State v. Taylor

• Decision Date: 27 November 2007
• Docket Number: No. 07-KA-93.,07-KA-93.
• Citation: 973 So.2d 83
• Parties: STATE of Louisiana v. Justin TAYLOR.
• Court: Court of Appeal of Louisiana — District of US

973 So.2d 83

STATE of Louisiana v. Justin TAYLOR.

No. 07-KA-93.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Fifth Circuit.

November 27, 2007.

Paul D. Connick, Jr., District Attorney, Twenty-Fourth. Judicial District Parish of Jefferson, Terry M. Boudreaux, Andrea F. Long, Donald A. Rowan, Jr., Assistant District Attorneys, Gretna, LA, for Plaintiff/Appellee.

Jane L. Beebe, Attorney at Law, Louisiana Appellate Project, New Orleans, LA, for Defendant/Appellant.

Panel composed of Judges EDWARD A. DUFRESNE, JR., THOMAS F. DALEY and WALTER J. ROTHSCHILD.

WALTER J. ROTHSCHILD, Judge.

On February 20, 2003, defendant, Justin Taylor, was charged by grand jury indictment with second degree murder, a violation of LSA-R.S. 14:30.1. He pled not guilty at arraignment. Defendant was tried by a twelve-member jury on March 21, 22, and 23, 2006, and the jury returned a verdict of guilty as charged. On April 27, 2006, the trial court sentenced defendant to life imprisonment at hard labor without benefit of parole, probation, or suspension of sentence. The court ordered that the sentence run consecutively to any other sentence defendant was serving. Defendant filed a motion for appeal, which was granted by the trial court.

FACTS

Officer Keith Seals of the Kenner Police Department testified that on the night of December 26, 2001, he was on patrol when he responded to a shooting call at the Burger King Restaurant at 1000 West Esplanade. When he arrived at the scene, he saw a restaurant manager, Benny Randazzo, lying dead on the floor. Some restaurant employees were sitting in the dining area, and they appeared to be in shock.

Officer Seals interviewed employee Lenell Jackson. Ms. Jackson said she was standing behind the service counter when the shooting occurred. She described the gunman as 5 feet, 11 inches tall, wearing a gray, hooded sweatshirt and blue jeans. A black bandanna covered the lower part of his face. The other employees gave the officer similar descriptions. Ms. Jackson said that when the perpetrator entered the restaurant, he ordered that no one move, and he told the victim to open all of the cash registers.

Judy Jacobsen testified that at the time of the murder, she was the manager of the Burger King on West Esplanade. The victim, Mr. Randazzo, was an assistant manager, and he was also married to Jacobsen's sister. Jacobsen testified that she worked the day shift on the date of the murder and Randazzo ran the evening shift. Jacobsen remained at the restaurant for some time after her shift ended in order to balance the employees' cash register receipts and lock the money in the safe. During that time, Randazzo was working in the front of the restaurant.

Jacobsen testified that employee Eddie Jackson was working as a cashier that evening. When Jacobsen returned to the front of the restaurant after counting receipts, she saw that Eddie's sister, a newly hired employee, was sitting at a table in the dining area. The young woman was eating a Whopper Jr. meal while she waited for Randazzo to assist her with some new hire paperwork. Jacobsen testified that there had been a major problem at the restaurant with employees serving food to people who had not paid for it. When Jacobsen saw that Eddie's sister did not have a sales receipt on her meal tray, she suspected the girl had not paid for the food. Jacobsen testified that she checked the recent cash register receipts, but did not find one for the sale of a Whopper Jr. meal. While Jacobsen was checking the registers for the sale, Eddie was working in the drive-through area. Jacobsen testified that she was pretty sure he knew what she was looking for, because it was coinmon knowledge that anyone who gave out food without collecting payment for it could lose his or her job.

Jacobsen asked Randazzo to take Eddie and his sister aside and inform them that he was being fired and she would not be hired, and to tell them why. According to Jacobsen, Randazzo was short on staff, so he did not fire Eddie that night. At 7:00 p.m., Randazzo instructed Eddie to take a 30-minute break. When Jacobsen called Randazzo at 9:00 that night, he told her that he had not fired Eddie, and that Eddie had gone on break and failed to return. Neither Jacobsen nor Randazzo confronted Eddie that day about giving away food.

Jacobsen testified that police called her at 11:00 that night to inform her that Randazzo had been shot and killed at the restaurant. She was asked to inform her sister, Randazzo's wife, of his death. Jacobsen and her husband went to the restaurant with her sister and nephew. Jacobsen spoke to a detective, who asked her if there had been any incidents at the restaurant that might have provoked the shooting. She informed him of the incident involving Eddie Jackson.

Detective Michael Cunningham testified that he reported to the scene 15-20 minutes after the shooting. After conferring with Officer Seals, Cunningham sent four witnesses to the Kenner police complex, where he later interviewed them. Those witnesses were Burger King employees Jessica White, Ernest Brown, Donnie McCoy, and Lenell Jackson.¹ Detective Cunningham testified that the witnesses described the shooter as a black man. There were some discrepancies in the witnesses' descriptions, but all of them, except Donnie McCoy, said the perpetrator wore a gray, hooded sweatshirt. McCoy reported that he was cleaning the bathroom at the time of the shooting and did not see the perpetrator. The witnesses also said the gunman wore a dark colored bandanna, and that his gun was a chrome-plated or silver revolver.

Cunningham also questioned Burger King employee David Reese, who left the restaurant on his bicycle minutes before the murder. Reese told Cunningham he saw two men in the Burger King parking lot when he left the restaurant. At first he named fellow employee Eddie Jackson as one of the men, but later said he was not sure if the man was Jackson.

Cunningham testified that Jacobsen informed him the victim was supposed to fire Eddie Jackson. He learned that Eddie Jackson lived two doors down from Ernest Brown. Based on that fact, the detective interviewed Brown a second time. When Cunningham interviewed Brown a third time in late 2002, Brown was in jail on armed robbery charges unrelated to the murder. Brown stated that defendant was the gunman in the murder, and that he recognized defendant by his voice.

Detective Cunningham also learned that Eddie Jackson is defendant Justin Taylor's nephew. At the time of the murder, defendant, lived one block away from Eddie. On December 27, 2001, Cunningham interviewed Eddie, who was wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt and gray sweatpants. Eddie told the detective that on the day of the murder, he walked to defendant's house shortly after 11:00 a.m. At about 3:30 p.m., Eddie and defendant walked to Eddie's house. They saw Ernest Brown along the way and talked to him. Eddie then went home to change clothes, and he and his sister went to Burger King. They left Burger King at 5:00 p.m. Eddie went home and babysat for his little brother. Then, at 8:00 p.m. he picked up defendant, and they went to an EZ Serve store, and then to a Popeye's restaurant at Williams Boulevard and West Esplanade. After that, the two men went to defendant's house, where Eddie stayed until midnight.

Detective Cunningham testified that officers obtained a security videotape from an EZ Serve located a quarter of a mile from the Burger King. Still photographs from that videotape were introduced as evidence and Cunningham identified them. The detective testified that the photographs depicted defendant and Eddie Jackson in the EZ Serve store 20 minutes after the murder, and both were wearing gray hooded sweatshirts. Based on what he saw on the security video, Cunningham compiled a photographic lineup that included a picture of Eddie Jackson and a second lineup that included defendant.

Detective Cunningham executed a search warrant at Eddie Jackson's house on May 21, 2002, where he recovered, among other things, a gray hooded sweatshirt. Cunningham also executed a search warrant at the home of Lashira Jackson, defendant's niece and Eddie Jackson's sister. At her house, officers recovered a .38 Special chrome revolver with a brown wooden handle. The parties stipulated that Cunningham found the gun in Lashira Jackson's house on June 10, 2002, and defendant admitted to Cunningham that he had put the gun there.

At trial, Ernest Brown testified that he knew both defendant and Eddie Jackson prior to the murder. Both men lived in his neighborhood. At the time of the shooting, Brown was at the front service counter talking to a fellow employee. Randazzo was in the dining area preparing to close the restaurant for the night. A man walked in, pointed a gun toward the cash register, and said, "Open the register," The gunman then pointed his weapon at Randazzo and told him to open the cash register. When Randazzo moved to hand the perpetrator the keys, the man shot him in the head. Brown testified that he is positive defendant was the shooter. He could not identify defendant by his face, but recognized his voice.

Ashley Smith testified that Burger King employee Donnie McCoy is the father of her sister's child. On the night of the murder, while McCoy was working, Smith and her sister drove to the restaurant to bring him cigarettes. Smith sat in the car in the parking lot while her sister went inside. While she was waiting, Smith saw two men walk toward the restaurant and then go behind the building to the durnpster area. She testified she was there for 15-20 minutes, but did not see the men exit the area.

Smith testified that when she learned about the murder at Burger King, she told police about the men she had seen. Detective Cunningham testified that Smith said one of the men wore a gray hooded sweatshirt. On January 2, 2002, Cunningham showed Smith a photographic lineup that included a picture of Eddie Jackson, but Smith did...