State v. Warren

• Citation: 2 So.3d 523
• Decision Date: 17 December 2008
• Docket Number: No. 43,671-KA.,43,671-KA.
• Parties: STATE of Louisiana, Appellee v. Jatazz Rashun WARREN, Appellant.
• Court: Court of Appeal of Louisiana (US)

2 So.3d 523

STATE of Louisiana, Appellee v. Jatazz Rashun WARREN, Appellant.

No. 43,671-KA.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Second Circuit.

December 17, 2008.

Peggy Sullivan, Louisiana Appellate Project, Monroe, for Appellant.

Jerry L. Jones, District Attorney, for Appellee.

John Michael Ruddick, Cynthia Poston Lavespere, Holly A. Chambers-Jones, Assistant District Attorneys, for Appellee.

Before STEWART, GASKINS and MOORE, JJ.

GASKINS, J.

The defendant, Jatazz Rashun Warren, was convicted of three counts of second degree murder and one count of attempted second degree murder. For these offenses, he was sentenced to serve, respectively, three consecutive terms of life imprisonment at hard labor without the benefit of parole, probation or suspension of sentence and one consecutive term of 50 years' imprisonment at hard labor, also without benefit of parole, probation or suspension of sentence. The defendant appeals. We affirm his convictions and sentences.

FACTS

On March 9, 2006, in Monroe, Louisiana, a Chrysler PT Cruiser crashed into the back of a Honda Odyssey minivan which was stopped at a red light on Highway 165 North. Three of the four people in the van died from injuries they sustained in the crash, and one person in the PT Cruiser was gravely injured, never to walk again. The two occupants of the PT Cruiser were the defendant and his girlfriend, Lamesha Anderson.¹

Lamesha and the defendant began dating in high school and later lived together in Shreveport. The relationship was marred by numerous acts of violence by the defendant toward Lamesha. In March 2005, the police responded to their residence and found Lamesha sitting in a car in the driveway, her nose bloodied; although the police arrested the defendant, the couple continued to live together. On another occasion, the defendant threatened Lamesha with a gun. Placing the weapon to her head, he told her that he would kill her if she ever left him and then kill himself.

In early 2006, Lamesha worked for a Shreveport tax preparer. A co-worker, Carla West, said that the defendant always drove Lamesha to work and then often drove by the office several times during the day, sometimes parking across the street. Ms. West saw Lamesha and the defendant engage in frequent arguments; she also observed Lamesha appear at work with a black eye, a knot on her forehead and bruises.

In about February 2006, Lamesha's mother, who lived in Monroe, became ill and was hospitalized. Lamesha traveled to Monroe to visit her mother in the hospital. According to Lamesha, the defendant called her every day, insisting that he needed her and demanding that she come home to him. She returned to Shreveport to live with the defendant.

On March 1, 2006, Lamesha's mother died. That same day, the defendant locked himself in the bathroom of their home with a gun, threatening to shoot himself in the head. Shreveport police responded to Lamesha's call; the defendant was hospitalized under an emergency commitment as a result. The police found the defendant's handgun in the bathroom.

After this incident, Lamesha returned to Monroe and stayed with her brothers and sisters at her mother's home. About two days later, the defendant was released from the hospital; he drove the PT Cruiser to Monroe to be with Lamesha. She informed the defendant that she planned to stay and live in Monroe, and she said that the defendant seemed to initially accept that. However, her sister Monica (a.k.a. "Monicat") later saw Lamesha arguing with the defendant and saw the defendant grab Lamesha's arm; Monica overheard the defendant say to Lamesha "If I can't have you, no one can." Monica also stated that the defendant said, "I'm telling you, Monicat, I kidnap her ass if I have to." She had also seen the defendant choking Lamesha. Lamesha said that on the evening of March 8, 2006, the defendant insisted that she return to Shreveport with him.

On the morning of March 9, 2006, the defendant and Lamesha were at her home in Monroe with her family.² One of Lamesha's sisters, Aleisha Anderson, saw the defendant and Lamesha arguing and fighting inside the home. Aleisha testified that the defendant told Lamesha "If you can't be with me, won't nobody have you"; he also threatened to kill her. Aleisha said that the defendant then put his hand around Lamesha's neck and forced her out of the home. Aleisha said that Lamesha was wearing red pajamas when she left the home.

From that house, the defendant drove Lamesha to Monica's house in Monroe. While the defendant stayed in his PT Cruiser in the driver's seat, Lamesha went to Monica's front door and spoke to Monica; Monica gave Lamesha $20.00, and the two left.

Later that morning, Delhi Police Officer Stephen Mahon, Jr. was driving his personal vehicle southbound on U.S. Highway 165. He observed a silver PT Cruiser in front of him "driving very erratically, speeding up, slowing down." The driver was a black male; he also saw a black female passenger, who was either in the front seat or the rear passenger seat. According to Officer Mahon, he could tell that the couple was having an altercation of some sort. At one point, the female passenger opened the door and tried to get out of the vehicle. Clothes flew out of the vehicle as the driver pulled her back in. Officer Mahon called the Louisiana State Police and reported the driver. The officer said that the PT Cruiser made a U-turn and that he stopped following the car at that point.

Also driving on Highway 165 that morning was Jamie Stapleton. Mr. Stapleton was traveling northbound and passed the PT Cruiser while it was southbound, before it made the U-turn. He observed the PT Cruiser coming head-on at him in his lane. It swerved, and the passenger door came open; he could tell that there was some sort of "tussling" going on. According to Mr. Stapleton, the driver of the PT Cruiser was a black male. Mr. Stapleton continued on his trip until he stopped at the red light at the intersection of Highway 165 and Highway 15. Mr. Stapleton's Ford truck was in the outside lane at the light; next to him in the inside lane was a Mazda sedan. As he waited for the light to change, a green Honda Odyssey van pulled up behind him.

Louisiana State Trooper John Wyles responded to the radio call on the PT Cruiser and saw the vehicle after it made the U-turn and was headed north. Trooper Wyles, driving an unmarked truck equipped with emergency lights and a siren, followed the car. He observed that a black male was driving the car. The trooper pursued the car at speeds between 80 and 85 miles per hour. He was still following the PT Cruiser when it approached the intersection of Highway 165 and Highway 15. The trooper said that he watched the PT Cruiser accelerate as it came up on the stopped traffic and crashed into the back of the green Honda van. The trooper said:

Just shortly before the crash, ... within, I wouldn't even say seconds, it drifted slightly across the shoulder, the white fog line, probably a foot and then it was not a swerve or jerk or anything like that, it was just a slight drift and it came back into the travel lane and it was under full acceleration at that point.

When the PT Cruiser hit the back of the van, the trooper observed a black female being ejected through the windshield of the passenger's side of the PT Cruiser. There was no physical evidence to suggest that the defendant tried to brake or avoid the crash. Police found pink cloth fibers and long hair in the windshield on the passenger's side, and the headrest on the passenger's front seat was missing, suggesting that Lamesha was in the rear seat when she was ejected.

The driver of the green van was Maureen Gibson, an Ohio resident. The other passengers in her van were her parents, James and Patricia Shalala, and her 11-year-old daughter, Halle. The family had come to Louisiana to see Ms. Gibson's son, a soldier being deployed from Ft. Polk to Afghanistan. At the time of the crash, they were on their way back home to Ohio. The PT Cruiser hit the right rear of the Odyssey and crushed the back of the van. James and Patricia Shalala died at the scene; Halle was grievously injured and died the next day in the hospital.

Lamesha Anderson was gravely injured. She suffered a brain injury that left her completely unconscious for at least two weeks (and destroyed her memory of the accident) and a spinal cord injury that has left her paralyzed from the waist down. According to her doctor, she will never walk again or have a memory of the accident.

The defendant was also ejected from the car and injured. After he arrived at the hospital by ambulance, he never asked a nurse about Lamesha's condition. However, according to the nurse, when he was asked what had happened to Lamesha, the defendant said "she wanted to die and I was trying to help her out."

Upon the defendant's release from the hospital, police arrested him for three counts of negligent homicide and one count of negligent injuring. He was subsequently indicted on three counts of second degree murder and one count of attempted second degree murder.³

Prior to trial, the state gave several Prieur notices of intent. These issues were extensively litigated in the trial court and before this court.

Following a trial in September 2007, a unanimous jury convicted the defendant as charged. After the trial court denied the defendant's post-verdict motions for new trial and acquittal, it sentenced the defendant to serve three consecutive sentences of life imprisonment at hard labor without benefit of parole, probation or suspension of sentence and one consecutive sentence of 50 years' imprisonment at hard labor, also without benefits. The defendant filed a motion to reconsider sentence, which was denied.

The defendant now appeals, urging six assignments of error.

SUFFICIENCY OF EVIDENCE

The defendant argues that the evidence adduced at trial was insufficient to support his convictions of three counts...