State Of Louisiana v. Joey Paul Clement, 2023KA1356

Joey Paul Clement was charged with three counts of vehicular homicide and one count of DWI (fourth offense) after a fatal crash in Lafourche Parish, Louisiana, killing three victims.
Accident occurred when Clement, intoxicated, was driving his truck at high speed at night; collision caused both cars to catch fire, resulting in the deaths of all SUV occupants.
Defendant's BAC was 0.22 (almost three times the legal limit) at the time of the crash, and he had taken Adderall and Zoloft.
Clement was convicted by a jury of negligent homicide for one victim and vehicular homicide for the other two; he pled guilty to the DWI charge.
He appealed, arguing insufficiency of evidence and excessive sentence; court affirmed convictions but remanded for resentencing due to sentencing errors.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Sufficiency of evidence (vehicular homicide)	Clement’s intoxication and speed were factors	State failed to prove intoxication was a contributing factor	Evidence sufficient; intoxication and speed contributed
Sufficiency of evidence (negligent homicide)	Criminal negligence led to fatal result	Intoxication and speed were not substantial factors in death	Evidence sufficient; intoxication/speed were substantial
Excessive sentence (count one)	Sentence appropriate given facts, impact, history	Trial court failed to consider mitigating factors, imposed max	Sentence not unconstitutionally excessive
Ineffective assistance (sentencing)	N/A	Defense counsel failed to present mitigating evidence at sentencing	Record insufficient—claim relegated to post-conviction relief

Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307 (standard for sufficiency of evidence in criminal cases)
State v. Martin, 539 So.2d 1235 (La. 1989) (substantial factor standard for criminal negligence)
State v. Lynch, 441 So. 2d 732 (La. 1983) (transcript controls over minutes/orders where discrepancy exists)