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State v. Robinson4/14/2004
opriate for this Court to look beyond the judicial district in which the sentence was imposed and conduct the proportionality review on a state-wide basis. State v. Davis, 92-1623, pp. 34-35 (La. 5/23/94), 637 So.2d 1012, 1030-31. A state-wide review of capital cases reflects that jurors often return the death penalty when a child under the age of twelve is murdered, and when members of the same family are slain together.
This Court affirmed the first degree murder conviction and death sentence rendered by the jury in State v. Carmouche, 01-0405 (La. 5/14/02) 2002 WL 984306; reh'g granted (La. 9/25/03) (case remanded to consider issue of mental retardation in light of Atkins v. Virginia, 536 U.S. 304, 122 S.Ct. 2244, 153 L.Ed.2d 335 (2002)). In Carmouche, the defendant killed his fifteen and two-year-old daughters, in addition to their mother, with a shotgun. Carmouche, p.2. The jury in Carmouche recommended the death sentence based upon their finding of two aggravating circumstances, namely, that the defendant knowingly created a risk of death or great bodily harm to more than one person, and that one of the victims was under the age of twelve years of age. Carmouche, p. 3. The same aggravating circumstances were present in the instant case, and although defendant did not have a familial relationship with his victims, the trial testimony of David Peart reflected that Billy Lambert and defendant were close friends.
In State v. Lowenfeld, this Court affirmed a Jefferson Parish jury's imposition of the death penalty where the defendant shot and killed his ex-girlfriend, her mother and step-father, her four-year-old daughter, and the child's father. State v. Lowenfield, 495 So.2d 1245 (La. 1985). Although the State did not assert the fact that one of the victims was under twelve years of age as an aggravating factor, the jury did find that the defendant knowingly created a risk of death or bodily harm to more than one person. Lowenfield, 495 So.2d at 1256-57. This Court specifically pointed out in Lowenfield that "the defendant knew all of the victims...The defendant in killing them wiped out an extended family which spanned three generations." Id. at 1260. The circumstances of Lowenfield are analogous to those present in the instant case, as the instant defendant similarly killed three generations of a family with whom he was familiar.
Compared to these cases, it cannot be said that the death sentence in this case is disproportionate. The evidence fully supports the jury's determination that defendant specifically intended to, and did kill four victims, one of whom was a 10-month-old baby without the ability to testify against him at trial. Both statutory aggravating circumstances urged by the State were properly found by the jury and fully supported by the record. While the State's case against defendant was largely circumstantial, the presence of the blood of the infant victim on defendant's left shoe, as well as gunshot residue found permeating his clothes, left no doubt in the jurors' minds that the defendant murdered Billy Lambert and his family. Nothing in any of the post trial documents filed pursuant to La.S.Ct.R. 28 warrants reversal of defendant's death sentence. No reversible error is discerned at either phase of trial.
DECREE
For the reasons assigned, the defendant's convictions and death sentence are affirmed. In the event this judgment becomes final on direct review when either: (1) the defendant fails to petition timely the United States Supreme Court for certiorari; or (2) that court denies his petition for certiorari; and either (a) the defendant, having filed for and been denied certiorari, fails to petition the United States Supreme Court t
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