STATE of Louisiana, Appellee, v. Edward J. SCOTT, Appellant.
No. 56220.
Supreme Court of Louisiana.
October 1, 1975.
Rehearing Denied November 4, 1975.
320 So. 2d 538
William J. Guste, Jr., Atty. Gen., Barbara Rutledge, Asst. Atty. Gen., Harry F. Connick, Dist. Atty., Louise Korns, Asst. Dist. Atty., for plaintiff-appellee.
TATE, Justice.
The defendant Scott was convicted of armed robbery,
Context Facts:
Two armed robbers invaded a doctor‘s office in mid-afternoon. Eight people—a doctor, some office workers, a visitor, and two patients—were forced to lie on the floor, tied, and robbed. Cash, wallets, watches, and other property were taken from them. At the trial, two of those robbed positively identified the accused as one of the robbers.
An hour after the robbery the defendant Scott was arrested as he attempted to use a credit card stolen in the robbery to purchase some clothing at a department store. (The victim had reported it as stolen immediately after the robbery.) He was released on bail.
When police investigation connected the stolen credit card with the present robbery,
Assignments of Error:
We find no reversible merit to the assignments of error:
Assignment 1: The defendant entered a continuing objection, which was overruled, to any evidence of the department store theft on the ground that it was evidence of another crime introduced without compliance with the requirements of State v. Prieur, 277 So.2d 126 (La.1974). Prieur, however, was designed only to regulate evidence of unrelated crimes otherwise-inadmissible except as permitted by
Assignments 2 and 5: Under current holdings of this court, the police officers were not required to produce for inspection at the trial the police reports which they had utilized out of court to refresh their memory as to oral statements given them by the accused; at least in the absence of a showing that they contained statements contrary to the witness’ trial testimony. See, e.g., State v. Lane, 302 So.2d 880 (La.1974) and State v. Adams, 302 So.2d 599 (La.1974).1
Assignments 3 and 7: These assignments complain that the arrest of the accused at his home on November 1 was illegal, since without a warrant, and that therefore the products of it (incriminating statements, physical evidence, and investigative leads) should be excluded. Aside from other demerits, the argument overlooks that a peace officer may arrest a suspect without a warrant if he “has reasonable cause to believe that the person to be arrested has committed an offense although not in the presence of the officer.”
Assignment 4: The motion for a directed verdict and/or a mistrial was properly denied. The action was based on the theory that the evidence showed a robbery by Smith, the defendant‘s companion in the robbery according to witness identification (Smith pleaded guilty), in which the accused himself did not participate.
The defendant does not contend that the evidence as to Smith‘s participation and subsequent actions in hiding the weapons and proceeds was inadmissible if he was a principal,
Based on these factual grounds, the motion is plainly without merit. There was more than some evidence, including eyewitness identification of the accused Scott as a principal in the robbery itself, of the defendant‘s guilt of the offense. See State v. Douglas, 278 So.2d 485 (La.1973).
Assignment 6: The defendant contends that the state improperly introduced evidence in rebuttal. In rebuttal, the state proved an oral confession made by the defendant to a detective at the time of the line-up on November 6, five days after his arrest.
He particularly complains of the trial court‘s refusal to permit him to take the stand after the state‘s rebuttal testimony in order to counter this new evidence.
During the defendant‘s case in chief, he had taken the stand and had explained his version of how he came into possession of the stolen credit card. On cross-examination as a predicate for introducing the present confession, he was asked if he had made the statement later introduced in rebuttal at the time and place to the detective.
Before the confession was introduced on rebuttal, a predicate was laid outside the presence of the jury to establish its voluntariness or not, with the defendant permitted to testify as to alleged coercion.
Nevertheless, when the jury was recalled and the state presented its predicate for the voluntariness of the confession, the trial judge permitted the defendant to testify before the jury that the confession was coerced and involuntary, the sole evidence he had introduced in traversing the predicate outside the presence of the jury. Tr. 308.
No authority is cited that the procedure utilized is contrary to law. See:
The assignment presents no reversible merit.
Assignment 7: This presents a factual issue as to the voluntary nature of the inculpatory statements of November 1 and of the confession of November 6. The trial court‘s per curiam correctly analyzes the evidence as showing no coercion. The trial court‘s factual determination as to voluntariness of a confession will not be disturbed on appeal unless clearly erroneous. State v. Diles, 316 So.2d 396 (La. 1975); State v. Vessel, 260 La. 301, 256 So.2d 96 (1972).
Assignment 8: The defendant‘s counsel objected to a question by which the defendant was asked whether a previous witness, a police officer, was lying as to a particular matter. Normally, this type of question is not permissible as an argumentative question unfairly requesting an opinion of one witness as to the credibility of another and as invading the function of the jury. McCormick on Evidence, Section 7 (2d ed., 1972); 98 C.J.S. “Witnesses” § 411, p. 213. Even in the present case, its propriety is doubtful. However, as stated by the trial court in its per curiam, the accused previously had freely admitted to lying on several occasions and had rather freely accused other witnesses of lying. Within the limited and peculiar
Decree
Finding no reversible error, we affirm the conviction and sentence.
Affirmed.
SUMMERS, J., concurs.