State v. Trahan, CR
| Decision Date | 19 April 1989 |
| Docket Number | No. CR,CR |
| Citation | 543 So.2d 984 |
| Parties | STATE of Louisiana, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Ty C. TRAHAN, Defendant-Appellant. 88-682. |
| Court | Court of Appeal of Louisiana — District of US |
Lewis O. Unglesby, Unglesby & Barrios, Baton Rouge, Stephen A. Stefanski, Edwards, Stefanski, Crowley, for defendant-appellant.
Glenn B. Foreman, Robert T. Cline, Asst. Dist. Attys., Crowley, for plaintiff-appellee.
Before FORET, DOUCET and YELVERTON, JJ.
Appellant, Ty C. Trahan, was found guilty of second degree murder, a violation of La.R.S. 14:30.1, and sentenced to life imprisonment without benefit of parole, probation or suspension of sentence. Appellant now seeks review of his sentence based on nineteen assignments of error. Assignment of error number eleven has not been briefed and is therefore deemed abandoned. State v. Dewey, 408 So.2d 1255 (La.1982).
FACTS:
In the early morning hours of July 1, 1987, the victim, Andrea Trahan, and a friend of hers went to Raylee's Lounge in Crowley. There they encountered appellant, Ty Trahan, who arrived at about the same time. Andrea and Trahan had been dating for six weeks, but Andrea had resumed a relationship with an ex-fiance some two weeks earlier and had plans to meet this man the next day in Lafayette. While in the lounge Trahan and Andrea got in an argument over Andrea's interest in other men. Later, while dancing with Andrea, Trahan appeared to hold her by the throat and she cried. The two then sat at a table for a long while, talking.
After Andrea left the lounge with her friend, she told her companion that she told Trahan, while they were discussing their relationship, that she wanted to end their romance and just "be his friend."
The two girlfriends arrived at Andrea's house at about 4:15 a.m. Andrea then went back to the lounge, telling her friend that she was going to get a cigarette case left by her friend, and also to see if Trahan's car, with which he had been having trouble, was all right.
At 5:00 a.m. that morning, the staff at the Acadia Parish jail saw Trahan knocking at the rear door of the facility. The door was opened and he hurriedly entered and requested aid for Andrea. He appeared intoxicated and was bleeding from his left leg. He informed deputies that his girlfriend was in the car and that "she blew her head off." Told that the incident occurred "in the back", deputies went to the parking lot and found the victim's automobile. Although the engine was not running, the vehicle's headlights were operating and the ignition switch was engaged. Inside the vehicle the officers discovered the victim's lifeless body. The upper torso was laying into the vehicle's passenger seat. The lower portion of the body was straddled across the console and into the driver's seat. The victim's legs were crossed, with the right leg near the clutch and brake pedals. The left leg was crossed over and on the passenger side. The officers discovered a semi-automatic 9 millimeter Mack 11 handgun on the passenger side floorboard. Also found was a bullet on the driver's seat, one spent cartridge on the floorboard near the weapon, a second beneath the victim's body. There was a .44 caliber handgun wedged between the console and the passenger seat.
An autopsy disclosed the victim died as a result of two gunshot wounds, one of which severed her spinal cord. The bullets had entered through the back of the neck and exited the body through the chin and front portion of the neck.
Trahan was admitted to a hospital with two bullet wounds to his left leg. These bullets entered the front portion of his leg and exited through the rear.
Atomic absorption tests were performed on the hands of the defendant and the victim. The results indicated the victim had not fired a weapon and that defendant had discharged a firearm.
At the hospital, Trahan, apparently realizing he was a suspect in the shooting and wanting to deny the implication, told an officer that had he shot the victim "no one would have ever found the body". He told the same officer that he did not know where the gunshot originated and did not know exactly what had happened.
At trial, the state relied essentially on expert testimony to establish that the defendant intentionally shot the victim. The state used photographs exhibiting the type and location of the wounds of both parties, and testimony concerning the trajectory of the bullets, the operation of the firearm seized, bone fragment patterns on defendant's jeans, and atomic absorption tests, to convince the jury of Trahan's guilt. These experts opined that the victim's head was placed against defendant's leg when the shooting occurred. On one of the shots, the firearm was pressed directly against the skin and on the second it was nearly in contact with the skin. This conclusion was reached because the victim's blood was found at a point just above the entry holes on jeans worn by the defendant. Also, a bone fragment pattern around one of those jeans entry holes suggested that the same bullet which struck and broke victim's jaw went on into the defendant's leg at that entry point. The state experts gave the opinion that the same bullet which travelled through the victim's body passed through the defendant's leg.
In defense of the charges, the defendant argued that the victim died as a result of a tragic accident. According to Trahan, Andrea returned to the lounge at about 4:00 a.m. His car would not start and she offered him a ride in her car. As she was driving from the lounge, the defendant remembered that he had left his two firearms in his vehicle so the pair returned and got the weapons. The defendant testified that he placed the .44 between the seat and the console, and placed the 9 millimeter gun on his lap. They apologized to each other for their previous behavior. Then, assertedly having been drinking since 4:00 p.m. the previous afternoon, he reclined the passenger seat and tried to sleep. Andrea drove to Rayne where the two had breakfast. They got back in the car and the defendant took the weapon which was under the seat and placed it on his lap. He again fell asleep. Andrea was driving past the Crowley courthouse when the gun slipped to the floorboard. According to the defendant, the victim stopped her car and leaned forward to pick up the weapon. The defendant picked up the firearm with his right hand. Defendant's explanation was that in transferring the gun to his left hand and bringing it towards the back of the car in order to put it on the back seat, the gun accidentally discharged. After he realized Andrea had been shot, Trahan declared that he ran around the car to the driver's door and finding the door locked, returned to the passenger side. He stated that he was able to operate the vehicle the short distance to the parish jail by contorting Andrea's body in a manner which allowed access to the controls. According to his explanation, he pulled her legs over his, operated the clutch with his left leg straddled over the console, leaning the victim's head against his shoulder, steered with his left hand, and used his right hand to activate the accelerator.
The defendant had an expert testify in his defense that neither wound was a contact wound. The expert also contested the state's assertion of the trajectory of the bullets and the positioning of the parties in the vehicle. The expert concluded that the victim's head was positioned above and not against the defendant's leg and that the victim died as a result of an accidental shooting.
We will now take up the assignments of error. To promote clarity, the assignments of error will not be reviewed in numerical order but in a sequence which facilitates a more organized discussion of the issues raised.
Appellant argues that the trial judge erred in denying a defense request for random allotment of the case to a judge within the Fifteenth Judicial District. Appellant contends that the criminal defendant suffers an inherent injustice in the district because the prosecution may utilize the system to "forum shop" for a sympathetic trial judge. Furthermore, the activity assertedly creates an appearance of impropriety and allows the local prosecutor to control functions of the judicial branch.
Each judicial district court has the authority and is expressly empowered to adopt local procedural rules in civil as well as criminal cases. La.R.S. 13:472; La.C.Cr.P. art. 18. The only limitation on this general authority for establishing procedural guidelines is the existence of specific legislative procedural rules to the contrary. State v. Eros Cinema, 262 La. 706, 264 So.2d 615 (1972). La.C.Cr.P. art. 61 vests in the district attorney control over criminal prosecutions in his district by allowing the district attorney to determine who, when and how he shall prosecute. These powers of the district attorney are not in the hands of the judiciary so that there exists no violation of separation of powers. State v. Taylor, 495 So.2d 996 (La.App. 3 Cir.1986), writ denied, 499 So.2d 84 (1987). The exercise of the right to control prosecution cannot be used to deny defendant's constitutional rights. State ex rel Eames v. Amiss, 288 So.2d 316 (La.1974).
The judges of the Fifteenth Judicial District have determined not to implement a rule providing for random allotment of criminal cases. Indeed, because the district consists of eleven judges who must rotate between three parishes, such a rule in this district would have the effect of limiting the district attorney's right to determine when a case is prosecuted. Appellant in the instant case does not establish nor does the record show that the current system of allotment operates to deny constitutional rights. If defendant felt the trial judge in the instant case was somehow biased to the extent of an inability to conduct a fair and impartial trial, the appropriate remedy would have been a motion to recuse the particular judge....
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... ... Most jurisdictions that have admitted filmed reenactments as evidence in a criminal case have required the proponent of this evidence to lay a proper foundation showing that the video tape or film accurately portrays the event in question. See State v. Trahan, 543 So.2d 984, 997 (La.App. 3d Cir.), rev'd on other grounds, 551 So.2d 1303 n. 3 (La.1989) ; Morgan v. State, 518 So.2d 186, 189 (Ala.Crim.App.1987) ; State v. Tillinghast, 465 A.2d 191, 196 (R.I.1983) ; see also Annotation, Admissibility of Videotape Film in Evidence in Criminal Trial, 60 ... ...
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