State v. Young

• Decision Date: 16 October 1990
• Docket Number: No. KA,KA
• Citation: 569 So.2d 570
• Parties: STATE of Louisiana v. Sean YOUNG. 89 1558. 569 So.2d 570
• Court: Court of Appeal of Louisiana — District of US

Page 570

569 So.2d 570

STATE of Louisiana v. Sean YOUNG.

No. KA 89 1558.

569 So.2d 570

Court of Appeal of Louisiana First Circuit.

Oct. 16, 1990.

Bryan Bush, Dist. Atty., Office of the Dist. Atty. by Tom Walsh, Asst. Dist. Atty., Baton Rouge, for plaintiff/appellee.

Office of the Public Defender, Baton Rouge, for defendant/appellant.

Before LOTTINGER, CARTER and DOHERTY, JJ. ^*

LOTTINGER, Judge.

Defendant was charged in a single grand jury indictment with two counts of first degree murder. La. R.S. 14:30. Count I charged the first degree murder of Terry Pleasant, and Count II charged the first degree murder of Ben Beshears, Jr. Defendant entered pleas of not guilty to the charges and was tried by a jury, which convicted him of both charges. For each of these convictions the trial court imposed a sentence (upon recommendation of the jury) of life imprisonment at hard labor without benefit of parole, probation, or suspension of sentence. Defendant has appealed, urging thirteen assignments of error. In his brief, defendant expressly abandoned assignments of error two, three, four, five, six and nine. The remaining specifications of error are:

1. The trial court erred by denying defendant's motion to close pretrial hearings from public consideration.

7. The trial court erred by denying defendant's motion to quash based on the selection of grand jury forepersons.

8. The trial court erred by overruling defendant's Batson objection.

10. The trial court erred by denying defendant's motion for mistrial.

11. The trial court erred by denying defendant's challenge for cause.

12. The trial court erred by denying defendant's challenge for cause.

13. The trial court erred by denying defendant's motion for mistrial.

FACTS

The victims' dead bodies were discovered during the late evening hours of October 30, 1987, at a residence on Douglas Street in East Baton Rouge Parish. Terry Pleasant's body was found on a sofa bed in the living room; and the body of Ben Beshears, Jr., was on the floor in one of the bedrooms. Beshears' hands were bound behind his back, and his legs were also tied up. There were signs that Beshears had been struck about the head with an object. A bloody, broken telephone receiver was discovered near Beshears' body, together with pieces of the telephone, leading investigating law enforcement officers to believe Beshears had been struck with the telephone.

An autopsy performed on each of the victims on the day after the bodies were discovered revealed that the immediate cause of death of each victim was a single gunshot wound to the head. Dr. Alfredo Suarez, who performed the autopsies for the East Baton Rouge Parish Coroner's Office, testified that the gunshot wound sustained by each victim was a contact wound. Dr. Suarez's testimony indicated that, by characterizing the wounds as contact wounds, he meant the murder weapon had been discharged with the barrel placed against the skin surface of the victim.

During the police investigation which followed the discovery of the victims' bodies, an important breakthrough occurred when the fingerprints of Eugene Williams, a co-perpetrator, were identified as matching latent fingerprints lifted from objects at the crime scene. A search for Williams began. He was found and arrested by the police. Thereafter, Karl Price, another co-perpetrator, was arrested; and then defendant was arrested. After his arrest and after being advised several times of his Miranda rights, defendant made an initial oral statement to the police which was followed by an audiotaped statement and then a videotaped statement as to his participation in the instant offenses. ¹

ASSIGNMENT OF ERROR NO. 1

In this assignment, defendant asserts that the district court erred by denying defendant's pretrial motion to close pretrial hearings from public consideration.

The defendant's motion recited as support for the requested closure of pretrial hearings from the public that defendant had been indicted for two counts of first degree murder and that defense counsel had learned that at least one of the victims had tested positive for AIDS. Additionally, the motion averred that, because of the public apprehension of AIDS, the media coverage of the victim having tested positive for the disease alone would adversely impact defendant's ability to obtain a fair and impartial jury. The motion was heard and denied by the district court on May 5, 1988. ²

The appropriate standard for review of the denial of a motion for a closed pretrial proceeding when such review is on appeal, after conviction and sentencing, as herein, requires that the defendant show actual prejudice resulting from the denial of the closed pretrial proceeding and that alternative methods of protecting the defendant from the adverse effects of pretrial publicity would not have assured the defendant a fair trial. State v. Birdsong, 422 So.2d 1135, 1137-1138 (La.1982).

In the instant case, defendant made no showing of actual prejudice by the district court's denial of the motion. Furthermore, defendant has not shown that other methods of protecting himself from adverse pretrial publicity would not have assured a fair trial. See State v. McDonald, 404 So.2d 889, 894-895 (La.1981); State v. Kent, 391 So.2d 429, 433 (La.1980).

This assignment lacks merit.

ASSIGNMENT OF ERROR NUMBER 7

By means of this assignment, defendant contends that the district court erred by denying his motion to quash the indictment based on the alleged racially discriminatory selection of grand jury forepersons. Defendant argues that his right to equal protection of the laws as guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution was violated by the systematic exclusion of blacks from service as grand jury foremen. Relying on Rose v. Mitchell, 443 U.S. 545, 99 S.Ct. 2993, 61 L.Ed.2d 739 (1979); Castaneda v. Partida, 430 U.S. 482, 97 S.Ct. 1272, 51 L.Ed.2d 498 (1977); and Guice v. Fortenberry, 722 F.2d 276 (5th Cir.1984), defendant submits that, once he established a prima facie showing of racial discrimination in the selection of the grand jury foreperson, the burden shifted to the state to rebut the presumption by showing that the pattern of underrepresentation of blacks was the result of a racially neutral selection procedure. On appeal, the state maintains that defendant failed to establish a prima facie case of discrimination ³.

In Rose v. Mitchell (quoting from Castaneda v. Partida), the Supreme Court set forth the standards applicable to a claim of racial discrimination in the selection of grand jury forepersons as follows:

" '[I]n order to show that an equal protection violation has occurred in the context of grand jury [foreman] selection, the defendant must show that the procedure employed resulted in substantial underrepresentation of his race or of the identifiable group to which he belongs.' Castaneda v. Partida, 430 U.S., at 494, 97 S.Ct., at 1280. Specifically, respondents were required to prove their prima facie case with regard to the foreman as follows:

'The first step is to establish that the group is one that is a recognizable, distinct class, singled out for different treatment under the laws, as written or as applied.... Next, the degree of underrepresentation must be proved, by comparing the proportion of the group in the total population to the proportion called to serve as [foreman], over a significant period of time.... This method of proof, sometimes called the "rule of exclusion," has been held to be available as a method of proving discrimination in jury selection against a delineated class.... Finally ... a selection procedure that is susceptible of abuse or is not racially neutral supports the presumption of discrimination raised by the statistical showing.' Ibid.

Only if respondents established a prima facie case of discrimination in the selection of the foreman in accord with this approach, did the burden shift to the State to rebut that prima facie case. Id., at 495, 97 S.Ct., at 1280."

443 U.S. at 565, 99 S.Ct. at 3005.

See also Guice v. Fortenberry and State v. James, 459 So.2d 1299, 1307-1308 (La.App. 1st Cir.1984), writ denied, 463 So.2d 600 (La.1985), each of which utilized the three-part test of Castaneda in evaluating a claim of racially discriminatory selection of grand jury forepersons.

The applicable procedures pertaining to the selection of grand jury forepersons in East Baton Rouge Parish are contained in La. Code Crim. P. art. 413, which provides, in pertinent part, as follows:

"The grand jury shall consist of twelve persons qualified to serve as jurors, selected or drawn from the grand jury venire.

"In parishes other than Orleans, the court shall select one person from the grand jury venire to serve as foreman of the grand jury. The sheriff shall draw indiscriminately and by lot from the envelope containing the remaining names on the grand jury venire a sufficient number of names to complete the grand jury."

The record reveals that on August 11, 1988, defendant filed a motion to quash the indictment on the basis of his claim of intentional, discriminatory and systematic exclusion of blacks from the position of grand jury foreperson in East Baton Rouge Parish. ⁴ On September 7, 1988, a hearing was held in regard to this motion. ⁵

At the September 7 hearing, defendant presented the testimony of his only witness, Linda Jones, the jury coordinator for the Nineteenth Judicial District Court. Ms. Jones testified that the master selection pool or general venire, from which any given grand jury venire is randomly selected, is made up by first combining the list of registered voters in East Baton Rouge Parish with the list of licensed drivers in East Baton Rouge Parish. From this list, persons are randomly selected and sent questionnaire forms to determine if they are qualified to serve as jurors. ⁶ All those who return questionnaires indicating that they are qualified are included in...