Preview:

02/26/02 "See News Release 14 for any concurrences and/or dissents."

SUPREME COURT OF LOUISIANA NUMBER 00-K-3459 STATE OF LOUISIANA versus

WILLIE HARRIS, JR.

ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE COURT OF APPEAL FOURTH CIRCUIT, PARISH OF ORLEANS

KNOLL, Justice

This manslaughter conviction concerns a discovery violation by the State. The crux of this case is whether the defendant can make the necessary showing of prejudice as a result of the State's discovery violation. The defendant contends that the trial court erred in denying his motion for a mistrial when he learned during the first day of trial that the State failed to reveal in pre-trial discovery that it was aware of a threatening statement the defendant made about the victim shortly before the shooting. Finding that the defendant failed to prove that this discovery violation prejudiced him, we affirm the defendant's conviction and sentence. FACTS As a backdrop to this case, we point out that the defendant, Willie Harris, Jr., was romantically involved with two women at the same time. The defendant testified that he and the victim, Christina Hannon, had been romantically involved for five or six years prior to her death and the two of them had lived together off and on during 1996 at his apartment in the Iberville Housing Project. The defendant also testified that he began a relationship with Juffere Johnson in 1995. As a result of that latter relationship, defendant and Johnson had a daughter on November 17, 1996. Although

Johnson suspected that the defendant was seeing another woman, she never met the victim. On February 3, 1997, the victim and the defendant along with Rodney Weston and his girl friend, Natasha Washington, were at the home of defendant's mother. Earlier that morning, the defendant had visited Johnson at her home in Gretna. At that time, the defendant told her that he was going to his apartment in the Iberville Housing Project to gather his clothes and that he was going to return to stay with her at her Gretna apartment When the defendant returned to his mother's home later in the day, the defendant and the victim began arguing about breaking up. After the argument began to upset the defendant's mother, who was ill at the time, the foursome returned to the apartment that the defendant and the victim shared in the housing project. According to Weston, he heard the defendant strike the victim with his hand as they boarded the van. At this point the defendant's recollection of the facts diverges from that of the two other witnesses at trial who shed light on what transpired just before and just after the shooting. These two witnesses are Weston and Chiara O'Connor, the victim's cousin who also resided at the housing project. Although only the defendant and the victim were present in the apartment at the time of the shooting, these two witnesses elaborated on the facts which frame this shooting. Weston stated that when they arrived at the apartment,1 Weston's girl friend stayed in Weston's van as the other three went into the apartment. When the victim and the defendant continued to argue, the victim left the apartment at Weston's urging. When Weston later returned to check on his girl friend in the van, Weston saw the defendant walking the victim to the rear entrance of the apartment; as observed by

1

The evidence does not show the time that the foursome arrived at the defendant's apartment. -2-

Weston, the defendant had his hand around the victim's neck. When Weston returned to the apartment, he saw the victim sitting on the bed in the living room and the defendant standing next to her holding a gun to her head. The gun was either a .38 or .32-caliber weapon, but he was not sure.2 As described by Weston, he picked up a screwdriver and lodged it between the firing pin and the gun barrel to prevent the gun from discharging.3 As he and the defendant struggled, Weston yelled at the victim, urging her to run; despite his warnings, the victim did not move. Ultimately, Weston surrendered the gun to the defendant. Approximately ten seconds later, as Weston walked out of the rear entrance of the apartment, he heard one gunshot. Even though Weston told defense counsel on cross-examination that he did not know what happened in the room as he walked out, i.e., whether the victim reached for the gun or tried to take it from the defendant, he was clear that he heard only complete silence as he strode to the rear of the apartment. When he returned to the apartment after hearing the gunshot, Weston saw the gun in the defendant's hand and the victim had been shot in the head. Weston and his girl friend then drove to the police station to report the shooting. The victim's cousin, Chiara O'Connor, another housing project resident, testified that she saw the victim on the evening of February 3 in the Iberville Housing Project just before the shooting. She stated that the victim approached her and several others as they were visiting in a common area in the project and asked for a cigarette.
The police never recovered the murder weapon. On cross-examination by defense counsel, Weston said that he could not be more accurate in his description because this was the first time he'd seen the weapon. A spent bullet of unknown caliber was recovered during the autopsy. However, when the police searched the defendant after his arrest, they found two live Winchester .38 caliber bullets in his pants pocket. Officer Thomatra Greene also testified that he recovered a live Winchester .38 caliber bullet in the hallway outside the defendant's apartment, a door or two from the crime scene. The only reference to the screwdriver, other than Weston's, is in a supplemental police report. In that report, Detective Terence Philips describes "a metal screwdriver with a yellow handle" that he found located on the bed next to the victim. No screwdriver was recovered at the scene and none of the photographs show a screwdriver. -33 2

After visiting with the group for approximately ten minutes, the victim left to hide from the defendant in an abandoned building in the project. Eventually, however, the defendant found the victim after she returned to O'Connor and her friends. She stated that the defendant surprised the victim and embraced her playfully. O'Connor followed the two as they proceeded to their apartment. As they neared the apartment, O'Connor testified that the defendant slapped the victim in the face and he and the victim entered the apartment. Approximately forty-five seconds later, O'Connor heard a single gunshot. At that point, O'Connor returned to her apartment. She stated that she did not know that the gunshot came from within the defendant's apartment until fifteen minutes later when a neighbor told her about the victim's death. She later returned to the defendant's apartment. There she pointed out the defendant to the police as the victim's killer as he stood outside the apartment asking what had happened to his old lady. The defendant testified in his own behalf. He stated that at the time of the victim's death, the two of them were parting ways. Although he had visited Juffere Johnson that morning, he did not tell the victim that he was reuniting with Johnson. However, when he entered his apartment and he began to pack his bags, the couple began to argue because he was leaving.4 The defendant claimed that when he went to retrieve cigarettes from his starter jacket which lay on the couch, he picked up the gun when it fell out of the pocket of the jacket. As the defendant picked up the gun, Weston entered the apartment, grabbed him, and told the victim to run. At that point, the victim left the apartment. After the defendant and Weston struggled, the defendant left the apartment and telephoned Johnson to tell her that he would be late. As he returned to his apartment, the defendant saw the victim in the driveway of the
Photographs entered into evidence were identified by Detective Philips as showing several duffel bags in the bedroom of the apartment. He also stated that there was some clothes on the bed. -44

apartment complex, grabbed her shirt sleeve near the shoulder, and told her to come with him. He denied striking her as O'Connor had stated. They returned to the apartment and continued to argue. When the defendant walked to the door, he heard a gun cock; as he turned, he saw the victim pointing the gun at him. The defendant testified that as he and the victim struggled over the weapon, it accidentally discharged, hitting the victim in the head.5 The defendant stated that the victim died as he held her in his arms. He testified that he loved the victim and did not intend to kill her. He further stated that as Weston returned to the apartment after the gunshot, he told him that the shooting was an accident. The two of them then left the apartment. The defendant claimed that he returned to the apartment, panicked, and left again. After wandering about Canal Street, he returned to the apartment thirty minutes later to find police at the scene. At this point, Detective Terence Philips, the lead homicide investigator on the scene, stated that the shooting took place at approximately 7:20 p.m. on February 3. When he arrived at the scene of the crime, he entered defendant's apartment through the kitchen door and observed the victim lying in a supine position on the den floor with coagulated blood on the floor around her head. The victim was between a bed and a sofa, with her head facing the door which leads to the courtyard. At about 8:57 p.m., Officer Lester Marshall, one of the policeman first on the scene, informed Detective Phillips that the defendant was being detained and that he wanted to make a statement. At this point, the police arrested the defendant, Mirandized him, and then transported him to central lockup to give a statement. In an oral taped statement the defendant admitted that he and the victim had argued all day. He also stated that while
5

A review of the defendant's oral taped confession, indicates several facts which vary from his trial testimony. Initially, there was no mention in his taped confession that the victim ever cocked and pointed the gun at him. On the other hand, the defendant failed to mention in his trial testimony that he got the gun from the couch and aimed it at the victim to scare her. -5-

he and the victim were arguing in his apartment, he picked up the gun on the couch and aimed it at the victim to scare her. He also admitted that he shot the victim, but maintained that the victim pushed him as they tussled and that the gun, which was aimed at her waist, accidentally discharged.6 Dr. Michael D. Defatta, a forensic pathologist at the Orleans Parish Coroner's Office, testified that he autopsied the victim's body and determined that she suffered a close-range gunshot to the left side of the head. Based on the soot and stippling around the entrance wound,7 Dr. Defatta opined that the muzzle of the murder weapon was twelve inches or less from the victim's head when it was fired. His close observation of the victim led him to conclude that there was only a slight deviation of a 10 to 20-degree angle of trajectory as the bullet moved predominately left to right through the cranium. The State charged the defendant with second-degree murder. After a jury trial, the defendant was found guilty of manslaughter, a lesser included offense, and sentenced to twenty-one years imprisonment at hard labor.8 On appeal, the reviewing court affirmed the defendant's conviction and sentence. State v. Harris, 99-1958 (La. App. 4 Cir. 11/15/00). In light of defense's theory that the shooting was accidental, we granted defendant's writ to more closely examine if defendant was prejudiced by

The record reflects that the defendant's post-arrest statement to the police was so poorly recorded that the trial court chose to play it for the jurors in chambers and it was not transcribed for the record. See R. Tr., p. 150. In denying the defendant's objections to the introduction of the tape recording, the trial court stated that the recording was played in chambers because it was not audible in open court. The trial court also noted that the defendant and counsel were present when the recording was played. Dr. Defata explained that when a gun is fired, gas, soot, and small unburned gunpowder flakes exit the muzzle with the bullet. As was the case with this victim, the muzzle was so close to the victim that soot and gunpowder flakes impgregnated the victim's skin. The State subsequently charged the defendant as a second felony offender. After the defendant pleaded guilty as an habitual offender, the court set aside defendant's earlier sentence and imposed a sentence of 21-years in the custody of the Department of Corrections under LA REV. STAT. ANN.

Download 2000-K-3459 STATE OF LOUISIANA v. WILLIE HARRIS, JR..pdf

Louisiana Law