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State v. Guillory3/11/1998
idence has been presented on this issue and thus, we find this claim lacks merit.
ARGUMENT NO. 3 Ä ASSIGNMENT OF ERROR NOS. 8, 12 & 14
The third argument of the Defendant raises several separate issues. First, the Defendant claims the trial court erred in refusing to enforce a valid subpoena for a defense witness, Marcus Snell. The State responded that the Defendant is responsible for getting his witnesses to trial. The Defendant had subpoenaed Mr. Snell, but he left during the trial to go to a funeral in Detroit.
Marcus Snell lived across the street from Daniel Dougay's shop. If he could have testified at trial, Mr. Snell would have told about an argument between Jeff Tezeno and Daniel Dougay one week before the murders. It appears that Jeff Tezeno was angry that Mr. Dougay had not paid the electric bill and the electricity had been cut off to the shop. During the argument, Tezeno threatened to whip Dougay. Mr. Snell would have also testified that he saw Tezeno at the shop on the Sunday after the murders. Finally, Mr. Snell told counsel for the Defendant that he had a friend who was in jail with Tezeno and Tezeno told this friend, who Mr. Snell refused to identify, that Tezeno said that after he and the Defendant used all of their crack cocaine, they needed some money so they went to Daniel Dougay's. When Dougay objected to them taking tools, the Defendant pulled out a gun and Dougay was shot while struggling with the Defendant for the gun.
The State noted that Michael Narcisse had already testified about threats being made against Daniel Dougay a week prior to the murders and that Detective Denise Hughes had already told the jury that Tezeno admitted he had been to the shop several times after the murder. Therefore, the information the Defendant wanted to present through the testimony of Marcus Snell was simply cumulative of what had already been presented. As to the hearsay about what the "friend" of Mr. Snell heard Tezeno say while in jail, the State said it would object to this "double hearsay."
The trial Judge refused to grant a recess or a continuance since the witness was not crucial to the Defendant's case.
The second claim of the Defendant is that he was prevented from introducing evidence about Tezeno's habit of snitching on innocent people. The Defendant called Rhonda Walker to the stand to testify how Tezeno gave a statement to the police accusing her of owning drugs and drug paraphernalia that eventually Tezeno pled guilty to possessing; however, when counsel for the Defendant began to question Ms. Walker on this issue, the State objected on the grounds of relevancy. The Defendant also discusses the proposed testimony of Kathy LaChappelle and Clarissa Arceneaux, but these witnesses were never called to testify.
The State argued that this information was irrelevant to the guilt or innocence of the defendant. Lack of relevancy was the ground for the objections at trial. Also, the proper procedures for impeaching a witness are provided by La. Code Evid. art. 607, but before a witness may be impeached, he must first be called to testify. In the present case, Tezeno was never called to testify and thus, his credibility could not be impeached. Therefore, the trial court did not err in sustaining the objections to this testimony.
The third claim of the Defendant is that he was prevented from presenting evidence from Robert Bartie. The Defendant claims this witness was coerced from testifying on behalf of the Defendant by threats of prosecution from the State. Allegedly, Robert Bartie sold crack cocaine to the Defendant and Tezeno. While Bartie was testifying, the Defendant asked him if he sold crack co
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