State v. Tate

• Decision Date: 20 May 2003
• Docket Number: No. 2001-KA-1658.,2001-KA-1658.
• Parties: STATE of Louisiana v. Antoine TATE.
• Court: Louisiana Supreme Court

851 So.2d 921

STATE of Louisiana v. Antoine TATE.

No. 2001-KA-1658.

Supreme Court of Louisiana.

May 20, 2003.

Rehearing Denied September 5, 2003.

J. Rodney Baum, Baton Rouge, Counsel for Applicant.

Richard P. Ieyoub, Attorney General, Douglas P. Moreau, District Attorney, Creighton B. Abadie, Baton Rouge, Tara S. Bourgeois, Barry J. Fontenot, Opelousas, Monisa L. Thompson, Baton Rouge, Counsel for Respondent.

CALOGERO, Chief Justice.

Three young men were killed in a violent, gangland-style ambush and shooting in East Baton Rouge Parish on the night of January 14, 1997; a fourth man, though badly wounded, managed to survive by feigning death. He heard defendant Antoine Tate's voice during the shooting, and provided police with Tate's name. Tate's accomplices later fingered him as one of the shooters. On this and other evidence, a jury found Tate guilty as charged of first degree murder and returned a sentence of death by lethal injection, which the trial court duly imposed. Tate has appealed his conviction and sentence, and, for the reasons that follow, we affirm.

Statement of the Case

On February 3, 2000, after nine days of voir dire and a five-day trial, an East Baton Rouge Parish jury found the defendant guilty of the first degree murders of Chonner Jackson, Joseph Billie, and Sylvester Rowe. One day later, after the penalty phase hearing, the jury sentenced the defendant to death after finding three aggravating circumstances: 1) that the defendant was engaged in the perpetration or attempted perpetration of armed robbery or assault by drive-by shooting, 2) that the defendant knowingly created a risk of death or great bodily harm to more than one person, and 3) that the defendant committed this crime in an especially heinous, atrocious, and cruel manner. La. Code Crim. Proc. art. 905.4(1), (4), and (7). The defendant now assigns twenty errors, some of which are discussed in the main body of this opinion.¹

Facts

On the night of January 14, 1997, the defendant, Antoine Tate, along with his accomplices, Derrick Jackson, Samuel Williams, Leonard Toney, and Timothy Gross, drove to the north Baton Rouge home of the surviving victim, Mack Thomas, in Tate's white Oldsmobile Cutlass. After arriving at Thomas's home, Toney went inside and talked to Joseph Billie, a known drug dealer, about a possible marijuana purchase from Ike Foster, a man who lived in the area of Rheames Road. While inside, Toney went to the bathroom with Billie and saw a large amount of crack cocaine and money. After leaving Thomas's residence, Toney got into the Cutlass with Tate, Jackson, Williams, and Gross, and began plotting the robbery of Billie to get the drugs and money Toney had seen in the house.

A short time later, the victims, Joseph Billie, Mack Thomas, Sylvester Rowe, and Chonnor Jackson left Thomas's house in a blue Toyota Corolla and drove to the home of Foster. Meanwhile, Tate and Toney, Gross, Jackson, and Williams went to the home of Jackson's aunt and retrieved an SKS assault rifle. The group then proceeded down Rheames Road towards Ike Foster's house. While stopped at the intersection of Milldale and Rheames Roads, the defendant exited the Cutlass with the assault rifle and walked into the woods. Toney then drove the rest of the men to Foster's house.

When they arrived at Foster's residence, Toney got out of the Cutlass, knocked on Foster's door, and discovered that no one was home. Toney, Gross, Williams, and Derrick Jackson then left Foster's house, followed by the Corolla with Thomas, Billie, and Chonnor Jackson inside, with Rowe driving. When the two cars stopped at the stop sign at the intersection of Milldale and Rheames Roads, the defendant stepped out of the woods and began firing the SKS assault rifle into the Corolla. Trying to get away from the gunfire, Rowe drove the car around the Cutlass and sped up Rheames Road. The defendant then got into the driver's seat of the Cutlass, handed the gun to Jackson, and began chasing the Corolla. As the Cutlass approached the Corolla, Derrick Jackson stood up through the sunroof and fired at the other vehicle. The Toyota Corolla struck a truck being driven by Robert Selders, and then it stopped on the side of the road. Once the vehicle stopped, the defendant took the gun from Derrick Jackson, exited the Cutlass, and began firing the assault rifle into the Corolla directly at the four victims. When the gunfire ended, Chonnor Jackson, Billie, and Rowe were dead of multiple gun shot wounds. Tate, Toney, and Derrick Jackson then searched the victims' pockets, looking for money and drugs before they fled the scene.

Mack Thomas survived the incident by pretending to be dead in the back seat of the Corolla. At the hospital, Thomas provided the defendant's name as a shooter, and at trial, he testified that he had heard the defendant's voice at the scene saying to "kill those m____ f____s." In addition, Toney, Gross, and Williams testified against the defendant at trial, pointing to the defendant and Derrick Jackson as the shooters. Furthermore, DNA evidence placed defendant at the crime scene and ballistics testing matched the gun, found hidden in a drainage pipe, to the deceased victims' wounds.

Sufficiency of the Evidence

We first consider the defendant's assertion in assignment of error no. 7 that the State failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant committed the crime of first degree murder. Specifically, the defendant argues that his conviction rests solely on the testimony of his accomplices, who placed the blame on the defendant alone and who all received lesser sentences because of plea bargains with the State. The defendant argues that their testimony is inconsistent and unreliable. He further contends the evidence does not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he killed any of the victims in this case. Instead, the defendant argues, the evidence shows that Derrick Jackson likely fired the shots that killed the victims, as there was testimony that Jackson fired the assault rifle at the victims' car from behind, that the shots that killed the victims came from behind, and that none of the victims fled their vehicle after it struck the truck. The evidence, in the defendant's view, establishes that the robbery and attack were planned and carried out by Toney and Derrick Jackson.

In reviewing the sufficiency of the evidence to support a conviction, an appellate court in Louisiana is controlled by the standard enunciated by the United States Supreme Court in Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979). State v. Captville, 448 So.2d 676, 678 (La.1984). Under this standard, the appellate court "must determine that the evidence, viewed in the light most favorable to the prosecution, was sufficient to convince a rational trier of fact that all of the elements of the crime had been proved beyond a reasonable doubt." Id.

In Louisiana, as a general principle of law, a conviction may be sustained on the uncorroborated testimony of a purported accomplice, although the jury should be instructed to treat such testimony with great caution.² State v. May, 339 So.2d 764, 774 (La.1976); see also State v. Howard, 98-0064, p. 14 (La.4/23/99), 751 So.2d 783, 801

. However, when the accomplice's testimony is corroborated by other evidence, such language is not required. Howard, p. 14, 751 So.2d at 801.

After reviewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, we conclude the defendant's insufficient evidence argument fails for several reasons. First, in the instant case, all three of defendant's purported accomplices testified against him. While there may have been minor inconsistencies in their testimony, all three testified that the four men went to Thomas's trailer in the defendant's white Cutlass to obtain narcotics and that, after Toney observed money and drugs in the trailer, the group decided to rob the men. Toney, Gross, and Williams also testified that the group went to the home of Derrick Jackson's aunt to get an SKS assault rifle before going to meet the other men, and that the defendant got out of his car, with the SKS assault rifle, at the intersection of Rheames Road and Milldale. Toney, Gross, and Williams testified that the defendant came out of the bushes firing the SKS at the Toyota Corolla the victims were driving. Furthermore, these witnesses testified that when the Corolla took off, the defendant got into the Cutlass, handed the gun to Derrick Jackson, and chased down the Corolla while Jackson fired at the car from the sunroof. The defendant's accomplices also testified that when the Corolla crashed, the defendant then took the SKS rifle from Jackson, approached the vehicle, and repeatedly fired the gun into the car.

The State also presented physical evidence corroborating the witnesses' testimony and the defendant's involvement. This evidence included the fact that co-defendant Gross led police to where the assault rifle was located. Bullets retrieved from the victims, as well as casings and bullet fragments found at the scenes, were matched to this weapon. In addition, blood having DNA consistent with the DNA of one of the deceased victims was found on the defendant's shoe. Furthermore, the State introduced a threatening letter from the defendant to his co-perpetrator, Williams, which was written while the defendant was incarcerated and awaiting trial and which implicated him in the instant crimes.

The trier of fact makes credibility determinations and may, within the bounds of rationality, accept or reject the testimony of any witness; thus, a reviewing court may impinge upon the fact finder's discretion "only to the extent necessary to guarantee the fundamental protection of due process of law." State v. Mussall, 523 So.2d 1305, 1310 (La.1988). The jury in the instant case made reasonable credibility determinations in favor of the State and rationally accepted the testimony of the...