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State v. Guillory3/11/1998
e, the ruling of the trial court, denying the motion to suppress the fruits of the illegal arrest are hereby upheld. It is important to note that the Defendant cooperated with the police at all times and he was the person who contacted Lieutenant Lewis. When Lieutenant Lewis arrived at the Gates Food Store, he did not suspect that the Defendant was a participant in the crime. Thus, this argument is without merit.
ARGUMENT NO. 6 Ä ASSIGNMENT OF ERROR NO. 7
This argument concerns several alleged discovery violations. Only one violation is addressed in Defendant's brief, and two others are relegated to a footnote without any explanations.
First the Defendant argues the State failed to reveal an alleged racial remark the Defendant made to Michael Narcisse. Michael Narcisse worked at Gates Food Store down the street from Daniel Dougay's shop; he would often see Daniel Dougay, Jeffery Tezeno and the Defendant at the store. While testifying on direct, Mr. Narcisse told of how the Defendant was in the store at the same time as Daniel Dougay, and the Defendant said he did not like "these honkeys" and he made a vague threat. The Defendant immediately objected since he had not been told of this statement in discovery. However, the State argued that it was not aware of it until Michael Narcisse testified at trial. Then Mr. Narcisse admitted that the State did not know of it because they "never asked me either."
We find no discovery violation since the State was not aware of the statement until the witness said it at trial.
The remaining claims, in footnote 1 are, "The prosecution had also failed to provide Willie Fontenot's exculpatory statements (he had apparently denied knowing anything about the criminal activities that he later discussed on the stand), and Donald Washington's verbal perambulations." No explanation is given about what were Donald Washington's "verbal perambulations" and as such, this issue cannot be discussed.
The statement from Willie Fontenot concerned his initial denial of purchasing anything from the Defendant and Tezeno. When Sergeant Ray Laviolet first went to Mr. Fontenot to recover the items that the police had learned Tezeno and the Defendant had sold to him, Mr. Fontenot initially denied knowing anything about it.
On the stand, Mr. Fontenot admitted he was afraid he would be charged with a crime if the items were stolen. The day after the discovery of the bodies, Mr. Fontenot admitted his purchases and returned the items to the police. The Defendant was able to fully cross-examine Mr. Fontenot about his initial denial; this fact does not appear to be favorable to the Defendant nor in any way exculpatory.
For whatever reason, the initial denial by Mr. Fontenot was not included in his written statement given to the police. However, the Defendant did not object to the admission of this evidence. At trial, the Defendant simply asked that the State turn over all other Brady material. We find that Mr. Fontenot's initial denial that he had purchased items from the Defendant and Tezeno is not exculpatory evidence and thus there could be no Brady violation. Furthermore, the Defendant did not object, but simply asked for any additional Brady information.
ARGUMENT NO. 7 Ä ASSIGNMENT OF ERROR NOS. 15 & 16
The Defendant's seventh argument concerns two objections to closing arguments. First the Defendant contends that the State improperly referred to the Defendant's failure to call witnesses. Second, the Defendant argues that he was improperly limited in his closing argument.
The Defendant first argues that the State improperly placed a burden of proof upon the
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