Court of Appeal reinstates Bayou Vista's man murder conviction

Louisiana's 1st Circuit Court of Appeal has reinstated a Bayou Vista man's second-degree murder conviction, which was reduced by a district judge to manslaughter in June 2015.
The Court of Appeal ruled that Charles Douglas Chandler II of Bayou Vista was guilty of second-degree murder in the April 29, 2013, shooting death of Wade Blackburn Jr. in Bayou Vista, reversing 16th Judicial District Judge Anthony Thibodeaux's ruling of manslaughter.
Assistant District Attorney Anthony Saleme, who prosecuted the case in district court, provided The Daily Review with the notice of judgment he received Wednesday from the 1st Circuit Court of Appeal. Judges Michael McDonald, Page McClendon and Mitchell Theriot heard the case.
Chandler was originally convicted May 7 of second-degree murder. On June 25, Thibodeaux reduced Chandler ’s conviction to manslaughter after Chandler ’s attorney, Richard Spears, filed a motion for post-judgment verdict of acquittal.
At trial, Saleme said witness statements indicated that Chandler went to a Columbus Avenue residence intending to kill or inflict great bodily harm - the legal language that defines murder - to Blackburn and produced a gun without any provocation.
Spears, said in his closing arguments that none of the witnesses actually saw Chandler pull the trigger on the gun, and most witnesses stated both Chandler 's and Blackburn's hands were on the gun during the struggle, he said. Chandler chose not to testify during the trial.
The trial court erred in changing the verdict and rendering a judgment of manslaughter, the Court of Appeal said.
State law defines second-degree murder is the killing of a human being when the offender has a specific intent to kill or to inflict great bodily harm. Manslaughter is defined as a homicide which may be committed without any intent to cause death or great bodily harm, when the offender is engaged in the perpetration of a felony or intentional misdemeanor directly affecting the person, the Court of Appeal stated.
Furthermore, manslaughter is a "homicide which would be murder but the offense is committed in sudden passion or heat of blood immediately caused by provocation sufficient to deprive an average person of his self-control and cool reflection," the Court of Appeal said.
The trial court did not rely on this definition of manslaughter in reducing the conviction, the Court of Appeal stated.
In reducing the conviction to manslaughter, the trial court concluded that the defendant did not have the specific intent to kill the victim. The trial court noted while the defendant was acting like a "street punk," the victim approached him, seemingly with no fear, and based on his statements, the victim did not believe that the defendant would shoot him, the Court of Appeal said.
The trial court also noted that there was a battle over the gun and the weak point was the trigger, concluding that the jury reasonably should have found that the defendant did not have the specific intent to kill, but that he killed the victim while engaged the perpetration of an aggravated assault, the Court of Appeal said.
The fact finder's role is to weigh the credibility of the witnesses, and the trial court should not second-guess the credibility determinations of the trier of fact, the Court of Appeal said. When a case involves circumstantial evidence and the trier of fact reasonably rejects a hypothesis of innocence presented by the defense, that hypothesis falls, and the defendant is guilty unless there is another hypothesis that raises a reasonable doubt, the Court of Appeal stated.
"We find that there is no other hypothesis that exists in the instant case that raises a reasonable doubt. The verdict rendered in this case indicates that the jury inferred the specific intent to kill based on the testimony presented at the trial and rejected the hypothesis of innocence that the shooting was accidental," the Court of Appeal stated. "In reviewing the evidence, we cannot say that the jury's determination was irrational under the facts and circumstances presented to them."
The Court of Appeal continued, stating that the "trial court erred by substituting its appreciation of the evidence and credibility of witnesses for that of the fact finder and thereby overturning a verdict on the basis of an exculpatory hypothesis of innocence presented to, and rationally rejected by, the jury."
Witnesses testified that a struggle ensued when the victim tried to prevent the shooting, but "the witnesses were consistent that the defendant had his finger on the trigger before the shots were fired," the Court of Appeal stated.
Also, the bulk of the testimony supported finding that the "shooting was intentional and that the defendant was in control of the weapon when he fired three shots."
"While the definition of manslaughter relied upon by the trial court is not legally incorrect as argued by the State, the trial court could not re-weigh the evidence in considering the motion to acquit," the Court of Appeal said.
"We find that the trial court impermissibly did so in this case. The jury's apparent inference of specific intent to kill was reasonable based on the circumstances presented. Based on our careful review, we are convinced that any rational trier of fact, viewing the evidence presented at trial in the light most favorable to the State, could find the evidence proved beyond a reasonable doubt, and to the exclusion of every reasonable hypothesis of innocence, all of the elements of second degree murder," The Court of Appeal stated.
While investigating Blackburn's death, St. Mary Parish Sheriff 's Office detectives located a.45-caliber semi-automatic handgun at Chandler 's home on Sun Road in Bayou Vista that was determined to have fired a shell casing located at the scene of the shooting and was consistent with the bullet found in Blackburn's body, Saleme said.
Chandler was arrested within hours after the shooting when detectives stopped a truck at Saturn Road and Venus Street in Bayou Vista. Chandler was a passenger in the vehicle.
According to an affidavit, Chandler told witnesses that "Blackburn had screwed him over many times," and Blackburn had lied to Chandler . The affidavit also stated, on the date of the shooting, that Chandler and Blackburn had gotten into an altercation at Cash Magic Casino with both eventually leaving the casino. Chandler had been "feuding" with Blackburn for about a week before the shooting for unknown specific reasons, the affidavit said.
The Court of Appeal remanded the case to district court for sentencing based on the jury's verdict.