State v. Williams
| Decision Date | 16 January 1984 |
| Docket Number | No. 82-KA-1824,82-KA-1824 |
| Citation | 445 So.2d 1171 |
| Parties | STATE of Louisiana v. Bobby Ray WILLIAMS. |
| Court | Louisiana Supreme Court |
William J. Guste, Jr., Atty. Gen., Barbara Rutledge, Asst. Atty. Gen., Paul Carmouche, Dist. Atty., James C. McMichael, Scott J. Crichton, Asst. Dist. Attys., for plaintiff-appellee.
Donald R. Minor, Jeanette G. Garrett, Indigent Defender Office, Shreveport, for defendant-appellant.
Defendant, Bobby Ray Williams, was indicted for aggravated rape (R.S. 14:42), aggravated crime against nature (R.S. 14:89.1), attempted first degree murder (R.S. 14:30) and armed robbery (R.S. 14:64). His trial in January, 1981 ended in a mistrial when the jury could not reach a verdict. In November, 1981 the defendant was tried, under a severed indictment, on two counts: aggravated rape and attempted first degree murder.
The defendant was found guilty on both counts, the jury voting ten-two, and was sentenced to life imprisonment without benefit of parole, probation or suspension of sentence for the aggravated rape charge, and to fifty years for the attempted murder charge. The sentences are to run consecutively. The defendant appeals both his conviction and sentence, arguing fifteen of twenty-two assignments of error. 1
The victim related the following facts. On Friday night, May 24, 1980, accompanied by her date and two other couples, she patronized the Florentine Club near the Oakland Street Apartments in Shreveport. At about 2:00 a.m. she left the club alone, choosing to go home rather than continue partying with her companions. As she approached the car, David McCall stopped her. He put a gun close to her face and ran with her to a wooded area behind the Oakland Street Apartments.
As McCall apparently attempted to rape the victim, the two struggled and the victim was able to shoot her attacker in the chest. The two continued to struggle until a second man entered the struggle and took the gun away. The victim then testified that this second man threw her up against the hill, shot her in the abdomen, then began hitting her around the face and head with the butt of the gun.
This second man then pulled her farther up the hill to a more wooded area and required that she perform oral sex, then raped her. After the rape, the victim claims that her rapist helped her to dress, and the two of them began to look for car keys she had lost in her struggle with David McCall. When the keys were not found, the rapist took her watch and put the gun to her forehead. She convinced him not to shoot her.
A resident of the apartment buildings came around the corner and asked what was going on. The victim told him that she and the man with her had been attacked. The two men helped her to the front of the building where she waited for the police and for an ambulance to arrive.
The defendant testified that he had been with David McCall earlier in the evening, but had separated prior to this incident, with plans to meet later. He said that he went looking for McCall and came upon the victim already shot and raped. He then heard McCall call him and saw that he had been shot. He went to get help, but was not successful. He returned and began to help the victim get dressed. He could not find her glasses, but he found her clothes. The defendant and the victim then went around to the front of the building. A resident of the apartment complex drove up and the defendant went with him to phone for an ambulance. The defendant said he then went to tell McCall's family that he had been shot.
The deputy coroner for Caddo Parish testified that the victim had had recent intercourse and had lacerations to the head, bruises on her body and had a gunshot wound in her abdomen.
Defendant contends that the trial court erred in denying his request to be provided with information concerning the victim's medical history. Defendant learned that after his first trial, and before his second trial, the victim had undergone psychiatric treatment. The defendant felt that this treatment might influence the victim's testimony, or bear upon her credibility, and sought to be provided with information concerning this medical history.
The prosecutor contested the request, arguing that the history was not relevant. The trial judge, although he thought the evidence was probably irrelevant, nevertheless examined, in camera, a statement made by the victim concerning her treatment to determine if the statement was exculpatory.
The defendant is denied a fair trial when the prosecution withholds evidence which has been requested and which is favorable to the defendant. State v. Perkins, 423 So.2d 1103, 1107 (La.1982). The record does not show whether or not the court found the information to be favorable to the defendant. The defendant, apparently, did not request the result of the court's in camera review. When counsel proceeded to trial without an answer to his request for discovery, he abandoned his objection. State v. Brown, 421 So.2d 854, 857 (La.1982).
We cannot determine if the trial court erred in his preliminary denial of the discovery request. We cannot say that there was error.
The defendant contends that the lower court erred in denying his motion to sequester the jury. He argued that this trial was likely to receive extensive press coverage, as the first trial of this case had received extensive coverage. He sought to protect the jurors from learning that there had been a prior trial and from being prejudiced by that information.
The trial court has discretion to decide whether or not to sequester a jury in a non-capital case. C.Cr.P. 791(C). 2 The purpose of sequestering jurors is to protect them from outside influence and from basing their verdict upon anything other than evidence developed at trial. State v. Marchand, 362 So.2d 1090 (La.1978).
At each recess the trial court admonished the jury not to discuss the case, and not to read, view or listen to news reports or accounts of the trial. There is no showing that the jury disregarded the judge's instructions and thereby prejudiced the defense. State v. Washington, 430 So.2d 641, 646 (La.1983).
The defendant contends that the lower court erred in denying his challenge for cause of prospective juror Cook. Since defendant exhausted his peremptory challenges, he may complain of a ruling refusing to sustain a challenge for cause made by him. C.Cr.P. 800. 3
The defendant challenged prospective juror Cook for cause under C.Cr.P. 797(2) and (3). 4 The defendant argued that Cook could not be impartial because he has two teen aged daughters and expressed some concern for their welfare. The defendant also challenged Cook because of an employment relationship between the prosecutor and a law firm that Cook previously used.
The trial court ruled that concern for teen aged daughters is not a sufficient showing of partiality to support a challenge for cause. He also noted that Cook probably did not even know that the prosecutor had done work for him before it was brought to his attention during the voir dire. The two had never met, and Cook did not recall seeing the prosecutor's name on any papers.
There was no abuse of discretion in denying the challenge. State v. Welcome, --- So.2d ---- (La.1983) (No. 82-KA-2232).
The defendant contends that the lower court erred in denying the motion for mistrial based on the state's systematic exclusion of blacks from jury service. Of the eight peremptory challenges utilized by the state, five were used to exclude black jurors. The state additionally challenged two black jurors for cause after they expressed bias in favor of the prosecution. The defendant notes that the office of the district attorney was aware that the jury in the first trial was split along racial lines in their inability to reach a verdict.
This court continues to adhere to the standard established in Swain v. Alabama, 380 U.S. 202, 85 S.Ct. 824, 13 L.Ed.2d 759 (1965), realizing that the defendant is saddled with a difficult burden. State v. Eames, 365 So.2d 1361, 1367 (La.1978). The defendant must show systematic exclusion of blacks from juries over a period of time. State v. Hayes, 414 So.2d 717 (La.1982); State v. Edwards, 406 So.2d 1331 (La.1981). The defendant in this case has not shown a systematic exclusion of blacks, nor a long-standing policy of the office of the district attorney to exclude black jurors. Without such a showing of systematic exclusion, the state is entitled to exercise its peremptory challenges as it chooses. State v. Berry, 391 So.2d 406 (La.1980).
The defendant contends that the lower court erred in denying his motion for a mistrial made on two occasions; after the complainant referred to the defendant's previous trial in her testimony, and after the prosecutor referred to the defendant's previous trial.
The prosecution and the defense agreed that there would be no mention of the first trial during the second trial, to avoid any prejudice which might arise. The defense was concerned that a reference to a prior trial necessarily leaves a suggestion of a prior conviction that has been overturned, and evokes sympathy for the victim who now must go through the ordeal of a trial for a second time. The evidence was marked anew, and the witnesses were all instructed to avoid any reference to a prior trial.
During the cross-examination of the victim, the following exchange occurred:
"Q. Did you not identify this same photograph that you say is number five, in State Exhibit 3, in January of this year as who--
A. In the last trial?
Q. --you identified in this photograph?"
The second reference was made by the prosecutor during his direct examination of a witness:
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