State Of Louisiana VS Charlotte Staggs
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NOT DESIGNATED FOR PUBLICATION STATE OF LOUISIANA COURT OF AI PFAL FIRST CIRCUIT NO 2013 KA 0604 STATE OF LOUISIANA VS CHARLOTTE STAGGS Judgment C Rendered V N 1 20 3 On Appeal from J l r 19 Judicial District Court In and for East Baton Rouge Parish State of Louisiana Trial Court No 10 Sec III 0936 09 The Honorable Michael R Erwin Judge Presiding r r Hillar C Moore DA Attorney for Plaintiff Appellee Dylan C Alge ADA Baton Rouge Louisiana State of Louisiana Bertha M Hillman Attorney for Defendant Appellant Thibodaux Louisiana Charlotte Staggs BEFORE WHIPPLE C WELCH AND J CRAIN JJ CRAIN J Charlotte Staggs and a co were chaarged by bill of information defendant with one count of second degrea cruelty to a juvenile a violation of Louisiana Revised Statute 14 After a jury trial the defendant was found guilty as 3 2 93 charged and sentenced to forty years at hard labor We affirm the conviction and sentence FACTS On August 23 2009 the defendanYs twenty stepson H was old month S rushed to Our Lady of the Lake Hospital in Baton Rouge with a reported history of possible ingestion of an acetone fingernail polish remover Z The attending based emergency room pediatric physician Dr Ashley Saucier initially stabilized H S by establishing an artificial airway and intubating him She then performed a toe to head examination and observed lesions on the child lips and nose bruising s to his head and back and circumferential bruising on his upper arms and wrists S H weighed only fifteen pounds which fell below the third percentile for his age and a blood test revealed that he was dehydrated and progressing toward renal failure A fork burn was subsequently discovered on his leg that appeared to be degree first and second in severity degree Dr Saucier testified that acetone ingestion would not cause slowing ofrenal function and that H physical condition would have resulted from a process s S over weeks to months not not just over hours to days She also confirmed that the circumferential bruising to the back of H hands wrist and arm were not s S consistent with an injury sustained in a fall as reported by the parents With respect to the fork burn the shape and degree of the burn confirmed that the fork The cowas Steven Staggs defendant defendant shusband Prior to trial the trial court granted s defendant motion to sever and ordered separate trials Z In accordance with Louisiana Revised Statute 46 the victim and other minor children 1844W named herein are referenced only by their initials 2 I had been completely pressed down on H leg and Dr Saucier was 99 s S 999 percent certain this was not accidental During the course of his five day hospitalization H gained over four pounds a twenty percent increase in his S six body weight and within six months his weight increased to twenty pounds eight placing him in the fiftieth percentile The increase in weight from nutrition led Dr Saucier to conclude that H previous cond was environmental meaning s S ation something was being withheld from the child rather than organic such as an illness Kristi Rabalais a pediatric nurse who treated H during his hospitalization S testified that she treats patients H age and younger on a monthly basis who s S have been abused or neglected and in her opinion H looked as if he had been S abused and had the most physical bruising scratching and was one of the most underweight patients that Iseen that lived through his injuries ve s S H maternal grandfather Terry Reardon testified that he noticed and inquired about bruising on H and the defendant responded that H falls down S S a whole lot He instructed the defendant to take the child to a doctor and she agreed to make an appointment but there was no evidence at trial to indicate that an appointment was ever made The evidence also established that H half s S sister and stepbrother were healthy children The State also introduced evidence at trial that H was the beneficiary of S an annuity that had been created with the proceeds from a settlement stemming from his s biological mother accidental death Lindsey Leavoy an attorney involved in the structuring of the settlement tesrified that the annuity payrnents would begin when H became eighteen years old however in the event ofH S s S death the money would be paid to his father Steven Staggs the defendant s husband and a co H maternal grandmother Nancy Hoyt is the defendant S s fiduciary of the annuity and his grandfather Terry Reardon testified about 3 numerous occasions where the defendant approached him about the possibility of transferring control of the annuity because she wanted a new house car and private schooling for her two biological children The defendant testified that H would fall more frequently than other S children and bruise easily She alsa stated that H would sometime become d S angry and throw himself on the floor and on a few occasions actually bite his hand or bang his head on the floor When presented with photographs of H s S condition on the day of his admission to the hospital the defendant dismissed the bruising and other marks as either insect bites or the result of innocent falls while playing With respect to the circumferential bruising on H wrists the s S defendant only would offered that when her husband would he discipline the boys grab them by the wrist and pick them up to whip their bottoms She also described the fork burn as an accident that occurred while H was eating S By a unanimous verdict the jury found the defendant guilty as charged of second degree cruelty to a juvenile The trial court sentenced the defendant to forty years at hard labor and gave her a period of one year to ask for reconsideration of the sentence ASSIGNMENT OF ERROR In her sole assignment of error the defendant alleges that her sentence of forty years at hard labor for second degree cruelty to a juvenile is constitutionally excessive in light ofher youth and lack of a criminal history A thorough review of the record indicates that the defendant attorney s below did not make a written or oral motion to reconsider her sentence Although defense counsel stated at the sentencing that the defense would file a motion to reconsider sentence emphasis added the record does not reflect that any such motion was actually filed or otherwise presented to the trial court Under Louisiana Code of Criminal Procedure articles 881 and 881 the failure 1E 1 2A 4 to make or file a motion to reconsider sentence precludes the defendant from raising an objection to the sentence on appeal including a claim of excessiveness See State v Felder 00 La App 1 Cir 9 809 So 2d 360 369 writ 87 2 O1 2 denied 01 La 10 327 So 2d 1173 Accordingly the defendant is 3027 0 25 procedurally barred from ha the instant assignment of error reviewed in this ing appeal Felder 809 So 2d at 369 State v Duncan 94 La App 1 Cir 1563 95 15 12 667 So 2d 1141 1143 en banc per curiam We note however that the trial court allowed the defendant a period of one year within which to file a motion to reconsider sentence Therefore in the event the defendant files a timely motion to reconsider the sentence she may thereafter appeal any adverse ruling on such motion to this court REVIEW FOR ERROR This court routinely reviews the record far errors discoverable by a mere inspection of the pleadings and proceedings without inspection of the evidence under Louisiana Code of Criminal Procedure article 920 After reviewing the 2 record we have discovered no such errors CONVICTION AND SENTENCE AFFIRMED 5
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