State v. Sonnier, 63293
| Citation | 379 So.2d 1336 |
| Decision Date | 25 June 1979 |
| Docket Number | No. 63293,63293 |
| Parties | STATE of Louisiana v. Elmo Patrick SONNIER. |
| Court | Supreme Court of Louisiana |
Allen A. McElroy, Jr., McElroy & Ramsey, Ltd., Berwick, Steven P. Shea, New Iberia, for defendant-appellant.
William J. Guste, Jr., Atty. Gen., Barbara Rutledge, Asst. Atty. Gen., Knowles M. Tucker, Dist. Atty., Dracos D. Burke, Asst. Dist. Atty., for plaintiff-appellee.
Defendant, Elmo Patrick Sonnier, was indicted by grand jury for two counts of first degree murder in violation of LSA-R.S. 14:30. Trial was held on April 12-14, 1978. Defendant was found guilty on each count by a twelve-person jury. Following the sentencing portion of the trial, the jury recommended that the defendant be sentenced to death on each count. The defense requested that the jury be polled, both as to the verdict and the sentence. The trial court was satisfied that the jury had unanimously reached its conclusions. On April 25, 1978, defendant was sentenced to death on each count of first degree murder.
Defendant assigns thirteen errors as the basis for his appeal before this Court. Assignment No. 13 contains four assignments relating to the sentencing proceedings. Finding no reversible error in either the guilt or sentence portion of the trial, we affirm both the conviction and the sentence.
On the evening of November 4, 1977, David LeBlanc, age sixteen, and Loretta Ann Bourque, age eighteen, attended a high school football game. Later that evening, the couple parked in a remote area of St. Martin Parish. At approximately one o'clock A.M., defendant and his brother, Eddie James Sonnier, who were rabbit hunting together, came across the couple's car. Using a badge one of the brothers had obtained while working as a security guard and armed with 22-caliber rifles, the two posed as police officers and approached and entered the car. The victims were informed that they were trespassing and that they would have to be brought to the landowner to determine if the landowner desired to press charges. At this time the driver's licenses of both victims were confiscated. The two victims were then handcuffed and placed in the back seat of their (the victims') car. Leaving their own car behind, the defendant and his brother drove the couple twenty-one miles to a remote oilfield located in Iberia Parish, an area known to the defendant.
Once at the oilfield, both victims were removed from the car. David LeBlanc was taken into the woods and handcuffed to a tree. Loretta Bourque was taken a short distance away and raped by the defendant, Elmo Sonnier. She then agreed to have intercourse with Eddie Sonnier in exchange for the couple's safe release. Upon completion of the rapes, the two youngsters were unhandcuffed and brought back toward the road where the car was parked.
At that point, Elmo Sonnier told his brother they could not let the couple go because if the youngsters talked, it would mean he (Elmo) would have to go back to Angola. David LeBlanc and Loretta Bourque were then forced to lie side by side, face down, and were each shot three times at close range in the back of the head. Eddie Sonnier testified that he held a flashlight while the defendant shot the youngsters with a 22-caliber rifle. He further related that Bourque began to cry when the defendant fired a first shot at her which missed. The defendant then fired a second shot which succeeded in striking Bourque in the back of the head. The third shot likewise struck LeBlanc in the back of the head. Each victim was then shot two additional times. At the trial, expert testimony indicated that any one of the shots would have resulted in instantaneous death to the victims.
The defendant and his brother then drove the victims' vehicle back to the original site where the couple was first accosted in order to pick up their own car. Finding their car with a flat tire, they used a jack from the LeBlanc vehicle to make the change. The jack was later seized by police from the trunk of the defendant's car. The brothers then destroyed the victims' driver's licenses and the following day buried the rifles in another remote area. Investigation also revealed that thirty or forty dollars which was in the possession of the victims prior to the abduction could not be accounted for.
The defendant was arrested on December 5, 1977. He was advised of his rights and taken to the Sheriff's Office in New Iberia. While there, he made a free and voluntary confession which was transcribed by one of the police officers who was present. The statement was then read and signed by the defendant. The defendant was then routinely transferred to a parish prison in an adjacent parish. While enroute, he made another statement to the officers who were transporting him. The following day he made a third confession which was taped. All three statements indicated that the defendant had participated in the abduction of the victims and had shot them.
The police later recovered the two rifles which belonged to the defendant and his brother. Ballistics tests indicated that one of the bullets taken from one of the victim's head and four brass casings found by the police at the scene of the crime had positively been fired from the rifle which belonged to the defendant. Because of excessive damage, the other five bullets that were recovered could only be identified as having been fired from the same model, brand and caliber rifle as that belonging to the defendant.
The handcuffs used in the abduction were later recovered from Elmo Sonnier's bedroom. The State also produced a witness who testified that he had seen the defendants' blue 1961 Dart at the place where the abduction occurred during the early morning hours of November 5, 1977.
The defendant and his brother were jointly indicted on two counts of first degree murder by the grand jury of Iberia Parish. On January 19, 1978, the defendant was arraigned and pled not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity. A sanity commission was appointed and on March 31, 1978, a sanity hearing was held at which defendant was determined to have the mental ability to assist counsel and understand the nature of the proceedings against him. The State announced on this same date its intention to try the defendant separately and further that it would file a severed indictment pursuant thereto.
On April 3, 1978, a hearing was held on a motion for change of venue. The motion was denied the following day. On April 6, 1978, a hearing was held in which the following motions were denied: (1) to sever, (2) to suppress evidence seized from a search of defendant's home, (3) to set aside the trial date, and (4) for additional mental examination of defendant. On the morning of trial the defendant changed his plea to not guilty.
We deem that the best method to analyze the defendant's appeal is to divide our analysis in the same manner in which the trial was divided: guilt portion and sentencing portion.
Defendant claims the trial judge erred in refusing to grant a change of venue. He also argues that during the hearing on the motion for change of venue the trial judge erred in asking various questions of potential jurors during a "dry run" venire.
LSA-C.Cr.P. art. 622 provides:
This Court has consistently held that to warrant a change of venue the burden is on the accused to establish that he cannot obtain a fair trial in the parish where the prosecution is pending. Article 622 requires a showing of more than mere knowledge by the public of facts surrounding the offense. It requires, in addition, proof of such prejudice in the public mind that a fair and impartial trial cannot be obtained in the parish. State v. Sheppard, 350 So.2d 615 (La.1977); State v. de la Beckwith, 344 So.2d 360 (La.1977); State v. Berry, 329 So.2d 728 (La.1976); State v. Stewart, 325 So.2d 819 (La.1976). The granting or denial of the motion for change of venue rests within the sound discretion of the trial judge, and his ruling denying the motion will not be disturbed unless the evidence affirmatively shows that the ruling was erroneous and an abuse of judicial discretion. State v. Sheppard, supra; State v. de la Beckwith, supra; State v. Bennett, 341 So.2d 847 (La.1976); State v. Stewart, supra.
In State v. Bell, 315 So.2d 307 (La.1975), we noted:
". . . The defendants were entitled to a change of venue if they could show, even though it would be possible to select a jury whose members were not subject to a challenge for cause, that there were influences in the community which would affect the answers of jurors on the voir dire, or the testimony of witnesses at the trial, or that, for any other reason, a fair and impartial trial could not be obtained in the parish. . . ." (State v. Bell at 313) 1
Considering the evidence presented in support of the motion for a change of venue, we are confident that there was no abuse of discretion in denying the motion.
The defense claims that prejudice existed in the community and undue influence would be exerted on potential jurors such that a fair trial could not be obtained in Iberia Parish. In support of this, the defendant points to three separate factors as requiring a change of venue.
First, the defense claims that after the defendant was arrested...
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