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State v. Robinson4/14/2004
1997, Leroy Goodspeed conveyed defendant's statements to Steve Wilmore, the lead investigator from the Rapides Parish Sheriff's Office, who subsequently informed the assistant district attorney assigned to the case of defendant's statements.
Jury selection commenced on February 12, 2001 in St. Landry Parish. After conducting individualized sequestered voir dire, a panel of twelve jurors and one alternate was chosen. Thereafter, the case was returned to Rapides Parish, where the trial took place in accordance with La. C. Cr. P. art. 623.1. Defendant's trial commenced on March 3, 2001. On March 12, 2001, the jury returned four verdicts of guilty as charged of first degree murder.
The penalty phase began on March 13, 2001, and the following day, the jury unanimously returned four recommendations for death. To support its recommendation regarding counts one, two and three, which involved the adult victims Billy Lambert, Carol Hooper, and Maureen Kelly, the jury found the one aggravating circumstance urged by the State, namely that the offender knowingly created a risk of death or great bodily harm to more than one person pursuant to La.C.Cr.P. art. 905.4(A)(4). With regard to count four, which involved infant victim Nicholas Kelly, the jury found both aggravating circumstances urged by the State, namely that the offender knowingly created a risk of death or great bodily harm to more than one person pursuant to La.C.Cr.P. art. 905.4(A)(4), and that the victim was under the age of twelve years pursuant to La.C.Cr.P. art. 905.4(A)(10).
Defense counsel filed a motion for new trial, which was denied on April 9, 2001. Thereafter, the judge imposed the sentence of death in accordance with the jury's verdicts. Defendant now appeals his convictions and death sentence on the basis of 24 assignments of error.
DISCUSSION
This is a capital case in which all assignments of error are reviewed. This court has an independent obligation to examine the record for passion, prejudice, or arbitrary factors which may have contributed to the jury's recommendation of death, despite the lack of contemporaneous objection or the failure to brief an argument. State v. Sonnier, 379 So.2d 1336, 1358 (La. 1979), appeal after remand, 402 So.2d 650 (La. 1981), cert denied, 463 U.S. 1229, 103 S.Ct. 3571, 77 L.Ed.2d 1412 (1983); see LSA-C.Cr. P. art 905.9. Defendant assigns twenty-four errors as the basis for his appeal before this Court. In this opinion we will treat eight assignments of error (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 14, 23, 24) and review the sentence to ensure that it is not excessive. The assignments of error not discussed in this opinion do not represent reversible error and are governed by well-settled principles of law. These assignments of error will be reviewed in an unpublished appendix which will comprise a part of the official record in this case.
I.
Defendant argues that the evidence presented at trial was insufficient to prove his identity as the perpetrator of the murders. Defendant's argument is two-fold. In his first assignment of error, defendant contends that the evidence presented by the State was insufficient to prove that he fired the shots that killed the victims or that he intended their deaths. Included in defendant's first assignment of error is his allegation that the testimony of the State's jail-house informant, Leroy Goodspeed, is the "the thin and brittle reed" upon which the State was able to build its case, and without which, his conviction would not have been obtained. Defendant re-urges the unreliability of the State's jail-house informant in his second assignment of error, wherein he alleges that the testimony should have been suppressed
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