Louisiana v. Mack
Annotate this CaseA jury convicted defendant as a principal in the murder of Mark Westbrook, victim of an apparent execution committed by Ortiz Jackson. Based primarily on the circumstantial evidence provided by cellular phone records from Sprint and Verizon tying the cell numbers of defendant and Jackson together with the number of an “unknown” person, the state argued, and jurors ultimately concluded, that defendant, who had intervened in an argument between Westbrook and Rock McKinney, one the victim’s friends, on a night of drinking, got on his cell phone and orchestrated Westbrook’s demise, after exchanging words with the intoxicated victim outside of the bar. On appeal, the Fourth Circuit addressed the state’s contention that defendant threatened the victim, was seen using a cell phone, and that the victim died shortly after a series of phone calls between defendant, an unknown person, and Jackson. Defendant argued because the state could not prove the content of the phone calls made to Jackson and the unknown party before the shooting, the state could not satisfy its burden of proof regarding any specific intent to murder the victim. Finding the state’s case rested wholly on circumstantial evidence, the majority of the Court of Appeal reasoned that, given Sprint and Verizon records indicating that calls linking the cell numbers of defendant’s, Jackson’s, and “unknown’s” phones in the hours well before the late-evening murder, “the State did not exclude that another logical inference, other than to procure murder, could be drawn from these telephone calls; namely, that the defendant may have been returning the phone call of the unknown caller and/or that these calls were to discuss the business that pre-existed among them prior to defendant’s interjection of himself into the altercation between the victim and Rock McKinney.” Underlying the controversy between the state and defendant in this case was the question of how much deference a reviewing court in Louisiana must give to the jury’s verdict in a case involving primarily or exclusively circumstantial evidence. The Supreme Court concluded after its review of the case that the court of appeal erred in vacating defendant’s conviction for second degree murder on the basis the state failed to present evidence sufficient to sustain the conviction. Therefore, the conviction and sentence were reinstated, and the court of appeal was directed to address defendant’s remaining claims on the merits on remand of the case.
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