State v. GreeneState v. Greene
Defendant, Carlton Ray Greene,1 was charged by a grand jury indictment with aggravated rape (Count I) and aggravated burglary (Count II), violations of
FACTS
At about 5:30 a.m. on October 1, 1982, a man entered the bedroom of the viсtim‘s apartment. The victim occupied the apartment with her two-year old daughter. Almost immediately, the man got on top of the victim, placing one of his hands over her nose and mouth and the other around her throat. When the victim “went limp,” the attacker ceased strangling her and informed hеr he was armed with a knife and would kill her and her daughter by slitting their throats, if she did not do as she was told.
While repeating his threat to kill the victim and her daughter, the assailant raped the victim vaginally and anally, made her perform oral sex on him and told her that he might rape her daughter too. Thereafter, thе perpetrator again forced the victim to perform oral sex on him. He then told the victim to stand up, that he could either slit her throat or “knock [her] out,” and asked her which did she want. The victim replied that she chose the latter.
Thereafter, the assailant left the bedroom and went into the kitchen. The victim heard her apartment door shut and surmised the attacker had left. She walked out the front of the apartment and looked around. She did not see the perpetrator. She discovered an open window in her living room with its screen frame “all bent out.” When she had moved into the apartment earlier the day before, the frame was in good condition. The window had been closed when she went to bed, and she thought she had locked it at that time.
Upon reentering the apartment, the victim locked the living room window and telephoned a friend who came to her apartment within minutes. The friend convinced her to call the police.
During the commission of the offenses, the perpetrator threatened to kill the victim if she looked at him and there were poor lighting conditions inside the victim‘s apartment. The victim did not identify defendant, and no in-court or out-of-court identification procedure to identify defendant2 was ever employed. However, the victim did furnish the police with a description of the perpetrator.
On the same day the instant оffenses were committed, the police obtained an arrest warrant for the defendant based upon information that (1) Phillip Avery Christopher loaned his car to Carlton Ray Greene on the morning of the offenses, (2) keys found on the victim‘s bed fit Christopher‘s car, (3) Greene‘s fingerprints matched latent fingerprints lifted from the frames of two window screens at the victim‘s apartment, and (4) defendant fit the victim‘s description of the perpetrator. On January 24, 1987, defendant was arrested in Opelousas, Louisiana, by officers of the Opelousas City Police Department. At the time of his arrest, defendant was advised of his Miranda rights.
MISTRIAL BASED ON RACIAL REMARK
(Assignment of Error Number 3)3
Defendant asserts the trial court erred by not granting his motion for mistrial when the prosecutor made prejudicial, racist remarks during her closing argument to the jury. He argues that, because the remarks were not material and relevant,
Upon motion of a defendant, a mistrial shall be ordered when a remark or comment, made within the hearing of the jury by the judge, district attorney, or a court official, during the trial or in argument, refers directly or indirectly to:
(1) Race, religion, color or nationаl origin, if the remark or comment is not material and relevant and might create prejudice against the defendant in the mind of the jury[.]
. . . .
An admonition to the jury to disregard the remark or comment shall not be sufficient
to prevent a mistrial. If the defendant, however, requests that only an admonition be given, the court shall admonish the jury to disregard the remark or comment but shall not declare a mistrial.
During his closing argument to the jury, defense counsel intimated that Phillip Avery Christopher might have committed the instant offenses. Thereafter, during the prosecutor‘s rebuttal closing argument, she apparently sought to refute that assertion with the following:
Phillip Avery Christopher doesn‘t even know Eula Booker. Eula Booker doesn‘t know Phillip Avery Christopher. Why would he happen to be at 242 Edison Street a few hours after Carlton Green [sic] happened to be there. Phillip Avery Christopher had never been there before. Why would he just happen to go to that location. He didn‘t know this lady from Adam. She didn‘t know him either. But he [defendant] did have a reason to come back. He was interested in Eula Booker. He went to Eula Booker‘s apartment that morning and when he found a man there, he went to the next best placе, a place where he saw a nice white lady moving in that day. That‘s why.
Thereupon, the jury was removed from the courtroom, and, out of the jury‘s presence, defense counsel requested a mistrial on the basis that the prosecutor‘s remarks amounted to a reference to defendant‘s race prohibited by
Testimony given at trial by Eula Booker provides background for and sheds light upon the context in which the prosecutor‘s remarks were made. Booker related that, on thе day preceding the instant offense, she was in the process of moving out of her apartment and defendant assisted her in moving. While defendant was with her in the kitchen, he “touched her” and wanted to know if she lived alone. She told defendant she lived with Charles Barksdale, who was working in New Orleans. She last saw defendant at about 8:00 p.m. While moving, she saw a “white lady” moving into the apartment next door (the victim‘s apartment); the defendant was present at that time. Charles Barksdale came home at about midnight. Later, at about 4:00-4:30 a.m. the following morning, she heard a knock at the door. Barksdale went tо the door but did not let anyone inside; she did not see who had been at the door. About thirty minutes later, she heard noise next door, which sounded like someone fighting.
Although the prosecutor referred to race in her closing argument, not every reference to race requires the granting of a mistrial. State v. Jenkins, 340 So.2d 157 (La.1976). For example, race may be a valid method of identification and, thus, material and relevant. State v. Jenkins, 340 So.2d at 178. The prosecutor‘s remarks essentially recapitulated a portion of Eula Booker‘s testimony to refute any suggestion raised in defense counsel‘s closing argument that Phillip Avery Christopher might have committed these offenses. When the entire record is considered, particularly the context in which the reference was made, it appears there was no attempt by the prosecutor to pursue a racial issue to prejudice defendant. Cf. State v. Tatum, 506 So.2d 584 (La.App. 4th Cir.1987). Consequently, the prosecutor‘s remаrk was not the type proscribed by
This assignment of error is without merit.
SUFFICIENCY OF EVIDENCE
(Assignment of Error Number 4)
Defendant contends the verdicts are contrary to the law and the evidence. His argument is premised on the absence of the victim‘s identification of him as the perpetrator. He further contends the only evidence linking him to the offenses was a pаlm print outside the victim‘s apartment.
When reviewing the sufficiency of the evidence to support a conviction, an appellate court must determine if the evidence, viewed in the light most favorable to the prosecution, was sufficient to convince a rational trier of fact that all of the elements of the crime and defendant‘s identity as perpetrator of that crime were proved beyond a reаsonable doubt.
Evidence introduced at trial revealed that, on the day preceding the offenses, Eula Booker began moving out of her apartment located next door to the apartment into which the victim was then moving. Defendant was assisting Booker at the time. While in Booker‘s kitchen with her, defendant‘s apparent sexual advances directed toward Booker were interrupted by the boyfriend of Booker‘s sister, Zeik Murphy, who was also assisting Booker in mоving. Prior to the interruption, defendant had “touched her” and had asked her if she lived alone, and Booker had told defendant she lived with Charles Barksdale, who was working in New Orleans at the time.
Booker last saw defendant at about 8:00 p.m. on September 30. Thereafter, at about midnight, Charles Barksdale came to Booker‘s apartment, and the two of them spent the night there sleeping on the floor. Booker finished moving the following day.
Booker testified that, at about 4:00-4:30 a.m., she woke up when she heard someone knocking at the door to her apartment. Barksdale answered the knoсk at the door. He did not allow anyone to enter the apartment, and Booker did not see the person who was at the door. Booker further testified that about thirty minutes later she heard noise next door which sounded like someone fighting.
The victim testified that, at about 5:30 a.m., she was awakened while sleeping in her bed and observed the perpetrator come into her bedroom. Before the victim could say anything, the perpetrator was on top of her using one of his hands to cover her mouth and nose and his other hand to grab hold of her throat. The victim stated that, when she “wеnt limp,” the perpetrator told her he had a knife in his pocket and that, if she failed to do as she was told, he would kill her and her child by slitting their throats. Thereafter, the perpetrator raped the victim several times and stole about forty dollars from her before leaving the scene.
During the police investigation which followed, a light brown 1977 Ford LTD was found parked in a parking lot near the victim‘s apartment. The police determined the owner of the car to be Phillip Avery Christopher.
The testimony of Christopher and Dionne Bates revealed that, on the day of the offenses, Christopher and defendant were living in Baton Rouge at the residence of defendant‘s brother, Clayton Greene, and Ms. Bates.
Christopher testified that, on the day of the offenses at about 2:30-3:30 a.m., defendant asked for and received Christopher‘s permission to use his car. Christopher identified state exhibit eight, the keys and keyring the victim found in her bed after the offenses, as the keys and keyring belonging to him which he had given to defendant with the car.
On the day of the offenses, law enforcement agents detected fingerprints and a palm print at the crime scene. A latent left thumb print (state exhibit thirty) was lifted from the insidе portion of the window screen frame to the victim‘s living room window, which window had apparently served as the point of entry used by the perpetrator. A latent right index fingerprint
Applying the statutory rule for circumstantial evidence as a component of the more comprehensive reasonable doubt standard, we find that the evidence supports the jury‘s verdicts of guilty. The evidence sufficiently proved the elements of the instant offenses and defendant‘s identity as the perpetrator of those offenses beyond a reasonable doubt.
This assignment of error is without merit.
DECREE
For the foregoing reasons, the conviction and sentence are affirmed.
AFFIRMED.