Opinion ID: 1105577
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 18

Heading: Closing Argument Reference

Text: The defendant argues he was denied due process and a fair trial when the prosecutor referred to matters outside the record, stating in closing argument: But what about Donald Baker and Rogena Craven, when they heard and ... saw a man running across the parking lot in dark clothing wearing combat boots or something that-running very heavily on the concrete... Vol. 7, p. 1604 (emphasis supplied). The defendant argues Rogena Craven never described the footwear of the person she saw running across the parking lot and Donald Baker never saw the person whose footsteps he heard. Since no objection was made to this statement, the defense waived any claim based on the remark. La.C.Cr.P. art. 841; Taylor, 93-2201, p. 4-7, 669 So.2d at 367-369. However, the record contained evidence the defendant wore combat boots, the boots themselves were entered in evidence as well as a photograph of two pair of boots outside the trailer where Strickland and Boyd were arrested. The prosecutor's comment merely asked the jury to draw the permissible inference that the heavy footsteps heard by witnesses as the gunman fled the scene of the shooting came from the same pair of boots police found outside the defendant's door. La.C.Cr.P. art. 774 confines the scope of argument to admitted evidence, lack of evidence, conclusions of fact which may be drawn therefrom, and the applicable law. The prosecutor committed no error in his closing argument.