Case Name: STATE of Louisiana v. Donnell PHILLIPS
Court: Louisiana Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Louisiana
Decision Date: 2013-04-16
Citations: 111 So. 3d 1021
Docket Number: No. 2013-KK-0836
Parties: STATE of Louisiana v. Donnell PHILLIPS.
Judges: WEIMER and HUGHES, JJ., would deny.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Third Series
Volume: 111
Pages: 1021–1022

Head Matter:
STATE of Louisiana v. Donnell PHILLIPS.
No. 2013-KK-0836.
Supreme Court of Louisiana.
April 16, 2013.

Opinion:
In re State of Louisiana; — Plaintiff; Applying For Supervisory and/or Remedial Writs, Parish of Orleans, Criminal District Court Div. A, No. 508-622, 510-820; to the Court of Appeal, Fourth Circuit, No. 2013-K-0432.
Writ granted. Reversed and Remanded. The Trial Court erred in ruling the other crimes evidence inadmissible in these cases. The facts of Case No. 508-622 (distribution of marijuana) are sufficiently similar to the facts Case No. 510-820 (distribution of marijuana) to justify their admission into evidence under State v. Prieur, 277 So.2d 126 (La.1973). Specifically, the facts of Case No. 508-622 are admissible in Case No. 510-820 and vice versa to show modis operandi as it bears on the question of the defendant's identity, because the facts of the narcotics transactions in both cases are so distinctively similar, especially in terms of time, place, and manner of commission, that one must logically say they are the work of the same person. See State v. Hills, 99-1750, p. 6 (La.5/16/00), 761 So.2d 516, 521.
WEIMER and HUGHES, JJ., would deny.