some distance by the train before coming to a stop. Uninjured, defendant and Dunn exited the front of the vehicle, and fled on foot, each with a gun in hand, escaping under a train trestle. Breaux attempted to escape, but was arrested as he fled from the vehicle. Bank bags containing bundles of money bearing the "I.B." wrappers were found in the car, and loose currency spilled out of the car. The bank's "bait money" was recovered from the vehicle. Breaux also had a quantity of cash on his person. Inside the car, the officers seized the bank's VCR equipment, including the surveillance tape. In addition, the officers seized a white tee shirt stained with blood from the passenger seat and a white baseball cap from the driver's side floorboard.
Defendant and Dunn were captured a short time later in a nearby sugar cane field. When he was arrested, ten $100 dollar bills and seven $50 dollar bills were removed from defendant's person. Subsequently, a large sum of cash was seized from the cane field. A revolver was found in the grass off the highway near the railroad tracks, and a handgun was recovered from the sugar cane field. Ultimately, it was determined that slightly over $16,000.00 was stolen from the bank, and slightly over $16,000.00 was recovered from the crash scene, the persons of defendant and Breaux, and the cane field.
On appeal, defendant contends he was improperly tried and convicted despite the unresolved issue of his mental capacity to proceed. Alternatively, by separate motion to this court, defendant asks that the trial judge be ordered to provide a per curiam clarifying whether defendant's capacity was determined. However, the record clearly shows that no question of defendant's capacity to proceed was ever raised by the defense, the state, or the trial court. Additionally, the record contains the opinions of the two members of the sanity commission who agree that defendant was competent to proceed. For these reasons, discussed in greater detail below, these assignments of error are without merit.
Following the defendant's plea of not guilty by reason of insanity on July 14, 1998, the state filed a motion on October 12, 1998, for the appointment of a sanity commission. On October 14, 1998, the trial court in accordance with Code of Criminal Procedure article 650 appointed Dr. F.A. Silva and Dr. Charles Vosburg to assess defendant's mental condition at the time of the murders. Defense counsel sought to vacate this order contending that defendant might make incriminatory statements to the examiners. The state contended and the trial court ruled that defendant had raised the issue of defendant's mental state at the time of the offense with the plea of not guilty by reason of insanity and that the appointment of a sanity commission was warranted. Neither the order appointing the sanity commission, nor the transcripts of the hearings surrounding this disputed order, nor the trial judge's ruling contains any indication that defendant's competency to proceed was ever properly raised or reasonably doubted.
Although the trial court's order instructed the sanity commission to report on defendant's mental state at the time of the murders, both experts also investigated and reported on defendant's capacity to proceed. In his March 29, 1999 report, Dr. Silva indicated that in his opinion the defendant understood the charges against him and could assist defense counsel and participate in the trial. In his April 5, 1999 report, Dr. Vosburg stated that the defendant tested as competent to proceed on the Georgia Court Competency Test.
La.C.Cr.P. art. 642 provides: ...
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