Opinion ID: 1618183
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: facts reflected in the record

Text: Kip and Joey Barras fish commercially in the Atchafalaya Basin. To harvest crawfish in Section 27, they put their boats in the water at Ruez Landing, a public boat landing on the levee, and travel less than five minutes by water. They were never seen on the property except in their boats. A witness, Clyde L. Johnson, Jr., a member of the Black Bayou Crawfish Club, testified that he had seen Joey and Kip Barras boating on or near the property. Kip was entering the pipeline canal which traverses Section 27 from the body of water near Ruez Landing just inside the levee. (Tr. 54). That body of water is Little Lake Long. Joey was also seen running crawfish traps north of the pipeline canal after being warned that the property was private. The origin and ownership of the pipeline canal are unknown. Compare Vaughn v. Vermilion Corp., 444 U.S. 206, 100 S.Ct. 399, 62 L.Ed.2d 365 (1979). Another member of the Crawfish Club, Roy Champagne, saw Kip Barras crawfishing in a slew north of the pipeline canal. Champagne had previously told Kip not to put out his traps on the leased premises. Rudy C. Sparks, a vice president of Williams, Inc., is responsible for management of the corporation's land and timber. Like the Barras brothers, he generally reaches Section 27 by boat from Ruez Landing. The corporation owns the 649 acres of Section 27 by deed. Williams, Inc., also claims ownership of accretion between the eastern boundary of that section and Lower Lake Long Pass, a distributary of the Atchafalaya River. (Forty-nine acres of Section 27 are west of the west guide levee; they are not included in the Crawfish Club lease; they are not involved in the case.) Defendant, Joey Barras, testified and admitted virtually all elements of the charge. He testified that he put in at Ruez Landing, proceeded into the pipeline canal, remained in his boat and ran his crawfish traps in an area about five minutes from the landing. He estimated that the land over which he crawfished was under water six or seven months of the year. Some of the land in the vicinity remains flooded, but other higher areas stay dry. He crawfished by tying the traps to a tree and lowering them to the bottom, which is from six inches to six feet under water.