State of Louisiana VS Derrick Odoms (2011KA2092 Reasons)
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FIRST CIRCUIT STATE OF LOUISIANA COURT OF APPEAL VERSUS STATE OF LOUISIANA NO DERRICK DOMS 2011 KA 2092 I JUL 1 7 2a12 KUHN J concurring I concur for the specific purpose of setting orth the circumstances surrounding the tragic murder of Hunter Horgan III an Episcopal priest and the prolonged police investigation that ultimately led to defendant indictment and s conviction The majority opinion stat in footnote four that tfacts of the s he offense in this heinous and tragic case are not at issue in this appeal Hawever in my view knowledge of these circurnstances is essential to place the issue raised in this appeal in proper perspective as well as to understand the reason for the passage of ov rfifteen years from the commission ofthe crime to trial The murder of Father Horgan which occurred inside the church hall was shockingly br He sustained multiple blunt injuries ta th back of his forc head resulting in four to five savage lacerations At least one of the lacerations from an unidentified blunt object was so ferocious that it caused a depressed skull fracture that pressed bone inward into the brain tissue Father Horgan also was violently subjected to multiple sharp injuries to the right side of his fac and force neck One injury at the base of Father Horgan neck transected his carotid artery s through and through Either this injury or the head trauma alone would have been sufficient to cause his death Additionally the pr of numerous wounds nce s consistent with defensive wounds on Father Horgan arm wrist and hand s indicates he was conscious and struggled vainly for his life during the vicious attack When his body was discovered one of Father Horgan pant pockets was s askew with the inside lining sticking out and his wallet was missing The police immediately began an inten investigation of the murder ive during which latent fingerprints were tak from various locations in the church n hall including a bloody fingerprint from a small table located in close proximity to Father Horgan body and another f a water faucet in the church hall kitchen s rom near some drops of diluted blood Despite the e of the police which included Fforts following up all of the numerous tips they received and conducting we11 over two hundred interviews no susp was identified for several years ct The police received information in May 1998 that resulted in defendant who at the time of the murder lived approximately one block from the church hall becoming a suspect At that time he was advised by police officers that he was a suspect in the murder of Father Horgan and was interviewed concerning his involvement However de thwarted the investigation by blatantly lying to endant the police denying any knowledge of or involvement in the murder or even that he had ever been inside the church hall The police took a set of palm and fingerprints from defendant using the technique common at that time Although the fingerprint cards were submitted to the Louisiana State Police Crime Laboratory LSPCL for comparison no match was made to the latent fingerprints taken from the crime ne sc Since the police had no additional leads the investigation grew stale In 2007 the Lafourche Parish Sheriff Office working jointly with the s Thibodaux Police Department reopened the Horgan investigation The investigatars decided to resubmit the fingerprints taken from the crime scene to the LSPCL which at that time matched defendant left thumbprint to the latent s fingerprint lifted from the church hall water faucet during the original 1992 investigation Additionally the LSPCL fingerprint analyst requested that the police take major case prints from defendant far further comparison since his fingerprint cards that had been submitted to the laboratory lacked sufficient ridge 2 i detail in some areas Fu11 case prints are obtained by a technique utilizing ink and tape and provide greater ridge detail After defendant ful case prints were s obtained in June 2007 they were examined by fingerprint analysts at the LSPCL and an additional match was made to the bloody fingerprint found on the tabletop next to Father Hargan sbody Theareafter defendant was indicted on September 26 2007 for Father s Horgan murder At trial testimony was presented that defendant made threats sometime in the 1990s against an individual he had told about the murder in order to prevent that individual from talking to anyone about what he was told by defendant Thus although it took aver fift years for defendant to be charged n with the instant crime it is clear that the delay was due to affirmative efforts defendant made to avoid responsibility which included threatening a possible witness and lying to the police In conclusion I agree with the majority affirmation of defendant s s conviction and the reversal of the defendant motion s to quash I concur herein solely to emphasize that the factual circumstances surrounding the murder and the prolonged police investigation are matters necessary to a understanding of the ull issue raised on appeal as well as being highly pertinent to the trial court upon remand of this matter 3
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