State v. Seignious

318 A.3d 218

STATE

v.Louis SEIGNIOUS.

No. 2023-124-C.A.

(W1/20-168A)

Supreme Court of Rhode Island.

July 25, 2024

Washington County Superior Court, Associate Justice Melanie Wilk Thunberg

Devon Flanagan Hogan, Department of Attorney General, for State.

Angela M. Yingling, Rhode Island Public Defender, for Defendant.

Present: Suttell, C.J., Goldberg, Lynch Prata, and Long, JJ.

OPINION

Justice Goldberg, for the Court.

After a jury trial, the defendant, Louis Seignious (defendant or Seignious), was convicted of first-degree murder, carrying a firearm during the commission of a crime of violence, and domestic breaking and entering, which occurred in Westerly, Rhode Island. On appeal, Seignious challenges the trial justice’s denial of his motion for a new trial, as well as the trial justice’s determination to allow into evidence certain testimony concerning fingerprints without qualifying the witness as an expert. After careful consideration, we affirm the judgment of conviction.

I Facts and Travel

In 2017, Seignious and Dionne Johnson (Johnson) began a romantic relationship.

Although the courtship soon ended, the relationship produced a daughter and the couple remained amicable for the benefit of the child. Johnson made clear at trial that after their breakup, however, defendant did not have an open invitation to visit unannounced at her home.

In December 2019, Johnson began a romantic relationship with the decedent, Vincent Sebastian (Sebastian). The defendant and Sebastian were cousins and their once close relationship had recently cooled and become hostile. In one instance—after Seignious and Johnson ended their relationship—Seignious instructed Johnson to "stay away from Mr. Sebastian." Johnson was understandably concerned that Seignious might discover her new relationship and stated at trial, "I just wouldn’t let him know. I didn’t want him to know." Johnson’s prognostication brings us to the following relevant events.

On Friday, January 24, 2020, Seignious and Johnson exchanged text messages concerning a child-support payment and visitation arrangements for the coming weekend. With no resolution reached on that date, the conversation continued into the morning of January 25, 2020, when Johnson texted and then called Seignious to finalize arrangements. The defendant responded to the call by informing Johnson that he had just awakened and would return the call "when he gets situated." Seignious next contacted Johnson by text message at 12:34 p.m., stating: "I’m a lil under the weather you got some NyQuil for me." Johnson explained that "NyQuil" was an innuendo used by Seignious when "he was asking me for sex." Johnson showed the "NyQuil" text to Sebastian, who advised her not to respond. Johnson did not respond.

At approximately 1 p.m., Johnson, three of her children, and Sebastian attended a birthday party that Johnson’s friend, Jessica Smyth (Smyth), was hosting for her young son. According to Johnson, during the party Sebastian was angrily texting the mother of his son, Genesha Wallace (Wallace), and proceeded to capture two photographs—one with his arm around Johnson. Although the precise timeline of events is unclear, Sebastian texted the pictures to Wallace, who then forwarded one or both pictures to Seignious. Realizing that the relationship Johnson sought to keep quiet was now public, she and Sebastian became embroiled in a verbal confrontation and were directed by a guest to a nearby bathroom. Once in the bathroom, Sebastian instructed Johnson to "call him right now." Johnson complied; she initiated a video call (at Sebastian’s direction) and handed the phone to Sebastian. The defendant was able to observe firsthand Sebastian and Johnson together. The video call began at 1:48 p.m. and lasted twenty-eight seconds.¹

Johnson recounted that Seignious and Sebastian were "just on the phone exchanging words and yelling at each other back and forth." Johnson also recalled defendant stating that he was going "to drive up to, to the spot," a comment that "scared" and "petrified" Johnson. Sebastian and Johnson promptly left the party.

Johnson borrowed Smyth’s car and Sebastian directed her to drive and pick up two individuals, Jason Hedges (Hedges) and Abraham Julue (Julue). Johnson drove to her home, where the passengers disembarked. She returned to the party to retrieve her three children and Smyth. After additional errands, Johnson returned home with her children and Smyth drove her vehicle back to the party.

Johnson lived in a duplex on Marriott Avenue in Westerly. Because Johnson did not own a vehicle—and instead often obtained transportation from Smyth or borrowed Smyth’s vehicle—the designated parking area outside her residence often was vacant. Johnson recalled that during her relationship with defendant, Seignious parked his vehicle in the designated area in the front of her home. Johnson also testified that she never remembered an occasion in which the designated parking area was full, causing someone to use the parking lot assigned to a commercial business behind her house.

Johnson further explained that to enter her home, one would pull open a screen door and then push open the front door and enter the living room. According to Johnson, the screen door would "squeak" when opened, a telltale sign that someone was entering the house. A couch was located on the far wall of the living room to the right of the door and a loveseat was situated to the right of the couch. The loveseat separated the living room area from the kitchen area. To the left of the front door was a stairwell, which led to the second floor. The stairway was situated in such a manner that the front door could not be opened more than approximately ninety degrees and when opened, the door blocked entry to the stairwell, and, significantly, would prevent someone on the stairwell from accessing the first floor.

Sebastian and his companions, Hedges and Julue, settled in on the living room couch and loveseat, listening to music, drinking alcohol, and smoking marijuana. Johnson was standing in the living room when she received a telephone call from Nafeezah Shabazz (Shabazz), Sebastian’s aunt. Johnson handed the phone to Sebastian and after a one- or two-minute conversation, Sebastian returned the phone to Johnson. Thereafter, Sebastian proceeded upstairs while Johnson continued speaking to Shabazz as she headed into the kitchen.

Johnson testified that her attention was diverted to the front door when she heard the familiar "squeak" noise. When Johnson turned, Seignious was standing inside her house. According to Johnson, upon entering the home, Seignious exclaimed, "Where’s Vinny?" Johnson also recounted that from her vantage point, she watched Seignious’s left hand enter his pocket whereupon "[h]e transferred a gun from his left hand to his right hand." While Johnson was unfamiliar with firearms, she described the object as "[s]ome small, like, silver, has some, like, twisty thing on it * * *."

Hedges and Julue remained in the living room, apparently unconcerned with the unscheduled and unknown visitor, as Sebastian descended the stairs. According to Johnson, "when he got down the stairs, I, I was just like, oh, my God, and then you just hear a bang * * *." Johnson further testified that "Mr. Seignious and Mr. Sebastian w[ere] pushing the door back and forth, and back and forth. But Mr. Sebastian had pushed this one last push, and, um, Mr. Seignious had fell back. That’s when, um, um, Mr. Sebastian had locked the door, and then he ran up the stairs." Immediately after defendant was ejected from the house, Johnson went upstairs and discovered Sebastian wounded and lying motionless on her child’s bedroom floor. He was later pronounced dead from a single gunshot wound to the chest. The entire episode—from entry into the home to Seignious being ejected from the home—transpired in a matter of seconds.

The state presented additional witnesses, who largely corroborated Johnson’s testimony. Shabazz testified that during the shooting, she was on a video call with Johnson. Shabazz described Johnson’s tone suddenly changing when Johnson repeatedly started screaming: "He shot up my house[ ]" and "He shot up my house with my kids in there.’’ Shabazz queried, "Who shot your house up?"; Johnson replied, "Louis shot [my] house up."

Julue testified that his attention was drawn to the front door when someone entered the house and shouted, "where’s that * * * Vinny."² Julue did not know the person who entered the house but testified that he was not alarmed by the unexpected entry and that he continued texting. Julue also related that Hedges was sitting nearby on the loveseat and "just looked at me and continued to do what he was doing." Julue further testified that he heard footsteps, followed by a gunshot "directly across from where I was sitting. So where the stairwell is, where the banister is and the front door." Although Julue indicated that he never saw a gun, he nonetheless explained that upon hearing the sound of a gun and perceiving a "flash" emanating from the front door area, he and Hedges jumped up and ran into the kitchen.³

At the time of trial, Johnson’s neighbor, T.P., was fourteen years old.⁴ T.P. was familiar with Seignious and related that, on January 25, 2020, she was playing a video game and heard Johnson’s screen door open. Upon hearing the screen door open, T.P. peered out her bedroom window and saw "Louis put his hand like around the door a little bit. And then that’s when I heard the big boom. And then Vinny was still fighting him out the door, and he pushed him out the door. And Louis fell on his butt, and he got up and ran."

In addition to the eyewitness testimony, various security videos captured an individual, before the shooting, backing a vehicle into a parking space in the commercial parking lot behind Johnson’s house. Security videos also captured this same person walking up the dirt path connecting the commercial parking lot...