State v. Humphrey

364 So.3d 437

STATE of Louisiana v. Jewel Demon HUMPHREY

22-724

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Third Circuit.

March 29, 2023

Edward Kelly Bauman, Louisiana Appellate Project, P. O. Box 1641, Lake Charles, LA 70602-1641, (337) 491-0570, COUNSEL FOR DEFENDANT/APPELLANT: Jewel Demon Humphrey

Honorable Stephen C. Dwight, Fourteenth Judicial District Attorney, John E. Turner, Assistant District Attorney, P. O. Box 3206, Lake Charles, LA 70601, (337) 437-3400, COUNSEL FOR APPELLEE: State of Louisiana

Court composed of Shannon J. Gremillion, Jonathan W. Perry, and Charles G. Fitzgerald, Judges.

GREMILLION, Judge.

On January 16, 2020, Defendant, Jewel Demon Humphrey, was charged by bill of indictment with second degree murder, in violation of La.R.S. 14:30.1. Defendant pled not guilty and requested a trial by jury. On October 22, 2021, defense counsel filed a notice of defense of voluntary intoxication. Defendant's trial began with jury selection on November 16, 2021. The next day, defense counsel filed a "Motion to Quash General Venire and/or Petit Jury Venire," which was denied following extensive arguments. On November 19, 2021, Defendant was unanimously found guilty of second degree murder. The trial court subsequently sentenced Defendant to the mandatory term of life imprisonment at hard labor without the benefit of parole, probation, or suspension of sentence.

On March 21, 2022, Defendant filed a notice of appeal which was granted by the trial court. Defendant is now before this court alleging four assignments of error:

1. The evidence admitted at trial, when viewed in the light most favorable to the prosecution, was insufficient to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Jewel Demon Humphrey was guilty of second degree murder.

2. The Court erred in denying Defense Counsel's Motion to Quash the General Venire and/or Petit Jury Venire.

3. The Court erred in allowing the introduction of excessive and/or gruesome crime scene/autopsy photographs over Defense counsel's objections.

4. It was an abuse of the Court's discretion when it denied Defense counsel's challenge for cause

regarding Prospective Juror Ms. Sandra Matthews.

For the following reasons, Defendant's conviction and sentence are affirmed.

FACTS

Around midnight on October 15, 2019, Mya Guillory called 911 to request emergency services for her mother, Robbie Vital. ¹ At trial, Mya explained she had been at Ms. Vital's home on October 14, 2019, with her brother, Jason; her sister, Daisha; and Daisha's two young children. That night, Defendant asked Ms. Vital if he could spend the night at her house. They had been dating for about two years at the time. According to Mya, Defendant and Ms. Vital went into her mother's bedroom at approximately 10:00 p.m., where they smoked PCP and drank alcohol.

Mya testified that she went to sleep but was awoken shortly before midnight to the sounds of a headboard hitting a wall and a muffled plea for help. Mya ran to Ms. Vital's bedroom where she saw Defendant on top of Ms. Vital, and he was striking her head with his hand. When Defendant saw Mya, he hit her in the jaw and then closed the bedroom door, locking her out. Mya and Jason tried to force open the bedroom door, but when they were unable to do so, they ran outside and used a passing driver's cell phone to call 911. Upon reentering the home, Mya and Jason noticed the bedroom door was again open and saw Defendant stomping downward on Ms. Vital's face. Mya testified that Defendant turned towards them and threw down a knife which broke into two pieces after hitting the ground. Defendant then said, "I killed the bitch. She's dead." Defendant walked outside and began pacing on the front porch, repeatedly asking himself, "What did I do?" Defendant took off running down the street before officers arrived on the scene.

Officer Houston Boyt with the Lake Charles Police Department testified as one of the first responding officers. Officer Boyt was dispatched to 1909 Tousand Street, and upon entering the residence, he noticed blood in the hallway leading to the bedroom and heard Ms. Vital struggling to breathe. Ms. Vital was lying in a pool of blood on the bedroom floor underneath pieces of furniture. Officer Boyt removed the furniture from Ms. Vital and then assisted emergency medical personnel in removing her from the bedroom. Because they were unable to maneuver a stretcher in the residence, they dragged Ms. Vital from the bedroom, down the hallway, and towards the front door. Officer Boyt located the shattered knife in the bedroom, and he later found another bloody pocketknife on the kitchen counter. Officer Boyt's bodycam footage was played for the jury.

The State called Sergeant Bendy Falcon with the Lake Charles Police Department. As the officer who arrived on the scene first, Sergeant Falcon observed bloody shoeprints in the residence and the ransacked bedroom. At approximately 1:00 a.m., Defendant placed a 911 call to turn himself in, and he provided his location to the 911 operator. Sergeant Falcon and Officer Jackson went to Defendant's location, which was approximately one mile from 1909 Tousand Street. ² The officers found Defendant standing in the middle of the street waiting for their arrival. Defendant complied with their orders to kneel on the ground, to show his hands, and to put his hands behind his back. Defendant told the officers he had smoked PCP with Ms. Vital, the pair had engaged in sexual intercourse, and then Ms. Vital "tripped out." While placing Defendant under arrest, the officers noticed he had blood on his hands from an injury. Defendant was transported to St. Patrick's Hospital for treatment, during which time he asked the officers if Ms. Vital was going to jail. When the officers said that she was at the hospital, Defendant told them, "It was a blur." Ms. Vital succumbed to her injuries on October 17, 2019.

Officer Jessica Single testified as an evidence officer with the Lake Charles Police Department. Officer Single was initially dispatched to Memorial Hospital to take photographs of Ms. Vital, who was still alive at the time, and then she took photographs of the crime scene. Officer Single collected the shattered knife and the pocketknife at the crime scene. Finally, Officer Single went to St. Patrick's Hospital to take photographs of Defendant documenting the injury to his hand. Several of the photographs were entered into evidence.

The State called Doctor Patrick Hayes, who was accepted as an expert in forensic psychiatry and addiction medicine. Dr. Hayes explained that phencyclidine or PCP usually has a four-hour window of intoxication. Dr. Hayes testified that the duration of PCP's effects can be reduced in habitual users, and users of PCP have varied responses in how long it takes the drug to affect them, in the duration of the effects, and in their tolerance levels. According to Dr. Hayes, a low dosage of PCP is "more of an anesthetic" that makes the user feel "chill and tired," whereas a high dosage of PCP can yield a "superiority complex [and] irritability." Because there was no drug screen performed on Defendant, Dr. Hayes could not determine Defendant's precise level of intoxication. Dr. Hayes's assessment of Defendant's intoxication level was made based on the following events: according to Mya, Defendant and Ms. Vital retired to her bedroom to smoke PCP around 10:00 p.m.; Mya's initial 911 call was made around 12:00 a.m.; Defendant's 911 call was made around 1:00 a.m.; and Defendant was arrested shortly thereafter. In his 911 call, Defendant identified himself, gave the exact location of where the incident occurred, and told the operator he would turn himself in to the Lake Charles Police Department. Dr. Hayes determined Defendant's speech was intelligible, was not slurred, was not dysarthric, and was easily understandable. Dr. Hayes watched the bodycam footage of Defendant's arrest and testified that Defendant presented himself appropriately and followed the officers’ commands. Dr. Hayes thought Defendant looked tired at the time of his arrest, but he was not acting like "a wild bear in the woods." Dr. Hayes testified that Defendant should have been equally intoxicated at the time of his 911 call and at the time of arrest as he was at the time of the incident. In his expert opinion, Dr. Hayes believed Defendant had the ability to reason and understand his actions.

Dr. Terry Welke, the Calcasieu Parish Coroner, was qualified as an expert in forensic pathology. Dr. Welke performed the autopsy, and he noted abrasions, bruises, and lacerations to Ms. Vital's face and body. Specifically, there was a laceration in front of the left ear, discoloration to the left eyelid, discoloration and skin scraping to the right side of the head, bruising on the right breast, and a patterned abrasion on the left shoulder. Ms. Vital's jaw and nasal bones were fractured, and she suffered a subdural hemorrhage, which is bleeding between the surface of the brain and the thick membrane surrounding it. Ms. Vital was stabbed underneath the right breast, but Dr. Welke testified the stab was not deep enough to penetrate the chest wall, thereby resulting in a nonfatal injury. ³ Dr. Welke concluded the manner of death was homicide and the cause of death was blunt force injuries to the head.

ERRORS PATENT

In accordance with La.Code Crim.P. art. 920, all appeals are reviewed for errors patent on the face of the record. There is one error patent.

The trial court incorrectly advised Defendant that the two-year time limitation for filing an application for post-conviction relief ran from the date of sentencing. The trial court stated, "You have two years, just as anyone else, to file, from today's date, to file any application for post-conviction relief."

According to La.Code Crim.P. art. 930.8, the prescriptive period for filing an application for post-conviction relief is two years but it begins to run when a defendant's conviction and...