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State v. Couvillion7/26/2005
she chased him and perhaps died accidentally by falling on tree stumps or, alternatively, that a man she had taken money from earlier murdered her. Id. at 718. Although the court of appeal reversed defendant's conviction and sentence, the Louisiana Supreme Court reinstated the conviction. Id. at 716. Notably, this case involved subsection (A)(2)(a) of the manslaughter statute and like the present case, the defendant admitted to committing a battery upon the victim. Id. at 721. Further, in Brown, the defendant opined that the victim may have died as a result of a fall, in contravention to the medical examiner's testimony. The supreme court stated, " hile the defense expert speculated otherwise, the district judge evidently found the coroner's testimony more credible, a reasonable conclusion given that it was Cogswell who performed the autopsy on the victim's body." Id. at 722.
In the present case, Dr. Garcia, who performed the autopsy, testified that the cause of Jim's death was ligature strangulation and denied that Jim died as a result of the fall from the interstate. However, the defendant's expert, Dr. Liuzza, testified he could not exclude the possibility that Jim died from the fall. For support of this theory, Dr. Liuzza testified that finding a body that was dead for three days with fully developed rigor mortis, as suggested by Dr. Garcia's findings, would be unusual even at a temperature of fifty-nine degrees.
As in State v. Brown, supra, the jury could have found the testimony of Dr. Garcia more credible since she conducted the autopsy on Jim's body. In addition, the record reflects that Jim appeared to be dead prior to his body being thrown over the overpass, as stated in Timothy's testimony and recorded statement. Likewise, according to defendant's statement, Brandon checked defendant and concluded he was dead. It is not the function of the appellate court to second-guess the credibility determinations of the trier of fact or to reweigh the evidence. State ex rel. Graffagnino v. King, 436 So.2d 559, 563 (La. 1983); State v. Carter, 98-24 (La. App. 5 Cir. 5/27/98), 712 So.2d 701, 708, writ denied, 98-1767 (La. 11/6/98), 727 So.2d 444.
The evidence presented suggests that defendant was a principal to manslaughter by aiding and abetting Brandon. A rational jury could have found that Jim died as a result of Brandon strangling him with his belt. Defendant admits that he punched Jim while Jim was being dragged by Brandon with a belt around his neck. It is reasonable that the jury chose to disbelieve that defendant struck Jim as a reflex in reaction to being struck, not knowing what was actually happening, especially after Brandon's conversation with him about killing and robbing someone with a nice sound system in his truck. By committing simple battery upon Jim as he was being strangled, Jim's struggle and ability to defend himself was hindered, if not completely lost. By making Jim an easier target, defendant enabled Brandon to execute his plan to kill and rob Jim.
Further evidence reflects defendant participated in getting Jim's body out of his house. Although defendant had a cell phone, he did not call for help or report the crime. Defendant argues he had a gun in his house that could have been used to shoot Jim if defendant desired; however, defendant could have used this gun to stop the commission of the crime. Defendant later created an alibi for himself and had three others lie for him.
Based on the above, the facts, viewed in the light most favorable to the State, were sufficient to support defendant's manslaughter conviction beyond a reasonable doubt. We conclude that the trial court did not err in denying defendant's motion for new trial and
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