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Ed. Note: Opinion Rendered April 11, 2000 SUPREME COURT OF LOUISIANA 99-K-1803 STATE OF LOUISIANA versus COBY MYERS ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE COURT OF APPEAL, FIFTH CIRCUIT, PARISH OF JEFFERSON KIMBALL, JUSTICE* On July 16, 1997, a jury convicted defendant, Coby Myers, of simple burglary of an inhabited dwelling in violation of La. R.S. 14:62.2. The trial judge subsequently sentenced defendant, as a second felony offender, to twelve (12) years at hard labor. Defendant raises only the issue of whether the prosecutor used his peremptory challenges to exclude African-Americans1 from the jury solely on the basis of their race in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment as interpreted in Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 90 L.Ed.2d 69 (1986). After a review of the record and the applicable law, we hold the trial judge erred in not addressing defense counsel's Batson objections and this error raises serious federal constitutional equal protection issues affecting the rights of both the defendant and the excused venirepersons. Thus, defendant's conviction is reversed and the case remanded to the trial court for a new trial. FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY On June 28, 1996, Sergeant Wayne Kron of the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office was dispatched to 2504 Arizona Street, Marrero, Louisiana, in response to a silent burglar alarm. When he arrived at the residence, he heard a disturbance at the front of the house and saw two black males running across the lawn. At trial, Sergeant Kron testified he ordered the two males to stop and, in response, the two stopped briefly, smiled directly at him, and continued to run. Sergeant Kron was unable to apprehend them. Approximately ten days later, Sergeant Kron identified Coby Myers from a photographic lineup as one of the two men he had seen running

* Calogero, C.J., not on panel. See Rule IV, Part 2,

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