Opinion ID: 1699278
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 10

Heading: Sufficiency of the evidence: aggravated kidnapping

Text: Defendant claims the State presented insufficient evidence to prove the intentional murder occurred during the perpetration of an aggravated kidnapping. Although defendant tacitly concedes the evidence sufficed to prove other felonies relied upon by the State to support its first-degree murder charge, [24] because the jury relied on aggravated kidnapping as the only felony aggravating circumstance when returning its death verdict in the penalty phase, see infra, defendant argues it must necessarily have relied on that felony to find him guilty of first-degree murder. As a result, defendant claims the first-degree murder verdict during the guilt phase must be vacated. In State v. Wright, 01-0322 (La.12/4/02), 834 So.2d 974, cert. denied, 540 U.S. 833, 124 S.Ct. 82, 157 L.Ed.2d 62 (2003), this Court rejected the defendant's claim it must vacate his first-degree murder conviction because one of the aggravating circumstances the jury found at the penalty phase was not supported by the evidence and was also relied upon by the State to prove him guilty of first-degree murder. Reviewing the United State's Supreme Court's jurisprudence on the issue in Wright, we stated: In Stromberg v. California, 283 U.S. 359, 51 S.Ct. 532, 75 L.Ed. 1117 (1931), the Supreme Court held that when a jury's general verdict could have rested on a constitutionally invalid basis as well as a valid basis, and the reviewing court cannot determine which basis led to the verdict, under an instruction that either ground may independently support the verdict, the defendant's conviction must be set aside. However, in Griffin v. U.S. , the Court held that the holding of Stromberg did not require a guilty verdict to be set aside when one of the possible bases of a conviction was not constitutionally invalid, but was merely unsupported by sufficient evidence. 502 U.S. 46, 112 S.Ct. 466, 116 L.Ed.2d 371 (1992). Wright, 834 So.2d at 987. Hence, even assuming the State presented insufficient evidence to prove the underlying offense of aggravated kidnapping during the guilt phase of this prosecution, we need not disturb the first-degree murder conviction rendered under a general verdict which did not specify the basis of the jury's finding of guilt. Our careful review of the record shows the evidence clearly sufficed to prove defendant was engaged in the perpetration of an aggravated burglary, armed robbery, and second-degree kidnapping when he intentionally killed the victim. LA.REV.STAT. ANN. § 14:30.1. Accordingly, we find no merit in defendant's contention that his first-degree murder conviction, the product of the guilt phase, should be vacated.