State v. Vessell
| Decision Date | 02 April 1984 |
| Docket Number | No. 82-KA-2599,82-KA-2599 |
| Citation | 450 So.2d 938 |
| Parties | STATE of Louisiana v. Norris VESSELL. |
| Court | Louisiana Supreme Court |
William J. Guste, Jr., Atty. Gen., Barbara Rutledge, Asst. Atty. Gen., Harry F. Connick, Dist. Atty., William R. Campbell, Paul Katz, Asst. Dist. Attys., for plaintiff-appellee.
Dwight Doskey, Clyde Merritt, Orleans Indigent Defender Program, New Orleans, for defendant-appellant.
Norris Vessell was indicted by an Orleans Parish grand jury for the October 9, 1976, first degree murder of Patricia Potter. La.R.S. 14:30 (1976). 1 Following the denial of his motion to suppress his confession, he exercised his right to a jury trial. The first three trials ended in mistrials (the last two with hung juries), but at a trial in May, 1980, the defendant was found guilty as charged. The jury unanimously recommended that he be sentenced to life imprisonment at hard labor, without benefit of parole.
Both defendant and the victim, Patricia Potter, worked until approximately midnight on Friday, October 8, 1976. A short time later the victim, with defendant in her car, picked up Elizabeth Calix to give her a ride home from work. Before bringing Elizabeth home, Patricia told her that the defendant had invited her to go with him for a drink and that they might go to a pool hall near her house. She also asked Elizabeth to phone the next day. Elizabeth called, but received no answer.
Sunday morning Patricia's mother, somewhat concerned because she had not heard from her daughter, came to Elizabeth's house to inquire about her. The two went to Patricia's apartment, and although they found nothing unusual there, they did not find Patricia. Finally, Patricia's mother contacted the police to file a missing person report. Upon hearing that there was a woman in the morgue whose clothing fit the description of those Patricia had been wearing, Elizabeth went to the morgue and identified Patricia's body.
Two members of the New Orleans Police Department testified that the victim's body was found lying in three or four inches of water where the Industrial Canal meets Lake Pontchartrain. The doctor who performed the autopsy testified that the hands and feet of the victim had been bound and that she had sustained five different blows to the area of the head, either with a blunt instrument or with a fist. Additionally, there was bruising in the neck, and dissection showed bleeding in the small muscles of the neck and around the thyroid gland. Based on the bruising pattern of the victim, the doctor stated it was his opinion that the victim had been bound while her heart was still beating. The doctor stated that the cause of death was either drowning or strangulation. On cross-examination the doctor said that it was not possible to pinpoint the time of death, but that the victim had been dead between four and twelve hours when he performed the autopsy at 11:30 a.m. Saturday.
Following the identification of the body, the officers went to defendant's home to question him because he was the last person known to have been with the victim. When Vessell denied knowing the victim, the police informed him that he was a suspect, informed him of his Miranda rights and asked that he come to the station with them for questioning. At the station, he gave a confession which is the subject of the first assignment of error discussed below. In that confession, he stated that after dropping Patricia's friend at her house, he and the victim went to a pool hall where they had two drinks and played pinball. They left there, went to the victim's apartment and played cards for about three hours. Defendant said that he told the victim he was going home because he was tired and that she attempted to restrain him. He pushed her away and started for the door, but she grabbed him again.
The statement goes on to describe a struggle between the two, ending with a punch to the victim's throat. The defendant attempted to administer mouth-to-mouth resuscitation when he realized that the victim was barely breathing, but this failed to revive her. The defendant then stated that, believing her dead, he bound her hands and feet, placed her in her car, and drove her to the lakefront, where he placed her body on the second step from the water. He then drove her car to the area of the Fairgrounds where he abandoned it.
Using the information obtained from the confession, the police located the victim's car where defendant said it had been abandoned. In a search of defendant's home, the police also seized a microphone taken from the victim's car.
In this assignment of error, the defendant complains of the erroneous admission into evidence of the inculpatory statement taken from him by the police. Defendant contends that the admission was improper because the state failed to rebut testimony by the defendant that the officials used coercion in the form of physical abuse to obtain the confession.
On direct examination by the State at the hearing on the motion to suppress, the arresting officers, Detectives LeBlanc and Cutrer, testified that they were alone with the defendant in the interrogation room and remained with him throughout the interrogation and until the transcription of the statement was completed. Each officer was asked by the prosecutor whether threats, promises or coercion had been used to obtain defendant's confession, and each responded in the negative. On cross-examination Detective LeBlanc conceded that he "may have left [the room] to go to the restroom or something along that line ..." Detective Cutrer also admitted that other people may have come in momentarily and then left.
The defendant's testimony on direct examination differed from the officers'. Vessell testified that several officers came and went from the interrogation room and that neither LeBlanc nor Cutrer were present at all times. He testified that when LeBlanc and Cutrer and two other officers became frustrated with his repeatedly denying knowing the victim, one of the officers struck him. Vessell said he jumped up, and the officers left him alone for a few minutes, that one of them returned to reassure and calm him, and that while they were talking, the other three rushed in and handcuffed him to the chair. Vessell testified that one officer began toying with his weapon and threatening to do to Vessell what he "had done to Patricia." According to Vessell, a total of six officers were in the room at one time, and he testified that he was beaten in the head and chest, that one officer placed a plastic bag over his head, and that Detective LeBlanc slammed the typewriter into his back. Vessell said that the officers told him that he was not leaving the room until he told them what they wanted to know, and later threatened to arrest his wife and daughter if he continued to refuse to cooperate. Another officer allegedly told Vessell that if he did not answer the questions, he was going to be found in the lake. Vessell testified that twice during the interrogation he asked for a lawyer, but that his requests were ignored.
Vessell further testified that, upon being taken to parish prison, he told officials that he had been beaten and requested medical attention. He testified that a matron told him that she would get a court order from the magistrate that he be sent to a doctor. He testified that he was taken to Charity Hospital once, but that they were only taking emergencies that day, and so he was taken back a day later for examination.
According to Earl Cannon, the administrator and custodian of medical records for Orleans Parish Prison, it is routine prison procedure for someone from the medical department to ask incoming prisoners whether they are having medical problems and if they were injured while being arrested. According to prison records, which were admitted into evidence, Vessell said that he needed medical attention. The court order requesting that Vessell be taken to Charity Hospital was also made a part of the record. In addition, the physician who treated Vessell two days later testified that he had complained of a chest trauma and of coughing up blood several times. The doctor's records indicated that Vessell had a large bruise over the sternum and that x-rays showed no broken bones. Although she also testified that a blow of sufficient force to the sternum could cause accumulation of blood in the lungs due to the bruising, the doctor could not testify as to when the bruising had occurred.
The defendant's wife testified that he was not bruised or otherwise injured prior to his arrest, nor had he been coughing up blood. The defendant's mother testified that she had been with the defendant on the day of his arrest and that he had not complained of coughing blood and that as far as she knew he was not bruised, though she had not seen him without a shirt that day.
The State did not recall either LeBlanc or Cutrer to the stand, but cross examined the defendant about previous self-abusive behavior. This included the fact that he had attempted suicide once in the past and had been treated in the psychiatric wing at Charity Hospital. Vessell also admitted going on a limited hunger strike while in parish prison awaiting trial. When questioned about having beaten his head against his cell wall, Vessell denied the incident, but it had been recorded by medical personnel in the prison and those records were admitted into evidence.
Before a confession or inculpatory statement can be introduced in evidence, the State bears a heavy burden of proving affirmatively and beyond a reasonable doubt that it was made freely and voluntarily and not under the influence of fear, duress, intimidation, menace, threats, inducements or promises. C.Cr.P. art. 703; La.R.S. 15:451; State v. Bell, 395 So.2d 805 (La.1981); State v. Petterway, 403 So.2d 1157 (La.1981); State v. Franklin, 381 So.2d 826 (La.1980). When a defendant alleges...
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