Case Name: STATE of Louisiana v. Quinton BLACKSTONE
Court: Louisiana Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Louisiana
Decision Date: 1977-06-20
Citations: 347 So. 2d 193
Docket Number: No. 59082
Parties: STATE of Louisiana v. Quinton BLACKSTONE.
Judges: CALOGERO, J., concurs and assigns reasons.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 347
Pages: 193–194

Head Matter:
STATE of Louisiana v. Quinton BLACKSTONE.
No. 59082.
Supreme Court of Louisiana.
June 20, 1977.
Fred C. Jackson, St. Francisville, for defendant-appellant.
William J. Guste, Jr., Atty. Gen., Barbara Rutledge, Asst. Atty. Gen., Leon A. Picou, Jr., Dist. Atty., William E. Woodward, Asst. Dist. Atty., A. Z. Butterworth, Sp. Asst. Dist. Atty., for plaintiff-appellee.

Opinion:
SUMMERS, Justice.
A grand jury indictment dated April 21, 1976 charged that on December 7, 1975 Quinton Blackstone violated Article 110(A)1 of the Criminal Code when he escaped from the Louisiana State Penitentiary. Defendant waived trial by jury, was found guilty as charged in a bench trial, and received a consecutive sentence to serve five years at hard labor.
In the only assignment of error urged on this appeal, defendant asserts that there is insufficient evidence to justify a verdict of guilty of simple escape. In brief the con tention is that there was a total lack of evidence to sustain the conviction.
No motion for a directed verdict of acquittal or motion for a new trial appears of record to properly present the issue which defendant urges. In criminal matters, the scope of this Court's appellate jurisdiction extends only to questions of law. La.Const. art. V, § 5(C) (1974). A contention that the verdict was based on insufficient evidence is essentially a question of fact. Only where defendant has moved for a judgment of acquittal in a trial before a judge alone (La.Code Crim.Pro. art. 778), or for a new trial (La.Code Crim.Pro. art. 851) based upon the contention that there is no evidence at all of an essential element of the crime charged, is a question of law presented which this Court can review. State v. Reeves, 342 So.2d 605 (La.1977); State v. Alexander, 339 So.2d 818 (La.1976); State v. Jack, 332 So.2d 464 (La.1976); State v. Jones, 303 So.2d 486 (La.1974); State v. Douglas, 278 So.2d 485 (La.1973).
For the reasons assigned, the conviction and sentence are affirmed.
CALOGERO, J., concurs and assigns reasons.
DENNIS, J., concurs for the reasons stated by CALOGERO, J.
DIXON, J., concurs.