State v. Sutton

• Decision Date: 27 June 1983
• Docket Number: No. 82-KA-0486,82-KA-0486
• Citation: 436 So.2d 471
• Parties: STATE of Louisiana v. Melvin SUTTON.
• Court: Louisiana Supreme Court

Page 471

436 So.2d 471

STATE of Louisiana v. Melvin SUTTON.

No. 82-KA-0486.

Supreme Court of Louisiana.

June 27, 1983.

William J. Guste, Jr., Atty. Gen., Barbara Rutledge, Asst. Atty. Gen., Harry F. Connick, Dist. Atty., John Craft, Harold J. Gilbert, Jack Peebles, Wm. Campbell, Jr., Asst. Dist. Attys., for plaintiff-appellee.

George A. Blair, III, New Orleans, for defendant.

LEMMON, Justice.

The principal issue in this appeal is whether the evidence was sufficient to support defendant's convictions of the simple robbery of a bank teller and of the armed robbery and second degree murder of a coperpetrator of the bank robbery. ¹

Facts

Thagard Alexander (the alleged coperpetrator who was murdered) walked into the bank at about noon, his tennis hat pulled down over his eyes. ² He was followed by two men, one of whom had a small child with him. Alexander approached the teller's window, handed her a bag, and told her that the man in line behind him would "blow [her] head off" if she did not put all of her money in the bag. She responded by filling the bag with $12,000 in individually wrapped bundles and by activating the security cameras. After receiving the cash, Alexander quickly walked out of the bank.

To the teller's surprise, the next man in line did not leave with Alexander, but stepped up to the window and attempted to cash a check, while the third man in line, who was accompanied by a small child, turned and followed Alexander from the bank. When the unnerved teller declined to cash the check, the second man also left.

Alexander did not get far with the proceeds of his crime. Less than 20 minutes after the bank robbery, Alexander's body was discovered in a wooded area about a mile from the bank. He was lying face down in tall grass about 20 feet from a public road, having been shot five or six times in the head, chest, and abdomen. The loot from the robbery was gone, and bank wrappers were strewn about the scene. A palm print on one of the torn bank wrappers eventually became the cornerstone of the state's case.

The surveillance photographs showed the two men in line behind Alexander and also showed that the third man left behind Alexander without ever reaching the teller's window. The second man in line was positively identified as Murray Sutton, defendant's brother, by a security guard who worked with Murray Sutton at a plant near the bank. The guard testified that he had seen Murray Sutton and a man with a small child at the plant around noon the day of the robbery. After examining the surveillance photographs, the guard verified that the third person in line (behind Alexander and Murray Sutton) was the same person he had seen at the plant with Murray Sutton. Although the guard could not state positively that defendant was the "man with the child" that he had observed at the plant and in the surveillance photograph, he testified that the man at the plant looked so much like Murray Sutton that he assumed that the man was Murray Sutton's brother.

The teller could not positively identify defendant as the third man in line. Defendant did not present any evidence.

Defendant was indicted for armed robbery of both the bank teller and the murdered robber, as well as for the second degree murder of Alexander. ³ Following a jury trial, he was convicted of simple robbery of the bank teller, armed robbery of Alexander, and second degree murder. ⁴

Sufficiency of the Evidence

The state's case against defendant consisted primarily of circumstantial evidence. ⁵ The testimony of the teller (who was taken to the scene of the shooting) and of the investigating officers undoubtedly established that the bank was robbed of $12,000 in cash by Alexander and that Alexander was himself shot down and relieved of his ill-gotten gains only minutes later. ⁶ The evidence also undoubtedly established that Murray Sutton and a third man had walked into the bank right behind Alexander, were in line behind Alexander during the robbery, and walked out behind him. However, none of the witnesses positively identified defendant as the "third man" who followed Alexander out of the bank. Nevertheless, a person who resembled defendant was with Murray Sutton at the plant and at the bank a few minutes later. This significant evidence provided a reasonable basis for the jury to draw the inference that defendant was standing in line behind his brother while Alexander perpetrated the bank robbery. Obviously, more than that reasonable inference (that defendant was in the bank) is necessary to uphold defendant's convictions. The significance of the palm print thus assumes a critical role.

A fingerprint expert positively identified the clear palm print lifted from one of the torn wrappers as that of the defendant. The teller identified the torn wrappers, with her initials and teller stamp, as those which were wrapped around the money stolen in the robbery. Moreover, since tellers do not usually dispense money in wrappers and since the only "wrapped money" given out by her on the day of the robbery was the money placed in Alexander's bag, defendant would not have had an opportunity to handle the wrappers except during the few minutes between Alexander's hasty exit from the bank and the discovery of the wrappers near his body. This evidence establishes beyond a reasonable doubt that defendant touched the money wrappers at the approximate time of the murder.

The uncontested facts raise the clear inference that Alexander's killer (or killers) shot him in order to take the large sum of cash. The facts also raise the inference that the killer knew Alexander had money inside the bag, since it is highly unlikely that Alexander happened upon strangers so soon after the robbery and that they killed him and discovered the money by chance. These inferences, together with the palm print indicating defendant's presence at the murder scene and the significant circumstantial evidence indicating that defendant was present in the bank during the robbery, point unmistakably to defendant as the killer (or one of the killers). There simply is no other plausible explanation. Defense counsel hypothesized that someone killed Alexander, leaving his body and the wrappers alongside the road, and that defendant (whose brother was coincidentally standing in line behind the murdered man only minutes before) stumbled upon and handled the wrappers, but that hypothesis is just not plausible. ⁷

Thus, the circumstances established by the direct evidence reasonably support the jury's hypothesis (as reflected by their verdict) that defendant was aware beforehand of Alexander's plan to obtain the money from the bank teller by threats and that he and his brother lined up behind Alexander to keep other customers away. This hypothesis is bolstered by a photograph which proved that three people were in line for the teller who was robbed, while each of the adjacent tellers had only one customer at the counter. ⁸ Further, the fact that the "third man", believed to be defendant, followed Alexander from the bank, without ever reaching the teller's window, provided a basis for the jury to conclude logically that defendant followed Alexander, met him on the road about a mile from the bank, shot him dead, tore the wrappers off the money (thus leaving his palm print), and fled, leaving the police only a dead man to identify as the robber.

Standard of Appellate Review

In reviewing the sufficiency of the evidence to support a conviction, an appellate court in Louisiana is controlled by the standard enunciated by the...