State v. Bone, 107 So. 3d 49

Defendant Eric Bone was convicted of second degree murder for Demetrius Jackson’s killing outside Cesar’s nightclub (Jefferson Parish).
Prosecutors presented evidence of a Gert Town–Calliope gang feud; defendant drove the get-away Infiniti with a co‑defendant shooter (Shawn Flot).
Detectives linked defendant to the crime via vehicle description, high-speed pursuit, and a burned vehicle found near his residence; Kyron Jackson identified Shawn Flot as the shooter.
Forensic and testimonial evidence showed a single weapon fired eight .40 cal. casings; Kyron’s testimony supported that the shooter intended to kill, not a shoot-out.
Sprint Nextel’s subpoena produced phone records showing defendant’s mother as account holder and text messages referencing the Cesar’s shooting; a motion to suppress those messages was denied by the trial court.
The court ultimately affirmed the conviction, but held the suppression ruling to be harmless error after determining the text messages were corroborative evidence.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Sufficiency of the evidence for second-degree murder	State argues defendant was a principal to the murder and that evidence supports intent to kill.	Bone contends evidence is conflicted and Kyron’s testimony misidentifies the shooter.	Evidence supports conviction; rational jury could find intent and participation.
Admissibility of text messages obtained via subpoena without probable cause	State argues subpoena under Article 66 is valid and text data admissible.	Bone asserts lack of probable cause and privacy interest; calls for suppression.	Trial court erred in denying suppression; however, error was harmless given other strong evidence.
Standing and privacy in text messages of a third-party phone	State relies on lack of standing as owner; argues no expectation of privacy.	Bone maintains exclusive use and personal privacy interest despite not owning the line.	Defendant had a reasonable expectation of privacy due to exclusive use; suppression required probable cause.
Inevitable discovery doctrine applicability	State contends contents would have been discovered lawfully anyway.	No demonstrable inevitable discovery; Dixon interview speculative.	Inevitable discovery not applicable; suppression error analyzed as harmless.
Harmless error analysis of suppression ruling	Admission of text messages was potentially prejudicial.	Error prejudices defendant.	Harmless given corroborative nature of messages and strength of other evidence.

Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307 (U.S. 1979) (standard for reviewing sufficiency of evidence)
State v. Banford, 653 So.2d 671 (La. App. 5th Cir. 1995) (reviewing sufficiency of evidence and credibility of witnesses)
State v. Wooten, 738 So.2d 672 (La. App. 5th Cir. 1999) (nonunanimous juries and sufficiency principles)
State v. Pierre, 631 So.2d 427 (La. 1994) (principals and accomplice liability)
State v. Gibson, 391 So.2d 421 (La. 1980) (exclusion of evidence; burden on state in suppression)