Appealed from the Nineteenth Judicial District Court In and
for the Parish of East Baton Rouge, Louisiana Docket Number
12-14-0134 Honorable Mike Erwin, Judge Presiding
Hillar
C. Moore, III Dana J. Cummings Allison Miller Rutzen Baton
Rouge, LA Counsel for Appellee, State of Louisiana
Bertha
M. Hillman Covington, LA Counsel for Defendant/Appellant,
Joleslie Looney
BEFORE: WHIPPLE, C.J., McCLENDON, AND HIGGINBOTHAM, JJ.
WHIPPLE, C.J.
The
defendant, Joleslie Looney, was charged by grand jury
indictment with one count of manslaughter, a violation of
LSA-R.S. 14:31.[1] She pled not guilty, but later withdrew
the plea and pled not guilty and not guilty by reason of
insanity. The trial court appointed a sanity commission to
examine the defendant's sanity at the time of the
commission of the crime. Thereafter, the State and the
defense stipulated to the doctor's reports, and the trial
court ordered the matter to proceed. After a trial by jury,
the defendant was found guilty as charged of manslaughter.
The trial court sentenced the defendant to forty years
imprisonment at hard labor. The defendant now appeals,
claiming that the sentence is constitutionally excessive. For
the following reasons, we affirm the defendant's
conviction and sentence.
STATEMENT
OF FACTS
In
early 2013, Bessie Looney, the victim, was living in
Rogersville, Tennessee, near Thomas Looney, III, the
victim's son and the defendant's brother, who lived
in Kingsport, Tennessee. At that time, Bessie suffered from a
bad back and was "getting a little forgetful."
Sometime in 2013, Thomas called his sister, the defendant,
and suggested that either they place their mother in an
assisted living facility in Tennessee or that the defendant
move to Tennessee and help him take care of their mother.
Sometime between February and April of 2013, the defendant
and her daughter, Lauren Looney, brought Bessie back with
them to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Thomas stated that he was
sure Bessie could have afforded a good nursing home and that
he and Bessie owned several properties. Thomas worked for a
paper mill and made a salary in excess of $100, 000.00. He
explained that if the defendant had indicated she needed help
caring for their mother, he would have called on one of the
members of their large extended family for assistance.
Additionally, he had always sent money to the defendant when
she asked for assistance, and on the last occasion, he had
sent the defendant $500.00.
On
September 29, 2014, Sergeant Glenn Hutto was called to the
home of the defendant in Baton Rouge to photograph the scene
of a death. Regarding the condition of the residence, Sgt.
Hutto noted that it had a strong, bad odor. In one of the
bedrooms, he discovered Bessie dead and slumped over in a
wheelchair. Sgt. Hutto testified that the floors were sticky
from "some form of waste all over it." When Bessie
was removed from the wheelchair by someone from the
coroner' office, police officers observed that she had
multiple wounds on her lower back and posterior. Her skin had
so adhered to the wheelchair's strap that the officers
had difficulty removing the strap. Her skin had also adhered
to the pad on which she sat. She was nude from the waist down
with a dress draped over her head. Corporal Sherri Harris,
the lead detective on the case, testified that it appeared
someone had attempted to dress Bessie, but was unable to fit
the dress onto Bessie's body because of the onset of
rigor mortis. Corp. Harris noted that the sheets were the
only clean items in the room. When police returned with a
search warrant, they discovered that the stench came
partially from the closet in Bessie's room. When police
opened the door, the swarm of flies that flew out was so
thick that the officers were forced to exit the house because
they could not breathe without inhaling a fly. The officers
discovered that the closet was full of soiled bedsheets,
soiled diapers, and "paddings." Additionally, the
officers discovered that Bessie's bedroom was
"covered in urine and fecal matter" and that it
also covered her wheelchair, the bathtub, the bathroom, and
the clothes recovered from the closet.
When
police officers received information from the coroner
regarding Bessie's bedsores, they arrested the defendant
and Lauren for cruelty to the infirmed. Bessie's doctor
indicated at trial that on April 11, 2013, the last time he
weighed her, Bessie weighed one hundred and thirty pounds. He
stated that the family told him they had not been giving
Bessie her prescribed B-12 shots because they did not have
any syringes. He also testified that after May of 2013, there
was no indication that Bessie was seen again by any doctor at
the Baton Rouge Clinic.
Dr.
William "Beau" Clark, the East Baton Rouge Parish
coroner and the State's expert witness in emergency
medicine, testified that Bessie weighed eighty-two pounds at
the time of her death. She also had multiple infected
bedsores, one of which extended into the muscle and bone of
her right hip. Other bedsores were found on the rest of her
body, including her shoulder, elbow, foot, knee, wrist, and
hand. Dr. Clark testified that Bessie's cause of death
was septic shock as a result of the bedsores becoming
infected with bacteria from feces. The autopsy also revealed
that Bessie suffered from high blood pressure,
Alzheimer's disease, vascular dementia, and osteoporosis
and that her kidney functions were consistent with an
individual who was dehydrated. The toxicology report revealed
that none of the medicines that are used to treat the medical
conditions from which Bessie suffered were
present.[2]
At
trial, the defendant's friend, Cynthia Eagles, indicated
the defendant worked for the City of Baton Rouge Public Works
Department, and her employers did not appreciate her hard
work, and her work environment was "hostile"
because she was "bullied" at work. She
characterized the defendant as a "hard-working person
that struggled a lot" and "a proud person who
didn't want people to know about her struggle." Ms.
Eagles also testified that the defendant, who did not have a
vehicle, never asked her to drive Bessie to the doctor.
Another
friend of the defendant, Chinquania Gallo, testified that the
defendant had a number of physical ailments and suffered from
work stress. She also stated that the defendant struggled
with her finances and a lack of transportation. The defendant
did not, however, ever ask Ms. Gallo to help her transport
Bessie to the doctor or hospital.
Dr.
Herman Soong, a psychiatrist, testified that the defendant
could distinguish between right and wrong at the time of the
offense and that the defendant told him that she was unaware
that her mother had bedsores. However, she later told him
that she knew of the bedsores, but claimed she was unaware of
their severity. The defendant also told Dr. Soong that she
waited approximately an hour to call 911 after she discovered
her mother had died because she wanted to change the sheets
and dress her mother first. Dr. Soong testified that at the
time ...