State v. Wilson
| Decision Date | 26 February 1985 |
| Docket Number | No. 84-KA-1572,84-KA-1572 |
| Citation | 467 So.2d 503 |
| Parties | STATE of Louisiana v. David Earl WILSON. |
| Court | Louisiana Supreme Court |
William J. Guste, Jr., Atty. Gen., Barbara Rutledge, Asst. Atty. Gen., Walter P. Reed, Dist. Atty., Margaret Coon, Thomas Mull, David Paddison, Asst. Dist. Attys., for plaintiff-appellee.
S. Austin McElroy, Covington, for defendant-appellant.
Defendants, David Earl Wilson, a.k.a. David Thomas, Larry Benjamin and Larry Darnell Taylor were indicted by the St. Tammany Parish Grand Jury for the first degree murder of Stephen Stinson, a violation of La.R.S. 14:30. The defendants were separately arraigned and each entered a plea of not guilty. After a motion to sever was granted, the defendant was brought to trial and a jury of twelve unanimously found him guilty of the crime as charged. Following a sentencing hearing, the jury also unanimously recommended that the defendant be put to death, and the trial court sentenced him accordingly. In reaching its conclusion, the jury found the existence of three statutory aggravating circumstances: (1) the defendant had been engaged in the perpetration or attempted perpetration of an armed robbery at the time the victim was killed; (2) the offense was committed in an especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel manner; and (3) the defendant has a significant prior history of criminal activity. La.C.Cr.P. art. 905.4 Secs. (a), (c) and (g).
In appealing his conviction and sentence, the defendant has assigned thirteen errors, eight of which were not briefed. 1 In this opinion we will treat five assignments of error (assignments 1, 5, 7, 8 and 9) and review the sentence. The defendant's remaining assignments involve legal issues governed by established principles of law and will be treated in an unpublished appendix which will comprise part of the official record in this case. Our review will show that none of the assignments warrant reversal and we will therefore affirm the conviction and sentence.
Other than the defendant's own testimony, Larry Benjamin provided the only direct evidence of the events leading up to the shooting of Stephen Stinson. 2 The three men had apparently just met in Houston, Texas, where they were all living. Subsequent events found the three driving to Mobile, Alabama in Taylor's brown Oldsmobile 88. After spending about a week there they departed Mobile and drove Westbound on I-10. Shortly after midnight, the Oldsmobile driven by Taylor ran out of gasoline south of Slidell on I-10 approximately one mile west of Old Spanish Trail (Louisiana Highway 433). At the time, Larry Taylor was driving while Larry Benjamin was in the front seat and David Wilson was in the back seat. Taylor got out of the car and went into the trunk to get an antifreeze jug to use in flagging down some help. About the same time, the defendant told Benjamin "[w]ell, I will get you some gas." In response to this remark, Benjamin stated that he hoped the defendant would not "do anything drastic" to which defendant replied, "I [don't] give a ________ about killing the __________ __________." Wilson then exited the back seat carrying a sawed-off shotgun and hid in the tall wet uncut grass several feet from the road's shoulder. 3 Soon, Stephen Stinson 4 spotted the motorists in need of assistance and he stopped his Volkswagen Rabbit immediately in front of Taylor's Oldsmobile. After a short conversation with Taylor, Stinson agreed to take him to a gas station. 5 As Taylor walked around the car and opened the Volkswagen's passenger door, the defendant emerged from his hiding place and pushed Taylor away from the door. Wilson then shoved the single shot sawed-off shotgun into Stinson's face and fired point blank. 6 Stinson's automobile, which was in gear and running, roared, lurched forward and came to rest abruptly when it smashed into a pine tree approximately 200 feet from Taylor's automobile. As the defendant chased the Volkswagen down the shoulder of the highway, Larry Taylor went back to the Oldsmobile and informed Benjamin that Wilson had "killed a man". Taylor and Benjamin then hurriedly ran from the scene of the homicide without having followed the defendant to Stinson's automobile. 7
Two passing truck drivers apparently observed the automobile wedged against the pine tree and alerted the police over their citizen's band radio. In response thereto, Deputy Spears of the St. Tammany Sheriff's Department was one of the first on the scene. He was talking with the two truckers when Deputy Jerry Willard arrived. The truck drivers explained that they had seen two black males running from the area. The police officers went down to Mr. Stinson's car and found his body laying outside of the car with his right foot inside the car propped lifelessly on the floorboard of the driver's side of the car. A sawed-off single barrel Revelation twelve gauge shotgun with a live shell in its chamber was found underneath the victim's body. In the meantime, Freddy Drennan, Chief of Detectives with the St. Tammany Sheriff's office, was alerted and he assigned detectives Mike Moore and Edward Baroni to the case. All three were on their way to the site at this point.
Deputy Willard got back in his automobile and headed eastbound on I-10 looking for the people that had been spotted running away. Within a mile or a mile and a half, he saw the defendant hitchhiking in front of the 84 Lumber on the eastbound lane of the interstate. He then stopped the defendant and asked for his identification. The defendant dressed in a three piece grey suit, fumbled through his jacket trying to locate an ID. When he pulled his sport coat open, Deputy Willard noticed moist spots on his vest and coat lining that appeared to be fresh blood. The defendant was immediately placed under arrest, and informed of his Miranda rights. The defendant identified himself as David Thomas and informed the officer that the stains were blood which appeared on the suit after he had loaned it to his brother one month earlier. 8 Willard handcuffed him after a cursory pat-down check for weapons. The defendant was then transported back to the murder scene which by that time had been secured by Chief Detective Drennan.
Investigating officers photographed and conducted a thorough search of the interior of Mr. Stinson's automobile. A crime scene technician recovered fifteen lead pellets ("shot") from the driver's compartment and a small piece of plastic ("wadding") from the driver's seat. No prints on the gun and no positive prints on Mr. Stinson's automobile were found. Neither the "antifreeze jug" allegedly removed from the Oldsmobile's trunk by Taylor nor a spent shotgun shell were recovered from the scene.
Chief Drennan again read defendant his Miranda rights and further questioned him concerning the crime. 9 Drennan then performed a more complete search of defendant and removed a live 12 gauge Remington Peters shotgun shell from defendant's right front pants pocket. Drennan observed that defendant's suit pants were wet from the knees down.
Soon thereafter, Larry Benjamin and Larry Taylor were apprehended by Sheriff's deputies in a mobile home sales lot about one mile from the murder scene. According to the testimony given by Larry Benjamin, he and Taylor were walking back toward the car "to put our hands in the good Lord's and let him take care of it, and before we could tell them what had happened, we were in custody." At the time of their arrest, neither Taylor or Benjamin possessed shotgun shells, shoulder holsters or weapons of any type. No blood was observed on the clothing of either of the two men. 10
All three suspects were subsequently transported to the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's office. Defendant's clothes were removed and each article was tagged by Detective Frey in the presence of Detective Baroni. Defendant also executed a statement for the officer in charge of bookings, that he was not injured during the arrest. Defendant also executed a waiver of rights form and made a taped statement in the presence of Detectives Moore and Baroni. In addition to defendant's execution of the waiver of rights form he was read his Miranda rights again. 11 The officers read him his rights a third time which was recorded on tape prior to his confession.
Both of these documents were executed by the defendant by printing an encircled "X" thereon. This was due to the fact that he had informed the police officers that he could neither read nor write.
Defendant, Benjamin, and Taylor were then transported to Slidell Memorial Hospital where blood samples were obtained from each. The defendant had also signed the consent form to have blood drawn with an encircled "X".
An autopsy was performed on the body of Stephen Stinson. The victim's wounds were confined to the head and upper part of the neck. Over 200 pellets were removed from this area. The left side of Stinson's face and many of his teeth were blown away. All major blood vessels of the upper neck were destroyed including the carotid artery. The cause of death was stated as follows: 1) hemorrhaging around the brain stem, and 2) clogging of the windpipe with blood ("obstructed airway response").
Results of tests conducted by a forensic serologist indicated that the substance on defendant's shirt and suit jacket lining was blood of the same type as Stephen Stinson. 12 No blood was found on either Benjamin or Taylor's clothing and shoes. The shotgun shell removed from the gun found underneath the victim's body had a minute amount of human blood on it of an indeterminable type.
The Revelation sawed-off 12 gauge shotgun was found to be operable. The small piece of plastic removed from the driver's seat of Stinson's Volkswagen was identified as a "part of a power piston similar to that used in Remington shotgun shells." An expert in firearms examination, opined that this evidence could...
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