State of Louisiana v. Calvin Jermaine Lee

Summary

The Louisiana Court of Appeal, Second Circuit, reviewed the denial of Calvin Jermaine Lee’s motion to quash a bill of information charging possession with intent to distribute cocaine. The court held that the State failed to prove an interruption of the four-year prosecution period under Louisiana law, because Lee’s failure to answer telephone calls and the existence of an arrest warrant did not establish that he fled, was outside the state, or was absent from his usual abode to avoid prosecution. The court reversed the trial court and dismissed the bill of information as prescribed.

Holdings

1. The prosecution was not timely instituted because the bill of information was filed more than four years after the alleged offense, and the State failed to prove a legally recognized interruption or suspension of prescription.
2. Failure to answer police telephone calls, standing alone, does not establish that a defendant fled the state, was outside the state, or was absent from the usual place of abode with the purpose of avoiding detection, apprehension, or prosecution. The issuance of the arrest warrant did not interrupt the prescriptive period on the evidence presented.
3. Lee's potential status as a confidential informant, and his failure to answer the telephone, did not suspend or interrupt the four-year prescriptive period.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the prosecution was timely instituted under Louisiana Code of Criminal Procedure article 572.
2. Whether the State proved an interruption of the four-year prescriptive period under Louisiana Code of Criminal Procedure article 575 based on Lee's failure to answer telephone calls, the issuance of an arrest warrant, or alleged absence from his usual place of abode.
3. Whether Lee's potential status as a confidential informant suspended or interrupted the prescriptive period.

Disposition

reversed