State v. Tassin
| Decision Date | 12 December 1988 |
| Docket Number | No. 87-KA-2529,87-KA-2529 |
| Citation | 536 So.2d 402 |
| Parties | STATE of Louisiana v. Robert TASSIN. |
| Court | Louisiana Supreme Court |
William J. Guste, Jr., Atty. Gen., John M. Mamoulides, Dist. Atty., Dorothy Pendergast, Guy Delaup, Asst. Dist. Attys., for plaintiff-appellee.
Bruce Whittaker, Indigent Defender Bd., New Orleans, for defendant-appellant.
A Jefferson Parish Grand Jury indicted Robert Tassin, his wife Georgina Tassin, and Sheila Mills for the first degree murder of Edward Martin, in violation of LSA-R.S. 14:30. 1 The state later reduced the charge against Georgina Tassin and Sheila Mills to armed robbery. Robert Tassin was found guilty by a jury of first degree murder and was unanimously sentenced to death after three aggravating circumstances were found. This is the direct appeal of his conviction and sentence. 2
On November 5, 1986, Edward "Eddie" Martin, a tugboat captain, and his deckhand, Wayne Stagner, cashed their paychecks at Schnell's Restaurant and Bar in Marrero, Louisiana. Afterward, they went to the Shady Lady Lounge where Martin played pool and a drinking game while Stagner drank beers at the bar. Martin met Sheila Mills and others there and bought rounds of drinks.
Shortly before midnight, the two men left the bar. As they approached Martin's two-door silver Thunderbird, Sheila Mills asked if they wanted to buy some cocaine. Martin did and got out of the car to allow Sheila to sit between them in the front seat. They drove to a small bar but Sheila failed to contact her drug source. She directed the men to the residence of her neighbors, Robert and Georgina Tassin.
While Martin and Stagner waited in the car, Sheila went inside and told the Tassins the two men had just been paid after working offshore. Robert Tassin told her he did not have any cocaine to sell but did have Dilaudid. However, he told Sheila he would not sell any drugs unless Sheila obtained enough money to supply drugs for all of them. Robert sent Sheila outside to get money. Sheila returned to the car and asked Martin if he were interested in buying Dilaudid. When he declined, Sheila asked him to furnish her drug money in exchange for sex back at the boat. Sheila returned to the house with $55. Robert, Georgina, and Sheila each injected a Dilaudid capsule by filling a syringe with a crushed capsule mixed with water.
When Sheila reentered the house, Stagner suggested that he hold some of Martin's money, fearing that Martin in his intoxicated state might gave away his whole paycheck. Martin agreed and gave Stagner a portion of his money which Stagner put into his left shoe. Stagner put his own money into his right shoe. Inside the house, Sheila, Robert and Georgina discussed a plan to rob the two men and take their money to buy drugs.
Sheila and the Tassins left the house and told the two men they would have to get the drugs from a friend's apartment. At Sheila's direction, the group went in Martin's car to the Tres Vidas Apartments, the home of Darryl Macaluso and Mary Ann Valverde. Tassin maintained that he accepted the ride to get new syringes. Also, he wanted Martin and Stagner to think that he did not have drugs in his possession in case they were police officers. The state claims that Robert went there to borrow a gun. His wife testified that he had a bulge in his pocket when he emerged. On leaving the apartment, Robert Tassin got into the back seat of the car behind Martin, the driver, while Georgina Tassin got in the back seat behind Stagner, the passenger. Sheila returned to the front seat between Martin and Stagner. On the ride back to the Tassins' house, while crossing the Lapalco Bridge, Sheila told Martin she was feeling sick. She directed him off the road and underneath the bridge. When Stagner let Sheila out of the front seat, she walked to the rear of the car.
According to the state's theory, Stagner returned to the front seat. As he reached for some cigarettes on the dashboard, Robert Tassin shot him in the back. Stagner turned and saw Tassin shoot Martin three times in the back and the neck. Stagner bolted out of the car and was shot again in the left leg.
According to the defense, after Sheila left the car, Stagner leaned back into the car from the front seat with a pistol in his hand which he pointed at Robert Tassin's face saying "Give me the pills and your money." Tassin dove for the gun, placing his hand between the hammer and the firing pin so that it could not fire, thereby cutting his hand. Tassin wrestled the gun away from Stagner. As he did so, Martin told Stagner to "Get the other gun." Tassin saw Stagner reach down as if he were retrieving something and Tassin "freaked out". He began firing wildly, shooting Stagner first; then, at a movement from Martin, firing in Martin's direction. After Stagner ran away, Tassin said he calmed down and pulled Martin's body out of the car, laying it on the roadway.
According to the state, Robert Tassin checked Martin's pockets for money before dragging the body out of the car and into a ditch under the bridge.
Meanwhile, Stagner had staggered to the street and collapsed in the center of an intersection where he hailed a passing car. Stagner asked the occupants to summon help for himself and his captain who had been shot and might be dead. Stagner then lost consciousness and did not regain it until he was in the hospital.
Subsequently, Sheila drove the Tassins in Martin's car back to the Tassin residence. Georgina and Sheila went inside while Robert Tassin drove the car into the Westwego Canal (Bayou Signette), which was 100 to 150 yards from his house. He also threw the gun into the canal. He then consumed all the drugs he had and purchased more the next day.
When Stagner regained consciousness, he told the police that he and Martin had been shot by hitchhikers they had picked up. Later, he admitted the hitchhiker story had been fabricated because he did not want his wife to know he had been out drinking with other women. From an ambulance, he directed the police to the Tassins' residence. Arrest warrants were issued for the Tassins on November 10, 1986, and they turned themselves in to the police on November 12, 1986, after hearing on the news that they were wanted for the murder.
The jury found Robert Tassin guilty of first degree murder, rejecting his claim of self-defense. The jury unanimously recommended the imposition of the death penalty, finding three statutory aggravating circumstances: (1) that the murder was committed during the perpertration of an armed robbery; (2) that the offender knowingly created a risk of death or great bodily harm to more than one person; and (3) that the offense was committed in a heinous, atrocious or cruel manner.
In this direct appeal of his conviction and sentence, Tassin assigns twenty-two assignments of error, arguing nine of the assignments in six arguments. The assignments argued on appeal will be treated below. Although the unargued assignments will be treated in an unpublished appendix, all assignments of error are reviewed in a capital case. State v. Kirkpatrick, 443 So.2d 546 (La.1983), cert. den. 466 U.S. 993, 104 S.Ct. 2374, 80 L.Ed.2d 847 (1984).
Tassin argues that the trial court excused prospective jurors Avist, Klotz, Johnson and Brown for cause without properly applying the standards of Witherspoon v. Illinois, 391 U.S. 510, 88 S.Ct. 1770, 20 L.Ed.2d 776 (1968) and LSA-C.Cr.P. art 798. 3 Tassin also contends that the trial judge erroneously excused juror Pizzolatto for bias and juror Magee for inability to follow the law. LSA-C.Cr.P. art. 797. 4
LSA-C.Cr.P. art. 798(2) closely tracks the language of Witherspoon, which found it proper to exclude prospective jurors for cause if they made it "unmistakably clear: (1) that they would automatically vote against the imposition of capital punishment without regard to any evidence that might be developed at the trial of the case before them, or (2) that their attitude toward the death penalty would prevent them from making an impartial decision as to the defendant's guilt." 5
In Wainwright v. Witt, 469 U.S. 412, 105 S.Ct. 844, 83 L.Ed.2d 841 (1985), the Witherspoon standard was clarified as "whether the juror's views [on capital punishment] would 'prevent or substantially impair the performance of his duties as a juror in accordance with his instructions and his oath.' " 6 Witt held that juror bias need not be proved with "unmistakable clarity", because, in some circumstances, no amount of time spent in question and answer could show that a juror was clearly biased. Witt stressed the deference due a trial judge's determination of whether a prospective juror's views on capital punishment warrant a challenge for cause.
In voir dire, prospective jurors Avist and Klotz stated they did not agree with the death penalty and thought it should not be a part of our law. Both Avist and Klotz signified they could not consider the death penalty as an alternative sentence. Defense counsel did not attempt to rehabilitate either of them and did not object to the challenge for cause.
Prospective juror Johnson gave conflicting responses about whether she could impose the death penalty, but finally maintained that she would not be able to follow the law and consider the death penalty in her deliberations. Defense counsel did not attempt further rehabilitation but objected to the challenge for cause.
Prospective juror Brown gave conflicting answers concerning her ability to consider the death penalty. Brown's vacillating responses, to both the attorneys and the court, indicated she had difficulty in understanding the questions. At one point, Brown maintained she could not send anyone to jail unless she had witnessed the crime.
The trial court followed the dictates of LSA-C.Cr.P. arts. 797 and 798 and the federal standards of Witherspoon and Witt. There was no error in...
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